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00:00:00To be continued...
00:00:30Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
00:04:29Women all across the world of all ages and ethnicities are choosing on purpose to ditch
00:04:39the hair dye and embrace their gorgeous greys.
00:04:43This is truly a movement.
00:04:48Never before in history have we seen so many women choose on purpose to embrace their gorgeous
00:04:56greys.
00:04:56I am over the moon with excitement to bring this film to you and I hope you enjoy it.
00:05:04Growing up in the 70s, the only people that I ever recall seeing with gray hair were people
00:05:11who were really old, I'm talking 80s and 90s, I never ever saw women in their 30s or 40s or 50s
00:05:20with gray hair.
00:05:21And what's interesting is that research shows that most people start to see a sprinkling of gray when
00:05:30they're in their late teens and they're in their late teens to early to mid-20s and what you are about to see is that the majority of women that I interviewed in fact also saw their first grays very young.
00:05:42By the time I was maybe like 16, I had a whole streak coming down the side of my hair, one long streak of gray.
00:05:56I actually didn't see my first gray hair.
00:05:58My girlfriend saw my first gray hair when we were standing at the bus stop when I was 15.
00:06:03We were going downtown to go shopping and she reached over and she said, hey, you've got a gray hair and then she plucked it from my head.
00:06:10I saw it when I was in high school.
00:06:13I must have been a junior or senior and I saw one gray hair. It was pretty long.
00:06:20I plucked it and since then I've been on this journey of coloring my hair.
00:06:27Well, I had a few rogue gray hairs growing in my 20s.
00:06:32You know, we did our research and 18, 19 were the ones that really came up the most that started to go silver at that younger of an age.
00:06:41I started going gray at 17.
00:06:44My mother will swear that she plucked the first white hair from my head at age four.
00:06:5135 year old Andrea Fishkin started to see silver strands peek through when she was just 12 years old.
00:06:57I felt that maybe there was something wrong with me, like why am I graying so early in my life?
00:07:03Hair grows gray when color producing cells stop producing pigment.
00:07:07Scientists don't know exactly why some people go gray early, but genes play a large role.
00:07:13The very first time I knew that I had a gray hair was when I was 27 years old.
00:07:20I was standing in the gym.
00:07:22I was, I guess I was by the front registered desk area.
00:07:27And someone that I knew from the gym, I knew this person and I seem to recall it was a male, very casually, not, not a bestie at all.
00:07:39Walks up to me and says, Oh, you have a gray hair and proceeds to yank it out of my head.
00:07:47I was 26 when I saw my first gray hair.
00:07:52When I saw my first gray hair, I believe I was 20 years old, sophomore in college.
00:08:00And I just thought, Oh my gosh, I'm getting old.
00:08:06That's basically what I thought.
00:08:08This is such a double standard because I started getting grays when I was 18 and everyone says it looks distinguished.
00:08:13It's great.
00:08:14I love it.
00:08:15I have no problem with the grays, but it's obviously such a different experience for women.
00:08:18With a man, it can give him a sense of authority.
00:08:21With a woman, however, it can look like she doesn't care about herself.
00:08:25When Anderson Cooper has gray hair, they call him the silver fox.
00:08:28A woman who has gray hair is like, Nana, can I help you with your bag?
00:08:32Yes, exactly.
00:08:33It's a double standard.
00:08:35Because it's such a double standard for guys with gray hair.
00:08:39They're distinguished.
00:08:40But women, I think, feel such pressure not to allow themselves to have gray hair.
00:08:44I think it looks great.
00:08:45Yeah.
00:08:46Well, I thank you for pioneering it.
00:08:47Well, yes.
00:08:48That's right.
00:08:49This double standard has been in existence for thousands and thousands of years.
00:08:54It's rooted in the original role that men and women played in life.
00:08:57Looks were important.
00:08:58Women were to attract a mate.
00:09:00They procreate.
00:09:01And then they died before they even saw gray hair.
00:09:04You know, not that long ago, a hundred years ago.
00:09:07Men, on the other hand, were about protecting their clan, being powerful and strong.
00:09:11Gray hair actually enhanced that role.
00:09:13They were seen as more senior, you know, leaders.
00:09:16There's a patriarchal world that we live in where our value is measured by men.
00:09:22And it has to do with procreation, fertility, submission.
00:09:26All the men have gray hair.
00:09:28Yes.
00:09:29So it's just like, why is it okay for them and not me?
00:09:34So that's kind of my attitude, I think, just projecting that to people.
00:09:38Right.
00:09:39But I do think that there's a double standard when it comes to men.
00:09:41And men are distinguished.
00:09:43And women just are old.
00:09:45But we're here, of course, to break that stereotype.
00:09:50Indeed we are, Sandra.
00:09:53Indeed we are.
00:09:54And the days of this double standard are clearly numbered.
00:10:00This outdated view that women are no longer attractive and somehow less desirable has begun to fade, pun intended.
00:10:10And my thought has been, how did we get here as a society?
00:10:15What has happened in our past to bring us to this point, to where we revere men.
00:10:22We, they're distinguished, they're worldly, they're sophisticated.
00:10:27But for women, oh my goodness, it's quite different.
00:10:30And how did we as a society get here?
00:10:33Well, the research is fascinating.
00:10:36And it begins to shed some light on how we did get here.
00:10:40In 1891, an ad for Imperial Hair Regenerator stated, quote,
00:10:46No lady who thoroughly appreciates good appearance would ever dream of appearing in society with streaky or grey hair.
00:10:56They are both unbecoming, and when a perfect preparation can be obtained for overcoming these difficulties,
00:11:03there is no reasonable justification for the continuance.
00:11:08The message in all such ads was clear.
00:11:11All women should have grey hair, and these products provided a way to stem that most visible sign of aging.
00:11:19Nevertheless, even with intensive advertising, only about 7% of American women dyed their hair by mid-century.
00:11:28The modern hair coloring revolution came through clever, image-changing advertising.
00:11:34Coloring my hair is such a job.
00:11:53Sectioning, dipping, repeated color checks.
00:11:56Dull, streaked with grey.
00:11:58Even with this perfect makeup, she looks faded, unattractive.
00:12:01If your hair is dull or faded or streaked with grey, try Miss Clairol Hair Color Patten.
00:12:06With Miss Clairol, the color looks so natural.
00:12:09Only your hairdresser knows for sure.
00:12:11Easy to do. Apply like shampoo.
00:12:14In minutes, she looks years younger.
00:12:16My grey hair makes me feel so old.
00:12:19You know what I'm gonna do?
00:12:20I'm gonna wash that grey right out of my hair.
00:12:23I'm gonna wash that grey right out of my hair.
00:12:26Loving Care Color Lotion from Clairol washes away your grey
00:12:30and washes in your own natural color.
00:12:32So I wash that grey right out of my hair.
00:12:35Oh yes, I wash that grey right out of my hair.
00:12:38Wash that grey right out of your hair with Clairol Loving Care.
00:12:41So many Americans color their hair. It's over 75%.
00:12:45So that now becomes the reality.
00:12:47Yeah.
00:12:48And so being natural seems to be the oddity as opposed to, you know, like my hair's blonde.
00:12:55Well, maybe it was, but it isn't anymore.
00:12:58Debbie Lyman is at the salon every two weeks covering her grey, unlike her twin, Naomi.
00:13:03I'm jealous. I admit it.
00:13:06I just feel like liberated.
00:13:08And I get so many compliments that I feel like it's my best feature.
00:13:12There's so many unhappy people out there dyeing their hair every three weeks
00:13:16and they're not even thinking that there's another way.
00:13:20What was then the turning point that you said,
00:13:22I just am not gonna dye my hair anymore?
00:13:24I was thinking the turning point was going to be when you learned about the tumor.
