'Little House on the Prairie' Star Melissa Gilbert on Embracing Her Gray Hair: 'I Love It'
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"It’s my favorite thing ever," the actress said of her natural look
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Melissa Gilbert loves rocking her gray hair!
In a new interview with Prevention, the Little House on the Prairie star, 59, opened up about her hair and how she has no problem with sporting her natural shade as she gets older.
“I love it, it’s my favorite thing ever," Gilbert said of her gray locks, which she has now been showcasing for years.
"I actually cut 8 inches off of my hair and they asked if they could keep my hair because they felt there were some customers that wanted to match my color,” she continued.
Added Gilbert: "I have so much more free time not worrying about coloring my hair."
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Elsewhere in her conversation with Prevention, Gilbert continued to speak about aging and explained that she has since embraced getting older.
“When I was younger not only was I always in a hurry … I didn’t really focus on self-care that much or being all that healthy because when you’re a kid and in your 20s I felt invincible, invisible is now invincible is then,” she said. “As I age, I am more mindful about the exercise I do. You won’t see me in a kickboxing class now, but you’ll see me in yoga or walking. I need to stretch and strengthen, and I need to support my bones which are going to become gradually more fragile at this point in my life.”
Gilbert is also aware that eating healthy is a must, telling Prevention, “I am mindful about where my fruits and vegetables come from. I am not a big fan of mass-produced grocery-stocked stuff.”
“I love food and I love to eat, I really really do. I plan my meals way ahead of what’s going to happen and what I feel like eating," the actress continued. "I don’t deny myself anything, but I’m mindful about eating too much of anything, so I try to stay as balanced as I can.”
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Gilbert — who first got her start in showbiz at age 9 when she landed the life-changing role of Laura Ingalls Wilder on the beloved Prairie TV series, which ran from 1974 to 1983 — opened up to PEOPLE last year about the pressure she has felt to stay youthful.
"I grew up in an industry that values the outside considerably more than the inside, and I was caught in that wheel of trying to stay young," she said.
Over the years, Gilbert got Botox, fillers and plastic surgery, but that all changed when she had a midlife reassessment.
"I finally woke up and went, 'What am I doing? I look like a carrot top, and I'm not happy,'" she explained. "My mindset was, 'You have to stay thin. You have to be seen in the right places, wear the right shoes and drive the right car.' That was so drilled into me by all the outside forces. But it never sat right."
After marrying her husband in 2013, actor Timothy Busfield, the couple moved to Howell, Michigan, where Gilbert embraced a more natural lifestyle. "I cut off all my hair and quit doing Botox and all that stuff," she said of a decision that Busfield strongly backed.
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