Hilarie Burton Morgan Says Letting Her Hair Go Gray at a Young Age Was ‘a Relief’

The 'One Tree Hill' alum, 41, said she's "growing it all out”

Hilarie Burton Morgan is loving her gray hair.

The One Tree Hill alum, 41, appeared on The View on Thursday and told longtime co-host Joy Behar that she’s “growing it all out.”

“It’s a weird thing when you were a teen drama actress, and the expectation to be 17 forever is out there,” she said. "And I didn’t necessarily like my younger years. I dealt with some dark stuff in my younger years. So this idea that you can level up and get to the place where you’re the salty one in the room was exciting to me.”

Related: Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton Pose with Son Gus, Daughter George on Family Night Out

“And my heroes were Bea Arthur and Ruth Gordon and Betty White,” the Drama Queens podcast host added. “That’s who I wanted to be. So going gray early had been a relief.”

“Well you’re on trend, a lot of women are doing it,” Behar told Burton Morgan, who replied, “Well good, yeah. We’re going to take over the world.”

"I’ll do it with this color,” Behar, 80, said, referring to her ginger hair. “I’ll take over the world with this color.”

“It takes all kinds,” Burton Morgan replied.

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While promoting her book, Grimoire Girl: Creating an Inheritance of Magic and Mischief — which was released on Tuesday — Burton Morgan previously told PEOPLE about her graying hair becoming such a popular topic, offering similar sentiments as what she shared with The View.

“Isn't that weird?” she asked in response to her hair being a buzzy trend online. “I mean, look, I started doing TV literally the second I graduated high school. I have given the entirety of my youth to other people. And there's something really rewarding for me to just say, ‘f—- it,’ and let my hair grow gray. 'Cause I wasn't necessarily respected as a kid, so why would I want to hang on to that?

Related: Why Hilarie Burton Finally Married Jeffrey Dean Morgan: 'We Wanted to Be a Concrete Truth'

“I think people put so much emphasis on staying young forever,” The Walking Dead star told PEOPLE. “But I have found so much more fulfillment and respect and success and happiness the second I was like, ‘I'm not going to play by those rules anymore.’ It feels good to kind of scoff in the face of that. And my husband's a silver fox. No one ever questioned him going gray. So I do laugh at it anytime I see someone making a big deal out of it.” 

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