00:13:31So I thought, okay, then that had, but no.
00:13:34Yeah, I had not even thought about it because it was such a thing that, like, everybody dyed their hair.
00:13:38My mom had pretty grey hair young and she always dyed her hair.
00:13:42So I just, I didn't even think about, like, don't dye your hair.
00:13:45It was just like, oh, well, whatever.
00:13:46This is normal. I'm just gonna keep dyeing my hair.
00:13:48I was just willing to go get it colored because that's all that I knew back then.
00:13:51I just feel like these women are stuck doing, you know,
00:13:54how they have to color their hair every three weeks, two weeks, one week.
00:14:00You know, it's too much.
00:14:02And then it comes back to money.
00:14:04So, you know, you're talking about trying to knock out a system
00:14:06that's been working really well for the people that are in power.
00:14:09And that's, you know, what do you want? A revolution?
00:14:12A lot of women feel insecure all the time because of how the media makes us feel.
00:14:18When we look at economics, nobody makes money if they tell us we look good the way we are.
00:14:23Money is made by making us feel bad.
00:14:26Advertisers will never voluntarily change because it is profitable for them
00:14:30when we feel terrible about ourselves.
00:14:32Basically, we're told that women are acceptable only if we're young, thin, white,
00:14:36or at least light skinned, perfectly groomed and polished, plucked and shaved.
00:14:40And any deviation from this ideal is met with a lot of contempt and hostility.
00:14:45Women who are considered ugly are ridiculed in advertising campaigns.
00:14:49So these ads are meant to be funny, but the message to girls and women is clear.
00:14:53If you're not conventionally beautiful, you're an object of ridicule and contempt.
00:14:58Your worth depends on how you look.
00:15:00You're going to be graded on a curve.
00:15:03This contempt for women who do not measure up is waiting for all of us, of course, eventually as we age.
00:15:09So no wonder there's such terror of showing any signs of aging.
00:15:13I was horrified. I thought, oh, if I grow it out, I'm going to be so old. I'm going to look old. It's going to be horrible.
00:15:31I tried to dye my hair and keep up with it to make sure that no one knew I had any gray hair and how horrible it would be if anybody found out that I had gray hair.
00:15:43So I started dyeing it. And of course, as time went on, the grayer I got, the more I would need to dye it.
00:15:52And I was embarrassed and I was ashamed that, you know, all of a sudden I had gray hair.
00:16:00And that's when I started dyeing my hair because I didn't want my friends to know about my gray hair.
00:16:04And I actually lied with my friend. One of my friends asked me, like, oh, my gosh, Terry, your hair is so nice and black.
00:16:11It's so shiny. Did you dye it? And I flat out told her no.
00:16:14And I was, you know, I never felt good about not being honest with her.
00:16:20But I was just, but I really didn't want her to know that I was, you know, having gray hair at a young age.
00:16:27I was about 18 when I started, you know, seeing gray hair. At first I was, you know, totally mortified.
00:16:33By the time I was 19, I had a white Elvira streak in my, right out of the top.
00:16:41My mother and my aunt, they took me to the store where they used to sell for brunettes only hair color and helped me pick out the proper shade so that I could color my hair.
00:16:55No group in Hollywood feels the effects of ageism like women.
00:16:59And many celebrities have been vocal about it.
00:17:01Helen Mirren has critiqued the industry for age discrimination, saying Hollywood is all about youth and beauty.
00:17:07There is a lot of ageism and I do, I do feel that the gray hair has hurt me, but it has not changed my resolve.
00:17:19I think that it's important to have somebody on television, in movies, in commercials, in magazines.
00:17:31I think it is important that we have silver haired and gray haired women represented in all of those places.
00:17:40Oh yeah, I've had, I have a friend who is a hard-working actress, she's very successful, she's won two Emmys.
00:17:47And when I told her, I said, I said, next time you see me you may not recognize me because I've started going gray.
00:17:53And she, she has said, I can't do that.
00:17:56She said, I would, that would be great, but I can't do that because of my job.
00:18:00Right, right.
00:18:01If I had gray hair, I would not have this job. I'm just saying that right now.
00:18:05Really? Yup.
00:18:07I came to LA three and a half years ago to get into commercials.
00:18:10So I'm told, well, if you color your hair, you, you know, you might have a better chance.
00:18:16I won't.
00:18:17If you cut your hair, because women your age really shouldn't have long hair, it doesn't look right.
00:18:25There's something, you know, and I refuse to cut my hair.
00:18:28I've always had long hair and it's going to stay.
00:18:30When I first was talking to Chuck about it, I, I said, he said, do you have any idea of how you want to play her?
00:18:39And I said, well, I think she should be gray.
00:18:42And he was like, really?
00:18:46He said, I kind of thought she should have the same color hair that her daughter has.
00:18:49And I said, you know, if I'm going to play an old woman, I really also because everybody's having their me too plus moment.
00:18:59I think we all need to kind of grab a hold of our authenticity.
00:19:05And it's like, what's wrong with being gray?
00:19:08Just because most actors, actresses don't go, you know, I'm just, I can't wait to be gray.
00:19:14Um, I myself had recently just stopped dying my hair because it was like, who am I kidding?
00:19:21I, it's stupid.
00:19:23And, uh, I was just over it.
00:19:25So I, I wanted her to be totally authentic in that way.
00:19:29Being that I worked in the makeup industry, I was very, um, on cue to have hair that wasn't gray.
00:19:37I was a singer for a while.
00:19:38But then when I went to Nashville, the A&R guy says, why do you have to cover up that gray?
00:19:43I really didn't like that.
00:19:44I didn't think it was fair.
00:19:45I thought, what does this have to do with singing?
00:19:47The whole point I started my blog was really not about fashion.
00:19:52It was about shifting the paradigm of women feeling invisible in our society, which really does happen.
00:20:00And I, I know I went to look for a job when I was 58 and, uh, I, I, I experienced so much ageism.
00:20:06And I talked to women all the time and women say it starts at 40.
00:20:10Not only is it sad, but it's, it's, it's such a disservice because people now are living to be 90, 96.
00:20:17And so does that mean when you hit 40, you've got 50 more years where you, you can't dress nice, you know, nicely or sexy or, you know, whatever your style is?
00:20:27I, that's crazy, you know, and so that was why I started my blog was not just about fashion.
00:20:33It was about women who are experiencing that in the workplace, uh, just in society in general, because I think a lot of younger women dread getting older because they feel that they're gonna fall off this cliff at the age of 50 or whatever, whatever age it is that they're dreading.
00:20:49And so, you know, it's, it's not about dreading your age.
00:20:54It's about embracing every year that you're alive because a lot of us don't get to be old.
00:21:01Ageism. It is just another summit for us to climb as we attempt to live our lives authentically.
00:21:11More money, more time, just to keep up with what has been deemed by society as acceptable and appropriate.
00:21:21And with that, how long is too long to dye your hair?
00:21:2710 years? 20 years? 30 years? How long?
00:21:32It was decades, decades of doing it. And I stopped, I was 56. I first wanted to do it 2013. I held off, um, uh, letting it go because of my dad recognized, my dad had Alzheimer's, um, and dementia.
00:21:48And he knew me with my dark hair, down, if I wore my hair down. And if I wore my hair up, even when it was still dark, and then I took it down, he'd say, hey, when did you get here?
00:21:59You know, so I felt like he still knows me. He knows who I am. Once he didn't know me. He didn't know I was his daughter anymore.
00:22:06It's a tough disease. Um, and he didn't recognize me. And I thought, okay, now I can do this.
00:22:13I used to color my hair, um, every two weeks to three weeks. For years. I did it for years. And then it just got worse. And then worse. And then every time I would color my hair, the next day or two, I could see just a little bit peeking out from my, from my scalp. And it was very frustrating.
