Michelle Obama Dishes on Gray Hair, Life in Her 60s

Former first lady Michelle Obama isn’t afraid to admit that she uses a coloring agent to hide her silver strands.  

“I’m not wincing at my gray hairs, but I am coloring them,” the 61-year-old told People.com in a recent interview. 

She said the inspiration to treat her hair comes from her late mother, Marian Robinson, who “dyed her hair until the day she died.”  

She added, “I don’t really do much else. Fortunately, Black don’t crack.” 

Obama also spoke about how she maintains her physical well-being in her 60s, saying, “My health has always been paramount.”  

She went on: “What I eat, working out, regular doctors’ visits — all the things that allow me to enjoy this time. I’m as vibrant as I’ve ever been. My kids are grown and launched, they are healthy and happy. My husband is doing just fine.

“We are the former president and first lady, and so I feel like this is the first time in my life that when I say and do something — here in this interview, writing this book — these are my choices. That is freeing.”

The New York Times best-selling author is set to release a new book, The Look, on Nov. 4. It chronicles her style choices over the years. 

"The Look," by Michelle Obama

Penguin Random House

Another celebrity who dyes her hair is actress, director and producer Salma Hayek, 59, but she uses a different method. In a June Instagram video for Vogue Beauty, she said, “I do not dye my hair” but revealed that she uses mascara to cover her gray strands.  

“If you choose not to dye your hair and you have the white like I do ... or sometimes you don’t want the white, I use mascara,” Hayek said.

Other celebrities, like model and author Paulina Porizkova, 60, have stopped dyeing and embraced their gray hair. 

“I love my gray hair,” she told Harper’s Bazaar in April. “It still requires maintenance, believe it or not, but I feel very good about my hair.” 

The scientific terms for gray hair are canities or achromotrichia. Hair can appear white, silver or gray when it lacks the pigment that give it color in shades of black, brown, blond or red. Eumelanin is present in black and brown hair, while pheomelanin is in red, auburn and blond hair. 

Some of the root causes of gray hair are genetics, smoking, stress and disease.

AARP has more details on whether gray hair can be reversed and offers guidance on transitioning to natural gray hair.