Source: Michael Tullberg / Getty
The second I see a gray hair peek out of my hairline or my crown, I cringe. Damn, am I getting that old?
My instinct is to cover it up with a headband until I can grab a new box of hair color, but with that recent study suggesting that
permanent hair dye increases Black women’s risk for breast cancer, the thought of covering my grays now makes me feel uneasy.
But in the
era of Black don’t crack with women such as
Halle Berry and
Angela Bassett out there looking their best and youngest in their 50s, there’s a serious pressure to keep up. Not age. Be young forever.
Quite honestly, it’s exhausting.
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Then over the weekend, I ran across a video of
Victoria Rowell promoting her BET holiday film,
Christmas Chaos, and I was taken aback, but not in a negative way.
What hit me was seeing Victoria so vibrant
and glowing with an entire head of long gray braids. The actress who played Druscilla on
The Young & The Restless looked fantastic, and not just for 60, but in general. Most importantly, she wasn’t covering up her aging hair, she was embracing it for the world to see.
I am here for it!
I remember when Victoria looked like this:
And this just a decade ago:
But to see her now was inspiring and had definitely made me rethink my own issues with aging. Then it got me angry because if we can lust over
older men for giving us graying Zaddy vibes, why can’t we, in turn, celebrate older women? Not for having abs for a 30-year-old or skin that doesn’t wrinkle, but for women who aren’t fighting the aging process, but are embracing it and embracing it well?
So I am going to do just that by shouting out all the times Victoria Rowell’s gray hair gave us life:
