I have had a straggly streak of white hair at the crown of my head since adolescence. I believe it’s known colloquially as a Mallen streak, and medically as poliosis circumscripta, when a patch of hair at the front or crown of your head goes white due to hypopigmentation, i.e., low melanin.
It’s often associated with autoimmune conditions, which funny enough, is itself associated with the hyper-sensitivity that results in psychic and mediumship abilities. The Mallen streak condition is also linked to seriously bad eyesight or hearing, meaning if you have one, you’re more likely to have the other, which is funnier yet, because that’s associated with amplified clairvoyance and clairaudience.
Aligned with all that, since medieval times a Mallen streak has been considered a marker of divergent, anomalous, or maligned personalities, a birthmark that points to witchcraft and transgression. In Chinese folk tradition, a woman’s hair turning white or getting streaks of white in an untimely way is a sign of supernatural influence.
My patch of white is dead center at the tippy top of my head, and so depending on how I style my hair, the whites might get evenly distributed all around and it’ll appear as if I have a ton of grays (really horrible…just the worst…), or the white hairs can be gathered into one bundle cascading on one side of the head, appearing as a concentrated streak.
In college and even through law school I’d dye my hair to hide the Mallen streak. But to do that, the upkeep was exhausting.
My maternal grandmother had a silver-white Mallen streak as well, and she would go to the salon every single week to get her hair re-dyed, just to conceal the white.
It’s hard not to be affected the way typical women pushing into their mid-40s let their waning youth get to their heads. The tiniest new wrinkle line on your forehead will have you mildly depressed for weeks. You don’t have a waist anymore; weight gain is hard to control. And so part of me is tempted to follow in the footsteps of Grandma and dye my hair. But given how fast my hair grows, how visibly contrasting white on black is, that would mean weekly upkeep. Who has that kinda time?!?
Now let’s get to why I thought this was a little bit relevant to what I put on this website to warrant a blog post.
If I dye the Mallen streak to black, it’s making statements that I don’t necessarily want to make. It’s saying that an aging woman who is showing signs of her age is a bad thing.
If folklore is to be believed, then hiding your Mallen streak might be akin to hiding your identity, your past, and what makes you you.
But if I don’t dye the Mallen streak and I have all this white hair visible on my head, I get insecure with my physical appearance because I feel like it makes me look old. And then I go through this up and down journey of emotions where I’m upset for looking old, and then I get a different kind of upset at myself for caring that I look old, and then I’m back to re-litigating the issue of dying the grays as a measure for stopping the cycle of emotions.
Ultimately I’ve decided not to dye it and just leave it as-is, but I wish I could say my reason for that decision is noble. It’s not. I’m just too lazy to commit to the upkeep.
Recently Mom visited and she commented on my Mallen streak, sharing how her mother, my Grandma, would hide it, and why. People will talk. People let their imaginations run wild. There will be folks with the superstition that this streak of white indicates something occult, and therefore something to be feared or even shunned. And there will be folks who assume it’s a sign of trauma from a past life. Still others see it as a sign that you have spirits and spiritual entities surrounding you, and their presence in your vicinity is why you’ve got that streak of white, so to keep themselves safe, they should steer clear.
Luckily society has evolved quite a bit since then, and you don’t get judged through the lens of those superstitions quite as much. So actively choosing not to conceal it is almost like saying to Grandma, “Look, Ah Ma, look how far we’ve come! We don’t have to hide this now!”
And then… don’t roll your eyes now at the pop culture reference… but then we got the live action TV show version of Marvel’s Agatha.
I wonder why the white Mallen streak was removed from the TV show version. ::sad face emoji:: No but seriously why. Something about this omission doesn’t sit right with me.
And that helped me to confirm my decision. Guess my white streak of hair is here to stay. =/
Society exerts enough efforts to try and erase our markers of identity. Why on earth would I actively do it to myself?
benebell wen 
it’s very beautiful. Glad you are keeping it.
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Agreed. I’ve always found the white-streak-thing kinda foxy…
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Since premature silver hair runs in my mom’s family, I’m in favor of the silver. 😉 I think it’s beautiful. With your beautiful smooth skin, the white streak is sexy and offbeat. Tres cool. XO
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I love your white streak! Since birth!! How great is that?! I’m 74 and my grey/silvering hair has a streak amongst my still very much red auburn locks. I say embrace it!
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It looks wonderful, be natural.
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Not that you need my approval, or that I know you on a personal level, but from the years of following you, I feel slightly qualified to say you’re such a beautiful person, inside and out! 😄
I’m happy to see you are doing what makes you happy and comfortable. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder and its an impossible standard to be appealing to everyone. I feel I’m rightfully assuming that everyone who does know you personally think you’re just as stunning as we do! Can we talk about your glowing skin?
I find the white streak lovely and to add more irony to your post, a lot of women actually pay THEIR hairdressers for something very similar, albeit a slightly different placement. My girls have it, they call it the money piece, so you’re trendy without even knowing it!!! 💜
Thank you for sharing and being vulnerable with us. It matters!
