History Main / FirstGrayHair

* ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals'': Stibbons (who's been basically running the University himself for years now because everyone keeps palming their work onto him) takes "young Stibbons" from on of the senior wizards particularly badly because he found a grey hair in his hairbrush that morning.

* A lone gray hair on Alobar's head kicked off the plot of Creator/TomRobbins's ''Jitterbug Perfume'', due to his village's rules that they must have a [[KlingonPromotion young and strong king]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}''. Dagwood discovers his first grey hair and carries on about it while his wife Blondie tells him to QuitYourWhining. He finally calms down, then notices that Blondie has a grey hair too. [[HypocriticalHumor She faints.]]

* In some families, there's a hereditary trait of getting gray hairs at a younger-than-average age. Cue freaking out from teenagers that "I'm too young for this!"

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E10NewGround New Ground]]" Helena Rozhenko notes the appearance of a few grey hairs in her adoptive son Worf's beard. She tells him not to worry, saying all Rozhenko men have beards of iron gray.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria Empress Elisabeth "Sisi" of the Holy Roman Empire]] was self-conscious of her gray hairs to the point where she tasked her hairdresser, Franziska "Fanny" Feifalik, with tweezing them.

Some may wonder whether it is worth it to have a character making a big deal over finding that one or more strands of his hair have changed color (even if it is to gray or white). Then again, Administrivia/TropesAreTools, and the First Gray Hair is often used for AnAesop about how growing older is a natural process and not necessarily a bad thing once the character has overcome his angst on his own or [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan by force]]. It's also a harbinger: while the ''First'' Gray Hair is harmless by itself, there are more to come, one by one, until it's ''all'' gray, or even gone; also, it's tangible proof that they're leaving youth behind. Unfortunately, though, this way of dealing with having found the First Gray Hair seems to be limited to men who find them. Women who have found this tend to have more prolonged angst and are additionally shown removing or dyeing over their grays.

And yes, the topic almost invites jokes about the first grey ''pubic'' hair, basically one way this trope can be PlayedForLaughs.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. Cersei taunts her twin brother Jaime with the fact that he's getting some grey hairs in his famous golden hair, while wilfully ignoring the signs that her own famed beauty is fading as well.

* Likewise Samantha in ''Series/SexAndTheCity'', leading to a horribly botched dye job. At the end of the episode, [[spoiler: she solves the problem by shaving it all off]].

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' had Sam finding a gray hair on her head--this is definitely unusual, since she is only a teenager, but not necessarily impossible. This scares her into thinking that she's prematurely agingin, which in turn worries her about how she'll do in an upcoming "Youth Spirit" contest.[[note]]It later turns out that the "gray hair" Sam found was apparently just some paint that Sam deduces must've gotten onto her head (somehow) when she was working on an art project using gray-colored paint.[[/note]] The {{Aesop}} of the episode, as delivered by [[CoolOldLady their school's elderly lunch lady]], [[DarkHorseVictory who ended up winning the contest]]: "It's not ''how'' old you are, it's how you are ''being'' old!"

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' had Sam finding a gray hair on her head (unusual since she's a teenager but not necessarily impossible), which scares her into thinking that she's prematurely aging, which also worries her about how she'll do a local "Youth Spirit"-contest.[[note]]It later turns out that the "gray hair" Sam found was apparently just some paint that Sam figures must've somehow gotten on her head when she was working on an art project using gray paint.[[/note]] The {{Aesop}} of the episode, as delivered by [[CoolOldLady their school's elderly lunch lady]], [[DarkHorseVictory who ended up winning the contest]]: "It's not ''how'' old you are, it's how you are ''being'' old!"

** This is possibly a callback to a much earlier episode where Homer claims that Marge's hair started going gray when the two of them were in high school (when they were teenagers).

* ''WesternAnimation/Rugrats2021'': In "The Big Diff," Stu freaks out when he discovers he has his first gray hair at the age of 33.

* ''Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}}'' has [[spoiler:the mom]] acquire a SkunkStripe [[spoiler:[[DiseaseBleach as a result of the stressful haunting she has undergone]]]]. [[spoiler:She]] considers dyeing it, but doesn't.

A character angsting about how they're getting old is a great source of drama. But how do we kick off this drama? What are some cultural signs of getting old? A milestone birthday? Nope. How would we iron out the birthday business to get to the development of the character's angst? Besides, we might ruin the appeal of the character's VagueAge. Bodily malfunctions like creaky joints? That might imply ''too'' old an age. Gray hair? People of all ages get those. But it's mainly associated with middle age. And it doesn't have any lasting impact, as long as they're removed or dyed over. And if it's only ''one'' strand, it's not immediately visible to the naked eye. Besides, it's just hair color and doesn't really impact anything else, other than the angst and freaking out about getting old that it is often the source of. Hence we have the First Gray Hair, which automatically equals age. A character is looking in the mirror (or at their hair itself, if it's long enough for that) and suddenly sees a glint of something different from their usual hair color. (S)He gives in to curiosity and inspects more closely to find that it's...GRAY HAIR! And on their own head, too! And thus the angsting about getting old begins.

Compare MaamShock. May lead to {{Midlife Crisis Car}} if {{played for laughs}}, or to FeelingTheirAge. For certain men, however, [[SilverFox it may just be the first step on the road to attractiveness.]] [[DoubleStandard A woman]], particularly in older works, may become an ElderlyBlueHairedLady.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' had one strip where Garfield panics in front of the mirror as he notices a gray hair, a wrinkle, and then a [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs wrinkled gray hair.]]

* * ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' had one strip where Garfield panics in front of the mirror as he notices a gray hair, a wrinkle, and then a [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs wrinkled gray hair.]]

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' had Sam finding a gray hair on her head (unusual since she's a teenager, but not necessarily impossible), which scares her into thinking that she's prematurely aging, which also worries her about how she'll do a local "Youth Spirit"-contest.[[note]]It later turns out that the "gray hair" Sam found was apparently just some paint that Sam figures must've somehow gotten on her head when she was working on an art project using gray paint.[[/note]] The {{Aesop}} of the episode, as delivered by [[CoolOldLady their school's elderly lunch lady]], [[DarkHorseVictory who ended up winning the contest]]: "It's not ''how'' old you are, it's how you are ''being'' old!"

** This is possibly a callback to a much earlier episode where Homer reveals that Marge has been grey since they were teenagers.

* In some families, there's a hereditary trait of having gray hairs at a very early age. Cue freaking out from teenagers that "I'm too young for this!"

OK, now that I'm done reading and editing, I'll comb my hair out. [[BigWhat What??!!]] A gray hair? [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Have I spent]] ''[[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife that]]'' [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife much time on TV Tropes?]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': This happens to Marge Simpson when she finds one gray hair in her blue beehive. When she goes down to the beauty parlor to get rid of it, she (and the viewer) finds out that her hair is ''entirerly gray'' already, but that the strong dye the parlor uses keeps knocking her out and causes short term memory loss. She decides to try going entirely grey for a while, but by the end of the episode, returns to using the dye.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': This happens to Marge Simpson when she finds one gray hair in her blue beehive. When she goes down to the beauty parlor to get rid of it, she (and the viewer) finds out that her hair is ''entirerly gray'' already, but that the strong dye the parlor uses keeps knocking her out and causes short term memory loss. She decides to try going entirerly grey for a while, but by the end of the episode, returns to using the dye.

* ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'' has [[spoiler:the mom]] acquire a SkunkStripe [[spoiler:[[DiseaseBleach as a result of the stressful haunting she has undergone]]]]. [[spoiler:She]] considers dyeing it, but doesn't.