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SILVER BULLET

I Grew Out My Gray Hair at 32, and the Reaction Shocked Me

Chanelle spent years trying to cover up her gray hair. Then she had a moment of clarity.

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

PublishedJun 8, 2026, 1:55 PM EDT

UpdatedJun 8, 2026, 1:55 PM EDT

Updated Jun 8, 2026, 1:55 PM EDTPublished Jun 8, 2026, 1:55 PM EDT

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Chanelle was 18 when a classmate pointed out her first gray hair.

At the time, she played it off. Over the next few years, however, she noticed the amount of gray continuously increasing.

“By the time I got to 25, I had a lot of gray hair,” Chanelle, now a 33-year-old content creator and model, told The Looker.

Chanelle, who is from South Africa, worked in fashion, and although no one in the industry said anything about her silver transformation, she felt she needed to dye her hair for the first time.

“That’s when the real anxiety and the fear crept in—when I started seeing the roots being revealed every couple of weeks," she said. “I absolutely hated coloring my hair, but
I hated my gray hair so much more.”

One photographer suggested Chanelle might want to grow out her silver strands, as it could set her apart, but she had no intention of doing so.

“I thought, ‘Over my dead body. I will never, ever, do it,’” Chanelle recalled.

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But when she reached thirty, Chanelle noticed that dyeing her hair was putting a strain on her.

“I was traveling a lot, and I always had to go find a new hair salon, and getting the right color match was almost impossible. I was getting exhausted.”

In addition, her hair was falling out and breaking, causing her even more stress.

“I was so insecure about my hair. My hairline was thinning to the point where I was looking into surgery options. I was trying the supplements.
I was trying the anti-hair-loss shampoos,” she said.

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Adding, “For years, it was such a constant struggle. Me, going to color my hair, and then a couple of days later crying about the condition of my hair.”

Those low moments prompted her to start playing with the idea of growing out her natural color.

At first, Chanelle tried editing her hair silver on different apps to see if it would suit her. Then she spoke with the people closest to her—but they were not supportive.

Chanelle’s mother went gray at 16 and has dyed her hair since. Her grandmother dyed her hair until her passing at 85.

Despite the lack of support, Chanelle decided she wanted to try growing out her natural color.

“There was a day about two years ago where I said to my then-partner, ‘OK, I think I’m gonna do it’—and then I completely chickened out,” she recalled.

But on June 13, 2025—after three years of contemplating—Chanelle decided it was time.

“I said to myself, ‘No, today’s the day.’
I’m not going to go to the hair salon.”

Chanelle’s plan was to take the journey day by day and not commit to anything.

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“The beginning was the hardest,” she said, explaining that at first, her gray roots contrasted with her brunette hair and created an illusion that she was balding.

“I would walk past reflective surfaces, like mirrors, and I would see myself, and I would have moments where I’d freak out, because I would see what looked as if I was balding.”

Chanelle was an avid social media user, but for the first two months of her hair journey, she went silent online due to fear of judgment.

She especially did not want to post on Instagram, a platform where everyone she knew followed her.

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But one day, she decided to give TikTok a chance.

“It was just a casual video of me checking my roots, saying it’s been a couple of weeks of growing out my gray hair,” she said.

Then, something unexpected happened.

Play Video

“That one piece of content blew up. And the comments on that video were so positive,” Chanelle recalled.

The positive comments encouraged her to share more of her journey on TikTok and eventually on Instagram, too.

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“My inbox blew up after I posted on Instagram. I was receiving messages from women telling me I was able to inspire and encourage them, and thanking me because they could feel it was OK to go gray.”

Now, she feels as though she has a community of “silver sisters” online.

Sometimes, people encourage Chanelle to cut her hair short or dye the ends gray. But that is not an option for Chanelle, who is still attached to brunette hair as a part of her identity.

“If I were to go to the salon and walk out with a full head of silver, I’d immediately transform into a new person, and I haven’t gone through the grieving process of moving from one version of myself into a new version,” she explained.

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Having long hair is also a part of her identity, and she plans to keep it that way.

“If I can go the distance, ideally, my vision for myself is to have long, beautiful, luscious, heroic, silver hair.”

Chanelle also gets negative comments sometimes, but she does not take them personally.

“I almost always turn them into content. I use them as an opportunity to educate people,” she said, adding, “There are people who don’t like chocolate, and people who don’t like dogs. Some people will dislike silver hair, too.”

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To Chanelle, her journey is all about personal growth.

“I’m on my own very personal journey,” she told The Looker.

Adding, “When I wake up, and I look in the mirror, and I’m content—or however I’m feeling that day—that’s the only thing that is important.”

Roosa RahkonenReporter, The Looker

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