Date

March 30, 2015

Phillips as she appears on our television screens, with her hair dyed blonde. Photo: Damian Bennett

Here’s how I really look. Or at least how I would look, if I was brave enough. It’s how I’d look if I felt able to age naturally, without fear of risking my livelihood.

On air, my hair is the same colour it was 25 years ago, when I first started reading the news. The difference is that these days it takes two hours and several bottles of chemicals, once a month, to get me there.

The truth is, I’m a 51-year-old woman and I have grey hair. Not a glamorous silver streak. Completely grey. Grandma grey. “Have you ever thought about just going grey?” the hairdresser asked. “It’d save a lot of time.” An innocent question, but the very thought was terrifying.

Juanita Phillips, digitally altered (with her permission) to show her hair in its natural, grey state. Photo: Damian Bennett

I’ve been hiding my grey hair since my early 20s, when it first appeared. I remember feeling panicked. Perhaps it’s the equivalent of men going bald. Thick, glossy hair represents youth and vitality. Grey hair or no hair means one thing: old age.

When I started in TV, it was my dirty little secret which only the hairdressers knew. “Colour me younger!” I’d say as I sank into the make-up chair to get my roots done. By the time I was 40, they were telling me I was 60 per cent grey. After that, I stopped asking.

A few years ago, tired of the pretence, I decided to go silver at the front. Nobody seemed to notice. But after a few months, my hairdresser begged me to get rid of it. “It’s so ageing,” he said. “And I’m worried you might lose your job!”

It goes without saying that getting older holds no such perils for men on TV. Grey hair, bald patches, wrinkles, glasses. They can even get away with a paunch. If anything, ageing enhances a man’s gravitas. Brian Henderson was still reading the news at 71. The late Ian Ross was 68. The ABC’s own Ian Henderson is 61. But how many grey-haired women with glasses present prime-time nightly news in Australia?

Prime-time television news seems populated almost entirely by two groups: thin, gorgeous young women (nearly all blonde), and men of all shapes and ages. There’s a handful of older women – those in their 40s and 50s – but they don’t look their age and, with the notable exception of Lee Lin Chin, they don’t have grey hair. And women on Australian TV in their 60s and 70s? Apart from Caroline Jones on Australian Story, virtually non-existent. It’s like an entire generation has been vaporised.

Here’s what really happened to them: they hit menopause and they stopped looking like babes. It wasn’t that long ago that Mary Kostakidis was pushed aside for a younger man as SBS World News presenter, and it’s been less than a decade since some long-gone dinosaur coined the vile term “f…ability” in assessing the appeal of female presenters.

But on the positive side, things are changing. That blokey culture is way past its use-by date, and well on the way to being “boned”. In its place, you have TV executives like ABC news director Kate Torney, a strong advocate of gender equality in broadcasting.

There are more women aged over 50 in high-profile news roles than ever before. Lisa Wilkinson, Liz Hayes, Tracy Grimshaw, Sandra Sully, Kay McGrath, Helen Dalley, Geraldine Doogue and Ann Sanders are among the first generation of women to survive this long in TV. They’re strong, confident women who’ve had lifetime careers; not the kind of women who’ll obediently fade away when the boss decides he’d prefer someone younger and prettier.

The big test will be when this current crop moves into their 60s and 70s. That’s when it’ll get interesting because the real issue for TV women is not so much getting old. It’s looking old.

So back to the question of whether I’d go on air with grey hair. I’ve been hiding it for 30 years. That’s some 700 hours of my life baking my head in a poultice of chemicals. Oh for the sweet relief of not having to worry about it!

But I’m a 51-year-old woman in TV. I know the score. Grey’s fine with me, and I’d like to think the audience could cope with it. But the TV industry? I wouldn’t bet my career on it. Not just yet.

Source: Daily Life