3 minute read
Striking Silver
Colourist Becky Sutherland shares her advice on achieving an individual colour for clients looking to embrace their grey.
The silver stigma we once knew has become a thing of past and is now a statement of confidence, coolness, and a mark of a life well lived. Hurrah!
Today you will find almost 3 million Instagram hashtags for “greyhair” a further 500k for “greyhairdont care” almost 150k for “greyhairmovement” and a whopping 2.8 million for “silverhair”. Pinterest has reported an uptick in searches for ‘going grey’ and there’s even a trending ‘grombre’, a word to describe growing out your natural grey roots, a la Michelle Visage.
Actress Salma Hayek and supermodel Kate Moss have been celebrating their silver strands with Salma calling her greys her ‘white hair of wisdom’. Michelle Visage has gone back to her roots with the most striking shade of silver against her signature rich midnight black. Grey is even being embraced by Gen Z’s who are rapidly updating their platinum blondes to cooler shades of silver and grey.
If a client wants to embrace their natural grey immediately, a stylist can look to remove any previous colour and then match a colour to their client’s natural grey. I’d advise mixing a few different shades of grey for a more natural look and a softer colour blend, which will allow the natural root to grow out and achieve the end goal of a natural grey. This part of the process will take the longest, however, once the perfect grey base has been created, each salon visit afterwards will take less time.
Another option for clients wishing to go grey is to simply grow it out. This is a far longer process but you won’t be stripping colour.
Growing colour out can take a good six months, if not longer, so your client will need to be in it for the long haul with this option. They may want to try a few hair-up styles, wear more hats or maybe even consider cutting their hair shorter so it’s not so long and arduous to grow it out.
Natural grey hair is coarser as there is less pigment in each strand and the hair follicle produces less sebum too. Naturally grey hair may feel dry, brittle and unruly.
To overcome this, think about care products≠ and opt for a high moisturising shampoo that is sulphate free and effective in enhancing silver tones in grey hair (such as OSMO Silverising Shampoo & Conditioner). Also, ensure you recommend a weekly treatment to provide the hair with the extra salvation it needs.
When styling, we all know it’s important to protect against heat, so always recommend a heat protector which has been designed to thicken and support hair with ingredients like Panthenol Pro-Vitamin B5 to moisturise, dry damaged hair and smooth the cuticle.
Becky Sutherland is OSMO® Brand Ambassador and Educator, and owner of Pink Lemon Hair in Durham.
OSMO®: www.osmo.uk.com
