Saiyami Juvekar, a Mumbai-based psychologist and educator, was in her early teens when she realised she was going grey. Panic struck. “My family was worried about what people would say, who would marry me. The entire crown was turning silver. I was only 13.” And thus, began the journey to mask greys. In the last 34 years, she has employed a variety of tactics. She’d cover it with a broad cloth hair band in school, and keep the hair partitioned a certain way to avert the judgmental gaze.  In college, she resorted to hair colour and tried home remedies, from using chai powder to henna, for a natural shade. “My standard line to the hairdresser was, ‘I need maximum coverage’. These efforts would obviously cost me a fortune. It felt as if I had altered my life to hide my rapidly-whitening head.” 

That is, until lockdown. With salons shut, Juvekar’s regimen of two decades came to an abrupt halt. A part of her was fed up of colouring it regularly anyway. “Fortunately, my husband has a head full of grey and has never bothered to colour it. He encouraged me to take the plunge.” Putting up a picture on Instagram revealing her natural mane, she captioned it:  “Finally living the choices I make... Most of my life my haircut and hairstyles were all about hiding the premature greys. Adding layers and layers of chemicals on what was natural and organic, though untimely. From now on, I feel free—free from those limiting beliefs of how I should look and from the need for approval. I feel light and confident.”