00:22:33I was once again thinking about, I had dyed my hair on December 24th and it was like December, it was like January 7th or something like that.
00:22:40And I was starting to plan my next hair dye and, and I just was like, God, this is a pain in the ass.
00:22:48Right. I've been doing this since I was 28 years old and I'm 51. And why am I putting myself through this?
00:22:55Maybe now's the time for me to see what's under there. It just literally was like a bolt of lightning striking me going, I think, I think I might be done.
00:23:04I think I want to try this.
00:23:05So what was different this time from the first time you try that you've have stayed the path that even with the family functions and the family pressures, you have said, no, I'm, I'm going to stick with this.
00:23:21Um, I think I've just done. I was tired. I was tired of, of, of, of the almost weekly, you know, hair dye appointment with myself that I had to do. Uh, it was something that I had to plan. It was an expense and it was just more of a hassle.
00:23:44Right. Then, then, then the, I guess the personal benefit I felt from getting it done. Right. Right. It was, it wasn't doing it for me anymore. And I just said enough.
00:23:56I don't have the patience to sit at a hairdresser every two weeks to get the roots done. Yes.
00:24:02I dyed it, uh, at least 20 years. It was just that I'm tired. I'm tired of coloring it. I'm letting it go.
00:24:11I really started to have a lot when I was in my early forties and that's when I started to, uh, color it.
00:24:19I think that it was in the forties, but in my forties that I started dying my hair too. I didn't have as much gray hairs, but I started noticing it.
00:24:28And, you know, of course my hairdresser noticed it and said, oh, maybe you should consider starting to dye your hair.
00:24:34It got to be where my gray was so white that I was having to go in every three weeks. So by this time I'm letting her color it and highlight it so it'll look natural and paying a lot of money.
00:24:48I was more of a rebel. I would hold out until I had two inches outgrowth. I, I just, I didn't like sitting in the chair as, um, I continued on, um, the gray. I have extremely coarse curly hair. The gray just wouldn't pick up the color.
00:25:06I never blamed my hairdresser for it. My hair is just hard to color and I'd come home and I'd still see a couple of glints in the mirror and be, you know, like it's not even dying anymore.
00:25:16I just didn't like going to salons very often because of that, you know, I said, you know, this is it. I'm not going to do this anymore. So I stopped.
00:25:25I'm tired of doing this. It's goopy. It's nasty. It's messy.
00:25:29I was just tired of seeing my roots, um, and seeing at least four different colors. And I was just tired of getting a massive headache, nauseous when I would dye my hair.
00:25:44And I just said, you know, that's it.
00:25:46I started to dye it when I was like age 40. Well, 42, I started coloring it. I just kept coloring it every eight weeks and every six weeks. Then it was every four weeks.
00:25:56And it got to the point when I turned 55, I said, you know what? I just can't do this anymore. I'm just tired of it.
00:26:03Every four weeks you live around the bottle or the hair dye. You can't go to a wedding. You can't go swimming. You can't do anything.
00:26:10You can't even go to the gym because your roots are going to shine. I'm like, who cares? Hair color shouldn't have defined a woman.
00:26:14Melissa Malbranch isn't bashful about her hair. Silver streaks started at 17 and two years ago. At 43, she decided to go au naturel.
00:26:23It became more of a chore, something that I sort of dreaded having to do. And I said, enough.
00:26:30So aside from the time, the money, the monotony of having to get your roots done every two to three to four weeks depending,
00:26:41there is a hidden danger that some of you are very well aware of and in fact had to stop dyeing your hair because of this.
00:26:54Recently, someone wrote in saying they were concerned about toxic chemicals in hair dyes and specifically a chemical called paraphenylenediamine or PPD.
00:27:03PPD is used in permanent hair dyes and other dark colored cosmetics. It is a colorless chemical that becomes pigmented when mixed with an oxidizing agent, usually hydrogen peroxide.
00:27:12Now, the Environmental Working Group classifies PPD as an above moderate health hazard mostly for the allergic reactions it can induce.
00:27:20Occasionally, PPD causes hives and much more rarely serious anaphylaxis.
00:27:24Whether you like your hair down or all done up, most of us hope to leave the salon feeling pretty.
00:27:31I just wanted a cute little stylish haircut.
00:27:33That was the plan for Patrice Washington who wanted to look nice for her daughter's birthday.
00:27:37I wanted to do the jet black because my hair is naturally like kind of a light brown.
00:27:42So I just wanted to get the same haircut I've been getting for years.
00:27:46On the left, the look she was going for. On the right, the one she got.
00:27:50I have like a monster. This is, I can't recognize my face. It just looks, kids are like looking at me crazy.
00:27:56I just look, this is ridiculous. My face is swollen. I have like, my scalp is all blistered. My hair is falling out.
00:28:03I just feel like the elephant man or something.
00:28:07Doctors say she had a severe allergic reaction to a common chemical found in hair dye.
00:28:11PPD.
00:28:12Paraphenyl diamine is a coloring agent that we can trace back to the industrial age when we were using that to color clothing and even furs.
00:28:24In the last 15 years, Dr. Michael Gross says he has seen between 50 and 60 people with the allergy to PPD.
00:28:30I have all kinds of chemicals in my hair. I'm not sure why this dye this time.
00:28:34A person may have had exposure to it once, had no problem, went back and had it again and had a rip roaring reaction.
00:28:43The effects range from an itch to trouble breathing and possibly death.
00:28:46Like many of us, Patrice didn't worry about that when she sat down in the chair, didn't ask to see the fine print.
00:28:52I had two very severe reactions to hair dye and it ended up that I ended up in the ER twice.
00:29:04Some women are sensitive to hair dye but they don't know.
00:29:10So then they all of a sudden have like an autoimmune disease.
00:29:13Yeah.
00:29:14Like rheumatoid or lupus.
00:29:16And could it be traced back to the fact that they've been dyeing their hair and they're chemical sensitive?
00:29:21I think it's completely possible because there's a lot of autoimmune diseases that have suddenly arrived in the world.
00:29:27But now all of a sudden they are.
00:29:29So is it our chemicals? Is it chemicals we put on our body? Is it chemicals that we're eating?
00:29:33You know, as a physician, those are all things that come to my mind.
00:29:37The thought of putting hair dye on my hair, knowing that it would absorb through my scalp and, you know, that was not something I was interested in.
00:29:45I wanted to stay away from chemicals basically.
00:29:48We were a little concerned because we both had such dark hair and hearing that dark hair colors were kind of carcinogenic or dangerous for us.
00:29:57We were kind of worried about them sitting on our heads for such long periods of time.
00:30:01Someone I know personally actually got like a cyst in their scalp from dyeing their hair all the time.
00:30:08So it can be very dangerous because your skull is right there.
00:30:12So you could get a bone infection.
00:30:15You could get, you know, chronic infections that make your hair fall out.
00:30:19I started having damage to my scalp and peeling and burning and losing hair in certain areas.
00:30:28And I decided that I was done with it.
00:30:31PPD is one of around 5,000 chemicals found in hair dye products today.
00:30:36And some of these chemicals are reported to be carcinogenic according to the National Cancer Institute.
00:30:42So there are definitely other chemicals to watch out for.
00:30:45There are a few ways women can embrace their naturally changing shade.
00:30:50You can quit dyeing your hair cold turkey.
00:30:53Start adding highlights or lowlights for a smoother tone transition.
00:30:58Begin growing out your color from underneath.
00:31:01If a client comes to me and they're just starting to think about it,
00:31:05I'm going to maybe either start putting some lowlights or some highlights to start diffusing the line
00:31:11and start to let the gray grow.
00:31:14I'll just do that on the outer part of the hair while I let the inside grow.
00:31:20So that's one way of doing it.
