Was Lisa LaFlamme’s silver hair weaponized against her?

In the flurry of coverage around the firing of Lisa LaFlamme from CTV’s flagship nightly newscast, social media pundits were quick to flag the appearance of ageism at play. The 58-year-old LaFlamme is a hero to many women, not just for her steady presence at the helm of major news stories, but also for her pandemic decision to go grey in front of the cameras.

Week by week, LaFlamme boldly let her roots grow out, reflecting back the poignant reality of what we were all going through together. That look later transformed into an elegant silver bob.

The fashion world — admittedly a bubble where trends get blown out of proportion — has embraced grey hair for women in recent years, but the natural greying movement has been largely untested in the larger business world. While male anchors (and other leaders) have been celebrated for their silver temples, long seen as a sign of wisdom, women sitting in the big chair rarely make that leap. Could LaFlamme’s decision to celebrate the most visual symbol of aging have been weaponized against her? And if so, what does that mean for the rest of us who may want to eschew the costs of the salon (both time and money) and embrace our natural grey?

LaFlamme’s choice inspired her audience, but a recent report suggests that it was also the subject of discussion with senior CTV officials, who allegedly questioned who allowed LaFlamme to “go grey.”

Hannah Mauser is a beauty analyst at the international trend-spotting firm WSGN, which produced the report Key Trend 2023: The Grey Hair Movement. The movement, says Hauser, is all about giving people the opportunity to embrace themselves fully. “Whether choosing to cover up the grey hairs or not, it’s about letting people know that either way it doesn’t change how they are viewed — they can live authentically as themselves and celebrate the journey of going grey.”

Sounds great, doesn’t it? But is the business world ready for all that progress?

Straying outside the norms of acceptable presentation in the workplace can have tangible repercussions, says Jacyln Wong, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina, whose research centres around the relationship between what people look like and how much money they make. “The key finding is that attractive individuals earn roughly 20 per cent more than people of average attractiveness,” says Wong. For women, says Wong, the gap “is completely explained by grooming.”

“Workplaces are gendered spaces,” says Wong. “When workplaces reward grooming — including beauty work to ‘look young’ — in women, they are reproducing what it means to be a woman in our society: objects that are nice to look at.” In this way, she says, “Workplaces can control people’s behaviour.”

In other words, play the game and you’re rewarded; don’t play and you’re punished. “Grooming signals individual women’s participation in this system of patriarchal domination,” says Wong. “Women can be rewarded for playing by these gender rules, and women who stray from what is considered acceptable presentation can expect to see those rewards withheld.”

Toronto celebrity hair stylist Jason Lee, who coifs many high-powered heads, says his clients in creative fields have more leeway to go grey with impunity: “My clients who are businesswomen have an ongoing concern about looking young.” Lisa LaFlamme, he says, made a “ground-breaking” statement with her hair: “She brought the conversation to the forefront.” That strong position may have been the problem, he says. “Women have to play the unspoken game of looking a certain way to be treated a certain way. A public figure, broadcast into everybody’s homes every night is a statement of a different magnitude.”

Longtime beauty editor Liza Herz runs Oldish.ca, a site about aging with verve. “CTV was a very prominent position for LaFlamme to go grey in,” says Herz. “It showed tremendous confidence. Think about female TV journalists and what percentage of their mail and comments are about their hair, makeup and the necklines of their garments.” Herz points out that LaFlamme’s hair, while unusual for primetime in its hue, is as polished as any head on TV. “It’s an incredibly sophisticated look. Even in LaFlamme’s video message [announcing her leaving the network] at the cottage. Who looks that put together at their cottage?”

When it comes to the decision to age naturally or not, the core issue is freedom of choice, says Toronto cosmetic surgeon Dr. Jacqueline Makerewich. “Societally, women fear that they will lose value as they age and sadly, these fears extend to the working world. There are enormous pressures on women to value a youthful appearance, and these pressures are further distorted in social media. This creates a cycle of women both agonizing and obsessing over unobtainable youth, and also unfortunately dictates what our population wants to see more, or less, of.”

This summer, people have been seeing a lot of the ubiquitous coastal grandmother look — think Diane Keaton in an oversized cardigan strolling along a Hamptons beach — which seemed like a hopeful cultural sign of aging acceptance. But this fall, that grey-chic blip is being replaced by a new trend: the “coastal granddaughter,” wherein 20-somethings experiment with dyed silver hair and linen.

All of which begs the question: Is silver hair like LaFlamme’s only truly acceptable when it’s a costume?

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