Most of you will no doubt be familar with the dark roots trend (related to the ombre trend), whereby the roots of lightened hair are left dark in a grungy fashion.  Witness these examples:

I’ve had brightly coloured hair for over 15 years now, which for me with dark brown hair, requires bleaching to a light blonde for many shades.  Every 4 or 5 years or so I need to give it a break so it can get healthy again..and right now I’m at that point. Not wanting to part with my beautiful turquoise locks, I eschewed the going all-over-dark look while the hair grows out. Instead I’m opting for the dark roots trend.

Left naturally, there’s an abrupt stripe between the light coloured hair and the dark unbleached roots which is VERY unattractive and most obvious – a bit like the demilitarised zone of North and South Korea. Or the scariness of Geldof  regrowth:

Oh, the horror. So, one has to find a way to soften the zone.

What I’ve done is to use a brown semi-permanent hair colour in the Zone, and faded it a few inches out, so that there is no clear demarcation. OK, so there’s now a dark oil-slick bluey-greeny-brown area before the brighter turquoise kicks in. But I kinda like it. (I have been growing out my hair at the back for longer, and need to do more shade work there).

(Yes, under eye bags and broken capillaries r’ us here, as I haven’t used photoshop). And now the sides:

If it could be said to look more natural by the absence of stripes, when the hair is bright blue, is perhaps debatable. But *I* think it does.

Today when I was looking at articles on the dark root trend, I came across this hilarious article from the Daily Mail with a theory as to why celebs in their 40’s and 50’s are going in for the trend:

As a look, it used to be the ultimate fashion faux pas — nasty black roots spreading over your scalp like a dirty stain, screaming to the world: ‘Look at me, I’m a bottle blonde who’s too poor and lazy to go to the hairdresser for a touch-up.’

Hair like this was previously confined to students, bikers and teenagers going through particularly bad break-ups.

But, recently, this style has been spotted on the heads of certain older, well-turned-out and affluent ladies who could easily summon a stylist to their side with a click of their manicured fingers.

Here the author cites Madonna, Elle and Gwyneth.

..these women have been photographed at premieres and award ceremonies boldly showing off their Lily Savage-style roots with pride.

Why? Because these stars want to show the world they don’t have grey roots. And they are going to great lengths to prove it. After all, despite her age-defying body and taste for younger boyfriends, shouldn’t Madonna, in her mid-50s, be showing roots of a far different shade? Grey, for example?  Instead, these canny celebrities are deliberately dyeing their roots dark to help maintain that veneer of eternal youth.

BWAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! Why didn’t *I* think of that??  Oh dear, much like the Victorian well-to-do’s who put a pineapple in their window, not to eventually eat it, but to show their wealth, so these mature ladies are showing how young and un-grey they are.   Well, although I do certainly have a few grey hairs peeking through, they hardly exist in such quantities as to make the roots visibly grey. No, I just have bloody dark roots.  And as I want the quality of my hair to improve, some shine to come through, and get hours of my life back by not sitting in a hairdressers for hours each month, I’m going the dark roots route (if you’ll pardon the pun).

The piece continues:

According to celebrity stylist Richard Ward, having their hair ‘dip-dyed’ is appealing to more and more women in their 40s and 50s. They come into salons asking for their roots to be dyed a much darker shade than the rest of their hair, with a gradual lightening of the colour towards the tip.

Note that “much darker shade” comment. Whereas I just leave my roots natural and use a neutral matching shade to blend into the lighter hair. I do love how I’m comforted at the end of the piece with this thought:

So next time you look in the mirror and see those dark roots growing through, don’t despair.

You’re not lazy. You’re just bang on trend.

Wahey! What do you think of this? Is the author bonkers? Is this REALLY why Mads etc are doing it? Am I, by tricky reverse-psychology here, aging myself by association with a group of women going to great lengths to HIDE their age? Really, it’s enough to turn your hair grey.