Allison Janney Opened Up About Gray Hair and Being Child-Free

Allison Janney attends the 2020 Breakthrough Prize Red Carpet at NASA Ames Research Center on November 03, 2019 in Mountain View, California.

(Image credit: Photo by Ian Tuttle / Getty)

published 6 February 2023

At 63, Allison Janney is embracing who she is in every way, and she says it feels amazing.

FYI, you might recognize the actress as Bonnie Plunkett from the TV show Mom, or—my personal favorite—the erotic novel-writing high school principal from 10 Things I Hate About You.

Janney appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show a while back and beautifully addressed two important life choices she had made: to embrace her naturally gray hair, and to not have children.

Barrymore told Janney she was super excited to see her new hair, and told her she looked wonderful.

"I cannot tell you how amazing it is to feel free," Janney told her. "Free from hair color and hair extensions and hair tapes and blah blah blah.

"It's just, to be able to run my hands through my hair and hopefully sometime a man will be able to run his hands through my hair, appreciate—it's just, it's heaven. I'm just enjoying this new chapter in my hairdo world."

The talk show host also ventured a question about Janney being single and not having children, and whether this had been a conscious choice for her.

"Yeah, I think if I'd found the right guy at the right time who wanted to have kids, I probably would have with the right partner, because I wasn't ever confident that I wanted to have kids and I would rather regret not having kids than have kids and regret that," she said, eloquently.

"You know, I'm OK with it. I'm really at this time of my life getting to know who I am and what I want, so I'd love to find—you know, eventually find someone to share my life with, but if it doesn't happen I think I'll be just fine. It would be nice. Right now you know what I'm doing, I'm just virtually dating. My latest crush is Rip on Yellowstone."

I love her???

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Bustle and Shape. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.