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CELEBRATING SILVER Why women everywhere are deciding gray is the new black Words by Sophie Davis Art by Kate Tang | Designed by Emily Saraidarian
Baby Botox, anti-aging straws and listicles promoting products guaranteed to make you look ten years younger in just two minutes. Society’s total refusal to allow women to age naturally is overt and inescapable. As disheartening as it may be to open TikTok and see a thirteen-year-old unboxing a brand new Retinol cream, a growing group of women are finding the beauty in natural aging by embracing their gray hair. From Andie MacDowell’s glamorous red carpet mane to Facebook support groups boasting tens of thousands of followers, it seems the gray hair movement is only growing—just as beautiful as the locks of the women at the center of it. After touching up her grays since the age of 28, 51-year-old Danielle Fried from Clinton Corners, New York decided it was time for a change. As the window between hair appointments to hide her gray became increasingly short, she started asking her friends and coworkers what they thought about her growing out her natural hair. “All of a sudden I was just like ‘would I ever actually do this?’ and the very first person that I said something to about it just looked right at me, shook her head no and just said ‘sixty.’ It was like a scene from a sitcom.” But after reflecting on her own mother’s experience growing out her natural hair color and speaking with a few colleagues more willing to embrace the silver wave, Fried decided to welcome the personal evolution. “For most of my life, it’s kind of been associated with letting yourself go,” Fried said of the notion of no longer dyeing her hair. “I’m just going to
embrace it for what it is and have it be ‘a new me,’ like a sort of coming into my own.” While Fried is still in the process of growing out her grays, she’s quick to sing the praises of the process, viewing it as a celebration of change and an opportunity to switch up other aspects of her personal style as well. “I’ve been getting my hair cut shorter and shorter and I absolutely love it. I haven’t had hair this short since college,” Fried said. Despite initial anxieties about how people would react to her new look, Fried decided to view the experience as an acknowledgment of how far she’s come in terms of her confidence. “I’m not 12 anymore. I don’t have to crumble and fall apart at the thought that someone might judge me for the way I look,” Fried said. Bonnie Champney, a former preschool teacher