How old do you think Steve Martin is? I think you'll have a hard time guessing. He's 61. But don't you really feel as if he's 40-something?

I think he seems ageless because when he started going gray in his late 20s, rather than dye his hair to fit in with his peers, he made the shocking decision for a celebrity to keep it gray.

I cannot pretend to know what he thought at the time but I imagine that as scary as it was to think that possible gatekeepers to his career would think he looked too old for comedy, he decided that he could use his hair as an asset - his naturally graying hair allowed him to create a unique conservative "businessman" look as a foil for his wild and crazy antics.

The result? He created a timeless persona and today, unlike the cringe-worthy look of shag hair and tight jeans looks on 64-year-old Mick Jagger or the still-1964-era-mop-top-headed style of 65-year-old Paul McCartney, Martin looks fresh and alive and comfortable in his skin.

Anderson Cooper's prematurely gray hair gave him a look that bestowed greater authority to his CNN reporting. And Taylor Hicks certainly used his gray hair as a competitive advantage on American Idol. There's no question in my mind that Emmylou Harris' radiantly white hair lends her music an even greater sense of authenticity.

I think it's a really interesting trade-off in our now even more youth-obsessed culture to make the conscious choice to allow your hair to be its natural gray color. And maybe, like Steve Martin, by doing so you get the benefit of seeming timeless as you actually age.