"I could see the roots with my face and with my skin and my eyes, and I liked it. I felt that I would be happier," said the actress.
Andie MacDowell looked stunning at the recently held Paris Fashion Week. MacDowell, 64, actress and former fashion model, wore a silver and pink-stripped sequin down with a feather train and a high-slit. She stole the show with her silver curls as she walked for L'Oreal's Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 show, per Women's Health.
"My sister's full-on silver and she's only 18 months older than me. I thought she looked so much more beautiful being silver. I was jealous," MacDowell told PEOPLE. Her daughters and actors, Rainey Qualley, 32, and Margaret Qualley, 27, were the ones who inspired her to own her grey look first. "My hair started going silver during COVID, and my daughters were staying next door to me. And we're - you know, we're kind of trapped here, like everybody else, so they saw me all the time. And they would say to me, you look badass, and you've got to keep this. You can't - you've got to keep it. They would say that to me constantly. And I fell in love with it, and I decided to keep it," she said in an interview.
MacDowell's attempt to accept her natural color is also an attempt to embrace her the way she is. "During COVID, I could see the roots with my face and with my skin and my eyes, and I liked it. I felt that I would be happier. And I am happier. I really like it," she said to PEOPLE. "I'm 64, and this is the time of my life. Eventually, I'm going to be silver. And I wanted to have this experience of feeling what it is," she added.
About learning to be comfortable in her own skin, she mentions that as she is aging and after having three kids her belly is getting bigger but she is "constantly having to work on loving that part of my body. It's so hard." However, her daughters constantly remind her to not be too hard on herself. "If I ever say anything demeaning about myself, because I've taught them not to do that, they'll say, 'Why are you doing what you told us not to do?'" she said.
She is also working towards accepting her body. "Even if you work out, and I work out all the time—I hike, I do yoga, I eat super healthy—there's only so much you can do," she said. When she says super healthy, she means it. "I only eat real food and avoid man-made packaged food. Anything that grows out of the ground, I eat. I do eat meat and chicken, but never with any added hormones, that’s a huge no-no!", she told W Magazine.
Despite eating healthy and doing yoga, MacDowell still thinks that menopause is taking a toll on her. "Believe me, it gets even harder. Because after menopause, your hormones change, and your shape changes. And I've got a very perceptive eye. So, you see it. I will see it on other people, I'll see it on myself," she said. However, she seems to be aging gracefully. "Aging is a really, really intimate educator on loving yourself," she said, "because you can't stop it. It's going to happen.”She added that she is working towards accepting her body. "Even if you work out, and I work out all the time—I hike, I do yoga, I eat super healthy—there's only so much you can do," she said.
References:
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a41519836/andie-macdowell-legs-grey-hair-photo/
https://people.com/style/andie-macdowell-on-embracing-her-gray-hair-i-am-happier-i-really-like-it/
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1053397656
https://www.wmagazine.com/story/andie-macdowell-hair-aging-beauty-secrets
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | (L) Kristy Sparow; (R) Rachel Murray