Signed,
A fellow Asian who also decided to not dye her white hairs (even it mine is simply due to aging)
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I love the white streak…. And you look far from old🔥I’m glad your to lazy to cover it😂
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Fascinating. I never had heard of the ‘Mallen Streak.’ Embrace it. It sends a message, a subliminal message and it’s a good one. You are powerful.
I have one too. At age 72, I have this white streak in the front. The rest of my hair is a dark blonde. Usually I wear it in one long braid that is all dark blond. Just my front left around my face is white. I think that it’s cool looking. The associated meanings are even cooler.
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It suits you! And honestly, looking younger isn’t necessarily a blessing. People usually think that I was 10-20 years younger than I actually am. And it’s pretty annoying, for they often won’t take you serious.
Friends of my new spouse told him to rather date a woman at his age when we startet dating… He is only four years older than me – but they thought I was in my twenties. We could become rich, if we were taking bets on guessing our age gap.
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I’ve been wrestling with a similar question for a long time. My natural hair colour is a kind of dull mouse-brown with a *very* grey cast. And now I actually am growing grey & white hair too (my family has a lot of gingers in it so I didn’t get much of the natural flame colour but I seem to have gotten the ‘greying early’ bit ::jazz hands::) I’ve always felt that *at some point* I’ll have to transition to allowing the grey and white to show but I feel so drab without red. My natural hair colour emphasises just how grey- and blue-toned my skin can be… and weirdly I’ve also had people make fun of me, laughing about how I’d totally be ‘the sort’ of person to let it grow grey and wild (crazy how that’s supposed to be negative in that context!?) But I think I identify too hard as a ‘redhead’ (been dying it since my teens) and I do receive hair health benefits from henna, as well.
During the pandemic when no one could go to salons I was amazed to realise how many people – especially people I know – have grey hair. And have had for ages.
Every time I henna mine (once every six weeks because I keep trying to see if I’ve stopped hating my natural hair colour… spoiler: I haven’t) I wrestle with this question. Still no reliable feelings on it… but lately I’ve been chatting with friends about how society pretends there are no stages between young and ancient. Where are all the beautiful diversified middle-aged women! I’m only heading towards 37 but I’d love to feel more sure that I’m in good company!!!
I’m so glad and find it super refreshing that you’ve talked about it. ^_^
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Growing up I used to perform with a truly phenomenal cellist with gathered blond curls and a Mallen streak. She always looked so damn good. And I mean, come on, Rostropovich and a Mallen streak!? Are you kidding me!?
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I think it looks wicked cool.
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it’s a good thing to have that streak! I’ve been going grey since my 20s, and it’s interesting to now find out from your post that it can indicate supernatural influences or knowledge. If I had known that I would’ve thought it was cool to be going grey.
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Beautiful in so many ways.
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I wish I had one… I wish I had white hair…
So glad you are keeping it!! 🥰
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Wow, I had no idea there was a name for it! I have one too, in about the same place as yours and my mother had one there as well. I liked it when I was younger, now I’m mostly grey and so everything gets dyed. Very interesting about the superstitions, I feel like with the white streak, a third nipple, and just generally being weird I probably would not have fared well in earlier eras!
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It’s beautiful like this! I’ve had white hair since I was 26 or so, and made a slave to the hairdresser’s since, until I decided to dye it blonde first, then, little by little, let it white. It’s such a gain of time and money! I was a brunette like you but so it is now!
There are a lot of accounts of women leaving their hair grey or white that’s it isn’t an issue for me. And it’s becoming trendy! Look at Andie Mc Dowell!
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I LOVE your streak!
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I had no idea there was so much behind the white streak. I thought mine was due to college stress 🤣 but my mom admitted she started getting greys early too. I admire those that can live with it comfortably but in my mid 20s I started dying it regularly and I don’t plan to stop any time soon.
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Wow – you’ve enlightened me. I didn’t know about all that Mallen-streak stuff. Superstitions notwithstanding. Either way you look very nice. I have a little gray myself although it’s not in a streak.
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I never knew there was a name for this! I got a streak in my hair when I was 12 years old! Now I have greys all over but since I am a guy (sort of, I’m actually two spirit but present masculine most of the time) I don’t face some of the judgements women face. But thanks for sharing. !
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I got mine in my 20s, the last time I dyed my hair. That was 40+ years ago, and it’s grown in really well, people often think I dye or highlight my hair now because the streakiness is still there, even though it’s much more white, except for the back of my head. I’ve grown to love it. You look beautiful, and everything you write about it is food for thought, autoimmune and woo woo! I’m trying to remember a couple of novels or memoirs I’ve read that refer to this as a family trait, but no luck!
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It actually suits and looks good on many people, I remember, Prime minister Indira Gandhi had the same white patch, and it became part of her identity.
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