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That’s… what are they?"
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I explain that they are highlights woven in and aroundnatural grays.
Can’t do it.
Maybe you remember, last summer, when Parker was photographed dining al fresco in Manhattan.
The RoC x SJP Limited Edition Kit includes three of Parker’s favorites from the brand: Hydrate + Plump Serum Capsules, Hydrate + Plump Eye Cream, and Hydrate + Plump Moisturizer with SPF 30. In the first month of sales, 100 percent of net profits will go to SeekHer, a nonprofit that advocates for women’s mental health and works to challenge societal norms, including those surrounding unrealistic beauty standards.
The images went viral.
“I was like, pleasepleaseapplaud someone else’s courage on something!”
Especially since, as Parker points out, she hadn’t even stopped coloring her hair.
Those herringbone highlights were just bleached out from the summer sun.
Perhaps you saw the plastic surgeon’s office scene inAnd Just Like That.
Carrie winds up accepting the plastic surgeon’s offer to see a digital simulation of her own potential results.
“‘Very brave, Sarah Jessica.
You wereso brave,'” she says of the feedback she got after that episode aired.
“With a finger snap!,” I say.
“You would be guaranteed to genuinely look like you did 15 years ago.
You wouldn’t look unnatural or strange.”
It sounds pretty great and honestly I’m tempted to take myself up on my own offer.
But Parker’s gonna pass.
What’s the point?
I just… don’t care enough.
When I walk out the door, I want to feel OK according to my standards.
I can’t even tell you what those standards are.
But you know how you feel when you feel most like yourself, whatever that means.
I’m not without vanity.
I guess I just don’t care enough about everybody else’s opinion."
It’s not that I’m purposefully dismissive or delusional.
But I don’t really ponder it.
At the end of the day, Parker feels pretty good about having lived and continuing to do so.
She describes herself as an optimist.
Some of the results were, to put it very un-scientifically, a real bummer.
A solid place to start is with some good old-fashioned gratitude.
And Parker has a laundry list of all the things that get better with age.
“Instead it’s: ‘How do we suspend the exterior?
How do we apologize for it?
How do we fix it?'”
And to be clear, these are the questions we ask of the agingwoman.
“We never talk about that with the other sex,” says Parker.
Remember thatphoto of “gray-haired Sarah Jessica Parker"bravely dining in public last summer?
At the same table was her dear friend Andy Cohen, three years younger than she.
“Andy has a full head of beautiful gray hair.
But no one mentioned him, sitting right next to me,” she says.
“Not a soul.”
And some of it hurts for a minute, it smarts.
And some of it confounds me because of the double standard that is so plainly illustrated.
It’s just not a great use of time, of ink, of anybody’s attention.
We all need distractions, to take ourselves away from the headlines that are devastating, unthinkable.
But is this the distraction we want?
Or do you want to read a book or do a crossword puzzle or talk to a friend.
I think we can do better.”
“I don’t condemn those who have more vanity than I do, or those that have less.
“All I think about is like, ‘Where am I going to eat?
What books am I gonna bring with me?
Can we get into that strange little restaurant?
Will the water be warm enough where I wanna swim?
Also, Wordle.”
But changing the way we think about aging starts with changing the way we talk about aging.”
Words matter and Parker even thinks perhaps we should give another one some careful consideration.
“We also need to reframe the word beauty.’
Sure, skin care is part of it.
It’s never going to be aboutthis,” she says, twirling a hand around her face.
“I meet women all the time and I’m like, ‘You arebeautiful.’
I could stare at them a million years.
But I guarantee it has nothing to do with whether they’re 18 or 78.”
