Grey Hair, Don’t Care: Midlife Liberation Through Self-Acceptance with Robin Salls

If you’re a midlife woman, chances are you’ve thought about your greying hair—whether to embrace it, color it, or figure out what’s next. Sound familiar? 🤔

No matter where you are in your hair journey, this episode is for you!

I’m resharing my inspiring conversation with Robin Salls, founder of Tangled Silver, the first-ever magazine for silver-haired women. 🌟 Robin is on a mission to redefine what it means to go grey, helping women embrace their silver strands with confidence, joy, and a sense of community.

In this uplifting conversation, we dive into:

✅ What inspired Robin to ditch the dye (and why her hair has never been healthier!)
✅ How she reinvented herself as a magazine publisher with Tangled Silver 📰
✅ Why embracing grey can be an empowering act of self-acceptance ✨
✅ How the silver-haired community is rewriting the narrative around aging
✅ Why this ain’t your grandma’s grey—this is midlife reinvention at its finest!

This episode is packed with wisdom, encouragement, and fresh perspectives on aging, beauty, and reinvention.

Because grey hair isn’t just about color—it’s about confidence.

🎧 Tune in and be inspired to embrace midlife with boldness, joy, and self-love!

Connect with Robin:

Instagram: @tangledsilver
Instagram: @tangledsilvermagazine
Facebook: Tangledsilvermag

Mentioned in this episode:

• Recipe for Midlife Reinvention: Launching a National Beauty Brand at 56 with Angel Cornelius
• Download my "Do It Scared, Do It Anyway" Free Guide!
• Grab your free gift, 5 Questions to Spark Your Curiosity & Inspire Your Reinvention Journey

Inspiring podcast: Want more inspiration as you navigate midlife and think about reinvention?  Women in the Middle® is a podcast for midlife women who are ready to hear some good news about being over 50! My friend Suzy Rosenstein, shares the good, bad, ugly, and sometimes downright hysterical about
growing older and making the changes you want to make so you don't have regrets in your second chapter.

Kick your midlife fears and uncertainty to the curb and start your Reinvention Rebels journey today. Learn about my audio program, Midlife Reinvention From The Inside Out: 8 Essentials to Greenlight Your Life.

Chapters

• 0:00 Celebrating and Inspiring Silver Sisters
• 3:50 Empowering Silver Sisters Magazine Journey
• 12:56 Silver Sisters Community and Evolution
• 19:27 Discovering Midlife Empowerment and Reinvention
• 27:17 Empowering Stories of Silver Women
• 32:48 Reinvention Journey

Transcript

00:00 - Robin Salls (Guest)
Women are uplifting one another, which we all know. Sometimes women can be a little catty with one another, but in the silver community I see more women uplifting each other and encouraging each other to embrace themselves, celebrate one another and let's inspire everybody to be totally accepting of whatever you want to do. We're not anti-color, we're just anti-anybody telling us we have to color to be relevant. And there's a bonding that kind of comes out of that boldness of being like I'm doing me now and I's a bonding that kind of comes out of that boldness of being like I'm doing me now and spent a lot of years doing everybody else or what everybody else told me I should do. 

00:31 - Wendy Battles (Host)
But this is finally my time and it starts usually with a little bit of that hair courage and then kind of expands into everything else that we're doing. Reinvention Rebels Stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reinvented life on their own terms to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, wendy Battles. I need to kick your fears to the curb, do it scared and step into who you are meant to be in midlife and beyond. These amazing women, these reinvention rebels, can help light your reinvention path. Come join us and let's get inspired together. Hey, hey, hey, rebels. 

01:27
Welcome to another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast and I'm so glad you're here and I'm also on hiatus. You're hearing my voice, but that means I'm busy at work getting Season 7 of the podcast how I Better Myself and Never Looked Back. I'm busy getting it ready. I'm doing interviews, talking to amazing women, getting all of these episodes ready to launch the season in a little while. In the meantime, I am sharing some of my favorite episodes, highlights of some of the seasons we've had and the interview that you're hearing today. My friend, robin Sahls, is from season four and, robin, she's extraordinary. She started a magazine called Tangled Silver to celebrate silver sisters, called Tangled Silver to celebrate silver sisters, and, as someone with graying hair and, I would say, coming to terms with it, getting more comfortable with it. I am revisiting this because I'm even in a different place with my hair than I was two years ago and there's no right or wrong answer. We should be and do and feel how we want to feel as we navigate this midlife thing. But I think you're going to really love this episode and our conversation and this whole idea about stepping into our own in midlife, in whatever that means for us. And I'm going to ask you to do me a favor right now. You've heard what this episode is about and I'm going to ask you to do me a favor right now. You've heard what this episode is about. I know you've got friends that could identify with this whole idea of do I go gray? Do I not go gray? Do I color? Do I stop coloring? How do I go in between? How do I decide what's right for me? Well, this conversation, it'll give you some insights and some inspiration to choose the path that's right for you, whatever that might be. So please do me a favor and share this episode right now. Whatever podcast platform you're in, just hit the share button and share this with one, two, ten friends, friends that would love to hear this conversation and would be inspired to think about this for themselves. Thank you. Now sit back and enjoy this fabulous episode. 