00:31:23So I was actually thinking about going gray or going natural.
00:31:28I currently color my hair at home with an all-natural dye from Whole Foods.
00:31:35And at this point, I'm just not sure if that's the best look for me.
00:31:39Well, Philomena, it is time to commit.
00:31:42Eva Scrivo and her team are working hard to help.
00:31:46I now have Philomena in my chair and she wants to grow out her natural gray hair.
00:31:52We're going to add some cool toned highlights throughout the hair.
00:31:56Her natural emerging gray we want to integrate into the rest of her hair.
00:32:00And also teach Philomena how to care for her hair.
00:32:03When the hair starts to lose pigment, it can be very coarse.
00:32:07So home care, a beautiful haircut, and a new makeup palette will really do wonders.
00:32:13Next, we have Philomena. She was considering embracing her gray, but she was a little bit trepidatious about it.
00:32:18This is how she looked before.
00:32:20All right, well, Philomena, come on down.
00:32:26Oh, that looks so nice. I love it.
00:32:29Here, stand here so we can see you before and after.
00:32:32That looks so...
00:32:34Well, you're a beautiful woman.
00:32:35Oh, thank you.
00:32:36She is.
00:32:37That looks so nice.
00:32:39And how do you feel about this kind of transitional look?
00:32:42Liberated.
00:32:43You do?
00:32:44Yeah, yeah, it feels good.
00:32:45It feels like I don't have to fuss or worry about how it looks all the time.
00:32:49And so is she going to, is her natural gray going to grow in now?
00:32:52Yes.
00:32:53So does she have to do this a lot more?
00:32:54No, you know, it's not about doing nothing.
00:32:56It's about doing something different when you have gray hair.
00:32:58Right.
00:32:59So every few months, we'll add a few more gray highlights, start the integration process
00:33:03so that she doesn't have to do her roots every four weeks.
00:33:05Right.
00:33:06We kept her hair long because that's more who she is and it has lots of layers and shape.
00:33:11But I must warn you, if you're going to go gray, make sure you take really good care
00:33:15of your hair and you learn how to do a blowout because the smoother, the better.
00:33:19Because your hair is much coarser.
00:33:21So we talked about maybe highlighting it or trying to grow it out gradually.
00:33:27She said, you're just going to have to cut it off.
00:33:30And I thought, fine, I'll cut it off.
00:33:32I've never had short hair before.
00:33:34And it took four months to grow out.
00:33:37And my agent said, we love your hair.
00:33:40Keep it short.
00:33:42And that's how I arrived at Silver Hair.
00:33:45Listen, I wanted to go cold turkey, which I did go cold turkey for the first part of the book.
00:33:50And then halfway through, I wanted to then understand what it's like to, you know, bring...
00:33:55The underneath stayed really rusty.
00:33:58So I decided to bleach that out and then tone it to match the top.
00:34:02I just started getting curious.
00:34:05I wonder what my hair looks like.
00:34:07I wonder what my real hair looks like.
00:34:10And what would it be like if I didn't have to have that anxiety?
00:34:14Oh, God, my roots are showing.
00:34:16Or it's orange.
00:34:17I have to dye my hair.
00:34:19What would it be like if I just let my hair grow?
00:34:23I just let the gray come in and then kept cutting it down until the gray took over.
00:34:28So I just let it go.
00:34:30Okay.
00:34:31So it grew in.
00:34:32And then I had like, you know, part gray and then part dark.
00:34:34Yes.
00:34:35And I just cut it really short.
00:34:36Oh, you did the pixie.
00:34:38I just did the pixie.
00:34:39Let it go.
00:34:40Cut it short.
00:34:41And let it grow in a little bit.
00:34:42Okay.
00:34:43And you know, I've never looked back.
00:34:44Right.
00:34:45I got tired of fooling with that too.
00:34:46So I just did a buzz cut and let it grow out.
00:34:48Did you really?
00:34:49Yeah, yeah.
00:34:50I mean, I have to have my hair long for the show, but I'd like for it to be short.
00:34:53You actually did a buzz cut?
00:34:54Oh, hell yeah.
00:34:55Actually, at that time when I was letting this stuff come in, my hair was already a short pixie cut.
00:35:02It only took me about two months for my transition because once the short little one and a half inch hair then grew out and I had a little bit, we just cut it off.
00:35:14So I had this very, very tight, short, maybe inch of gray.
00:35:19So the grow out process was awful.
00:35:21At first I thought it was kind of fun because I started wearing so many different hats and so many different styles.
00:35:26But then the gray started growing longer than the hats.
00:35:29So I switched to a wig because in my profession I just couldn't really have a skunk stripe going down my head.
00:35:36So I switched to a wig and I really had fun with that because I'd never been a redhead.
00:35:40I'd always been a brunette and the wig was sort of reddish and I really liked it.
00:35:45But then everybody let me know that it just did not look good.
00:35:48And so by the end I was really, because it took me two years, and I'm sick of it.
00:35:52I'm totally done with it as of today.
00:35:54I'm not doing that anymore.
00:35:56I'm winning it!
00:36:01Don't be telling me what beauty looks like.
00:36:03Don't be telling me what pretty looks like.
00:36:05And by the end of it I was really sick of it and just happy to whip it off my head and be done.
00:36:10Transition was a challenge at times because initially you feel like people are looking at you.
00:36:18You know, what is she doing to her hair?
00:36:20Why isn't she coloring her roots?
00:36:22And it takes a while for it to look purposeful.
00:36:26And I think that was probably the biggest challenge for me.
00:36:30I love your hair.
00:36:37I love it too.
00:36:38So what happened that you decided I'm going to...
00:36:39I woke up one day, I turned 75 on April Fool's Day, as you know.
00:36:42And I suddenly thought, you know, enough is enough.
00:36:45I mean, there's something very funny that...
00:36:47I mean, I'm sure there's a million people out there that think I'm crazy.
00:36:50I felt some kind of change.
00:36:53I really did.
00:36:54It was subtle.
00:36:55But I think it's all about building up to who are you.
00:36:58My God.
00:36:59I mean, about time.
00:37:00And I thought, screw it.
00:37:01I'm just going to see what it looks like.
00:37:03And it looked awful for a while, but now I really love it.
00:37:08As if the double standard, the ageism, the chemicals is not enough.
00:37:14A woman has to contend with, quite surprisingly, the negative feedback that she gets from society.
00:37:26And I'm talking about her close friends, her family members, and worst of all, complete strangers.
00:37:35I recently got this comment on my blog.
00:37:38You look like you are 70 with your gray hairs.
00:37:42You really should consider dying them for TV so you don't look like such an old hag.
00:37:48Just a suggestion.
00:37:50I am 31 years old, and I've got a fair amount of gray hair, as you can see.
00:37:55Now, normally, I just share recipes.
00:37:57But today, I wanted to take a minute to talk about this comment and address it publicly,
00:38:02because this is something I feel strongly about.
00:38:05My husband actually feels very strongly that I shouldn't dye my hair.
00:38:09And his reasoning is that he wants us to grow old together.
00:38:13How cute is that?
00:38:15If you read my About Me page, you'll find that I have a rare autoimmune disease
00:38:19that means that I will most likely never live to be 70 years old.
00:38:25Every sign of aging that I have is a sign that I'm still alive.
00:38:33A lot of people don't get the privilege to ever live to be old.
00:38:39And I probably won't either.
00:38:42Which means that I don't have time to waste criticizing myself,
00:38:47and I don't have time to waste criticizing other people.
00:38:51I care a lot more about what my life is like right now.
00:38:56Was this up-and-coming salon stylist, Wonder Woman,
00:39:03thought it upon herself to come running after me
00:39:07to tell me that she could salvage me and save me from myself.
00:39:12And how she could color my hair and make me less haggard and less old.
