Working the fashion industry since the age of 3, Roxan Gould represents authentic beauty.

Roxan has traveled the globe, walked the runways in Paris’ Pret-a-Porter and Haute Couture shows, graced the cover of Vogue, appeared in numerous major fashion magazines in Europe and the United States, and acted in many television commercials and film.

Today, she has ten agents coast to coast and four agents in Europe.  Wow!

Some of Roxan’s USA clients include Eddie Bauer, JJill, Macy’s, Brooks Brothers, Target, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Vision Works, Lucy Athletic Wear and Gaiam.

Born in Hollywood, California, Roxan attended CU in Boulder, lived in Paris, Hamburg and Munich, for a span of ten years, and while modeling and acting there, learned French and German.  In 2003, Roxan received a Master’s Degree from The American Institute of Holistic Theology in Parapsychic Science.

Outside of work, Roxan enjoys her daily walks with her dog to stay fit and happy.

Gray hair care tip from Roxan:

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When American model Kristen McMenamy posed for Vogue Italia in August 2010 with her long gray hair, women were pleasantly surprised by the bold move.  Now McMenamy, 46, is yet again a Vogue Italia cover girl for their May 2011 swimwear supplement.

As described by StyleBistro, “McMenamy flaunts her enviable curves in a tribal print bikini… and proudly poses in her long, gray-white hair.”

McMenamy broke multiple stereotypes about age and gray hair when she posed for Vogue Italia last year, proving that a 45-year-old with a full head of gray is equally, if not more, stunning than a bottle-blond teenager.  Now she’s done it again, this time while revealing a bikini-ready body that puts teen and 20-something models to shame.

Vogue Italia has made a positive statement by putting McMenamy on the cover of its swimsuit supplement.  Beauty is ageless, and McMenamy is their proof.

Yesterday, People magazine released a sneak peek of its annual Most Beautiful issue, to hit news stands tomorrow.

No surprise, there was little gray hair to be seen, especially on women.  Thank goodness for Helen Mirren, who not only represents on behalf of gray hair but also proves that beauty is absolutely ageless.

Mirren, who is 65, was placed in the “Beautiful at Every Age” category, and she recently hosted Saturday Night Live, showing off her comedic talents while promoting her latest movie.

Entertainer and American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez topped the Most Beautiful list.

The 41-year-old admitted that she started going gray at age 23 and has been covering it up ever since.  Lopez said that she dyes because it’s part of her job in the entertainment industry, but that she’s “tempted to one day just let it go… It’d be kind of exciting!”  She added, “Maybe someday we’ll go really far away for like two months and I’m just going to see what it looks like.”

We look forward to the day J.Lo lets her hair go gray, but until then, gray hair or not, it’s safe to say Lopez and Mirren are both stunning and exude admirable confidence from head to toe.

Last week, we shared one reader’s story about a great gray hair experience in Italy.  But she was not the only one in Europe showing off a new silver hairdo.  Last month, Jean Paul Gaultier’s fall 2011 collection debuted at Paris Fashion Week, and many of the models made their way down the catwalk in gray-haired wigs.

But although they were wearing “silvery beehives,” the clothes were hardly meant for Grandma.  Creative Loafing blog considered the collection to not be age-specific, that although “Jean Paul Gaultier’s collection hit the runway with the appeal to women of a certain age … [Do] not be fooled … Take what you see here and create them as your own — the runway is meant to be inspiration.  Mix the classic pieces with what is current age-appropriate.”

The tone of the show was also anything but conservative.  The models emerged wearing beautiful outerwear pieces but teasingly shed their coats, jackets and scarves halfway down the runway, giving the show a youthful and flirty feel.

What do you think of the collection?  Did you see anything you’d love to wear with your own silver hair?  Check out close-up photos of the looks at Style.com.

In comic books, skunk hair is a side effect of having mutant powers, surviving a mad science experiment or being one of the bad guys.