03:50
I am so excited about my guest today, 55-year-young Robin Sahls. Robin's done something that I think about a lot at 58, embracing my gray hair In January 2021, looking for community where none existed, robin created the first ever magazine, tangled Silver, for silver-haired women. She wanted to help women embrace aging and feel empowered to find their tribe. Two years later, she's on a, having published 10 issues and featuring amazing silver-haired women. The journey to navigating our changing hair, not to mention our midlife bodies and skin, is no joke. We all know our hair is a big deal throughout our life. Some of us embrace silver hair, others well, we're trying to figure it out, myself included. Each of us are finding our way and uncovering what's right for us. Isn't it powerful to have help along the way and realize you're not alone? I love that Robbins created a space to normalize this natural part of aging and to showcase the freedom that comes with embracing our bodies and ourselves just as we are. I'm excited about this re-invention conversation. Robin Salls, welcome to the re-invention rebels. Guest chair. 

05:14 - Robin Salls (Guest)
Oh my gosh. Thanks, Wendy. I'm so happy to be here. 

05:18 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I love how we connected on Instagram and somehow started following each other and that led to conversation, and then we said, oh, we have so much synergy between us, let's collaborate. So I'm so excited to invite you on and I bet you can imagine, robin, that I have a whole host of questions for you about your reinvention journey and I wanted to begin with something pretty basic what inspired you to not only go gray but to reinvent yourself as a magazine publisher for silver haired women? 

05:55 - Robin Salls (Guest)
Well, you know, that probably goes back all the way to my childhood. In a sense, I knew I would be silver or white at some point. I had a grandmother who rocked her white hair and was always so energetic and full of life, so I wasn't afraid of going gray. I just didn't expect to do it until I was like 70, 80, maybe 90. And at 26, I found some grays and I had a stepfather at the time who was no longer stepfather maybe this is why and made the comment above me during a family photo that if I didn't color my hair, I was going to look older than my mother. What 26-year-old woman wants to hear that you're going to look older than your mother? So I kind of struggled and hid it for all those years. 

06:33
And then 2018 came around and I was just really tired of it, kind of bored, and I was noticing that a lot of younger women were coloring their hair silver purposely and, you know, made a comment to my daughter that I was thinking about going silver and would she be okay with that Because her wedding was like nine months out and I thought, well, I might have to wait till after the wedding. And my daughter looked at me and just said, oh my God, mom girls my age are paying for it, just do it. And I was like all in, I love that, all in to go silver. And the magazine piece kind of fell into the thing Again. 

07:05
Childhood I was always big into magazines. I had teen magazines out the wazoo and when I wanted to look for inspiration there weren't as many. When you went into the salons there were magazines for hairstyles, for everything else, but not for somebody wanting to go silver and wanting to see somebody that rocks it, not this little old grandma that looks all you know dull and boring, like you'd think of with gray. So I kind of was like, well, there's not one out there, so I'm just going to throw one together. 

07:40 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I love how you say just throw it together, because I know it's a lot more work than that, but I really like how one you trusted your gut about. You had this feeling it was the time for you and you wanted to do this and you went with it and then combined it with this idea and this passion about magazines Like you already, like this, you're like huh, and there isn't anything that looks like me, because I think that representation part is so key that we all want to see a reflection of ourselves in some way, shape or form, and I appreciate that. You said well, if it doesn't exist, I'm going to create it, yeah, Well, you know, there's so many times where, like we just don't. 

08:16 - Robin Salls (Guest)
You want to see something, physically it almost makes it OK to see it, and when you don't see it you're like, does that mean it's not OK to do it? And the message around gray for so long has been you gotta, you gotta fight it, you gotta stay young, you can't go gray. And so I was kind of mad that there wasn't anything that really showed those silver sisters rocking it, with long hair, short hair, it doesn't matter, whatever style you like, but just the gray really being embraced and welcomed. And yeah, it was time. 

08:39 - Wendy Battles (Host)
It was time, and I think it does that. Such a great example for those of us that are like huh, I can see it's coming in and I go back and forth and a little grown for a while that I'm like not yet, so it does normalize it. And also, these women are stunning. So many women wear gray and silver so beautifully and it makes me think, oh, OK, I see that. So then I think, well, then maybe I could wear it in an OK way too. 

