06/15/2026
Katherine Needleman Knocked it out of the park again with this article. 🙌
𝐈'𝐌 𝐆𝐎𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄
𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐡𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞, 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐬, 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞
This morning, I watched a little bit of last night’s webcast of the Detroit Symphony with violin soloist Hilary Hahn playing Mozart’s Fifth Concerto. It’s on YouTube here and there is a live comment stream on the right hand side which is problematic at best. Here’s what people hiding in the comfort of their own homes so we cannot see what they look like and commenting from the comfort of anonymized screen names had to say:
•: “What happened to her Hair?” / “she looks like she’s in her 60’s” / “she looks like she’s in her late 60’s” / “she might be stressed. or have some illness”
•: “46? She looks much older”
•: “Unfortunately :(” (in response to her aging)
In fact, these comments are ones that I have heard live on so many occasions from people’s own mouths that I wasn’t exactly surprised. I haven’t responded to people complaining about Hilary Hahn’s appearance in person, because, I guess, I’ve been uncomfortable to. So I did a little internet research first, before writing this. I found a whole Reddit thread devoted to the very important topic of Hilary Hahn—a violin soloist’s—hair color. And of course, the cesspool that is Slipped Disc never disappoints:
•Susan Finkelman: “Is she ok-she looks rather haggard?”
•Yuri K: “She looks older than she really is... life is definitely taking toll on her, unfortunately.”
•Yuri K (follow-up): “Men do not care much about hair color; they know that it’s the woman’s neck that betrays her age.”
•Frank: “Most women her age who are greying color their hair.”
I was planning to write all the things, but then I even found that Hilary Hahn herself addressed many of them on TikTok. Another person with a fake name asked her why her hair is “so white, just asking”. (And her hair doesn’t look very white to me in that TikTok, but that’s not the point.) Ms. Hahn actually gives the reasons: “wisdom and age and nature,” and “‘𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘯.”
I often point to the fact that orchestra programs are built around older men conductors conducting the music of even older men, and when women are involved as headliners, they are often a soloist much younger and more conventionally attractive than the conductor. It’s very much more rare that you see a young man conductor (and we see plenty of these programmed) with an older woman soloist, and ever rarer still that we will see a woman who is not trying to hide her age in some way, or going to great efforts to look a certain way onstage. When men are headliners, as in conductors and soloists, they can get away with a lot more in terms of their appearance.
Balding men or men with gray hair? No problem. Never gets commented on. Men who gain ten pounds or more each decade? Fat men? No one cares—it’s all about how they play.
Women soloists are expected to show up with very expensive, tailored and high-fashion gowns. They’re expected to spend tons of money on hair and makeup each month and maybe even have professionals prepare them in advance of walking onstage. They show up in unbearably uncomfortable undergarments to make them appear smaller. But it’s all about how they play, right?
No, not for women. Hilary Hahn is one of those rare people who entered the classical music scene as a child and is still making a career. She looked like an angelic child violinist for a long time, and that’s how she was marketed—and well, she was a child. But now, she’s not a child anymore. And she has shown us over the decades that she has something to offer the public beyond being a prodigy.
So, unlike most women soloists who have careers when they are young and stunning, Hahn has had more longevity. And she’s not trying to look like she’s 12 anymore. In my view, that’s okay, because she’s not 12. She’s 46.
The commenters say she looks haggard because she isn’t coloring her hair, or god knows what else. They say it as if this is an acceptable thing to say, though I guarantee you they would not be talking about men in this way.
And yes, I have no doubt her job is hard. Most people have neither the inborn talent nor the tremendous amount of work behind them to do what Hahn has done. But the difficulty of her job, or the fact that she has two children, or the fact that she is recovering from an injury (an athlete with that sort of longevity would also be injured at some point) has nothing to do with the fact that she doesn’t look like she’s 12. She is just a normal human looking like a normal 46 year old. We should not expect her to look like a well-kept aging fashion model just because her violin playing is superhuman.
I admit myself, having gone to school with Hilary Hahn, that she looks different now. I was struck by it in the webcast. But you know what? I look different too than 30 years ago. So does every other person on this planet who has had the benefit of continuing to live over that time frame. I was grateful to Hilary Hahn for not pretending to be something she’s not.
Hilary Hahn has achieved so much and maintained such a wildly successful career that she is able to age as she pleases. This is so unusual and shocking that people can’t control themselves. Like all women, we expect Hilary Hahn to look like she is 12 forever and we’re just too dumb to see it.
So… think next time before you go make a comment about some Big Fancy Woman’s appearance. Would you make a similar comment about a man? Would you even care how a man violinist looks, or that he has the audacity not to pretend he looks the same as he did 30 years ago?
Have a look at your favorite orchestra’s season. Do you see any women with gray or white hair headlining anything? Do you even see any women headliners over the age of 55? Compare that to the number of thin, conventionally attractive women with hair which is a color not associated with aging.
Here are some photos of famous men in classical music. If you feel the need to complain about Hilary Hahn’s hair, age, or appearance, I’d encourage you to consider these targets equally as well.
Oh wait, talking about their appearance would make you an as***le? Well, then, I’d encourage you to just… shut the f**k up instead.
06/05/2026