In real life, a skunk hair is just another step in the process of going gray: a silver, white or gray streak of hair that stands out from the rest of your otherwise uniformly colored hair.  For many women, the emergence of skunk hair is not unlike the moment they first spot a single gray hair.  But the responses are different.

When the threat consists of only one gray hair, it’s easy to pluck it and pretend nothing ever happened.  Finding a patch of gray hair, like realizing the salt-and-pepper process has begun, forces women to choose between embracing the gray and dyeing their hair.

Showing off a silver streak in your hair can be scary.  But the right style and a whole lot of confidence is all it takes.

Stacy London, a fashion consultant and co-host of TLC’s “What Not to Wear” has beautiful hair and enough confidence to let her white hairs shine through.  And London is not alone.  Author and activist Susan Sontag was known for the bold white streak in her hair.  Arlene Dickinson, a Canadian marketing professional and the CEO of Venture Communications, also sports an edgy skunk style.  Indira Gandhi, the third prime minister of India, had white hair that grew from the entire right half of her hairline.  Singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt is mostly a redhead, but a streak of gray makes the red pop that much more.

These women all followed Tim Gunn’s golden rule of fashion: “Make it work.”  And you can too.  Forget the dye and flaunt your skunk hair.  There’s nothing wrong with going Rogue.

Last Wednesday, Matt LeBlanc shared on “The Tonight Show” that though he only started sporting his gray hair last year, he had actually began going gray in his mid-20s.  It was surprising news when the actor revealed that he dyed his hair throughout the entire run of “Friends,” on which he played Joey Tribbiani, a character known for his boyish looks and matching personality.

LeBlanc explained to Jay Leno, another TV personality unafraid to show his white locks night after night, that dyeing his hair gray was just too much of a hassle.  Even while on ”Friends,” LeBlanc resorted to using Just For Men in order to avoid the hustle and bustle of the makeup room.

While LeBlanc’s personal decision to go gray mostly had to do with convenience, the revelation that “Friends” insisted he dye his hair reminds us that men too have to deal with the struggles of aging and graying hair.  It makes me wonder, if LeBlanc hadn’t been playing the role of Joey, and was Ross or Chandler instead, would he have been allowed to keep his natural hair color for the show?  There’s no doubt that society has different standards for men and women when it comes to going gray.  But the popularity of hair dye products for men is proof enough that gray hair is as much a matter of insecurity for men as it is women.  (Maybe, in a strange way, Just for Men’s Touch of Gray series is a step in the right direction?)

LeBlanc has now joined the ranks of many celebrity guys who have gone gray.  And like George Clooney and Anderson Cooper, he is not afraid to display his new look onscreen.  LeBlanc’s latest role is a fictionalized version of himself in a new show on Showtime called “Episodes,” and yes, even the fake version of Matt LeBlanc on Showtime has gray hair.

Ever since Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” opened, audiences all over the country were enraptured by the world of black hair, specifically whether naturally textured African American is beautiful.  While the controversy of whether black women ought to use relaxer or have weaves rages on, going gray has turned into a pleasantly surprising trend.

Here are five stunning African American celebrities who have let their hair go gray—and what they have to say about it.

Ruby Dee

In With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together, Ruby Dee recounted the first time she saw herself with gray hair:

“One night … while scurrying from activity to activity, the hair rose all over my body as, in the half-light, I encountered a white-haired creature coming directly at me, mouth open and garments flapping.  I stopped.  The creature stopped.  I turned, the creature turned.  It was I!”

Dee’s reaction was not sadness though.  Instead, she giggled and rushed to tell her husband, Ossie Davis.  She laughed and even cried with joy, writing, “that old lady in the mirror and I—we’d made it!  How lucky, how marvelous not to be dead yet.”  Dee made the decision to think about living a long life instead of “the permanently horizontal mode and intimations of mortality.”