09:07 - Robin Salls (Guest)
I think when you see more women, like the images originally are kind of the little older lady and the cane and the crouched over hair up in the tight little bun, and then suddenly you're seeing all these women that A have either spiky, fun, sassy haircuts or they've got long, flowing silver hair. And for myself I never had longer hair than I have now. It was never this long and healthy as it is now that it's silver and I'm 55. Then all the years of teenage years and twenties and thirties, I mean it's just you just don't get to see those images as often. So I think that, especially the women in our magazine, it really kind of holds out the hope that like this is not your grandma's gray buddy, it is so not your grandma's gray and I think you're right. 

09:44 - Wendy Battles (Host)
There are so many different styles and just like we style our hair now in all kinds of different ways, there's so many ways to do it. That's incredibly becoming, you know, just really attractive. So I am so all in on this idea and the magazine. I think it's interesting because so often in midlife, for some women, confidence can be a challenge and sometimes women have this idea oh I'm. I feel like I have this inkling about something that maybe I could reinvent myself, but I'm really not sure how to go about doing it. So I think it's very interesting that you gave yourself only three weeks not three months, not three years, but three weeks to publish your first issue, the concept you had to the finished product which I really can't even imagine, you know, and I feel like it has a lot to do with my theme for the season this year with Reinvention Rebels do it scared and do it anyway. What gave you the confidence to make this really ambitious goal happen in three weeks? 

10:46 - Robin Salls (Guest)
So, you know, I like to challenge myself and I work best under pressure, and so I knew I wanted to do the magazine and I kept thinking about it and thinking about it and I finally came to the point where, like, I either just have to announce I'm going to do it to get it done or I'm just going to spend too much time thinking about it. Because that's that scared, like what if nobody else likes it? What if nobody reads it? What if? So I just literally did. I went on. I went on my Instagram account at the time that was to my private Instagram Tangled Silver account and just said hey, in three weeks January, I think it was the 15th I'm Tangled Silver magazine is going to launch. 

11:16
And my husband came upstairs because he had been downstairs at the time. He says did you just see that you posted your launch in a magazine in like three weeks? I was like uh-huh and he went do you know what you're doing? I'm like kind of he's like have you talked to anybody yet? I was like nope, but I got a list of the girls I want to call right now, the women I want to call that I've been following. He's just like just shook his head and went, okay, and just turned and went downstairs because he knows better than to question me any farther than that. Once I put it out there, it's going to happen. 

11:43 - Wendy Battles (Host)
You believed in yourself. You're like I have the passion, I have this of people I can call I mean, how did you pull it together so quickly in three weeks? Like, what are some of the things you did to make it happen? And I'm asking that because so often people have an idea but they get paralyzed with fear and they're not willing to kind of take that leap. Like you took this leap and you trusted yourself obviously to be able to do this. So what are some of the things that you did to kind of once you said I'm going to do it? What happened after that? 

12:19 - Robin Salls (Guest)
Well, there were a lot of a lot of email, email messages, instagram messaging to women Right and back then I mean 2018, there wasn't the amount of women that there are right now. So when you were Instagramming or not Instagram Instagramming somebody in Messenger, they were more likely to see it because they weren't getting bombarded by thousands of messages or followers or all the stalkers you know. You know, a lot of times now women are more picky about what they look at in their inboxes because of all the craziness that can be out there. But in 2020, it really wasn't the case, and so I spent a lot of time just reaching out to the women via messengers, commenting on their stuff and then saying, hey, I've got this idea, I'd love to chat with you about it. So that was the initial way that it kind of I got picked and I was very particular with the women. I did because they were women I was following. 

12:56
At the time, the magazine was pretty much all long hair. That first issue there was the my cover gal was this beautiful woman with curly, curly hair. She's amazingly gorgeous, gorgeous, and I knew I wanted her for my cover. She was just had this energetic smile, this personality. So I mean, I went, I started with her and was like, hey, and I was so lucky that she jumped on board and went yes, I'm all in. I was developing the relationships with those women. Like we really didn't know at that point in time. I knew I wanted to share stories, but I didn't know how to go about that. So the first issue was really more about just giving you the visuals of women rocking their silver hair. And then, after the first issue actually went live, we went oh okay, we did it, I can do this. 

13:34
Then I started focusing on what I really wanted to do, the message. I really wanted to go deeper into the stories and share more than just their gorgeous silver hair. I wanted you to hear the how, when, why, reasons behind what they were doing. And then we wanted to add the entrepreneur section, because when you talk about the reinventing stuff yourself, you know a lot of us get to 50 and everybody goes, oh, life is kind of over. But yet at the same time, when you're in your fifties, a lot of us are discovering that no, we really are being reinvented and rebels right Like, we're starting to find new passions, kids are grown out of the house and, all of a sudden, these things that you maybe couldn't do beforehand because of all your other commitments, suddenly the doors open and you kind of get to go like, ooh, who'd I get to be now? And so that was really a big part of it. 

