YOU can ask Jimmy Li just about anything. The North Point fruit vendor is never short of opinions.
Women. ''Shanghainese most beautiful. Like my wife.'' 1997. ''China no good. Old men, old ideas.'' Money. ''Family expensive. That's why I work seven days.'' Age. ''58''. Pot belly ''Too much rice and beer''.
But when it comes to hair and why he and so many of his contemporaries don't have grey hair, the Hong Kong native slips on a look that reads ''Danger zone. No trespassing'' and ends the conversation with a flip of the switch on his juicer.
With Li and his generation, getting to the root of grey hair is an accident waiting to happen.
Call it vanity, ego, virility, grey hair is for grandfathers. It signifies ageing, over-the-hill and dull. While their sons and grandfathers seem to handle this home-grown fact of biology, a certain generation finds the solution in the local chemist's.
When Kiki Flemming Productions gets a request for an older, more sophisticated model, Julie Summerville doesn't hunt for senior citizens. ''You can take a 20-year-old and make him look 10 years older with the right clothes,'' says Summerville. ''Unfortunately, the reverse doesn't work.'' If Sharon Chui needs a Chinese grandpa, she never looks at hair colour. ''We look for a face,'' says the production co-ordinator for Catwalk Productions. ''That shows ageing.'' The significance of hair colour goes beyond genes. It's psychological, says one hair-dresser. ''Hong Kong Chinese men don't have the self-confidence (to go grey),'' says Jean Yang, who has both.