Celebrities Who Look Stunning With Gray Hair
It's no great secret that we live in a world that glorifies youth — especially for women. In Hollywood, in magazines, and even in our social media feeds, we are constantly bombarded with the idea that looking young should be our ultimate goal — that aging is somehow shameful. And so, we often find ourselves trying to turn back the clock. In fact, many of us feel pressured to spend money on anti-aging skincare, plastic surgery, and, of course, hair dye.
Even though our culture is definitely a little youth-obsessed, there are some celebrities who aren't afraid to fully embrace their age by letting their natural gray hair grow, reminding us that we should never feel guilty about getting older — in fact, we should actively celebrate it.
Looking for some gray hair inspiration? Here are a few celebs who have let their gray hair grow naturally — and look completely gorgeous while doing it.
Andie MacDowell
Andie Macdowell has been in the industry for decades. After getting her start as Jane in the 1984 Tarzan movie "Greystoke," she found fame in films like "St. Elmo's Fire," "Green Card," and "Groundhog Day" in the '80s and '90s. Since then, she has never really slowed down, appearing in numerous Hallmark films and even starring in the acclaimed Netflix series "Maid" alongside her daughter Margaret Qualley in 2021.
Over the years, Macdowell hasn't caved to the pressure to retain her youth. Instead, she's embraced aging wholeheartedly. As the actor told British Vogue, her hair started to turn grey during the pandemic and she decided not to dye it — even though some people tried to dissuade her. "My managers had actually said to me, 'It's not time,'" she recalled. "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. I always wanted to be salt and pepper!'"
In another interview with Katie Couric, the actor explained her reasoning. "I want to be old," she exclaimed. "I'm tired of trying to be young. I don't want to be young, I've been young!"
Allison Janney
You probably know Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg, the indomitable press secretary in the long-running "The West Wing." Janney is also known for her roles in "Juno," "The Help," and the sitcom "Mom."
For a while, Janney resisted going gray — however, in 2021 during the pandemic, she made the decision to stop dying her hair, opting for a chic gray pixie cut. "It started out with just COVID choices, you know. I was in Ohio for five months of the pandemic," the actor said on People's "One Last Thing" podcast. "My natural color started growing in — which is gray. And then I thought, you know, I've always wanted to cut it off and do a Helen Mirren thing. I just wanted to try it."
Janney also spoke about her decision to go gray during an appearance on "The Ellen Show." As she explained, a big part of her decision was based on how fed up she had become with the upkeep of her hair. "I just decided I wanted to be free from hair color and hair extensions," she confessed. "And so this is the most authentic." We love to see it!
Richard Gere
These days, most of us know Richard Gere as one of the quintessential silver foxes. The actor first started going gray in the '80s. In the 1990 rom-com "Pretty Woman," he was already sporting a salt-and-pepper look. As he got even older, Gere's hair faded into an almost white shade.
As Gere later told The Daily Express, he has never considered dying his hair. "I have never dyed my hair in my life — and I am not going to start now," he said, adding, "I have had to darken it for a couple of films, such as Unfaithful It perhaps knocks off five years, no more. But the moment filming is over, I just let it go grey again" (via The Daily Mail).
It's easy to see why Gere has embraced his natural hair throughout his career — after all, his gray locks have become a huge part of his iconic image.
George Clooney
George Clooney is another actor who is often thought to have gotten even better with age. Clooney's first gray hairs appeared around 2009 — and he's embraced the look ever since.
As Clooney told BBC Radio 4 in 2015, getting older in Hollywood isn't easy — even if you're George Clooney. "I will say that there's nothing fun — and I know for actresses it's infinitely worse because of public perception based on nothing except studios not hiring them and those sorts of things — but I think for all of us, you have to come to terms with getting older and not trying to fight it," he reflected.
However, he has never tried to hide his age by dying his hair. "For me, it isn't an issue or an option," he said of hair dye and plastic surgery. "I don't think it would make much sense, quite honestly ... I've seen it happen and ... particularly on men, I don't think it really works well. I actually think it makes you look older."
Helen Miren
Helen Mirren is probably one of the most famous gray-haired celebrities. As Mirren explained to Vogue, she found going gray pretty easy. "I have to say it was very easy for me because my hair was always blonde," she explained. "I was a natural blonde and although it was quite dark at times, in the summertime when I'd spent time in the sun, it would basically go white. So the process of me losing the color of my hair was very easy — it just looked more and more as if I had been in the sun, but year-round."
