Hilarie Burton Morgan, widely known for her role in “One Tree Hill,” is making waves with her refreshing take on beauty standards. The 41-year-old actress recently opened up about her decision to embrace her natural gray hair, explaining how it liberated her from the pressure of conforming to Hollywood’s expectations of perpetual youth.
During a candid conversation on “The View” with Joy Behar on October 5, Hilarie shed light on her journey towards self-acceptance. She shared, “It’s a weird thing when you were a teen drama actress, and the expectation to be 17 forever is out there. And I didn’t necessarily like my younger years. I dealt with some dark stuff in my younger years.”
For Hilarie, witnessing her silver strands emerge was a cause for celebration rather than concern. “This idea that you can level up and get to the place where you’re the salty one in the room was exciting to me,” she explained. “So, going gray early had been a relief.”
Hilarie’s decision to embrace her gray hair began in 2020, and she found inspiration in silver-haired trailblazers such as Bea Arthur, Ruth Gordon, and Betty White.
Joy Behar, the talk show host, acknowledged that Hilarie’s choice was in line with a growing trend among women. She commented, “You’re on trend, a lot of women are doing it,” to which Hilarie responded with enthusiasm, “Well, good. We’re going to take over the world.”
This isn’t the first time Hilarie has shared her reasons for going gray. In an interview with People back in June, she expressed her satisfaction with the decision, saying, “There’s something really rewarding for me to just say, ‘f–k it,’ and let my hair grow gray. ‘Cause I wasn’t necessarily respected as a kid, so why would I want to hang on to that?”
Embracing her gray hair has not only been a personal choice for Hilarie but also an empowering one. She challenged the societal emphasis on eternal youth, stating, “I think people put so much emphasis on staying young forever, but I have found so much more fulfillment and respect and success and happiness the second I was like, ‘I’m not going to play by those rules anymore.'”
Hilarie Burton Morgan’s journey towards self-acceptance and her decision to celebrate her natural beauty serve as an inspiration to many, breaking free from the confines of Hollywood’s conventional norms and paving the way for a more diverse and inclusive definition of beauty.