Gwyneth Paltrow, 47, Reveals She ‘Wholeheartedly’ Accepted Herself When Her Hair Turned Gray

Beloved actress and skincare guru Gwyneth Paltrow is finding the beauty in aging. The Hollywood star revealed how she’s embracing getting older — which includes accepting her hair is no longer the bright blonde color it used to be.

“I always think there’s sort of an irony that when you really accept yourself — physically — is when you have gray hair,” the 47-year-old shared with People for the magazine’s new Beautiful Issue. “I do think there’s a truth to that.”

Besides coming to terms with the day her hair turned gray, Gwyn said there’s a lot she’s learned over the years about what it means to truly feel beautiful. “The more you know yourself and accept yourself, the more you accept who you are and what you look like wholeheartedly,” she gushed.

Because the Iron Man actress feels so comfortable in her skin at 47, she decided to grace the magazine’s cover with a makeup-free look. Gwyn admitted she’s always been a “little bit of a tomboy” deep down.

“I’ve never been a makeup person really. I always love not wearing makeup,” she candidly explained. “For me, makeup has always meant that I’m going to work.”

The Goop Lab star said her feelings towards makeup actually stem from when she was just a kid. “I went to an all-girls school and we didn’t wear makeup,” Gwyn continued. “We weren’t dressing up for anyone. All through junior high and high school, makeup never became part of my routine. I like the feeling of having clean skin.”

Now that she’s older, Gwyn said she couldn’t be more proud that the world’s perception of beauty now includes different “body types, skin colors, hair colors and cultures.” At the time she was starting out in the business, she was “told that beauty was basically a Barbie doll.”

However, the doting mom of two — who shares daughter Apple, 15, and son Moses, 13, with ex-husband Chris Martin — said things have “changed tremendously” since then. Gwyn even revealed how important it was for Apple to grow up in a world where all beauty is represented.

“I’ve always thought that’s real progression,” she sweetly shared. “When I think about me being a kid in the early ’80s and what I was shown as examples is much different than what she was shown. As we continue to become more inclusive around our ideas of what is aspirational beauty, we all win.”

Gwyn is such an inspiring woman and mom!