00:39:20and less wrinkly.
00:39:23And I could be beautiful.
00:39:26Yeah.
00:39:28That's what I thought.
00:39:30It went over really big.
00:39:32For me, personally,
00:39:35I feel if I was to dye my hair,
00:39:38I would have wrinkly face with dyed hair.
00:39:42Now, how is that going to make me look younger?
00:39:44I sat there and thought, you know what, Audrey?
00:39:46You're a beautiful person.
00:39:48And if she'd known all the things that I had survived,
00:39:51that she wouldn't be so heartless and cruel.
00:39:55And I said, the heck with the little twerk.
00:39:59But it's sad that in today's society,
00:40:03we have to be approached and actually attacked in such a manner.
00:40:09I had a 10 year relationship that was on again and off again.
00:40:14And mostly it was off.
00:40:16But just prior to my going gray,
00:40:20we had decided to really go for it and make more of a relationship.
00:40:26And he told me pretty much every single day that I needed to dye my hair.
00:40:34Every day.
00:40:35He was very, very negative.
00:40:39And cruelly so, I thought.
00:40:43Not kind about it.
00:40:46I don't think a woman needs to hear that she needs to change herself every day in order to be worthy of love.
00:40:53I have this friend from college that I've kept in contact with for years.
00:40:59And over the years, every few times, you know, you know, if you, if you dyed your hair,
00:41:04you know, you look exactly the way you looked when you were in college.
00:41:07One day, I told him, I said, you know, I am not trying to look like I looked in my college days.
00:41:16I'm trying to look great in the age and the years it is at this time.
00:41:21And I said, I can't go back. I don't want to go back.
00:41:24And I'm just embracing myself at this time with my gray hair.
00:41:29And I love it.
00:41:30From a previous coworker, female my age, and she made the comment on Facebook.
00:41:35And she just stated, I hate that gray hair.
00:41:38Yeah, someone I knew not, not really well, but she just didn't like it at all.
00:41:43I forget her words, but it was something like, oh, oh no.
00:41:49A few years ago, I divorced.
00:41:52And a couple of years after my divorce, I began dating.
00:41:56And one of the gentlemen that, you know, I had gone out with two or three times, he says,
00:42:04Hey, you have a good look about yourself, but I think you ought to color your hair.
00:42:11It makes you look old the way you wear it, the way the color of it makes you look old.
00:42:18You know, you get a lot of flack.
00:42:20I cannot tell you how many people, Lauren, you know, you're so pretty, you look so gray.
00:42:25You should just cover your gray because it'll make you look younger.
00:42:28I was humiliated at a hair shop, a hair salon.
00:42:31The hairdresser parted my hair.
00:42:33And so he called everyone over and said, look at this hair.
00:42:36He said that he thought I was 50%.
00:42:38And it might have been gray and white.
00:42:40He said, look at this.
00:42:41And I was, you know, 16.
00:42:42I was very, um, you want to, you want to not be, stand out in a negative way.
00:42:49And at that time, I didn't have this understanding that I do now about this freedom.
00:42:53I never dyed my hair.
00:42:55Every single day, I would receive negative comments.
00:42:58You would be so much better.
00:42:59You'd be so much younger.
00:43:00You'd be so much this.
00:43:01And I just, I became so rebellious about it.
00:43:04It was almost just no way, no way would I do it.
00:43:08If you see a woman on the street who is growing her hair out and she has four inches of gray on the top of her head and then whatever color down below, you should know that that woman is really fucking strong because it takes a strong woman to do that.
00:43:26That is a lot of pain.
00:43:29Every time she looks in the mirror, she's seeing half of one thing, half of another.
00:43:33She doesn't really feel like she's got much of anything going on.
00:43:36However many inches there are, that's how many months she's been going through that transition and having people in her life say negative things to her.
00:43:46Um, boy, the grow out is tough.
00:43:49And I understand that a lot of women cave during the grow out.
00:43:54I caved.
00:43:55Yes, I caved.
00:43:56Um, my mother does not like it.
00:43:59My son does not like it.
00:44:01My brother does not like it.
00:44:03So it was a lot of negativity and then, you know, just, I caved to pressure.
00:44:10I did have one lady in the book who did go back and she, that was because she was shamed by her regular hairdresser.
00:44:16And he told her that she looked like a battleship gray.
00:44:20And other than that, she really liked it, but it was the terminology used around the color she had.
00:44:26And she said she immediately dyed it back.
00:44:29Many times I changed my mind because of the people that were around me and were asking me to color my hair because I look younger and I'll feel better.
00:44:43I remember talking to a male friend and he mentioned that gray hair would make, you know, a person look dirty.
00:44:52I don't want people to think that I'm dirty so I guess I'm going to have to dye my hair again.
00:44:56I was in an interview for an adjunct professor position.
00:44:59The man opposite me said, oh, you must be in your mid thirties.
00:45:03And I said, no, I'm 26.
00:45:05And he said, looking sort of horrified, oh, you're 26, but I can see your roots.
00:45:11So I assumed you were in your thirties.
00:45:13Okay.
00:45:14This did not sit well with me.
00:45:15So I immediately started dying my hair and I'd been dying my hair from 26 to 50.
00:45:21I was with my cousin and we were out and someone asked me, was I her mother?
00:45:26And I caved that day.
00:45:28Gray hair in my culture symbolizes old age.
00:45:33Your youth is gone.
00:45:37Who's going to marry you?
00:45:39Especially in my culture, you have to look young.
00:45:42You have to look beautiful.
00:45:43You have to have jet black hair for your husband to be in the future.
00:45:50When I moved into Laguna Beach, I met a friend and she told me that no one would really want
00:45:57to date me if I had silver hair and unless they were kind of a granola person
00:46:03and that would be fine if that's what I was okay with.
00:46:07It brings me back to my family who think I was going to just look old
00:46:11and no one was going to want to date me because I had gray hair.
00:46:15And I did worry about that.
00:46:18You know, I have gotten divorced and not because of gray, but when I was with him
00:46:26and prior to stopping the dye, whenever it would grow in, he would say things.
00:46:31He would call me stripe because I would have like a stripe of gray.
00:46:35So that always stuck with me like, hmm.
00:46:39But then becoming single and worrying what guys were going to think about the gray hair.
00:46:44You know, you do kind of question it.
00:46:45You do wonder.
00:46:46But then again, if someone is not going to accept me for who I am and what color my hair
00:46:53is regardless if it's gray or brown or pink or purple, then he's probably not the one for me anyway.
00:47:02So many women think that if they embrace their gorgeous grays, if they allow their natural
00:47:10silver, white, gray hair to come through that they are going to have a difficult time dating.
00:47:16And while that may sound reasonable, the reality is, and this is based on a comprehensive social experiment,
00:47:26which you're about to see, the reality is that it is quite the opposite.
00:47:31Well, if you color your hair, you know how costly it can be, especially if you add it up over time.
00:47:38It's like drinking five cappuccinos a day, really.
00:47:41Our guest, Ann Kramer, did just that.
00:47:44And can you guess the amount she spent?
00:47:46A staggering $65,000.
00:47:49It's enough to make your hair turn gray, even if it isn't gray.
00:47:54And that's just what she did.
00:47:56It's all in her new book, Going Gray.
00:47:58When you started to do the research for the book, it was really more like a social experiment.
00:48:04It was.
00:48:05I mean, I decided I did a lot of different things.
00:48:07I did surveys where I sort of pulled people nationwide.
00:48:10I went out and I talked to women in malls across the country.
00:48:13And trust me, you can talk to them about anything in their lives once you say,
00:48:16Can we talk about your hair for a few minutes?
00:48:19And then I interviewed people across the world.
00:48:22Hairdressers?
00:48:23Hairdressers across the country.
