21 Celebrities With Gray Hair Who Are Fully Embracing the Look
Every day more and more celebrities with gray hair are saying no to covering up their natural color.
Gray hair, once a sure sign of aging that seemingly didn't apply to famous women, is quickly becoming embraced by all kinds of celebrities. For Andie MacDowell, whose gray hair started coming in when she had to skip salon visits during quarantine, it's about that salt-and-pepper look—just like the men in Hollywood who have always been allowed to age without much fuss.
“At the very beginning of quarantine, my hair started growing, and every time my kids would see me, they kept telling me I looked badass with my gray hair,” she revealed to Glamour. “When I pulled it up in a bun, all you could see was the salt-and-pepper, which is what I am, you know, dark and silver. I like to compare myself to George Clooney because, why not? I’ve been saying for a while now it was time for me, personally, to make that transition because I felt like it was appropriate for my personality and just who I am.”
Allison Janney said getting rid of dyes and wigs is a kind of freedom, telling Drew Barrymore, “I cannot tell you how amazing it is to feel free. Free from hair color and hair extensions and hair tapes and blah blah blah…. To be able to run my hands through my hair…and appreciate…it's just, it's heaven.”
If you're not ready to go all the way there yet but want to try incorporating gray into your look, there's a process called “gray blending” that lets you do just that. It's a transitional style that uses your natural grays kind of like highlights, while also preserving colorful undertones.
“In the past we have seen trends dominate fashion, such as the perm era, the highlight decade, balayage, vivid colors, and tonal work,” says Robert Eaton, technical director of Wella Professionals. “Now there is a move toward natural hair enhancement, and gray blending is the new movement in hair color.”
For inspiration on that look and more, here are some of the celebrities with gray hair who have embraced their natural color—and are totally pulling it off.
- Gilbert Carrasquillo1/21
Katie Holmes
The Glamour cover star showed off her gray roots with a chic side braid while out and about in New York City.
instagram/@salmahayek2/21Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek calls grays her “white hair of wisdom,” and we're totally obsessed with this outlook. Every time she posts a photo that features her black hair with silver highlights, we swoon.
- Handout3/21
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda first debuted her short silver hair at the freakin’ Oscars, like the legend she is. Fonda's stylist said, “Her goal color was a silver icy blonde to surprise everyone at the 2020 Oscars.” The process to dye her hair completely gray took seven hours but was totally worth it.
- Amy Sussman4/21
Andie MacDowell
The rom-com star's curls are a part of her signature look, so her decision to transition to lowlights on graying hair made her managers nervous. “My managers had actually said to me, ‘It’s not time [to go gray],’” she said in July 2021. “And I said, ‘I think you’re wrong, and I’m going to be more powerful if I embrace where I am right now. It’s time because in two years I’m going to be 65. If I don’t do it now, I won’t have the chance to be salt-and-pepper.’”
- Dominik Bindl5/21
Anderson Cooper
We literally cannot imagine the newsman with anything other than a full head of white hair. Short-silver-hair king.
- Emma McIntyre6/21
Bonnie Raitt
Making white-streaked hair a thing since the ’70s. Raitt has poliosis, a rare hair condition that zaps melanin from certain parts of her hair. The singer has said that the streak came in when she was 24 and started “expanding” as her career took off, so she dyed the rest of her hair red around the streak, making that front piece a part of her signature look.
- Hollywood To You/Star Max7/21
Allison Janney
Fed up with extensions and dyes, Janney is now all-natural when she's not on set. The actor revealed to Drew Barrymore, “I cannot tell you how amazing it is to feel free. Free from hair color and hair extensions and hair tapes and blah blah blah….” We love that ash gray color.
- Rich Polk8/21
Rita Moreno
At 92, Moreno looks as vivacious as ever, with silver hair in a short, choppy style.
- Jon Kopaloff9/21
Steve Martin
The Only Murders in the Building star went white at a young age and never bothered with dyes, and we can see why. The look just suits him.
- Rodin Eckenroth10/21
Diane Keaton
Forever an iconoclast, Keaton is the definition of aging with style. She had black-and-white hair for a while, but now prefers an allover light shade to complement her always kooky style.
- Dimitrios Kambouris11/21
Sarah Jessica Parker
SJP made a bold statement appearing on the cover of Vogue with gray in her hair while promoting the Sex and the City revival, And Just Like That…. “‘Gray hair, gray hair, gray hair. Does she have gray hair?’ I don’t know what to tell you, people,” she said to Vogue of the ageism women face in Hollywood. “It almost feels as if people don’t want us to be perfectly okay with where we are as if they almost enjoy us being pained by who we are today, whether we choose to age naturally and not look perfect, or whether you do something if that makes you feel better.”
- Sean Zanni12/21
Whoopi Goldberg
When the actor and host went gray all over for a role, she revealed how much it meant to portray an older Black woman onscreen. In real life, she has been known to let her gray roots stand out on the red carpet.
- Pascal Le Segretain13/21
Helen Mirren
The quintessential sophisticated, mature woman. After seeing how she looked with gray powder covering her hair to play Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George, she decided to just go for it. “I have to say it was very easy for me because my hair was always blonde,” Mirren told Vogue.
- Matt Winkelmeyer14/21
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is all about keeping it real. “In the world, there is an industry—a billion-dollar, trillion-dollar industry—about hiding things,” she shared on Instagram. “Concealers. Body shapers. Fillers. Procedures. Clothing. Hair accessories. Hair products. Everything to conceal the reality of who we are. And my instruction to everybody was: I want there to be no concealing of anything.”
- Frazer Harrison15/21
Morgan Freeman
Richard Gere, George Clooney, and of course, Morgan Freeman. Some actors just look better in gray, and Freeman, who got his big break later than many of his A-list peers, has always made gray so dignified.
- Raymond Hall16/21
Meryl Streep
She's gone gray for roles—Miranda Priestly's icy hair, the gray balayage in The Giver—and now she's incorporating gray into her blonde on the red carpet too. It looks “gray-t.”
- David Crotty17/21
Keanu Reeves & Alexandra Grant
John Wick rocks that salt-and-pepper hair in his beard, and his partner, artist Alexandra Grant, has been rocking her natural gray since her 30s. “I went gray prematurely in my early 20s... and dyed my hair every color along the way until I couldn't tolerate the toxicity of the dyes any more,” she wrote on Instagram about the potential health risks of hair dye. “I love and support that every womxn can choose how she wants to look at every age. But/and, if womxn are perishing from beauty standards...then let's talk about those beauty standards. Love to all womxn!”
- Gilbert Carrasquillo18/21
Stacy London
The stylist shows that silver highlights on brown hair are a Do. Like Raitt, London's pop of white is natural and came in early. “Nobody else in my family has it. I'm going to keep it. In my contract with Pantene they are not allowed to dye it,” she told The Baltimore Sun, per The List. Yep, this is a legally obligated streak.
- Pacific Press19/21
Blythe Danner
Remember the days of the blue rinse? Blue-gray hair might work for some, but Danner shows that yellow undertones are not the enemy!
- Alberto E. Rodriguez20/21
George Clooney
This list would simply not be complete without silver fox George Clooney.
Instagram:@tiamowry21/21Tia Mowry
“This is Me. 42 🙏🏽,” Mowry captioned an Instagram selfie celebrating her natural look in August 2020. She even wore a gray sweater to make her natural grays really pop. It honestly gives her a glow!