Maya Angelou

This is what Maya Angelou, who made a comical appearance in “Good Hair,” had to say about aging during an interview with Oprah Winfrey:

“Though my hair has turned to gray and my skin no longer fits, on the inside, I’m the same old me, it’s the outside’s changed a bit.”

The poem, called “My Younger Days” or “Don’t Break the Elastic,” also pokes fun at other symbols of aging such as weight change, eyesight deterioration and most importantly, all that one has learned.

Toni Morrison

In 2008, Toni Morrison sent President Barack Obama a letter that signified her endorsement for his presidential run.  In sharing her thought process, she wrote the following:

“In thinking carefully about the strengths of the candidates, I stunned myself when I came to the following conclusion: that in addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other candidates.  That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom.  It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age.  Or if we call searing vision naivete.  Or if we believe cunning is insight.  Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.  Wisdom is a gift; you can’t train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace—that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom.”

Morrison’s endorsement letter touches on the importance of overlooking age, race, the presence of gray hair and more.  (Of course, since becoming president, Obama’s hair has gone a bit gray after all.)

Camille Cosby

The cover story of a 1989 issue of Jet was titled, “Bill and Camille Cosby Discuss the Secrets of Living a Better Life.”  After three of her children had already left for college, with two more college-bound, Camille Cosby became more involved in the business and philanthropic endeavors of the Cosbys.  Robert E. Johnson wrote, “The beautiful wife, mother and philanthropist/businesswoman has reached a turning point in which she is not afraid to be herself in pursuit of a better life.”  Part of being herself meant the then-recent decision to go gray. She said:

“I needed the freedom.  I need the freedom to define myself.  …  When I began to gray, I had only two of our five babies.  My husband called it premature (gray) and he said I should leave it alone.  …  Gray hair freed me.  When we play to the demands of others, we are putting through our heads what we think they want  …  When we are freed from that, we are free to move on the job of defining ourselves.”

Whoopi Goldberg

Whether you enjoy her “view” or not, Whoopi Goldberg’s confidence and voice has made her a household name.  Goldberg’s dreads have occasionally exhibited some gray, but it’s her past comments about hair that steal the show.  During a discussion about “Good Hair” on “The View,” she made a strong statement that the reason black women straighten their hair is because they want more manageable hair, not because they want to look white.  Race in America is a common topic for Goldberg.  In the ’80s, one of her recurring characters in her comedy shows was a young African American girl who longed to be be white and to have long blond hair.

Goldberg’s character called out a key issue in “Good Hair” decades before Rock’s documentary debuted.  At the start of the film, Rock explained the event that prompted him to investigate the world of African American haircare.  It was the time his young daughter approached him and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” even though she did.

Jill Dougherty courtesy of CNN

It’s always refreshing to see high profile women sport their gorgeous gray hair.  We wanted to start off the new year by introducing you to Jill Dougherty, the foreign affairs correspondent for CNN. Dougherty, who joined CNN in 1983, was previously CNN’s Moscow bureau chief, named to that post in 1997. She has covered many significant news events in Russia and the former Soviet Union for CNN, including the presidencies of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s post-Soviet economic transition, the Beslan school massacre, the conflict in Chechnya, the arrest and trial of Yukos Oil company founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Georgia’s Rose Revolution and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution.

In addition to her work for CNN, Dougherty has been a correspondent for WMAQ-TV in Chicago and has done freelance assignments for National Public Radio and TIME magazine. She began her career as a broadcaster and writer for Voice of America, U.S.S.R. Division.

Dougherty earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian language and literature from the University of Michigan.

We think Jill  is absolutely stunning!

Picture and story courtesy of CNN

Gaga For My Beloved Gaga

Originally uploaded by Leona Jayaram

Cindy Joseph is a breath of fresh air.  As fashion model, mother of two and a beautiful gray-haired gal, Cindy enjoys appearances in many ads and even has a fitness video.

“As human beings we all want to be valued, but the sad truth is that women are judged based on their looks, and in this age-obsessed society our value goes down as our age goes up.” – Cindy Johnson