Even I wanted in on the Silver hair trend!
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| My journey within a couple of hours of going from dark to Chrome Silver |
The grey and silver hair trend has really taken hold. Celebrities from 'Orange is the New Black's' Dascha Polanco Rihanna and Kylie Jenner have all been seen to jump on the granny grey trend. Whilst the likes of Lady Gaga and Pink have sported softer grey via Silver shades.
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| Dascha Polanco, Rihanna and Kylie Jenner all sporting grey |
Seeing this shade emerging in 2014, I knew consumers would need a Silver Toner to create these soon to be desired grey hues. For this reason, I created Colour Restore Chrome. Where as Colour Restore Iced Platinum is designed to neutralise yellow tones and Cool Ash orange tones, Colour Restore Chrome builds a solid Silver grey colour in white blonde hair.
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| My Colour Restore Chrome Silver Grey toner |
So before I explain my Silver Journey, what are the bare facts of artificial silver and grey hair?
Will it suit me?
Generally grey and silver hair is more amenable to suiting varying skin tones than people would believe. After all, Silver and grey are of the 'white' family and because white (as a colour) is (by contradiction) void of colour, it's a key neutral.
However, there are certain skin tones and natural hair types who should really stay away from silvers and greys. Generally, if you are the archetypal 'warm' with freckle prone skin and (natural) auburn or copper toned hair, changing your shade to grey or silver will be very harsh on you. The excessive cool tone will cause the skin to have a drained and aged quality and the overall look will be harsh. If you are very warm toned and love the idea of being a super light shade, take a tip from Nicole Kidman and keep it warm. In these instances my Candy Colour Restore Toner is a much better option.
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| Nicole Kidman is naturally warm toned and would not suit Silvers or Grey shades. If you have a similar tone and prefer light bases, opt for the initial whitening of the hair, but then use Colour Restore Candy to create the correct warm tone. |
There are so many silver shampoos - will these create silver or grey?
No! This is now another big area of confusion. Silver shampoos were (originally) so named to keep naturally grey and white hair clean and pure looking. In recent years, artificial blondes have found them good to prevent the hair displaying soft brassy tones. However, all such products can do is offer very mild neutralisation of unwanted yellow tone. They cannot actually create a grey or silver. However, once you get your hair grey or silver, you do need to switch to using a silver or blue shampoo as your regular cleanser. The reason being, is grey and silver hair will very quickly turn a dirty steel yellow if you do not keep counteracting the underlying yellow pigment in the hair.
Is it easy to create a silver and grey shade?
It depends on the natural base and length, but generally it can be quite intricate. Effectively, silver and grey hair is a platinum blonde that requires significant lightening and toning to get the hair to white. I would never recommend anyone attempt to lift artificial dark, long hair to platinum blonde in one hit - the hair will just not stand it. Instead, a good recommendation is to firstly get long hair to a soft orange and then overlay a Lilac Pastel colour. The lilac will counteract the orange and produce an off-blonde beige. If you then keep conditioning the hair, several weeks later you can go in again and lighten some more. Eventually the hair will tone to white, and from this point you will get be able to successfully overlay an effective grey or silver shade.
Unless you have short hair (like mine) or are confident you have no artificial (dark or tonal) colour anywhere within the hair, just don't attempt to go grey or silver in one hit. The greatest warning I can give is NEVER mix up strong bleach and 40 volume (12%) peroxide and apply it to artificially coloured, darker long hair types - expecting to get a white blonde. Strong bleaches and peroxide strengths are very harsh on such hair types and using them will cause the hair to go into meltdown. Rather than lifting, the cuticle will be burnt off, the hair will not budge passed a bright peach and you will never be able to tone it. The aforementioned, is perhaps the biggest mistake I see home colourists making when trying to go light blonde. So be patient and take this process slowly - overtime.
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| A great example of what happens when very dark artificially coloured hair is bleached in one hit, with the late great Amy Winehouse. You can see how the hair is holding pockets of orange (where the previous dark shade had been). The peach shade can also not be toned as the cuticle is gone and the orange too deep. The loss of Amy and her talent speaks for itself and if Amy was still with us, she's a great example of someone who would have pulled off the dramatic silver grey look fantastically. |
So if you are not deterred and still want to aim for the Silver Grey look, I explain in my next blog how I got -
From this:-
To this
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