Jane Fonda's Real Feeling About Her Gray Hair Revealed

Jane Fonda, for anyone too young to remember much of the previous century, was drop-dead gorgeous back in the '60s and '70s. While some of her earlier roles, like 1968's Barbarella, didn't really showcase her acting abilities, there's no denying the girl could rock a silver lamé spacesuit like nobody's business.

And then, half a century went by and, well, time changes everyone. While growing older in no way devalues us, still, the aging process is a difficult one for many women — doubtless even more so for a woman who spent much of her life in Hollywood, where youthful beauty is seen as the gold standard. While Fonda has always been a strong woman who knows her own worth, even she was not immune to the lures (and in her profession, the necessity) of trying to delay the natural aging process for as long as possible. As she entered into her ninth decade on the planet, however, she'd finally had enough. In a 2020 interview with Elle Canada, Fonda admitted, "I can't pretend that I'm not vain, but there isn't going to be any more plastic surgery—I'm not going to cut myself up anymore." A year later, she opened up on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (via the Daily Mail) to say that she's done with hair dye, too.

While the Elle photoshoot from a year ago shows Fonda as a blonde, she showed up on the Ellen show with the cutest pixie cut in a lovely shade of silver — her own, as it turns out. Ellen was loving it, of course, and Fonda agreed, saying, "I tell you I'm so happy I let it go gray." Assuming her first gray hairs maybe started showing up in her 40s (although Medline Plus says graying often begins in one's 30s), she may have spent half her life undergoing color treatments. It's no wonder she got fed up with it. Plus, pssshh! During a pandemic, who's got time to bother with all that? Definitely not Fonda, as she was far too busy making TikTok workout videos and hosting her virtual Fire Drill Fridays.

Although Fonda, aged 83, has received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and is now cleared to go out and about, she's not making a beeline to her stylist's for a dye job. As she told Ellen, "Enough already, so much time wasted, so much money spent, so many chemicals. I'm through with that." Good to know! After all, there's nothing attractive about fighting a doomed battle against time. Instead, embracing one's natural look at any age is a beautiful thing, and we're grateful to Jane Fonda for showing us just how good 80-plus hair can look.