The Skincarma Pod | Ep. 65: Silver Hair, Sharp Opinions – The Silverist Founder Evelyn Wang on Gray Hair, Ageism & Building a Beauty Brand That Actually Sees Women

About this episode

Carmine Montalto interviews Evelyn Wang about gray hair, ageism in beauty, and building a beauty brand that caters to women embracing their natural silver hair.

In this episode of The Skincarma Pod , Carmine sits down with Evelyn Wang , founder and CEO of The Silverist , to talk about gray hair, ageism in beauty, and what it really takes to build a brand from scratch. After years inside major beauty companies like L’Oréal and Estée Lauder, Evelyn saw something hiding in plain sight: women embracing their natural silver and gray hair were being treated as an afterthought. Instead of formulas designed specifically for natural gray hair — which loses melanin and behaves differently than color-treated blonde hair — brands were simply relabeling purple shampoos and calling it a day. In this candid and wide-ranging conversation, Carmine and Evelyn explore: Why gray hair is fundamentally different from color-treated blonde hair; How big beauty brands miss nuance when marketing to women over 40; The tension between corporate marketing polish and founder survival mode; What it really means to speak to Gen X consumers authentically; Why “pro-aging” messaging can feel patronizing instead of empowering; and, the reality of building a lean, profitable beauty brand without bloated overhead. They also revisit their shared L’Oréal experience, debate the…

People in this episode

Host: Carmine Montalto

Guest: Evelyn Wang

Topics covered

• gray hair
• ageism in beauty
• building a beauty brand
• entrepreneurship
• marketing to women over 40
• pro-aging messaging
• cultural conversation around aging

Keywords

• silver hair
• beauty marketing
• entrepreneurship
• natural gray hair
• Gen X consumers
• focus group
• pro-aging

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Silverist, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder

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