Silver Waves: Portrait Photography as Visual Inquiry into Identity, Aging, and the Experience of Embracing Natural Gray Hair

This study examines women’s experiences of embracing natural gray hair and explores how professional portrait photography can function as a mode of visual inquiry into aging, identity, and representation. Developed from Silver Waves, an ongoing portrait project initiated in 2021, the research employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design informed by arts-based visual inquiry. Qualitative data consisted of written narratives from nine Silver Waves participants, while a subsequent 17-item survey was completed by 45 women with natural gray hair who had not participated in the project. Findings identified strong associations with freedom from recurring hair-coloring maintenance, authenticity, and perceived social expectations surrounding women’s gray hair. Participant narratives further revealed varied experiences of social judgment, recognition, identity, and photographic representation. Portraiture was experienced by some participants as affirmation or visual self-recognition and by others as collective visibility or meaningful representation without personal change. The findings do not support interpreting portrait photography as a psychological intervention. Instead, Silver Waves demonstrates how sustained portrait practice can operate alongside narrative and quantitative evidence to investigate and visually represent the plurality of women’s experiences of aging, appearance, and identity.