14:14
For me it was, it was. It was wanting to share the entrepreneur side of it, to kind of give you a piece of it, and just, it's not just about hair, right? A lot of times people think, oh, it's just about hair, it's. It's not, it's about the whole lifestyle that comes with us in our fifties and I like to call it's silver hair, it's silver inspirations, it's midlife, it's dealing with all the things that come along, and again it is we are totally reinventing ourselves. Rather it's in business, rather it's personal. 

14:40
Some of us are going through divorces and getting married married. Some of it's a career change. That's been happened. Sometimes it's your health that's happened. Menopause, I mean oh my goodness, lord knows. Menopause affects all this in so many different ways that we were never taught about as we were growing up. So it really is this whole reinvention package that you're doing, and I just felt like we had to address all of that in the magazine that spoke to women buying for silver haired women that, as you're walking the talk and knew about it, you know could tell you about it. So not somebody that's like 20 going oh, what's that look like. I mean, we're the women that are in there going through the hair care. The comments that we get, because as much as you sometimes get encouragement, you also get a lot of negative like why are you going gray? You know you're too young to go gray. Yeah, the whole package just kind of all came together. 

15:25 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I love how you talked about how it evolved, that you got out there. You had a vision for the first issue. You were building relationships. So you reached out, these people that you know you're interested in, that you were talking to. So I like the relationship part of it, as you, because to me that's part of the community that you've been building. 

15:42
But then also how it evolved, because I think that so many times we might get out there and start something and reinvent ourselves, but that it's really an ongoing journey, that it's not just the okay, there we go, I'm done, but with you, you're evolving, your vision is changing, it's broadening. That's what I hear you saying from the initial issue to now. Here you are working on your 11th issue and all kinds of other things that you've included. So I like that idea and reminding women that we can always continue to evolve, which is what I say, even about being a podcaster. Like I've grown so much, I've changed so much since I got started, and like you didn't really know I mean, you had already done magazines before, but you know, I didn't really know what I was doing, but I figured it out and I've continued to evolve. I think that's also a part of this idea of reinvention that we can have a reinvention within reinvention. 

16:35 - Robin Salls (Guest)
Absolutely, Absolutely. I mean it's never you spot on word with it. You made the comment. You know it's not, it's not ever ending, it's evolving. Because a lot of women, especially when they, when you're talking, just our hair, they get to a point they go, oh, I'm completely silver. Now what they're like, I'm done and I was like, well, are you really done? Because what you are, your silvers today, are probably not going to be what they are 10 years from now. And then, are you really ever done? Evolving in life? I mean every single cycle we keep something keeps changing within us. Rather, it's your spirit, your energy, your health. There's just all, like you said, always evolving. It's a continual ride. Yeah. 

17:08 - Wendy Battles (Host)
And when you can seize that, as so many of these women are doing and I think their stories are encouraging, right when you interview them and they share their story about their hair journey, but then also these other things they're doing, it certainly can spark something in others. Which brings me to my next question, which is about community, because it feels like you've created this really tight knit community of silver haired women. Why is community so key when you're on this silver haired journey? 

17:41 - Robin Salls (Guest)
Well, I think community is key in all sorts of aspects of life, but I think when it comes to the silver community, I think where it really plays into it is that we were all fed these stories kind of spoon fed stories about getting older and going gray for women was not a thing and that we were supposed to stay young and keep our hair blonde. If you were blonde, dye it blonde, dye it brunette, whatever, Stay young, because that's the message society has sent to most women that you know, aging is supposedly not a beauty standard, right? But yet I feel like I mean, one of our things we've created was a hashtag says I am silver beauty, because I think it's really important that we all look at ourselves and acknowledge that within ourselves. And the community helps that when you see other women embracing their silvers and grays and actually walking out confidently and boldly with it. If you were kind of on the fence a little bit like you kind of, it kind of makes you go oh, uh-huh, okay, I can do it too, and it's just like it's not like no other community is the best way to put it. 

18:35
That connection of kind of being a rebel, so to speak. Tie that in. I love it A little time there, that rebel spirit of like I'm going to go gray regardless of what anybody else says about it, and you know it's me Take it or leave it. I think that that really kind of bonds a lot of us together because it's this piece that like wow. I mean women are uplifting one another, which we all know. 

18:57
Sometimes women can be a little catty with one another, but in the silver community I see more women uplifting each other and encouraging each other to embrace themselves, celebrate one another and let's inspire everybody to be totally accepting of whatever you want to do. We're not anti-color, we're just anti-anybody telling us we have to color to be relevant. And there's a bonding that kind of comes out of that boldness of being like I'm doing me now and spent a lot of years doing everybody else or what everybody else told me I should do. But this is finally my time and it starts usually with a little bit of that hair courage and then kind of expands into everything else that we're doing. 