00:48:24I went on Match.com.
00:48:26I went in to meet with corporate recruiters, image consultants.
00:48:29Did you go both as dyed hair and as gray hair on Match?
00:48:32So you had some sort of way to see?
00:48:35That's exactly what I did.
00:48:36Okay, you did.
00:48:37And where did you get the most response?
00:48:39My gray hair.
00:48:40You did?
00:48:41Counter-intuitively.
00:48:42I went on in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
00:48:44And in each of those markets, three times as many men were interested in going out with
00:48:49me with my hair gray as they were with my hair brown.
00:48:51Really?
00:48:52Three times?
00:48:53Three times.
00:48:54It was fabulous.
00:48:55Most men like it.
00:48:57It shows them that you have a confidence, that you have, you want to be who you are.
00:49:06That's, I think, the message that men pick up.
00:49:08Dating, you know, just talking to people in general.
00:49:11I've just never had any problems.
00:49:13I think I do better now than I have years ago.
00:49:18So, and I think that's a good thing.
00:49:20I didn't have any problems dating.
00:49:23And I think the reason is because I owned it.
00:49:28I wore it proudly.
00:49:32And I was authentic.
00:49:34And I never had a problem dating.
00:49:36Mm-mm, girl.
00:49:37Mm-mm.
00:49:38Not one bit.
00:49:39I had plenty of boyfriends.
00:49:41Dated a lot of men.
00:49:42And nothing ever came of my hair color.
00:49:46I think they liked it.
00:49:47I think they really liked it.
00:49:49And then I met my second husband, and he has a full head of white hair now.
00:49:55Actually, I have a lot of men stop me and tell me how great my hair looks or how much, you know, they like my hair.
00:50:04So many women become very aware that once they have silver, gray, or white hair, that the colors that they used to wear on clothing, jewelry, their makeup actually has to change.
00:50:18So I had the good fortune of meeting Jill Kirsch.
00:50:21She is a color consultant, and she has been featured everywhere.
00:50:26She was named the best color consultant by LA Magazine's Best of LA issue.
00:50:32She was featured in InStyle Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, countless TV programs, NBC, ABC, and I am thrilled that she agreed to be a part of this documentary.
00:50:46So that you ladies will know now what colors you should be wearing with your new silver, gray, white hair.
00:50:54I put together a system for fashion and for beauty that's entirely based on someone's present hair color.
00:51:03Because what I've learned over the years is that your hair frames your face.
00:51:07It frames your eyes and your smile, and you really need to work it to pull everything together.
00:51:12Everyone can wear most every color.
00:51:14It just depends on the shade of that color.
00:51:17And for the gray, for the salt and pepper, for silver, it's very different than for basically any other hair color.
00:51:25You want to see all your colors?
00:51:26I would love to see all my colors.
00:51:27Do you all want to see all our colors?
00:51:28Yes.
00:51:29Let's see it.
00:51:30These are your colors.
00:51:31So I'm going to show, I'm going to take you through this.
00:51:33Every single shade in here is great with salt and pepper hair, silver hair, okay?
00:51:42Everything in here works really well.
00:51:45Grays are fabulous.
00:51:46Grays, black.
00:51:47Totally.
00:51:48Good.
00:51:49All of these clear, yellow, but a really clear, true yellow, orange.
00:51:54These are very star clear colors.
00:51:56The red is a true red.
00:51:57It's not too orangey.
00:51:58It's not too blue.
00:51:59And pink.
00:52:00Now, how am I going to remember all of these colors that I can wear?
00:52:03Oh, you don't remember?
00:52:04You just remember?
00:52:05Oh, yeah.
00:52:06I don't have a photograph of you.
00:52:07Okay, so this is what I've done to make it so simple.
00:52:09I put together this swatch book.
00:52:12This is like the keys to the kingdom.
00:52:14This is everything.
00:52:15My clients don't go shopping without this.
00:52:16It's perfect size.
00:52:17Look at this.
00:52:18It's like a wallet size.
00:52:19It takes every single shade of these colors and you take it with you to go shopping.
00:52:24And you go up to the item in the store and you go, okay, is this this color?
00:52:29See, she would never buy this color ever anymore, right?
00:52:32Because it's not in her swatch book, okay?
00:52:35Yeah.
00:52:36So the other thing that's really cool about the swatch book is that not only are all of these your colors,
00:52:40but you can mix and match and layer and this and it's awesome.
00:52:43And it works all the time.
00:52:45And this goes from...
00:52:46This is makeup that goes with it as well?
00:52:48It is.
00:52:49This is going to tell me what colors I can wear now.
00:52:51Yes.
00:52:52I'll give you every shade.
00:52:53I knew they had to be different because, yeah.
00:52:55Okay.
00:52:56Very different.
00:52:57Enough said.
00:52:58Yeah.
00:52:59So here's something I want to share with everyone.
00:53:02Okay.
00:53:03For your base, for your foundation, it's all about the skin tone.
00:53:06You want to get something fabulous that blends into your jawline, your favorite manufacturer,
00:53:10whatever.
00:53:11Okay.
00:53:12But for the eyes, cheeks and lips, it is all about your hair color.
00:53:16And so what I did was I designed these makeup kits for the eyes, cheeks and lips.
00:53:23Every shade of every color is going to work for you.
00:53:26Even if I hold it up to your face, it's fabulous.
00:53:28Wow.
00:53:29And they all blend with each other.
00:53:33It's fabulous.
00:53:34It's great.
00:53:35It's really great.
00:53:36There's a lip gloss.
00:53:37Oh my gosh.
00:53:38There are three different shades of lipstick because it's not like...
00:53:40It's the same thing with the colors.
00:53:41It's not like you get one blue and one green.
00:53:44There's a bunch of shades, but shades that all complement your hair color.
00:53:48That's beautiful.
00:53:49Well, the makeup kit is all derived from the swatches.
00:53:54So the scene comes from the swatches to the makeup, to your hair.
00:54:00You see?
00:54:01That's a no-brainer.
00:54:02So everything all works together and what you have worked so hard to get to, you know,
00:54:07with transitioning and now you have this fabulous head of hair.
00:54:11How do you work it?
00:54:12What do you do to make it, like, soar?
00:54:14Yeah.
00:54:15You know, make it amazing.
00:54:16And that's what I've done.
00:54:17Wow.
00:54:18That's what I've done.
00:54:19You've saved us so much time and money going to the stores, trying out different colors,
00:54:24seeing if they'll work now.
00:54:25This is all in one.
00:54:26Yeah.
00:54:27It's a godsend.
00:54:28Yeah, it's great.
00:54:29I love these lipsticks.
00:54:30It's all, you know, mineral-based, paraben-free lips.
00:54:33It's a really clean product.
00:54:34Very few women have the beautiful gray hair that you have.
00:54:38I mean, you know, my hair isn't naturally this color.
00:54:41And I choose to dye it.
00:54:43I've had a lot of women say, oh, well, if my hair looks as good as yours, then I would
00:54:48do it.
00:54:49I said, but how would you know if you don't grow it out?
00:54:53You're not going to know.
00:54:54And anyway, all different shades of gray, it's beautiful.
00:54:59So why not just let it go?
00:55:02It's like, oh, I love your silver hair, but that's not good for me.
00:55:05Mine would never do that.
00:55:07You're only seeing a tiny bit.
00:55:08But of course it's not going to look good.
00:55:10You know, you've got to give it some time to splay open so we can really see in its entirety.
00:55:15Everybody that now work or church or something, they say to me, your hair is beautiful.
00:55:22If I could go that color, I would.
00:55:24Like, oh, my God, it's so great you're doing this.
00:55:27I wish I had the guts to do this.
00:55:29If I had a nickel for every time I heard that from somebody.
00:55:31I know.
