Dyeing Our Nasal Hair To Look Vivid and Bright

For last few years, I have developed a strange habit. When I meet or see someone, I first look at his/ her hair to check if dye has been used.

On December 17, 2007, DD telecast live the ceremony- attended by the high and mighty of India- to release a postage stamp honouring the late S B Chavan.

The event was a sea of jet-black hair with very few grey islands!

India is young. And is younger if you discount hair colour!

My father often used to observe that poor people in India- portrayed in TV serials and cinema- almost always possess two things- huge house and black hair.

Full disclosures- My wife dyes her hair and so does my mother-in-law. Both of them won’t be reading this post though!

“The total organised hair colour market in India is about Rs 200 crore, 60 per cent (Rs 120 crore) of which is the mass-market colour segment. While the total market is growing at around 35 per cent, the mass market is growing at 40 per cent on a year-on-year basis. “ Business Line May 4, 2007.

Thanks to my DNA, I started turning grey very early. But so far I haven’t tried dyeing.

I agree with Edwina Ings-Chambers when she said:

” …I wonder about the effect that rising life expectancy has on our perceptions of age. I stopped caring about wrinkles when my father died, but friends who are 20 years older, but who still have their parents, happily obsess about those physical markers that signpost the route to death. I look at the ravages of time with interest - they are the visible terrain of our lives; they are, effectively, our memories.” (FT March 30, 2007)

But most people I meet at social functions want to look nice, smooth, glowing, untouched by woe and by time. They use what is called red-carpet dermatology.

Michael Crichton said: “..The media image is the reality, and by comparison day-to-day life seems to lack excitement. So now day-to-day life is false, and the media image is true. Sometimes I look around my living room, and the most real thing in the room is the television. It's bright and vivid, and the rest of my life looks drab..”


Don’t you think it’s a bit sad, dyeing your nasal hair?

The Spectator 2007