Trendlet: Gray hair

The majority of us spend a lot of time (and money) to get rid of gray with high-powered weapons such as the get-it-golden double process and make-it-brunette balayage. But the winds of change are coloring the most stylish of women's tresses silver.

Yes, it's true. Women are paying stylists top dollar to have their inverted, shoulder-length bobs and short spikey-dos colored a perfect gray to silver ombre. (Much like bleach blondes, the first step is to strip the pigment, and then stylists apply a permanent gray dye. You can add a semipermanent rinse for a pastel effect.) And no, these ladies are not trying to make peace with aging. Most of the trendsetters are decades away from natural gray hair.

Kelly Osbourne. The E! Fashion Police host gets the cred. She first doused her hair a lavender that became mostly gray with a lavender tint in 2011.

Even the most fashion-forward took a while to warm up to cotton-candy pink, sky-blue, and mint-green hair. But last spring young women began playing in earnest with the pastel dyes. The homage to 1980s hair was the perfect combination of edgy and sweet.

It's worth noting here that fashion has been in a rather gray place: gray nails are still hot (I continue to look for the perfect mocha-hued gray polish), and as athletic looks permeate ready-to-wear, heather gray is a must-have color in apparel.

In addition to Osbourne, celebrities from Rihanna to Katy Perry to Kylie Jenner helped popularize gray-splashed-with-pastel hair. Zosia Mamet of Girls fame was gray at the Golden Globes. And just last week, singer Fantasia debuted a short, gray cut on the Internet.

Twenty-something grays are dotting the Urban Outfitters campus. And then there are Hollywood's grand dames - such as Meryl Streep and Jamie Lee Curtis - who dared to go all-gray before it became millennial chic. But it's not just baby boomers and youngsters experimenting with colorless locks. Gen Xers - from Northern Liberty hipsters to Rittenhouse Square lawyers - are opting for the smoky look.

Nope, I'm not there yet. I've just gotten to the age where I want to be mistaken for a younger woman.

Gray hair is a definite head-turner on women in their 20s and 30s, and powerful on women who are older. Women who go gray with the help of a stylist should know they will look sophisticated beyond their years. That's not a bad thing. The smoother your locks, the better it looks. Too frizzy, and you'll look as if you should join a hippie retirement home.

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