19:30 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I love that it's this ripple effect that taking this action, this often bold action that might be unexpected for people or I only know so-and-so this way and now they're going gray and they look different, and I'm not used to that. So, standing in our power and doing what we want to do, I see how that is a gateway to then doing these other things, because it's very empowering to say this is what I want to do. I see how that is a gateway to then doing these other things, because it's very empowering to say this is what I want to do and I don't care what people think. 

19:58 - Robin Salls (Guest)
So that is totally. It's totally empowering to be able to say that to yourself. Yeah, and. 

20:02 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I and I feel like so many of us need that. I mean, you know, we can be empowered in many different ways in midlife. That's one of many ways that we can do that. But I think that it's such a great example because I think so many times in midlife because, as we know, we might've been, you know, parents, or we're busy with our careers or we're doing whatever we're doing, that is often focused on other people and generally for most of us, not enough on ourselves. We're you know, we already know we're all givers generally and doing for others. 

20:31
I think it's also part and parcel of this idea that this is my time, however that might manifest, it's my time to focus on what I want, because I'm kind of sick of trying to please everybody else. Hey, rebels, this conversation that I'm having today with Robin so much of this is about finding our courage, finding our place, getting comfortable with who we are in midlife, in this case, getting comfortable with our hair. However, that shows up for us. Whether we've gone gray or thinking about going gray, like me, or we're like I, won't go gray for a long time, it doesn't matter, but taking a step to do something different. It can be a little scary, but we also know that on the other side of our fear, when we do it scared and do it anyway, so much possibility lives over there. 

21:29
If you're a little unsure about wherever you are right now, whether it's about your hair or something else, and you're navigating midlife and trying to figure it out, I have to encourage you to check out my Do it Scared, do it Anyway, cheat sheet. It's some simple questions to get you thinking about how you can take a look at those fears and begin to move past them as you reinvent. Of course it's free. You can download it and get busy beginning to brainstorm and get inspired. Details, of course, are in the show notes. 

22:11 - Robin Salls (Guest)
One is women. We're kind of meant, you know, we're brought up to be the nurturers and to take care of everybody else first. It's like that concept. You know, if you're on the airplane and they tell you, basically you know, they drop the oxygen mask, put it, put it on yourself first, at your first instinct as a mother is like, well, now I gotta put on my kids first, gotta take care of my kid, my babies, first, right, but again, if you put it on them first and you pass out, you might not get all of them. So you gotta put it on yourself first and you pass out, you might not get all of them. So you got to put it on yourself first. And so it's that same kind of that same thought process, I think, of the whole. Just, it is self-love and we don't, women, don't give ourselves enough self-love. And so it is in midlife, like, like you said, we kind of come to a place where kids are gone. 

22:47
We get to kind of define who we are. For me, you know, I was always hi, hi, I'm l's mom, hi, I'm l's mom. And suddenly, when my daughter graduated, we ran to nesters, it was like, oh, who do I get to be? Now I get to be robin, I get to say, hey, I'm robin. Oh, what does that look like, though? What is robin passionate about? What does robin want to share with the world at this point? 

23:05
Um and it's definitely a confidence thing, like you have to, kind of you're peeling off those layers that you've packed down for so long because you've been somebody's husband, somebody's wife, some well, not somebody's husband, you've been, you know, somebody's spouse. You're peeling back the layers of discovering who you really are and what you really want to do, because somewhere along the lines, like when we're in our youth, we're all about ourselves. Right, we want to do this, we're going to go do this, we're going to go to college, we're going to do this career, and then we start getting married and having families, and we kind of get caught up in all of that, and then midlife kind of gives us an even playing field again. 

23:37 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Yeah, it really does. It's almost like a intentional do-over if we choose to take up that mantle and figure it out, because, to your point, it does require peeling back the layers and sometimes doing a lot of personal development work and tuning into our self-awareness, and some of that work is hard. It's not always easy to get to the other side where we can reinvent ourselves. But I always feel like, if we are willing to go there and sometimes go through the muck to get to the other side, there are so many possibilities, as evidenced by I'm going to start a magazine for civil-haired women or I'm going to do whatever the. You know so many women doing so many amazing things. 

24:17
I've interviewed so many fierce women that are finding their stride in their fifties and their sixties, seventies and beyond. So really at any age? I don't think, because I know that we also all evolve at different times, right? Some of us in our fifties maybe we're still trying to figure it out, but in our sixties, like we're on fire or our seventies. So I always feel like there's endless possibilities for us if we so choose. 

24:41 - Robin Salls (Guest)
No, I would 100% agree with that. And I think it also comes at a time when you're ready. When you're ready for it, like in my 20s or 30s, I probably wouldn't have been ready to take on creating a magazine for anything much less silver hair, right. And then here we were. I mean, I went into this magazine where people are going you're doing a magazine. You do know digital is the way to go. Now, right, everybody's doing digital. And it was like, well, yeah, but I still, I still, I want to do this, I need to do this. 

