This Instagrammer’s Hair Started Going Gray In Her Teens — Here’s Why She’s Finally Embracing It

“[My hairdresser] told me that she wouldn’t let me go gray because I was too young and I needed to wait until I was at least 40.”

On today's episode of BuzzFeed Daily, we broke down the top pop culture headlines AND discussed why so many women are embracing their gray hair. You can listen below or scroll down to read more about the interview!

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. You can also find BuzzFeed Daily wherever else you might listen to your favorite podcasts!

So let's dive right into it! Recently we talked to Kristen, aka sweet.simple.something, about why she decided to go gray despite the stigma surrounding women showing their age. Here's some of what we learned:

BuzzFeed Daily: So first off, do you remember when you noticed your first gray hair?

Instagram: @sweet.simple.something

Kristen: The first time that I found a gray hair, I believe I was 16 years old. It was on my part. I think I might have started getting gray hair before that because I was dyeing my hair just for fun. My mom is a natural brunette, and she started doing her hair blonde to mask her silver strands my entire life, so it's kind of a genetic thing, But definitely a very young age.

BuzzFeed News: So you stopped dyeing your hair in early 2020. What made you decide to start letting your grays grow out? Was there a big "Aha!" moment, or was it just a lot of little things?

Instagram: @sweet.simple.something

Kristen: So probably two years before, I made the decision I wanted to stop dyeing my hair. I was a working mom with two kids under the age of 3, and I was just tired of spending what felt like my only free time in the salon once a month for two hours just to dye my roots brown. 

My hairdresser talked me out of it for two years. She told me that she wouldn't let me go gray because I was too young and I needed to wait until I was at least 40. So I started researching young women with gray hair on the internet because I didn't know any in person. And I found women on Pinterest and on Instagram who looked my age but just had silver hair, and they looked beautiful. And so I started screenshotting those pictures and taking them to my husband and to my friends to try to buy in, like, "Look at this. This person has great hair, and she looks great."

Ultimately, I went to my stylist. She still kind of gave me pushbacks. So in November of 2019, it was the last time that I dyed my hair. I went to her. She kind of refused to help me transition. And so I just never went back to her, and I went to a color correctionist because I thought that I was going to need to transition with help, meaning to highlight my hair, to blend my gray, grow out. And unfortunately, nine hours and $700 later, I ended up with dark brown hair, with orange streaks. It was a very big mistake. I regret it. But I did that in January of 2020, when I tried to chemically transition into gray hair.

BuzzFeed Daily: I feel like the timing couldn't have been better because then it was the pandemic and the shutdown just a few months later. Would you say that changing your hair at this time helped you stick to your decision?

Instagram: @sweet.simple.something

Kristen: Absolutely. I think I would have probably stuck to my decision regardless because I was so fed up. But I feel as though when you transition your hair to gray, it's a pretty emotional process. I can't really explain it, but I didn't have to deal with as many people looking at my hair and whether or not they were actually passing judgment or I was projecting judgment onto them like, Oh, they must be staring at my roots. But I definitely think that 2020 made it a lot easier. And I think that is evident when you go to Instagram and look at what is called the Silver Sisters community. There are a ton of people who started letting their natural hair grow around the start of the pandemic, whether or not they wanted to or they were forced to because salons were closed.

BuzzFeed Daily: Now, you're definitely not the first person in history who has tried to hide their gray hairs. In fact, the Egyptians dyed their hair using henna as far back as 1500 BC. So why do you think humans have been waging a war against gray hair for basically three millennia?

Instagram: @sweet.simple.something

Kristen: I think that we as a society are so obsessed with being youthful for forever and for women specifically, we've kind of been conditioned in a way, whether by media or whatever the case might be. We've been conditioned to think that we are not worthy if we are not young and beautiful. 

There are some ads from some name-brand companies from the '30s, '40s, '50s, where they basically say you're not a beautiful wife if you're not taking care of yourself and dyeing your hair and trying to be beautiful for your husband. So those are some really deep cultural roots that are going to take a really long time, I think, to break.

BuzzFeed Daily: You'd hope that the stigma around women showing their age is waning. And to a degree it is. You see younger people out there with few or no grays dyeing their hair gray on purpose. Have there been other ways that you've seen things changing out there?

@foxhomeent / GIPHY / Via giphy.com

Kristen: You're starting to see more companies and brands embracing silver-haired women and in TV shows where a woman with silver hair isn't necessarily just the grandma, but another person in normal clothes playing a normal role appropriate for their age with silver hair. 

BuzzFeed Daily: What do you think has been the most unexpected thing you've learned throughout this whole process?

Instagram: @sweet.simple.something

Kristen: Honestly, for me — and I think the consensus goes among a lot of the friends that I've made on Instagram — the process of simply stopping the dyeing of your hair has changed so much more than just my hair. My perception of myself entirely somehow seemed to change when I stopped literally covering a part of me, hiding myself out of shame for hair that's growing out of my head. Now I feel more comfortable in my own skin all the way around. I don't look at myself the same. I see myself as a more beautiful person inside and out, and I don't know any better way to describe it than just a liberation of sorts. And that to me has been extremely surprising, just feeling beautiful in my own skin as a person who has always — I was bullied as a child, frizzy hair, buckteeth, lanky — I've always had these self-deprecating thoughts. And somehow over the past year and a half of growing out my hair, I shed a lot of those things, and it's really just been enlightening.

K-pop group BTS are taking their roles as South Korean diplomats seriously.

John Angelillo / POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Just two months after being assigned roles as South Korea's presidential envoys for public diplomacy, the band gave a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

They used the opportunity to urge people to get the COVID-19 vaccine — which all seven members have received — and get involved with addressing climate change.

Band member V said: “I hope we don’t just consider the future as grim darkness. We have people who are concerned for the world and searching for the answers. There are still many pages left in the story about us and we shouldn’t talk like the ending is already written.”

In other news, Daniel Craig recently shared why he doesn’t think James Bond should be played by a woman.

Andrew Kelly / Reuters

Daniel, who’s been playing 007 for the past 15 years, said: "There should simply be better parts for women and actors of color. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”

As always, thanks for listening! And if you ever want to suggest stories or just want to say hi, you can reach us at [e-mail].