Mirren went on to explain that although she sometimes colors hair, she doesn't bother with getting it done professionally as it was too much hassle. "I couldn't be bothered, it's so boring and expensive. I think it can be more difficult [to go gray] if you have much darker hair, but the women of my age who have made the leap recently look so spectacular," she said.
Mirren also told The Daily Mail that she avoids dying her gray hair so as not to damage it. "I have very fine hair so I've always been quite careful not to overtreat it," she said. "I don't normally color or dye it, I like it to grow naturally, but this dye is fantastic. It really does what it says on the box, allows my hair to grow out naturally, and is also very easy to use. It's my new favorite product."
Meryl Streep
In 2021, Meryl Streep began letting her gray hair show through. She even wore her graying hair in a casual up-do to the premiere of "Don't Look Up." Of course, this wasn't the first time we have seen Streep go gray. She has sported gray locks for several films, such as "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Into The Woods." Even though Streep often wears her hair dyed a subtle blonde color, it's great to see her embracing her natural grays.
We think Streep looks stunning with gray hair — but back in 2006 when she had a gray hairstyle for "The Devil Wears Prada," some critics hated the look. "I don't intend seeing this film, and I know no true fashionista would let her hair go silver," one reportedly said (via The Daily Mail). However, Wendy Finerman, the film's producer leapt to her defence. "The obsession with youth is so awful — I can't bear this denial of the passing of time," she said to the publication. "People are gorgeous when they get older, and I think Meryl Streep looks lovely: going grey is nature's way of complementing a mature face." We have to say, we totally agree.
Tia Mowry
Tia Mowry, star of "Sister, Sister" and "The Hot Chick" turned 44 in 2022 and she has begun to show off her grays. In a 2020 Instagram post, the actor posted a gorgeous selfie that highlighted her salt and pepper locks, writing, "This is Me. 42."
Two years later, the star wrote a piece for InStyle about how she felt about her hair throughout her life. The star explained that as a young star, she had felt insecure about her tight curly. "That negative relationship with my hair went on for a very long time, until Instagram hit the scene in the 2010s," she wrote. "I started to see more girls like me. Meaning, there was this amazing community of curly girls, and just Black women celebrating all the various textures and colors of their hair at every age."
Mowry then went into detail about how her hair was changing with age. Her first grays appeared in her 30s. But Mowry was ready to accept it and even embrace it. "I've always had this perspective that it is a blessing to get old," she reflected. "There are so many people on a daily basis that are not making it to the age where their hair starts to gray. And so when I see my gray hair, it actually is a blessing because it means that, yes, I'm getting older and I'm still here. I don't take that lightly — I really, really don't." That's definitely an attitude we can all learn from!
Sarah Jessica Parker
We all know Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex and the City" and now HBO's reboot "And Just Like That." These days, Parker is looking a little older — and, as always, totally gorgeous. In 2022, Parker went viral for her graying hair, with many noting she had 'herringbone highlights" — a style in which blonde highlights are intermingled with natural grays.
For Parker, the attention concerning her "bravery" was a little annoying. "It became months and months of conversation about how brave I am for having gray hair," she told Allure later. "I was like, please please applaud someone else's courage on something!" As far as Parker is concerned, aging is a natural part of life — and she isn't too interested in trying to fight it. "I just don't understand why I'm supposed to be spending that much time thinking about it," she said bluntly. "It's not that I'm purposefully dismissive or delusional. But I don't really ponder it."
Alexandra Grant
Alexandra Grant is a visual artist who is perhaps best known as the girlfriend of "John Wick" actor Keanu Reeves. Grant has sported silver hair for years. As she explained in an Instagram post in 2019, she actually went prematurely gray in her 20s. For a long time, she tried to hide her grays. "[I] dyed my hair every color along the way until I couldn't tolerate the toxicity of the dyes any more," she wrote. "In my 30's I let my hair turn 'blonde.'" The Instagram post was in response to a study that showed the links between hair dye and breast cancer. Grant expressed that beauty standards, which prioritize youth, should never be dangerous. "If womxn are perishing from beauty standards... then let's talk about those beauty standards," she wrote.
In another interview for British Vogue, Grant explained that she had given up on trying to conform to any beauty standards a long time ago. "I'm a 6ft 1in woman with white hair," the artist quipped. "You know, the idea of fitting in... If I wanted to look like Kim Kardashian, I would have to have surgery removing about a foot off my legs." Perhaps we should all take some inspiration from Grant!
