In recent years, we've seen a rising trend of young women dyeing their hair fully gray and silver. Unfortunately for young women who have natural gray hair growing from their roots, they are still often expected to dye it and cover it up. That's why Martha Truslow Smith decided to create Grombre, a space to celebrate women who choose to embrace their natural gray strands.
Martha says that she started her Instagram page for gray-haired ladies out of the fear she felt of letting her own gray hair grow out in her 20s.
"I was scared to be in my early twenties without the dye I ‘knew’ I needed in order to be accepted," Martha tells CafeMom.
Martha explains that seeing the fake gray hair wigs and dye jobs didn't help her feel any better.
"In my early Grombre months (those dreaded first three 'did she skip her hair appointment' months) I scoured the web only to find the hotter-than-I’ll-ever-be, trendy, Kardashian-esque twenty-somethings dyeing their locks to resemble what they call, ‘granny hair’ — and let me tell you, that didn’t help."
She continues: "I knew that if I was going to grow my natural hair out, I needed a substantial resource that would help me shake off any negativity directed my way and encourage me to focus on my goal of embracing myself. This resource didn’t exist, so I created a little Instagram community, Grombre, that just so happened to have been found by a few other women who felt just as I did."
In March, Martha even got married in her natural gray hair! "THAT was an amazing experience," she tells CafeMom.
"I realized I spent more time and energy disliking myself than enjoying who I actually am," she explains. "I realized that my then-boyfriend (now husband) had no idea that I dyed my hair every few weeks to hide silver strands that I’d been covering up since I was 14. I felt shameful, inauthentic and chained. How was I supposed to pursue this amazing guy in that condition?"
Since starting Grombre, not only has it helped Martha to accept and appreciate her hair, but it has brought together a whole community of women.
"A main objective I wanted to establish through this platform was to reframe the conversation around gray hair from something to be ashamed of to instead be something that makes you uniquely you, and therefore is to be loved," Martha says.
Women of all different ages and backgrounds have started using the hashtags #Grombre and #GoGrombre on their photos.
Martha says there is a lot of power in having a sense of community.
"One thing I treasure most about Grombre women is an overflowing outreach of support and encouragement, which is coming from total strangers."
When these ladies are feeling insecure or having a hard day, they use each other as a support system and it's "incredibly empowering."
"They inspire me every single day, and in a world where women tend to play ‘us vs them’ on any given issue with each other, it’s incredibly empowering to watch total strangers continuously extend olive branches in the name of sisterhood."
It's so wonderful to see women coming together to fight their insecurities and embrace their natural beauty.
So to all the ladies out there who are hesitant to embrace your gray hairs, Martha and her fellow grombre ladies are here to encourage you to just go for it!
#GoGrombre!
