Photos Of Celebrities Who Went Gray In Their 20s (It's More Common Than You Might Think)

Finding a gray hair or two in your 30s and 40s is normal. But what happens if you go gray as a young adult? It's not as strange as it sounds, and it's happened to some well-known celebrities. Yet it's not necessarily bad for a performer's career. As writer Anne Kreamer (who went gray in her 20s) explained to WebMD, being unusually gray can offer "an iconic differentiation."

But why would gray sneak up on some people sooner than others? According to the Cleveland Clinic, conditions including stress, vitiligo, and nutrient deficiencies can cause hair to lose its pigmentation. (Eat these vitamin-rich foods to lower your risk of nutrient-related grays.) Heredity can also contribute to premature graying.

A 2019 study from the Open Access Macedonian Journal of Medical Sciences found a connection between early graying in children and their parents. Consequently, if your mom or dad was "always" gray, you might be more likely to become gray at a young age as well.

Again, going gray isn't necessarily a hindrance, especially for stars who leverage their grays to get noticed. In fact, you've probably taken it for granted that so many of your favorite celebs sport gray locks.

White-haired Anderson Cooper shared a surprising #tbt photo on Instagram in 2016, where he had brown hair. The caption simply read "Around 21 or 22, when the gray hair started". (He once mused that it was because of poor eating habits.) Cooper's openness about being salt-and-pepper (his words) was on similar display in a CNN piece from 2005, where he surmised, "in just about any line of work being prematurely gray is an advantage."

Going gray certainly hasn't hurt Cooper's career. A poll cited by The Hollywood Reporter in 2024 showed him to be the most trusted among cable's "big three" anchors, besting Sean Hannity, who is also gray.

In a documentary about his career, Steve Martin noted that having some gray in his 20s (he started in his teens) was helpful when he was getting started. He explained that "it helped when my hair turned gray" because audiences took him more seriously and didn't just see him as young (via Woman's World).

Martin didn't get fully gray until his 30s, but was silver before then. Being gray hasn't kept him from being nominated for plenty of awards or from winning several, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy.

J-Lo was hiding her real hair color for many years from fans. As she's admitted now, she started getting grays in her 20s.

Like many people in the public eye, she chose to cover up those grays with hair dye. "I have to have [my roots] touched up every couple of weeks," said Lopez in a 2011 People article. However, she claimed she wasn't ruling out a full-blown gray look in the future: "I'm kind of tempted to one day just let it go. It'd be kind of exciting!"

You might have seen artist Alexandra Grant with beau Keanu Reeves and wondered about her silver 'do. You might also have thought she was older than Reeves — she's almost a decade younger than he is, but her grays churned up the gossip mill. (Big surprise.)

In a 2019 Instagram post, Grant explained, "I went gray prematurely in my early 20's... and dyed my hair every color along the way until I couldn't tolerate the toxicity of the dyes any more." In other words, don't expect to see her with any hair color but gray. (Here's what's really in all those boxed hair dyes, in case you're curious.)

For actress Tia Mowry, having gray hair at an early age has been a reminder that she's still alive and kicking. As she wrote for InStyle, "[W]hen I see my gray hair, it actually is a blessing because it means that, yes, I'm getting older and I'm still here" (via TODAY).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she showed a salt-and-pepper pic on Instagram and received raves from followers. One preached that "it's better to go natural & stay that way." Others stopped at one word: "beautiful."

You'd be hard-pressed to find a singer with a more pronounced silver streak than Bonnie Raitt. Her signature white locks amidst a sea of red tresses have made her highly recognizable.

In a Parade interview from 2012, Raitt said that the anomaly appeared in her mid-twenties and that she considers it a kiss from an angel. "By 1981 it was expanding and my red was fading, so I started dyeing my hair [around the streak]. No one else in my family has it."