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton first burst onto the scene in the '70s with her iconic roles in "The Godfather" and "Annie Hall." Since then, we've seen her in classics like "Something's Gotta Give," "The Family Stone," and "Father of the Bride." As Keaton hit middle age, she began to let her hair go gray. She famously debuted her gray look at the 2014 Golden Globes. At the time she told AARP that she was happy to go gray — as long as she didn't lose her hair altogether. "I've let the dyed blond grow out to gray, and I like it," she said. "All I want is no alopecia, no female-pattern baldness, and enough hair to last a lifetime. I think I've got it, though for days like today — an event and a photo shoot — stylists add extensions."
As Keaton told People in 2017, when it comes to her hair, she actually prefers it gray or even white these days. "My hair is now white," she said matter-of-factly. "It's better to have light around your face — I think it looks better on older people. Darker hair is not as softening."
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is another actor who we've watched go gray over the course of her career. From "Freaky Friday," to "Halloween," to "A Fish Called Wanda," to "Everything Everywhere All At Once," Curtis has been acting for decades — and in that time, she's embraced her aging with a head of gray hair. But she didn't always feel as comfortable with her hair as she does now. "As soon as my gray hair started coming in, I started dyeing it," she told IndieWire in 2023. However, spending time in the salon soon became more trouble than it was worth. "From a very early point, I thought: 'This is ridiculous that I'm going to spend all this time hiding something,'" she said.
So, eventually, she stopped dying her hair. Since then, she's been a proud advocate of natural, age-appropriate beauty — and we love to see it. As she said to Lorraine (via Yahoo!), "I have been an advocate for natural beauty for a long time, mostly because I've had the trial and error of the other part."
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda first began acting in the '60s and has been working consistently ever since. Her best-known roles include "9 to 5," "On Golden Pond," "Monster-in-Law," and "Grace and Frankie." As she has aged, she has experimented with various hair colors. In 2020, after years of dying her hair, Fonda decided it was time to let it go gray. She made her gray hair debut at the Oscars that year. As her stylist Jack Martin wrote on Instagram at the time, they decided to dye her hair grey so she could make a smooth transition. "Jane had about 3 inches of her salt and pepper natural roots and the rest was a little tired warm golden blonde, her goal color was a silver icy blonde to surprise everyone at the 2020 Oscar[s]," he wrote.
Fonda later spoke to Ellen Degeneres about her decision. "I tell you I'm so happy I let it go gray," she said. "Enough already, with so much time wasted, so much money spent, so many chemicals. I'm through with that." Honestly, good for her!
Chris Pine
A new silver fox has entered the chat. In 2022, actor Chris Pine, known for "Star Trek" and "Dungeons & Dragons," began embracing his salt-and-pepper hair and matching beard. He debuted the look during a gala in Los Angeles.
While Pine certainly looks very dapper with his look, he isn't too concerned about his looks — instead, he's more worried about effort. "I'm enjoying the aging process and the gray hair and the wrinkles," he said to People. "I find the ritual of shaving very relaxing, but for every day, it's pretty irritating on my skin, so I like having the definition a beard gives. I have some white hairs coming in, so that gives it different colors, I guess. But, quite honestly, it's just really f***ing easy." The actor went on to explain that in his family, men often went gray in their 30s. Like them, he hopes never to dye his hair. "I don't want to look perpetually young," he explained. "To each his own, but it's just not for me. Men trying to look young doesn't really go for me."
Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant built a career on romantic comedies like "Two Weeks Notice," "Love Actually," and "Notting Hill" in the '90s and early 2000s. Since then, his image as a leading man has shifted slightly. He's begun taking on more comedic roles that go against his upper-class man-in-love type. Plus, he's also started to let his hair go gray.
The press first took note of the actor's gray hair in 2013. "It looks like Hugh Grant may be the latest member of the Hollywood silver fox club," wrote The Daily Mail commentator at the time. Around the same time, an interviewer from The Scotsman asked him if his gray hair was a worrying sign of aging. "Well, no one claps their hands at every birthday and thinks, 'Good, I'm 51 now,'" replied the actor. "But it doesn't keep me awake at night, I don't think."
During the 2023 Oscars ceremony, Grant also made a self-deprecating joke about his looks, saying he looked like a "scrotum." Even if Grant thinks he looks a little worse for wear, we think he's looking as handsome as ever — silver hair and all.