00:55:32A lot of women still come up to me and they're like, oh, I love your hair.
00:55:34It's so beautiful.
00:55:35But, you know, I can't do that.
00:55:37It won't look as good on me.
00:55:38I would like to see my hair grown.
00:55:41And I wanted at first just to see it so I could look at it in front of me.
00:55:46And when it got this long, then people said, I think I really like that.
00:55:50So I continued to let it grow.
00:55:52And I really enjoyed watching the multiple colors come through.
00:55:56So the race has been, how long can I get it?
00:56:00And I can tell you that I have not had this long hair since 1974.
00:56:05But I think it's also demonstrating that gray is actually color in and of itself.
00:56:09It's not the absence of anything.
00:56:11It's just a different color.
00:56:12It's just a different color.
00:56:13So is there a right way to go gray then?
00:56:15More and more women are saying goodbye to dye and hello to their natural silver hair color.
00:56:21Celebrities like Jamie Lee Curtis and Helen Mirren were some of the first to go full silver.
00:56:26But young girls like Pink and Lady Gaga have followed suit.
00:56:33The trend, I find it fascinating.
00:56:36I think the young Osborne girl was one of the ones I remember was wearing it very well.
00:56:44She also had in colors of plum and the way she designed her hair.
00:56:48It was always very attractive.
00:56:50Lady Gaga, I think she's done a great way of showing and sharing with people
00:56:55how that hair will look.
00:56:57I find it quite flattering that they want to look like us.
00:57:00Those of us who are naturally gray.
00:57:02But on the other hand, very damaging to their hair.
00:57:05And it's a lot of upkeep and expense.
00:57:07All right, Susie, we're ready for you.
00:57:10Susie Katz can't wait to go gray.
00:57:12In fact, she's dying to.
00:57:14Okay, here we go.
00:57:15There's no turning back now.
00:57:16The 29-year-old is one of a growing number of young women and men who are asking professionals like Marie Robinson to color their locks various shapes of gray.
00:57:26How often are you doing this in your salon?
00:57:28I would say that we're averaging probably three to four clients a week, which I think is a lot for something such an unusual and unique look.
00:57:3724-year-old Jean Salvador has been gray for the past four months.
00:57:41I come back to do this about a month.
00:57:44Colorist Lucille Javier must bleach the hair to a pale yellow, then apply the gray tint.
00:57:50The transformation process is about an eight to nine hour job.
00:57:55The average cost is about $700, but that can vary depending on your hair and the salon.
00:58:01After an entire day in the chair, Susie loves her new look.
00:58:05I feel like a super chic older lady.
00:58:09I think what it actually says is that they have seen enough of us women with natural silver hair that look good and healthy and happy and confident that they think, oh, wow, I want to try that.
00:58:23Some of them look good if they want to spend the money, but I think they should wait till they earn it.
00:58:29Well, you know, women and men who are naturally going gray, they're embracing it more because of this trend.
00:58:34One of the colorists that I spoke to, Marie Robinson, she said that older people are noticing this trend in younger women and really embracing it because it can be quite beautiful.
00:58:43Because it's a lighter shade, they say that gray is the new blonde.
00:58:46It sort of has a brightening, softening effect on a lot of people.
00:58:49A lot of people think that I'm having it done, and they are very, very surprised when I tell them that it's my hair.
00:58:56And they're like, no, it's not. Yes, it's my hair.
00:59:00And at that point, I think I feel a little bit of pride that I can have someone think that it's, you know, professionally done when it's just me.
00:59:11She was complimenting me on my hair and thought I had it done.
00:59:15I get stopped out on the streets, department stores, you know, coffee houses.
00:59:20They're always asking me, what color, what color did you put in your hair?
00:59:24Oh, that's such a great cut.
00:59:26And I'm like, okay, do you really want to know the truth?
00:59:28The truth is there's no color.
00:59:30It's my natural.
00:59:32My hair was up and just the beginning was white.
00:59:35And people would ask me, how did you get that?
00:59:37How did you do that?
00:59:38Who's your hairdresser?
00:59:39How do I get that look?
00:59:40And I said, well, nature, just let it grow.
00:59:43I was recently in my cousin's wedding and I got this, like, really wild hairstyle.
00:59:47And I got so many compliments because they're like, is that real?
00:59:50Did you do that just for the wedding?
00:59:53You know, because the accents to the dresses were all silver.
00:59:55Right, right.
00:59:56They're like, did you get that done professionally?
00:59:58I'm like, well, the hairstyle, yes, but the hair is all natural.
01:00:02I realized this is who I am.
01:00:07I wish I had done it back in my 30s when I first noticed it, quite honestly.
01:00:15The only regret is I didn't do it sooner.
01:00:18I wish that I had.
01:00:19But I feel great now and it's something that I wish I had done sooner.
01:00:27I want to make this for my granddaughters.
01:00:30I have a three year old and I have a six year old or five year old.
01:00:33And I'm also for my grandsons because they're ten and six.
01:00:37And I don't want them to think a woman is defined by the color of her hair.
01:00:40She's not beautiful because she's older and she has gray hair.
01:00:43I want them to realize women are beautiful no matter what age they are.
01:00:46And I want my granddaughters to realize when they see that first strand of silver hair,
01:00:50it's not the end.
01:00:51It's only the beginning of such a beautiful journey.
01:00:53It's what you make of it.
01:00:54And you can't let the outside world or society or even Hollywood determine
01:00:58whether you're good enough because you have gray hair.
01:01:01Gray hair is a given and I wear this like a badge of honor.
01:01:05I am so blessed to be here and I'm proud and I've earned the right to walk around and be proud that I have my gray hair.
01:01:11A 12, 13 year old girl, she actually came up to me and told me that she liked my hair.
01:01:21So I was like, oh, you know, that's really sweet of you.
01:01:26So I always appreciate when a young person likes my hair because, you know, it's always nice.
01:01:34My 13 year old has gotten her first strand and she's very excited about it.
01:01:39She's looking forward to it.
01:01:42My 16 year old doesn't have any.
01:01:45And my 28 year old, she is getting hers come in and she calls them her little glitter streaks on her hair.
01:01:54Now that I have embraced my natural look, I would love to be able to be part of empowering young women to just accept themselves the way they are.
01:02:05To kind of resist the culture that we must do all these things to create kind of a false sense of who we are.
01:02:19Okay, my lovelies.
01:02:21Now the fun begins.
01:02:24You have gone through the transition and you have weathered the storms, so to speak.
01:02:32And now you are getting more compliments than you have ever received in your entire life about your hair.
01:02:39And it's rather interesting because all of the heartache that we went through to get to the point of being fully transitioned is met with such applause and such adulation and admiration.
01:02:56It's amazing that anyone would have anything negative to say ever about it once you are fully transitioned, as you will see.
01:03:05When you do embrace it, there's something that feels really good about that.
01:03:10You know, there's just, you get, yeah, there's something that just feels good, like you're being real, you're being authentic.
01:03:17This has made me feel very powerful and I can do anything.
01:03:20I really felt powerful because I was making a choice and kind of going against the grain because people don't really like you to go against the grain, right?
01:03:29My hair says I'm powerful, original, and independent.
01:03:33The next day I went to my hairstylist and I told him I want it all chopped off.
01:03:39And when I took my first look in the mirror, for me, it was the most, one of the most freeing experiences to just be me.
01:03:50It was great.
01:03:51Like for me, cutting my hair short makes me feel free.
01:03:55And going gray, especially all of the ones we did, all they say, the key word is freedom.
01:04:02So, they're like, freedom!
01:04:05Don't listen to other people.
01:04:07If it's what you want, just do it.
01:04:09I want to be who I am.
01:04:10I want to be real.
01:04:11I want to be genuine.
