When City Commissioner Sue Hack’s blond locks began turning a blend of salt and pepper in her late 40s, she thought it was her little secret.

“I really didn’t think it was very noticeable until I went into a store and was asked if I was there for the senior discount,” she says.

For a while, she kept regular color appointments with her stylist to cover the unwanted silver signs of age.

“Then I just kind of got tired of it,” says Hack, 57. “Telling my age, gray hair — it just doesn’t bother me. I’m just so excited to be where I am and to be able to experience the things that I experience that I just don’t even think about age or hair color or any of that stuff.”

With the first baby boomers set to turn 60 next year, it seems more and more middle-aged women are embracing their natural hair color instead of clamoring for Clairol.

It doesn’t hurt that high-profile figures such as Hack, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger and even Gov. Kathleen Sebelius sport such lovely platinum dos. Not to mention nationally known beauties Emmylou Harris, Jamie Lee Curtis and Toni Morrison.

Stylist Mark Taylor, owner of Marx Salon, 801 1/2 Mass., has helped at least a dozen women through the transition from faux to silver fox in the past year and a half.

“Most of them are very pleased and happy once they get it done,” he says. “And they have beautiful hair.”

From the hair-care perspective, shedding artificial hues can mean far fewer visits to the salon for fear your roots are showing through. Some professionals recommend making the transition to gray seem more natural by adding highlights and lowlights as the new hue grows in.

Once they have arrived, white tresses can be more wiry, dry and brittle. A simple conditioning regimen should keep them moist and manageable. Some women also use shampoos with bluing tints to prevent an undesirable yellowing effect.

Beyond that, going gray seems to be more of an attitude than a lifestyle adjustment.

“I’m more comfortable just being who I am and not trying to add color or change my appearance,” says Praeger, 60. “I wish I could lose a few pounds, but that’s not as easy to accomplish.”

She believes it’s more difficult for women to accept gray hair because of societal biases in favor of youthful females, and she understands why members of the fairer sex opt for dye. But when she switched from dark auburn to silver 20 years ago, she got a compliment she hasn’t forgotten.

“I had a man stop me — I don’t remember where I was — and he said, ‘I hope you’re not offended. I like the color of your hair. I wish my wife would do that,'” Praeger says.

Opinions are mixed about the value of gray hair in the professional world.

Sebelius went gray in her 40s, almost overnight, and didn’t really have time to think about whether she wanted to color. She never has, press secretary Nicole Corcoran says, and it certainly hasn’t hurt her.

“She is the CEO of the state, and she looks the part,” Corcoran says. “She gets a lot of feedback on her hair, which I don’t think other governors may get. And a lot of women are pleased that she takes a stand and doesn’t try to change it.”

Hack, a retired Lawrence school teacher, doesn’t feel like anyone has treated her differently since she went au naturel.

But Jennifer Groene, a 42-year-old mother of four, has reaped on-the-job benefits as a part-time marriage and family therapist as her gray streaks have grown in.

“I have a young-looking face,” she says, “so I think it has contributed to people taking me more seriously professionally.”

Groene’s gray began arriving when she was about 35. Like her sisters, mother and grandmother, she’s never colored her hair.

“I like the gray,” she says. “I get a lot of compliments on it. Also, I’ve had other women who have said it’s been encouraging to them to see me do it, which I didn’t really expect at all.”

Although Hack thinks there’s still a double standard when it comes to gender — you know, silvered men are sophisticated; graying women are just old — she also thinks attitudes are changing.

“I think women have a much healthier view of themselves in their 50s now than perhaps they did 30 or 40 years ago,” she says. “I see myself as being very active and doing all sorts of things, and plan to do that forever and ever.

“I think that’s very healthy for women, and it’s healthy for young girls to see that as role models.”

Praeger seconds that sentiment and adds a sassy one of her own.

“I earned this hair,” she says. “This is Mother Nature at her best.”