25:03
And if it, you know, again, it's jumping off, taking that leap of faith and following your passion about something that you want to do and believe. And I really believed in the fact that, like I was struggling so hard to stay young, because that's what some of my closest friends were, oh, we have to stay young, we're going to die, we're going to go to the grave trying to be young, right. And then it just got to a point where it's like, well, wow, is that filling my soul? Is that feeding my soul? Absolutely not. Was I getting frustrated when commercial brands are trying to sell me, say, wrinkle cream and they're using a 20 year old. Well, you know, heck, at 20, I didn't have wrinkles either, so why are they? It was just very frustrating for me to see so many things that were anti women embracing, aging gracefully, and so it just made sense. 

25:43 - Wendy Battles (Host)
So I know, robin, that I've spent so many years thinking about my hair, fighting with my hair, coming to really appreciate my hair. I feel like many of us have had that, no matter what kind of hair we have, what kind of texture our hair is, whether it's too curly, it's too straight, it's too whatever and I know that many of us have wrestled with this in different ways when we're younger and obviously as we age because I know also as we age, the texture of our hair changes too, so it adds in a different variable. So you tell so many amazing stories in the magazine about women and their silver journey. Can you share a few memorable stories about some of the women you featured? 

26:21 - Robin Salls (Guest)
that really might inspire other women listening there's been so many women that I've had the opportunity and blessed opportunities to meet and chat with. There's a woman cat. She went through a brain tumor situation with her. So her choice to color her, her choice to not be coloring her hair and to go silver, was really health related. And sometimes I love those stories because her choice was kind of taken away from her right so she had to embrace it. And yet she's come back and she has the most beautiful white, silver hair now and it's so healthy. So when you hear that she had a tumor and had to shave her hair one more time, it's hard to imagine like, oh no, that can't possibly be you. She's so full of life, her hair is so absolutely beautiful. There's her story of that. I mean, she's just, she's fabulous. And there's there's women like Angel Maison 276, who has beautiful white hair as well and was so motivated by her hair journey that she went out and created a product that helps women rock their rock, their silvers. 

27:17
You know, the stories just continue to come in and it's just hard. A lot of the stories are just the way, that way that made them feel about themselves right, like they were, they were dealing with it. They didn't want it, they were tired of it. The appointments that were causing the itching and scratching I mean for some people, the going to get it colored as often as you end up getting as you get older a lot of them were coming down to like they were like two week windows of having to go and sit in a coloring chair for two hours to cover those grays and they were itching and scalps were red and it was all this nasty kind of like allergic reactions that were happening and they finally just realized they were more valuable than trying to keep their hair a certain color and just release that. And then they amazingly have these, these heads of strands that are now healthier than they've ever been. Like. Like I said to you, I have never had my hair this long and this healthy. 

28:05
I went to a new stylist just a couple of weeks ago because my stylist, when I'm a attorney, leave and has did not come back. And the new stylist looked at me and she goes wow. She goes, what are you doing to your hair? It's so healthy. I was like, yes, a hairstylist. She just told me I have. She asked me how I'm doing. My hairstylist is asking me how I got my hair so healthy. You know, because very rarely do you you get afraid to go to your stylist. Like when you go and you have the conversation. So I think I'm going to go silver and a lot of them there's some really great ones that will encourage you. 

28:37
But there's a lot of times you're going to hear are you sure you want to go gray? Yeah, gray might make you look a little old. How about if we just maybe highlight you a little bit and blend it? I mean, there's not that rush to be. Like when you walk in you go, hey, I think I want my, I'm going to go gray. It's kind of the oh, are you sure about that? You know, kind of, for the most part, there are some great hairstylists out there that really rock it. So when I went to this gal and she was asking me how I took care of my gray hairs because it was super healthy, I was like floored. I was just like I was. I was like pat myself on the back like, yes, okay, it does look it's healthy. You know it's healthy. You're not just telling yourself it's healthy. 

29:14
Like I said, it's hard to say because I've had just so many wonderful women from all ranges of everything I mean I love. 

29:26
There's a gal in Russia, there's a gal who is in Germany and they all deal with things differently than over here, like where the gal in Russia is younger, so she's like she was in her twenties when I first met her and she was embracing it because she just had so much of it, naturally, and she'd been growing since she was like 13, but she felt she always had to cover it because it was so not welcomed over there at the time. So it was great getting to chat with her and getting her perspective from over there. And now she is like she is like leading the charge in her country for letting gray become a little bit more acceptable, especially to the younger women and not just the older women. So it's just. It's just such a unique experience. I mean each and every one of these women. I want to. If I could give everybody a chance to read every single issue, I'd say go back and do every single issue, because each story is so uniquely their own. 

