To transition to gray hair smoothly, there is a coloring method to adopt without hesitation. We tell you everything.
After the age of fifty, the question always ends up burning on our lips in front of the mirror: should we continue the fierce war against the roots or finally raise the white flag? If the transition to salt and pepper has long rhymed with fear, or frequent trips to the hair salon, a new, much more subtle approach is shaking up the codes of coloring. No more pronounced lines and colors that fade after three shampoos. Today, experts are banking on an ultra-luminous fade technique that transforms your first white hair into real style accessories, without ever giving an aging look. Perfect for gently switching to a silver mane, and embracing your natural look with elegance. All with a much more modern look. Zoom.
The secret to adopting your new silver color discreetly? Forget all-over coloring that saturates the hair. Everything here lies in the art of mixing the shades to blend your natural gray hair into the mass. Rather than covering everything, the colorist works in zones, like embroidery: he alternates very fine strands of light gray for light, and lowlights – this darker reverse sweep – to restore body and depth. By mixing these touches of light with a beige/gray patina, we avoid the uniform “helmet” effect. The result is rich, multidimensional and not only blurs the roots, but also gives incredible movement to the hair. The name of this trend? The Quiet Silver.
This may seem counterintuitive at first, but strategically adding more gray throughout the lengths can actually soften the contrast and make the roots less visible as the hair grows out. “I recommend placing highlights strategically to diffuse and break up that sharp gray horizontal bar we see too often“, explains Jackie Seabrooke, a professional hairstylist to the British version of Glamour. Thus, regrowth is no longer perceived as a flaw to hide, but an element which adds dimension and light to the hair. Little by little, the gray settles in in the most natural and gentle way.
Light to medium hair will particularly benefit from this technique and the easier transition since the contrast is softer between the regrowth and the lengths. But darker manes are not left out: the hairdresser can always offer cool shades like ash brown for example, or even certain reds in order to create a real harmony between the gray tones and the base color. The ultimate advantage of Quiet Silver? Much less frequent visits to the salon than with coloring. We prefer patinas every one to two months to maintain the shine of the reflections, and that’s it!
