When you make the decision to go gray, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to how to do it. The process can vary dramatically depending upon the length of hair, texture and color. Curly hair helps blend the line of demarcation better than straight hair. The shorter the hair, the faster the transition.
“Your hair history and the health of your hair will determine the exit strategy or escape root, as I like to call it,” says Lorraine Massey, author of Silver Hair: A Handbook (Say Goodbye to the Dye and Let Your Natural Light Shine). “Everyone is truly unique.”
Top Tips for Going Silver
- Add highlights or lowlights — or both: You don’t turn gray overnight. When more of your hair starts growing gray, there will be a line of demarcation between where the color stops and the gray begins. Highlights and lowlights help blend the silver and can add more depth. It’s important to note that you’ll still need to spend more time at the salon to achieve the desired result and maintain it. “I think low lighting is a great way to ease into the grey if you haven’t been coloring your hair or only adding highlights,” say Influencer Trae Bodge.
- Consider a big chop: Cutting it short, while drastic, can dramatically shorten the transition period.
- Give it TLC: Use 100 percent sulfate-free cleansers. Special shampoos specifically for silver hair can help even out the tone of gray hair to cancel out the brassiness or yellowness of gray, and bring out the brighter and whiter part of natural gray.
- Be patient: Know it’s going to be a process. “I struggled together with countless silver sirens during the first few months of growth,” says Massey.
- Embrace the change: “It can be glaring at first, depending on how dark or light your color application has been,” says Massey. “It doesn’t always look pretty. But I promise if you push through this period it will be worth it.”
- Block out negativity: Bodge recalled stylists telling her that her hair was aging and offering to fix it. She had no desire to cover her grays (she does get highlights and lowlights), and considers her hair one of her best features. “I’m sure some people cringe when they see it but I don’t really care!” she says.
- Seek support: Search for Silver Hair groups that are helping each other: #silverhair #silvercurls #silverhairhandbook.
