How Helen Mirren inspired Allison Janney to embrace her natural grey hair
Unable to go to the hairdressers, many of us are currently looking in the mirror in woe as we assess our lockdown locks.
As well as some rather unruly, grown-out styles, many will be seeing more and more grey hair glistening back at us.
While some will be reaching for the box dyes to cover the silver strands, others are embracing their natural roots and jumping on the 'grey hair, don't care' bandwagon.
Case in point: Allison Janney.
The Mom star, 61, has swapped her longer, dyed hair in favour of a cute, grey pixie crop and turns out the colour switch-up was inspired by fellow actor Dame Helen Mirren.
"I just get very brave with my hair," she revealed on People TV's One Last Thing, before going on to explain that her decision came about when her natural hair colour started showing through during the first coronavirus lockdown.
"It started out with just COVID choices, you know. I was in Ohio for five months of the pandemic. My natural colour started growing in, which is grey. And then I thought, you know, I’ve always wanted to cut it off and do a Helen Mirren thing. I just wanted to try."
And with the star's Instagram filled with snapshots of her with her new locks, it seems she's absolutely rocking it.
Read more: Stress really does turn your hair grey
Janney certainly isn’t the first celebrity to free the greys recently. In 2020, Drew Barrymore revealed she was embracing her “natural” greys now she’s a mum.
The 45-year-old joked that her grey strands “double as highlights”.
“Now I’m a mom and in my mid-forties, I have the hair colour I like — drama-free and more natural," she wrote in a personal essay for The Sunday Times’ Style magazine.
“It takes 30 minutes to do my base of greys. I only barely cover them, so that the follicles can still grab the light as it grows out. (Yes, your greys can double as highlights with the right tint!)”
Watch: Eva Longoria shares how she's covering her grey roots during quarantine.
With so many of us in the same boat at the moment and unable to visit the hairdressers, having celebrities share the realities of their lockdown beauty regime - or lack of - feels refreshingly inclusive.
Just recently, Lily Allen revealed she has been rocking the grey roots during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sharing a seemingly make-up free photo of herself with grey roots visible through her usually dark hair, the 35-year-old captioned the post with a grey-haired granny emoji.
Fans were pretty impressed with her natural look.
“Natural hair colour looks amazing on everyone, your hair changes to suit changes to your skin tone as we age,” one fan of Allen’s silvery locks wrote.
Another simply described her grey flecks as “wisdom highlights”, which is a really quite nice way of seeing grey hair.
Read more: The £25 shampoo Sharon Osbourne and Jane Fonda use to maintain their grey hair
Patsy Palmer also recently revealed her red hair is turning grey and the iconic redhead is totally down with it.
The former EastEnders’ star told her Instagram followers she’s fully embracing the ageing process and the grey locks that come with it.
Sharing an image of herself in the car wearing a denim shirt and aviator sunglasses, the 48-year-old actor used the caption to explain that she’d been noticing some changes in her skin and hair now that she’s getting older.
“My hair is going grey,” she wrote. “I love the way it’s going.”
Meanwhile Andie MacDowell, 62, also revealed she’s opting to embrace her natural grey locks.
"I wasn't colouring my hair and you could see my roots, and my daughters kept telling me that I looked badass," she said on The Drew Barrymore Show.
"And that idea that I could look badass appealed to me. So I went for it, and I'm loving it."
Another celebrity to go grey and proud is actress Salma Hayek who took to Instagram to proudly show off her silvery strands.
"#proud of my white hair," she captioned the Instagram photo.
And back in 2018 Chrissy Teigen embraced her newly developed silvery streaks by heading to Twitter to rave about them.
“I have a skunk like streak of grey hair and I’m actually very into it,” she wrote.
“My Cruella dreams are coming true!”
We're totally here for the grey hair gals!
