After the Covid lockdown in the spring of 2020, a lot of regular salon clients were faced with dealing with an unsightly regrowth – particularly challenging for those with dark hair who were seeing a wide band of grey roots peeking up from an otherwise flawless and luminous hair colour from their previous professional hair appointment. That set the tone for some women to start looking at other options for beautiful hair colour, if and when they chose to go natural. So, what should you do if you want to start transitioning to silver hair?
A Slow Transition
Hair regrowth is a bit of a paradox. It feels like it’s growing really fast when you want your roots to stay put as long as possible and, on the contrary, feels like the process is excruciatingly slow when you’re in a rush to have longer hair. It’s just one of those things… So, to make the transition more manageable, your colourist might suggest lowlights – which is essentially adding darker shades that pair well with your natural hair colour. You can also work in highlights into your existing natural grey hair to make the change discreet and progressive.
Remember, there are many hair colouring techniques that can help you add more light into your hair, such as ombré, babylights and strobing (mostly used around the face). But the most versatile, prettiest, and on-trend way to blend in your natural grey hair is balayage, which is entirely customized to match your unique level of graying hair and strategically place lighter-coloured sections where they will beautifully blend with your own salt and pepper strands.
Going Totally Glam
After many years of regularly colouring their greying hair dark, to match their original, natural colour, some women – and, yes, men – decide one day to go platinum to make the inevitable regrowth tolerable (because it’s now mostly invisible as blonde and silver blend), particularly around the face and on the temples. If you decide to go that route, it will necessitate a few appointments in the salon to achieve the perfect shade of platinum or silver.
The process usually requires a colour remover to eliminate all unwanted permanent hair colour, leaving it ready for further processing. The rest of the hair is then bleached to the desired level of lightening, to prep for the new silver or platinum shade with the addition of a toner.
Stylish, for sure! But is it for everyone?
To ensure your new paler hair doesn’t leave you with a washed-out complexion, make sure you use makeup smartly to enhance your features. “We’re used to seeing celebrities going for grey, like Sharon Osbourne who went from her classic reddish hair to a full silver head, but we tend to forget they’re always completely made-up. So make sure you’re aware you will need to count on makeup if you still want to maintain a certain youthfulness to your look,” says Anna Pacitto, co-owner of Pure salon and Artistic Director for Intercoiffure North America. Words of beauty wisdom from one of Canada’s best-known hairstylists!