@Ping_chan  
XD It’s not a head cannon! XD Well…I guess it’s the reason I think the picture is the way it is…XD But what happened is official!!! Amy Keating Rogers wrote it!!! But yeah, time travel shenanigans is a good way to summarise!!! XD It’s messy to explain…

@AngriestDislestia  
I tried to read your head canon, but became confused, I will just summarize it as time travel shenanigans.

If you read the book “Journal of The Two Sisters”, this makes sense. Kind of. Hear me out; when they were younger, Starswirl had a long brown beard. He used a time spell and when he came back he had a short brown beard. He had went back in time. Because he had to raise and set the sun, his brown beard turned grey, even though technically he was the same age he was when he had the long brown beard - not actually that old. I guess the beard still grew as time went on though, which is why his beard is so long.

What I wonder is why Celestia didn’t mention StarSwirl by name.
 
Even if she didn’t know it was him at the time, that’s still a bit harsh on the old fart.

Perhaps young by Celestia’s standards.

@DragonBoi471  
Around 30 years. Though there have been several examples of horses living well above 50 years.

@DragonBoi471  
In the normal human world? I would estimate almost as long as a human.

@Background Pony #A417  
So, in other words, the animators got lazy and decided to use his bearded design rather than making a younger version of him.  
@Background Pony #C70F  
I’m not so sure. How long can a pony/horse live in our world?

Perhaps Starswirl is a Targaryen.

@gundead222 Starswirl is Pony Mage Guan Yu. Forreals!

@Ping_chan  
Cranial Bombardment Approved

@OverlordScorpion  
Canonical head accepted.

@OverlordScorpion  
Headcanon accepted.

Maybe Starswirl was born with that beard…?

@Ping_chan  
According to an old interview with Lauren Faust back when she was working on the show, she intended Twilight to be Celestia’s successor.
 
Whether she was being literal or metaphorical is unknown.

I was thinking about how people complain about Princess Celestia being useless in a crisis..  
Maybe I will start a “she’s a old pony leave her alone” campaign.  
Maybe the reason why Princess Celestia has been pushing for more Princesses is because she would like to retire from Kingdom running and actually live the life style of a old lady?

When three thousand years old you are, think of two hundred year old wizards as young you will.

@Bumbles  
Headcanon accepted.

It’s naturally pink. He dyes it.

Alternate theory, Star Swirl is leucistic or albino.

For Celestia any pony under the age of a couple millenia is considered young. Sooo, pretty much all ponies.

 
♪I AM THE UNICORN WIZARD♪

Spell #25. Facial hair spell.

It would depend on the strength of star swirls magic. from what we have heard, star swirl was a powerful unicorn, who couldn’t grasp the magic of friendship and thus not being able to pass the final test to alicorn hood.
 
However we know that the strength of his magic was great. Celestia could have had a hand in prolonging the life of the unicorn in the hopes that he would eventually learn the lesson he needed to. Likewise he could have used his own power and understanding of magic to prolong his life.
 
or (head cannon)
 
scorpan, as a sign of his understanding and friendship to stars swirl, assited in the increased life stars swirl exhibited.
 
Lest not forget it was stars swirl that came across the concept and execution of time travel magic. For all we know he may have jumped ahead in time where pony’s understandings of his work were better, and in this era he took on his student clover.