“Embrace messy hair,” is a mantra of mine. It’s not that I don’t own a hairbrush, I just rarely use one. Much to my mother’s chagrin, I rarely wear my hair down either. Instead, it lives in a messy knot on top of my head, held together by a tatty elastic. I just don’t care enough about how my hair looks to bother with straighteners and serums and fuss and faff. Sometimes though, I’ll catch a glimpse of myself in a shop window and see how lumpy and bumpy and lopsided I look, and I’ll think, good gosh woman, brush your hair. And so I go home and do just that. And then scrunch it into a messy knot again.

It takes guts to go grey. Well, for women it does. On a man, it’s distinguished –– on a woman, it’s drab. But silver stars like Carmen Dell’Orefice, Linda Rodin and Kiki Smith prove otherwise. And what about Joni Mitchell’s stick straight, silver angel-hair? Or that perfect crop of white on top of Judi Dench’s sharp, boyish face? Or the soft curls that sit like whispy clouds over Queen Elizabeth? Gutsy women, indeed. In a piece for the New York Times, journalist, Leah Rozen wrote about her reasons for going grey:  “IF MY GOING GRAY is in any way a political statement, it’s a passive but shimmeringly visible protest against the cult of youth. We can’t all be young forever and — news flash! — some of us don’t want to be. Hey, my silvery locks signal to one and all, I’m getting older and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. Deal with it.”

In all the years of knowing Mama Jaan, it’s funny to me that I don’t know her real name. The matriarch of dear family friends, Mama Jaan (“Jaan” is an endearment that Iranians add to names of loved ones) is the only name I have ever known for her. Every year at Christmas time, she would leave her home in Basel and make the journey to Rougemont where both our families had a home. It was there that I first came across her creams, made by hand in her kitchen and given to each of us as a Christmas gift. With a recipe passed down to her by her mother, Mama Jaan –– full of grace and elegance ––  has used this cream all her life. Now, her daughter, Delara and grandaughter, Natalia are making and selling day and night creams under the name, Nadebala. Small-batch beauty is de rigeur, so the timing could not be more perfect. Plus, a product that is sustainable, contains only unprocessed ingredients that has been passed down over generations and was made with thought and effort in a kitchen rather a factory, makes us more inclined to use it. And if you’re still not sure, please look at Mama Jaan’s beautiful, glowing octogenarian face.