30:07 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I can see that and I know what you mean about Angel, because I interviewed her on the podcast back in I don't know maybe season two, and she's fabulous, so fabulous, and I love when she was in the magazine and she's got such an inspiring story about how she started this whole line of products for women with silver hair, because In her kitchen right yes, in her kitchen, in her kitchen it's such a great story, both about her hair journey, but also what came out of that, just like what's come out of it for you, creating this really fantastic magazine. And I don't, you know, for those of you that haven't heard a story, I'll link to it in the show notes, but it's so awesome and, again, so empowering. And part of what I hear in you sharing some snippets about these really amazing women, robin, is that they are all rebels. They are all standing up and saying this is who I am, and we kind of mentioned this earlier in that bold way. 

31:03
I love that because I feel like we don't have enough role models like that, where people feel good about themselves in their bodies. I think there's so many things about just aging that can feel discouraging, based on the society in which we live and you have to really do a lot of inner work sometimes to appreciate your body, to appreciate what you have. That it's okay, that it's changing. It's still beautiful and this is just another extension of that, about accepting ourselves and leaning into love ourselves up more. So I can't help but love the message and the idea of what you're doing. 

31:40 - Robin Salls (Guest)
I agree with you. I think that in some ways each of these women some of them will go. We're not a rebel, I'm not a rebel, but it really does feel like living outside the box a little bit, because we've been sold so long on. You know, don't call, you know got to color your hair, cover up the grays Again. It's that self-talk A lot of women when they start doing it like I get asked a lot like, oh my hair? 

31:57
I shouldn't say ask, but like statements oh my hair would only look like your shade of silver, I would totally do it, but it doesn't. Or you know, I just think I'm going to is dull and boring and icky. You're walking out the door presenting dull and boring and icky, because that's what you're telling yourself before you even leave the door. But if you walk out and you're like my silvers rock, I own these things, your whole energy level is completely different. All of a sudden people are going wow, your silvers are real shiny. It might not even really be that they're truly all that shiny, but you're presenting yourself to the world like I got this. 

32:37
And I think that makes a huge difference. And I think that, even if you're not silver women in midlife in general. We have to start owning our midlifes. We have to start taking ownership and going. You know what? It is okay to be getting older. It's part of life. We can't stop it. So let's embrace it and celebrate it and inspire others to do the same thing, and then this whole thing of getting older won't be so scary the way I feel like it's been presented to us. 

33:00 - Wendy Battles (Host)
That is so true and seeing this idea that we can age in so many different ways, that we can age vibrantly, that we can age with silver or not silver or however we please, but that it definitely doesn't have to be this horrible thing that you know we've been told this whole line of thinking about. You know older women and our value in society, and it's like I don't think so. I can rock it, I can be fabulous, I can be healthy, I can be 85 and healthy, and you know, just be empowered and doing what I want to do. So it's such a great message for all of us, whether we're already silver or we're not silver at all, or we're thinking about, like me, going back and forth. 

33:40 - Robin Salls (Guest)
But a lot of people do that. And the thing is I always say you know you got to do what's right for you. I had really close friends in the beginning. When I said, okay, I'm going to let my my grace come in, they were like, oh, I can't do that with you. And I was like, well, I didn't ask you to do it with me, I'm just letting you know that that's what I'm doing and if I don't like it I'll color it. But I'm going to give it a couple of years and see what happens. 

33:58
And I think that's the scary part. I think it's that when you asked me earlier about doing something scared, the silver thing was scary because I had spent so much time trying to cover them up and even though I knew at some point I was not scared of what everybody around me would think about me going silver, and then I realized I didn't really need their approval with that anyways. And who was I hurting my silver? My choice to have let my hair go silver wasn't forcing anybody to go silver with me. My mother said to me oh honey, I know your mother's supposed to be silver before you, but I can't do it. 

34:28
And I was like and that's okay. My mother now has the most gorgeous full head of silver. The most gorgeous full head is silver. She joined me two years later on the journey and is completely, a hundred percent silver now and rocks her silver Love. 

34:39 - Wendy Battles (Host)
That I love it. Look at the influence you had I love it on your mom. It was like, okay, I'm going to do this. So, yes, we all we needed to give ourselves is permission. We don't need anyone else's permission, just ourselves to do whatever we want to do. Because I've gotten much more comfortable now, as I'm kind of easing into it. I'm like, okay, well, it's all a lot of it's upfront, but now when it comes out, I'm like, oh, I do videos with it, I do you know whatever. 

35:09 - Robin Salls (Guest)
So I'm just kind of easing into it, and I think that's really the key, for any stride is Like you, like you were just saying, you're easing into it. There are some. Someone will go. Well, is there a wrong way to go silver? Is there a right way to go silver? No, there's just your way to go. If you want to do highlights, to get there, go for it. If you want to go all natural, go for it. If you want to wear wigs, to get there, go for it. It's, however, you are comfortable with getting to where your natural beauty comes from. 

