You’ve envied your friend’s luscious white mane, but you’re worried that bucking your regular hair coloring will leave you looking like an old, grey mare.
Fear not! An impressive number of our clients decided to embrace their natural hair color during lockdown, letting their silver threads shine through. And you know what? By and large those white, grey, pewter, and silver locks look terrific.
You may be curious about what color your unprocessed hair will be. Lots of factors come into play, but I’ll offer this generalization: natural blondes generally have less hair color pigment, so they are more likely to develop a head of snowy white hair. Natural brunettes tend to evolve into an appealing shade of steel grey. Skin tone matters too. Look at your wrist. If your color is cool, your hair is likely to become an attractive silver. If your skin tone is warmer, an appealing pewter may be in your future.
Granted, with restrictions on daily life lifted, we don’t have a ready excuse to sit home for months waiting for our roots to grown out. But there are some steps you can take to ease the transition from colored tresses to “grey.”
For the first few months, I suggest you cover your roots with an easy-to-use root color that washes out with every shampoo; L’Oréal’s Professional Touch-up is terrific, and available at the salon.
Your next step is to recruit the help of your Andre Chreky colorist. They can add a subtle blend of low lights and highlights – close to your natural color palette – to help your grey strands blend in.
Once your grey has grown in substantially, I invite you to take one more plunge: chop, chop, lop off those last dark inches! A tousled pixie cut is a fresh, sassy look that lets your newly natural hair color take center stage. It also has a young vibe, just in case you’re still worried that white or silver hair is aging.
Now for some “yes, buts.” First, if your hair is thinning, going grey may not be best for you. Ironically, coloring hair actually builds up and thickens strands, leaving you with fuller hair. And, if your hair is coarse, you may find it is even more so after you go grey. Why? Because dye smooths out hair cuticles. This is easily remedied if you use a shine-enhancing or smoothing product daily. I recommend the Beyond Shine spray by Aquage. Also, be sure to ask for a cellophane treatment with your next appointment. Just 15 minutes under the blow-dry will boost shine gloriously!
Finally, two bits of advice. Once you’re grey, stop by the beauty counter at Sephora or your favorite higher-end department store. Makeup artists can help you adjust your lipstick, blush, and bronzers to assure that you’re not looking washed out. And, as always, you’ll want to maintain shine and avoid yellowing. So Silver shampoo and conditioner by Matrix and Kenra’s brightening shampoo and conditioner are best-sellers at the salon, for this very reason.
PS: Some of our clients have taken grey hair for a test ride by purchasing wigs that pass the skin tone and pigment tests. Have you? What did you think?
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