Jane Fonda Debuts Her Gray Hair at the Oscars and Sends a Powerful Beauty Message

When Jane Fonda stepped onstage to present the Best Picture award at the 2020 Oscars, there was something different about her: Instead of the Hollywood legend’s natural brunette, or the sandy blonde dye job she’s sported the past two decades, her new pixie cut was a stark shade of silver. And the internet was loving it.

While going gray is perfectly normal and natural at any age, the timing of 82-year-old Fonda’s hair-color switch-up—which, fair or not, goes against certain beauty norms in regard to aging in Hollywood—is fitting considering the actress and lifelong activist is as radical as ever. Just two days ago, after being arrested five times in Washington, D.C. for civil disobedience, Fonda brought her climate action campaign, Fire Drill Friday, to Los Angeles. At the Oscars, she referenced her activism, rewearing a scarlet Elie Saab gown (first worn at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival) and carrying the red protest coat she recently announced was “the last new piece of clothing I will ever buy.”

Plus, let’s not forget the significance of the choppy mullet Fonda sported while protesting the Vietnam War in the early ’70s. “Hair had ruled me for many years,” wrote Fonda in her memoir, My Life So Far, recalling the “hair epiphany” that inspired her chop. “Perhaps I used it to hide behind. The men in my life liked it long and blonde, and I had been a blonde for so long that I didn’t even know what my own color actually was. I simply said to [hairstylist] Paul McGregor, ‘Do something,’ and he did.”

Fonda has long lived life on her own terms. And whether intentional or not, owning her gray hair with power and grace at the Oscars sends yet another inspiring message.

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