Hollywood celebrities often face pressure to keep up their youthful appearances, even as they age. We’re always seeing stories about celebrities getting cosmetic procedures to reduce the signs of aging.
The pressure is especially strong for women, but more and more female celebrities have been allowing themselves to age naturally, challenging conventional beauty standards and embracing their true selves.
Recently, actress Andie MacDowell let her hair go gray — and doesn’t care what anyone has to say about it.
MacDowell, 64, is known for her roles in films like Sex, Lies and Videotape, Groundhog Day and Four Weddings and a Funeral. While many actresses dye their hair when as get older, MacDowell has embraced her gray hair in recent years.
And while many people fear their first gray hair, MacDowell said she was excited to finally pull off the mature look and said she had looked forward to it when she was younger.
“I thought that the idea of a kind of salt and pepper would suit me,” she said in a recent interview with Katie Couric. “I thought it would look good on my face. And when it started growing out during COVID I saw I was right…It looks good on me.”
“As it was growing out, my eyes popped, the color of them looked a little different. I liked the way my skin looked better,” MacDowell added. “And there was a feeling, it empowered me more. I felt more powerful and I felt more genuine and I felt more myself.”
“My hair started going silver during COVID, and my daughters were staying next door to me … so they saw me all the time and they would say to me, ‘You look badass and you’ve got to keep this,’” she said in a previous interview with NPR. “I have to say, I’ve never felt more beautiful. I’m not saying that everybody has to go do this … but it suits me.”
The actress said she has gotten comments about her gray hair making her “look older,” but she said she’s happy to look her actual age.
“What do you think I look 75 just because I let my hair go gray?” MacDowell said in response to the criticisms. “I don’t care. I want to be old. I’m tired of trying to be young. I don’t want to be young. I’ve been young.”
The actress has previously spoken out against the unfair beauty standards actresses are held to as the get older. She told NPR that when she turned 40, an interviewer asked how it felt to get older and “lose her beauty.”
“I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I told her I really don’t feel like I’m losing my beauty, it’s just a different kind of beauty… We evolve and we age, and this is part of the process… Aging is not about losing your beauty.”
“I think aging is something that you either have to decide that you like it or you don’t. It’s a choice,” she said in the NPR interview. “I like that people are comfortable with me getting older. I think that’s an important message for all of us that we get older and we are beautiful.”
We think Andie MacDowell looks beautiful with her gray hair! Thank you for encouraging women that it’s okay to embrace aging!