Hillary’s Story: A Silver-Haired Model

For years, people told Hillary “you should dye your hair” and “you should cover up your freckles” and “you should hide your wrinkles!”

At age 50, Hillary became a model because she refused to be anything but her natural, silver-haired self.

Watch the video to hear her inspiring story.

Video Transcript:

Hi, I'm Hillary. I am 55.

I think you become more self-confident as you get older. You're more comfortable within your own skin.

When you're young, you're full of all sorts of insecurities. And for me, as I got older, I just grew more into myself and I have embraced my experiences. And I love the way I am with each passing year and not looking back.

I'm a Zumba teacher and there was a casting, and I thought it was just to be a teacher and it turned out it was for modeling.

And then from there I booked that, the contract, and met some agents and photographers, and they're like, "You should be doing this full-time."

And I thought back because, as a teenager, I modeled a little bit, but I was never the right look way back then. It was very all-American, sort of, you had to fit in that box of blonde hair, blue-eyed, which was not my look at all.

And at 50, they said, "Well, you're so different. You're so natural, and we would like your natural silver hair." And it just clicked.

And now, it's nice to see that that change happening in the beauty industry, to start recognizing that there are differences, and to embrace a little bit older, more mature woman, rather than always featuring someone so young.

And at 50, they said, "Well, you're so different. You're so natural, and we would like your natural silver hair." And it just clicked.

I never dyed my hair, and I started turning gray in my 30s.

And I went through a lot of negative comments from strangers who felt the need to tell me that I would be so much better with dyed hair.

Just like they tell me, I'll be so much better if I bleached my freckles and got rid of my wrinkles, and I just tell them, "No, thank you, that's not me."

Forty to 50 was probably the worst. Every single day I would receive negative comments. "You'd be so much better. You'd be so much younger. You'd be so much this." And I just...I became so rebellious about it. It was almost just, no way, no way would I do it.

And I was happy with it. I thought, "Okay, this is the way I'm intended to look, and I don't think it has anything to do with age." So, whether I have gray hair, wrinkles, freckles.

So, whatever society tells me I shouldn't have, has no bearing. None. This is it, I am unique the way I am and prefer to stay that way. But, yes, my silver hair was definitely the catalyst for it.

My advice to someone going gray would just be to stick it out. No one I know, and I'm in contact with so many people, has ever regretted the decision.

It is something, it will... Your skin tone will be enhanced because it's the way nature intended it to be. You will actually gain a lot more confidence because, surprisingly enough, and I will say this, men are extremely attracted to women with gray hair. For some reason, they see it as a sign of confidence, of sort of bold and risky, and that's appealing, and they feel...

I've always had more men stop and say, "You know, I love what you did. I wish my wife or my girlfriend would do that. And congrats to you for being so natural."

So, sometimes the image that women think will keep that vitality, and that energy, and that mojo going is just an image that the advertisers created for us, and it's really not what is the right thing.

Vital and alive comes from within. You can't buy it. It really comes from embracing who you are.

I live a healthy and fit life, and I think that the extra energy that provides just brings out what's naturally in you. It's a choice to be negative or positive.

Growing older is a gift, a gift of being healthy and choosing happiness over sadness. We can create a lot of misery in our own lives. We can choose to embrace all the negativity that's out there, or just look at things in a positive way.

As we get older, we can just experience things in a deeper way and in a more productive way.

Pro-aging for me is the most important movement. I call it now in the industry and in the world. It just means stop putting a negative connotation on aging.

Aging is something positive, not everyone gets to do it. So, stop telling us that aging is something bad, something we should erase, we should always look back.

I have no desire to look like I did at 25. I want to be the best version I can be at every age.