I’ve always wanted to try silver hair ever since the trend took over Instagram but I wasn’t really sure if it would suit me or if I was ready to bleach and potentially damage my hair. As a person who chooses the safest option when it comes to beauty-related decisions (or any life decision tbh), I always leaned towards dark browns, and the most adventurous hair choice I made was when I got a digital perm in my Uni days.
After deciding for what seemed like forever, I finally mustered up the courage to go to the salon and achieve my #HairGoals. I was in constant communication with my hairstylist because I cannot decide whether to push for balayage or do full-blown granny hair. He recommended the balayage technique for Asian hair as root growth won’t be too awkward and it’s possible to delay salon visits for months as long as you can maintain the tone. More on that later.
Here’s the state of my hair before I went silver: I have particularly thick hair so it can actually withstand multiple bleaching sessions; My hair was also chemically treated so we used Olaplex to prep my hair and prevent future damage.
Now the whole process took six hours (!!!) so make sure you have some Netflix episodes and a battery pack ready. The first step was to bleach my hair: he had to bleach my hair thrice to achieve the balayage effect—take note that my hair strands are thick; For some, it might take a few days/weeks in between bleaching to prevent potential breakage. After bleaching, he applied a personalized gray mix toner to my hair and then rinsed it after around 45 minutes. After rinsing, the silver looked kind of darker than what I originally wanted but my hairstylist said that it was intentional because the color will gradually fade to a nice light silver as I wash it.
I had my hair colored before the ECQ and I still get compliments! Silver hair isn’t THAT high maintenance, after all. After the lockdown, one of my first stops would be the hair salon for a toning session (and perhaps a much-needed retouch!) It is highly recommended to go for toning sessions every three months to remove the brassiness and to bring back the nice gray tone. Here are some tips to those who want to ride the silver hair trend:
- Gray hair gets a bad rep as it easily fades. Mine faded after three weeks but I use only sulfate-free purple shampoo and conditioner to remove unwanted brassy tones. It’s impossible to maintain a Daenerys-Targaryen-silver for months but I’m loving my locks’ ash blonde tones.
- Get ready to pre-lighten your hair to a Barbie blonde. Bleaching is no joke (and please please please don’t bleach your hair at home!) and extremely drying. You might need to put on a hair mask every weekend to keep your hair soft.
- Don’t wash your hair every day—from now on, dry shampoo will be your new hair bestie.
Pros
- Now that my hair is already bleached, I can easily hop on other trends like pink, lilac, and other bright tones.
- The whole process is so worth it! I’m in love with my hair even after the silver tone faded.
Cons
- Maintaining bleached hair is a little bit expensive—hair masks, purple shampoo, and conditioner are not cheap and easier to get online.
- Bleaching your hair can dry it out so make sure to prep your hair and maintain it after the process.
- Light hair can make you paler than usual but nothing like a few swipes of lip tint cannot fix!
Will I do it again? Definitely yes.
The post Review: My journey to silver hair appeared first on Beauty Insider Philippines - Biggest on Beauty Product News and Reviews!.