35:35 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Yes, If you had to give your reinvention journey a theme, robin what would that be? 

35:41 - Robin Salls (Guest)
A reinvention was probably I am silver beauty. I don't think I grew up not feeling very beautiful. In a sense I didn't, didn't like. You know, I didn't the guy. I thought it was too skinny at one point and then I was too heavy and then my hair was too dark and then it was too light and then, you know, there wasn't a lot of positive self-talk. So for me, that I am silver beauty really resonates with me, because I really came to a place where I had to be able to be able to accept myself, all its faults and faults and good and bad myself, and realize I'm beautiful in here first and foremost, and that's where it counts most in the heart space, right, like if you're beautiful inside and you have a heart of gold, you can't go wrong. And so the I am silver beauty is really how I would describe my reinvention, because it's a matter of just defining beauty on my terms in inside, outside, the whole package. 

36:29 - Wendy Battles (Host)
On my terms. That is what I love best about that Defining beauty on your terms, which is what I hope all of us can move toward, even if we're not there now, because to me it's like a continuum we can always move forward at the right time when we feel good about that, and you exemplify that so beautifully, robin. I am loving our conversation and I know other people are hearing this and just like glued to this, like, oh my gosh, this magazine and what Robin is doing and all these women is really inspiring. So of course, people want to know where can they find you? Where can they find Tangled Silver Magazine? How can they connect with you online? What are the easiest ways for people to find Robin Sahls? 

37:12 - Robin Salls (Guest)
Oh my gosh. Well, you can go to Instagram and Facebook. You can type in Robin Salls I'll pop up there. You can type in Tangled Silver. My personal Instagram account is Tangled Silver because that's originally how it started. It was just to journey my silver hair journey before I decided to do the magazine Magazine. Obviously, tangled Silver Magazine. You can find that online as well, on our website, all the social media channels. We're on Pinterest as well. I mean, pretty much, just type it in and you'll get directed to where you can find us, and I love it when people reach out to me. I mean, if you're reaching out, know that your chances are you're going to get through to me directly, because I really want to develop our community and I think it's important for people to be touchable and for you to feel like you can reach out to us. You can pretty much just type it in, either the name or the magazine, and you'll find me some way. 

37:59 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Thank, you and we've got all of that in the show notes so you can just tap and easily find Robin in all these different places. Robin, I cannot thank you enough for joining me today for this fantastic conversation about your reinvention journey and the inspiring things that you're doing with the magazine and the community that you're creating, because I feel like, as we age, we all need more community and that kind of connection that sometimes is missing. So thank you for being amazing and doing this work and inspiring us. 

38:35 - Robin Salls (Guest)
Well, thank you so much for having me in here, because I love this show. The minute I saw the word rebels, I was like, oh yeah, I need to follow this woman. So thank you for what you're doing, because you're also helping to inspire us to all take on those next chances and reinvent ourselves. 

38:48 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Well, it takes a village right and we're all part of it. So we're part of that midlife women village doing awesome things. So, thank you, friend. Thank you for gracing me with your presence. Thank you so much, too. 

39:11
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Robin as much as I did. She's insightful, she's inspiring. I love how she started on this reinvention journey and wanted to see more people like herself and started a magazine which is so freaking cool. It goes to show that we can do anything. And if you're thinking, well, what about me? What could I do? How could I have my own reinvention? Or how could I just get curious about what could be? 

39:41
I want to share with you my free gift five questions to spark your curiosity and inspire your reinvention journey. It's a quick audio, seven minutes long, where I share some compelling questions you can begin to ask yourself, to uncover what could be possible for you in this next chapter. I've got the details in the show notes and if you love this episode, please also write a quick review for me on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Tell people what you loved about it, because I want to make it easier for more people to find this inspiring content, to help activate people about what's possible. So thank you in advance. And finally, you know how I like to tell you periodically about podcasts that I listen to and love. That I think will resonate with you. That I think will resonate with you. 

40:37
And today I want to tell you about my friend Susie Rosenstein's podcast called Women in the Middle Loving Life After 50. Well, you know, just the title sounds pretty awesome, right? Susie's really cool. She is a certified coach and she shares the good, the bad, the ugly, sometimes the downright hysterical about growing older and all the changes that are taking place and how we can live a regret-free life in our upcoming chapters. I think it's really going to resonate with you. It's about self-care, about empty nesting, aging, all of the transitions with interesting guests. Give it a a listen. Details are in the show notes. And finally, I just want to thank you. I want to thank you for being here, for showing up, for being open to exploring what is possible in your life, what could be, and you are already a reinvention rebel. I know you've already reinvented many times. Most of us have. So thank you, rebel, Thank you for showing up and thank you for being here. Until next time. Keep shining your light. The world needs you and all that you have to offer.