01:04:12I want to be authentic.
01:04:14And I want to be free.
01:04:15It just made me feel free and freer for something that I don't have to deal with every few weeks.
01:04:22And I wanted the freedom.
01:04:23And that's what I have now.
01:04:24I feel very free to be myself with my hair as is.
01:04:28I went through my phases of purple hair and blonde.
01:04:31Brunette.
01:04:32Redhead.
01:04:33You name it.
01:04:34But honestly, none of them felt like me the way that this does.
01:04:39So, for me, it's about reinvention.
01:04:43It's about authenticity.
01:04:45This is not about them.
01:04:46This is about me.
01:04:48And I've never been happier.
01:04:50It is an amazing journey in itself.
01:04:53And it's liberating.
01:04:56That's my word for that.
01:04:58It is so liberating not to have any products or chemicals on my head.
01:05:03And I don't know where else they go.
01:05:06I have loved every minute of not dying my hair in the past 14 weeks.
01:05:11I have felt liberated.
01:05:14Okay.
01:05:15I can't even begin to tell you.
01:05:17My mind doesn't even think about, oh, maybe I need to dye my hair or I'm going to this social occasion.
01:05:24How far in will I be in my dye job?
01:05:26Will my roots be showing?
01:05:27I mean, all of that.
01:05:28Which is everything you thought about before.
01:05:29Yeah.
01:05:30Totally.
01:05:31And it's poof gone.
01:05:32Not having to give that a thought is fan-fucking-tastic.
01:05:37I love it.
01:05:38It is awesome.
01:05:40And I mean, that alone gives me life that I'm like, I can make it through this.
01:05:45Right.
01:05:46I've always caved in to the general consensus.
01:05:50What you should do, what you shouldn't do, you know.
01:05:53And I'm feeling a lot freer now.
01:05:57Like today.
01:05:58I'm coming here today and I have to tell you.
01:06:01I would have thought about, when am I going to clean my hair?
01:06:04Is it going to last by the time I get here?
01:06:07Is it going to peek through because my hair goes really fast?
01:06:11So I would have to think about all of that stress, but I didn't have to think about any of that.
01:06:16Which was awesome and I loved it.
01:06:1851-year-old Dana Guerrero wanted to follow the silver movement and came to Massey for help.
01:06:24It'll definitely take a little while for me to get used to it.
01:06:27I'm anticipating that because I think it'll be a little radical today.
01:06:32But I'm open to the experience.
01:06:35After a few hours in the chair, Dana is ready to see her transformation.
01:06:39Dana?
01:06:40Yes?
01:06:41Are you ready?
01:06:42I'm ready.
01:06:43I'm going to turn you around.
01:06:44Okay.
01:06:45Okay.
01:06:46Oh, holy.
01:06:47Oh my gosh.
01:06:48No swear.
01:06:49I know.
01:06:50Oh my goodness.
01:06:51Honestly, I don't even know who this is.
01:07:02I don't know what to think.
01:07:03I mean, it's beautiful.
01:07:04I love it.
01:07:06It's such a change that I can't speak now.
01:07:10I can't speak now.
01:07:11I mean, I never am at a loss for words.
01:07:13Would you do it again if you had to?
01:07:15Oh, totally.
01:07:16There's something real deep going on here.
01:07:19Yeah.
01:07:20It's like a, I don't know.
01:07:25I don't know.
01:07:49Gray is the new blonde means to me joy, effervescence, power, life, energy, and an upward trajectory
01:08:04until we dive off into infinity.
01:08:07I have an inner confidence right now, and I'm not even fully gray yet.
01:08:12I mean, because this takes strength.
01:08:14To walk through life like this right now, you need to be a badass.
01:08:19And that's how I feel.
01:08:21It is a movement.
01:08:22It's a declaration of a stage, not an age.
01:08:27It moves me to be a part of this beautiful, beautiful time of life where women are just
01:08:35standing up for who they are, and who knew that it would start with our hair.
01:08:39Don't allow anyone to ever make you feel terrible about yourself.
01:08:42Ever, ever, ever.
01:08:43Because you are enough.
01:08:44It's true.
01:08:45You are enough.
01:08:46I love the fact that there's this stuff growing right out of your head that just shouts
01:08:51to the world, I am the only one like this.
01:08:55There is nobody else like me.
01:08:57And I think that's wonderful.
01:08:59I remember the first, I was on the, I was in downtown Houston on steps.
01:09:04And this particular guy said, that's God's glory.
01:09:09And I turned around and looked, I said, sir, it kind of, what?
01:09:13And he said, you ma'am, that beautiful hair of yours, that beautiful gray and silver hair
01:09:18of yours, that's God's glory.
01:09:21And he said, just makes you shine.
01:09:23Gray used to represent giving up or aging, not being interested in anything current.
01:09:30But now it's more of an act of rebellion.
01:09:34What happens to you while you're going through your transition is you discover really who
01:09:41you are and what you want to be.
01:09:45I think that it's about owning our inner power and not letting other people or media tell
01:09:50us who we have to look like or what we have to be like.
01:09:54Now is the perfect time to be who you are.
01:09:57Be gray, just do whatever you want to do.
01:09:59Right, right.
01:10:00Look the way you want to look.
01:10:01The way things are going now where more women are growing their hair out, I think that's
01:10:06quite a statement about our times.
01:10:08I think it's amazing.
01:10:09I had a young man once tell me I look like a superhero to him because of my hair.
01:10:15Every single silver-haired woman is going to have a different color of gray and silver.
01:10:22No two will ever be the same.
01:10:24It is you, your individual you.
01:10:27And the problem with when you color your hair, 50,000 other people are using that product
01:10:32number 118 or whatever the color you choose.
01:10:35Every single one of you have the same hair color.
01:10:38There is no individuality there.
01:10:39And I'm happy where I am now and almost wish it was even greater than it is.
01:10:45Silver, gray is beautiful.
01:10:47And for all of y'all that are thinking, oh, how are people going to view me?
01:10:54What's more important is how do you feel?
01:10:57How do you view yourself?
01:10:59And just if you feel good, then yeah, just you're going to project that and that's how
01:11:06everyone is going to see you and you're going to get positive feedback.
01:11:09It's a whole new me with a whole new empowered outlook.
01:11:13Most of the time I would think of my grandparents when I saw gray hair.
01:11:17But the truth was it was just an ideology of most of us thinking only grandparents have gray hair.
01:11:27Many, many young people have gray hair.
01:11:30Once I got past the, I guess the challenging part where it was probably like halfway grown out, I just embraced it.
01:11:40And that's kind of how I felt about it.
01:11:42I was just, you know, going to embrace it and hold my head high.
01:11:47I think it's amazing.
01:11:49I think it's liberating.
01:11:50I think it's about time there was a focus on the forgotten woman.
01:11:54Because I need to be the real me.
01:11:56And so now I feel very settled in it.
01:11:59I have been silver for a solid six years now and have no plans of even putting a bit of color in it.
01:12:06I mean, you can go out in the sunlight with a mirror and look at your gray hair, your natural gray hair, and see how shiny it is.
01:12:15But if it's either dyed or bleached or whatever, and you compare that, there's not as much shine.
01:12:20A lot of young people are dying their hair to be gray or silver or, you know, some kind of tone of gray.
01:12:27And it's worked out in my benefit because people look at me and they think, oh, she's on trend, right?
01:12:32She's hip.
01:12:33She's fashionable.
01:12:34But really it's, you know, I was born this way.
01:12:38I didn't have to pay any extra money for this.
01:12:42And I dedicate this film to all my gorgeous gray girlfriends around the world.
01:12:47I didn't have to pay any extra money for this in the world.
01:12:55I can help with all my best friends for if you and your mulcies are working with me today.
01:13:00We're going up straight to the top.