“Gray Never Equals Old,” a Model, Luisa Dunn, Ditches Hair Dye and Inspires People to Love Their Natural Looks

We’ve probably all wondered when we’d find our first strand of gray hair. Scientists claim they’ve found a gene that helps to know exactly when you start noticing yours. Surprisingly, there are also genes linked to balding, curly hair, and even unibrows.

Our featured heroine seems to not care much about her gray hair and treats it like a posh accessory, given to her by nature. Meet model Luisa Dunn and find out more about her unusual and motivating life philosophy.

Luisa Dunn’s gray hair journey started with a challenge.

Luisa Dunn is a woman who feels like it’s her calling to challenge popular views on ageism and traditional “beauty standards.” She’s a model, and her mission is to bring some fresh air to the fashion and modeling world.

Her journey of going gray started with the thought that coloring her hair every 14 days was simply not a source of joy in her life anymore. In her interview, she said, “Toward the end, it felt like I was on a cover-up merry-go-round that only exacerbated the negative feelings I was having about aging, self-acceptance, and my changing body.”

She decided to change her life by ditching hair dye for good, and she never regretted it.

The woman is sick and tired of ageist clichés and bravely speaks out against them.

Dunn got very annoyed by one particular stereotype that “gray equals old,” and she believes this statement can have a long-term impact on any personality. She found a tribe of like-minded women on Instagram, and they became her additional source of inspiration on her journey.

For Dunn, going gray since then has become a synonym for self-love. She explained, “Learning to love myself and my changing body unapologetically was the answer to strengthening my confidence and self-esteem.”

Growing out her gray hair turned out to be another challenge.

Surprisingly, the practical side of growing her silver hair wasn’t as easy for Dunn as she thought before. She revealed, “I discovered my first gray hair at 16 and, as a result, I started coloring my roots to hide them using dark and light brown tones. It wasn’t until 2019 when I decided I was done with trying to hide them and I wanted to opt for lighter, cooler tones to match my roots.”

She added, “The process is long and requires a lot of patience, especially if you choose to embrace it, cold turkey. Most often, it will take women 2 or more years to complete the transition. A few months into my transition, I was somewhat forced to let go of the bleach-damaged lengths and embrace a pixie grow-out as well.”

Luisa Dunn has a powerful piece of advice for her fans.

Dunn honestly thinks that the greatest decade of fashion is now. She says, “I feel that individual style is celebrated more now and clothing is seen as just another layer of our personalities. We can dress for our moods or simply to have fun. There is less focus on rules and more emphasis on being yourself and having fun with fashion.”

Among all the beauty lessons she shared with her fans, there’s one that’s very valuable, and it’s to stay playful, especially with makeup. She explained, “It’s important to have fun every now and again, so try things that are outside the box. What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll just have to remove it. At times, makeup should be for pure joy and playfulness — anything goes in my book, providing you feel good.”

Do you have gray hair? How do you prefer to deal with it? Have you ever considered not covering your gray patches and going all-natural?