10 Celebs Who Have Embraced Their Graying Natural Hair Color

Whether you like it or not, gray hair is coming for you. Research suggests that half of the population's hair will be about 50% gray by the age of 50. When this happens, you can either roll with it, embracing your natural gray locks, or fight against it tooth and nail, with dyes and bleaches. Other studies, per rest less, have found that as many as 74% of women choose to dye their hair, and that even before they reach that point, 82% of women pluck gray hairs right out when those first few strands pop up.

While gray hair is definitely a sign of aging, it doesn't have the negative connotation it once did. "Gray hair can be empowering and liberating, especially if you've spent many years coloring your hair," hairstylist Siobhan Haug told Hello! in 2025. "There's a growing acceptance of diverse beauty standards that celebrate authenticity and individuality," expert colorist Sean Goddard told Real Simple in 2024, adding that the beauty industry has turned to gray hair to promote natural beauty, labeling it as something that shouldn't be hidden. "When high-profile individuals embrace their gray, it often inspires others to do the same," explained Goddard.

If you're not sure you're ready to rock gray hair with confidence — it does take some getting used to, after all — then maybe you just need some inspiration. Plenty of celebrities have embraced their own gray hair, providing a great example to others. Remember, your hair changes as you age, and it's more than okay to change with it.

When it comes to rocking gray hair with confidence, Jamie Lee Curtis has been at the front of the movement. She gave up coloring her hair back in 2000 when she turned 41, via People. Despite it being her body and therefore her choice, people in her life disapproved of her decision, according to Curtis. "Now they're all eating crow and saying how right I was to do it," Curtis told Marie Claire in 2007. And it's not just her grays that Curtis embraces: her honest reflections on plastic surgery are super refreshing as well. 

If the iconic Carrie Bradshaw can pull off grays and make them look ultra-cool, you know gray hair has arrived. But when Sarah Jessica Parker was first spotted with grays, the media had a field day. "It became months and months of conversation about how brave I am for having gray hair," Parker told Allure in 2022. As Parker explained to the magazine, it wasn't bravery, but simply not having time for constant touch-ups. "When I walk out the door, I want to feel okay — according to my standards," said Parker, adding that it's more important to feel like herself than listen to others' opinions.

In July 2021, Andie MacDowell told Vogue that her initial transition to gray came about because of quarantine. "Every time my kids would see me, they kept telling me I looked badass with my gray hair," MacDowell said. Throughout her career, MacDowell has been known for her big, beautiful natural curls, and going gray seemed to fit her personality. Although her managers told her it was too soon, MacDowell pushed back. "I said 'I think you're wrong, and I'm going to be more powerful if I embrace where I am right now,'" she told Vogue, explaining that she didn't want to miss her window to be salt and pepper.

Not only is Salma Hayek one of the older women in Hollywood who is still celebrating her sexuality, but she's also embracing her gray hair. Throughout 2025, Hayek has been spotted at various events, including the Golden Globes in January and a Balenciaga show in July, showing off her gray streaks that look stunning against her naturally dark hair. In a video for Vogue Beauty, Hayek explained she doesn't dye her hair, but does sometimes use mascara to smooth down and cover a few of her grays. "I don't want to cover them all, but it keeps them [back]."

For those who relied on hair salons to cover their budding gray hair, 2020 threw a wrench in the works. Like Andie MacDowell, Allison Janney, who was quarantining in Ohio, just decided to go with it. "A big healthy few inches of gray roots came in, and I just decided I wanted to be free from hair color and hair extensions," Janney said on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2021. Janney told People that same year that she found inspiration for the 'do from the Dame herself, Helen Mirren. "I've always wanted to cut it off and do a Helen Mirren thing," Janney said.

Back in 2020, Mo'Nique not only started showing off her own strands of gray, but encouraged her fans to also embrace their natural gray hair. In an Instagram post, Mo'Nique shared that while people were constantly asking her why she wasn't dying her hair, the answer was simple: it was something she didn't want to do. "Sisters why are some us afraid to let it happen[?] I'm going to let the NATURAL PROCESS HAPPEN," Mo'Nique wrote (via The Jasmine Brand), adding that she enjoyed maturing and wasn't going to skip the opportunity to look older and wiser. Five years later, she's still rocking the gray.

When it comes to celebrities who aren't playing by society's beauty rules, there's no greater gray-haired icon than Helen Mirren. Not only has Mirren been gray for what seems like eons, but she's even called the transition to gray "very easy" for her. "I was a natural blond and although it was quite dark at times, in the summertime when I'd spent time in the sun, it would basically go white," Mirren told British Vogue in 2021, explaining that she's occasionally added lowlights to her hair, but has never made a fuss about it. "I never went to have my hair colored — I couldn't be bothered," Mirren said.

Diane Keaton first showed off her gray hair at the 2014 Golden Globes and inspired others to do the same for over a decade. Not only did Keaton literally show the world exactly how to rock gray hair, but she was the epitome of authenticity, self-expression, how to stay chic into your 60s and beyond, and was an overall icon whom we lost far too soon. "Slowing down isn't something I relate to at all," Keaton told AARP in 2012. "The goal is to continue in good and bad, all of it. To continue to express myself, particularly."

Although Meryl Streep rocked a white bob for her role as Miranda Priestly in 2006's "The Devil Wears Prada," it wasn't until several years later that she, too, let her hair go white. As a blond, Streep's transition to gray has been slowly happening before our eyes. Vogue noted in December 2021 that Streep attended the premiere of "Don't Look Up" with what could be categorized as "gray blending," putting a new twist on salt and pepper hair. From there, she seems to have taken the au natural route. In 2023, at an event in Spain, the media noticed Streep had gone completely white — and like Miranda Priestly, she nailed the look perfectly.

While Jane Fonda may not have a problem with going under the knife, having admitted to getting a facelift, the one part of her body that she prefers to keep natural is her hair. "I'm so happy I let it go gray," Fonda told Ellen Degeneres on her show in 2021, via Prevention. "Enough already with so much time wasted, so much money spent, so many chemicals — I'm through with that." Fonda first debuted her gray hair at the 2020 Oscars. It reportedly took a whopping seven hours for Fonda's hairstylist, Jack Martin, to get her back to her roots — literally.