Get laid off, look younger
By Steve Outing on Jul 24, 2008 in Misc.
With all the journalists getting laid off in the newspaper industry bloodletting, have you noticed them looking younger?
I ask because I had my hair cut this morning, and I had a conversation with my stylist about gray hair. He’s in his 30s, but DYES his hair gray because he likes how it looks. (Huh?! Most of us with real gray hair would prefer to go the other direction.) Anyway, he told me that with the bad economy and lots of people getting laid off, his shop is seeing a big wave of guys in their 40s and 50s come in to get their hair dyed darker. It’s because they think looking younger will help them find new jobs, of course.
Have you noticed this among your journalist friends who’ve been laid off recently? Have you done it yourself?
Me? I’m sticking with what nature and time have done with my hair. Can’t say I like the gray, but I can live with it.
On Jul 25, 2008, saving_grace
said:
I witnessed this first hand with a former coworker. He had just switched from a traditional media sales position to one with an internet company. Each passing month, his hair became darker and darker. Interestingly enough, his conversations changed to younger cultural references. Unfortunately, this backfired on him as the office chatter increased to a dull roar. Pitty, he was a great sales person but was struggling to remain relevant in a cutt-throat Internet environment.
On Jul 25, 2008, Mark Dodge Medlin
said:
Apparently I’m able to avoid the problem you describe. I got my hair cut yesterday, and about halfway through, my barber said, out of the blue, something like “Your wife must hate you.” Not sure I’d heard her right, I chose a clever reply: “Huh?”
What she meant was that my hair, which my dad described 30 years ago as looking like a copper-wire factory had exploded, was now a shade of strawberry blond that camouflaged the fact that there’s some gray in there.
A lot of women my age wind up dyeing their hair to hide the gray, she noted, adding that perhaps “envy” was a better word than “hate.”
Ah. OK then.
On Jul 26, 2008, Ernst Poulsen
said:
Maybe it’s just basic human nature?
When loosing a job, girl/boyfriend or moving to another city it’s time to buy new clothes, get a haircut, seek new friends and change habits and hobbies.