It seems male celebrities are finally feeling the same pressure to stall aging that women have long felt – and they’re doing it via questionable hair dye choices.
A-listers George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ben Affleck have all three traded their salt-and-pepper hair for more youthful colours in recent months, causing many to wonder if silver foxes are going out of style.
Most recently, Affleck led a presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Wednesday, looking like he was cosplaying the version of himself that appeared in Goodwill Hunting.
The 52-year-old actor and filmmaker sported darker hair and an entirely brown beard, a noticeable contrast to his increasingly grey hair of the last decade.
J-Lo’s ex-husband was at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace to promote his upcoming thriller The Accountant 2 alongside co-stars Jon Bernthal, Daniella Pineda, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson.
Leonardo DiCaprio has also caught whatever illness Affleck has come down with, debuting his head of newly darker hair on Tuesday as he also attended CinemaCon.
The 50-year-old looked miles away from his blonde child star days as he debuted dark locks on the red carpet.
His beard and eyebrows also appeared tinted as he posed with co-stars Teyana Taylor, 34, and Regina Hall, 54.
DiCaprio and Affleck’s new dos come just weeks after George Clooney was spotted without his iconic head of steel grey hair.
The actor, 63, has been rocking the salt-and-pepper look since around 2009, becoming synonymous with the term silver fox along the way.
But it seems the Oceans 11 icon has finally buckled to the pressures of hair dye as he was recently pictured with a dark high and tight on an outing with his wife Amal Clooney, 47.
The pair, who were seen leaving lunch at the French restaurant Raoulâ’s with an attorney friend in Manhattan’s SoHo neighbourhood, looked as effortlessly glamorous as ever, with Amal all smiles in a pair of oversized sunglasses, high-waisted wide leg jeans, and a cropped blazer.
George, however, looked like he’d stepped through a time machine, styling his new brown hair with trainers, a leather jacket, and slouchy chinos.
The actor previously revealed he dyed it for his upcoming Broadway debut in Good Night, And Good Luck – an adaptation of a film of the same name that he wrote, directed, and acted in in 2005 – but is that just an excuse to experiment with a younger look?
Since the advent of Hollywood fame, actors have embraced the effects of aging – and the meaty parts that come with it – while actresses have been forced to do everything they can to maintain their youth to keep working consistently.
Are things finally shifting? Can it be that as more boyish-looking actors like Timothee Chalamet and Tom Holland land the most prominent roles in show business, older leading men are feeling more pressure to maintain their youth?
(Picture: Netflix/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
Meanwhile, older actresses are finally getting their day in the sun, with the recent trend of romantic storylines between older women and younger men taking TV and film by storm as actresses like Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern snag enormous roles.
While it would be ideal for Hollywood to embrace aging and move away from Botox, hair dye, and other anti-aging procedures for everyone, it’s worth noting that men are finally starting to experience the same pressures to maintain youthfulness that women have long faced.
We can take the new hair trend among Hollywood’s older leading men as a win for gender equality – even if it’s not exactly a win against ageism, generally.
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