In my last blog I talked about embracing when our hair starts to lose its natural pigment and why it’s important that we view the colour of our hair against our skin tones, so that if we enhance our hair colour it always complements our natural look.
In that blog you heard my views. In this blog I thought it would be good for you to hear what the Samantha Elizabeth stylists have to say – across the age range, about embracing our grey.
Here’s what our stylists say:
LOIS
I love it when people want to start growing out their natural grey – it’s a lovely goal to work towards. It can be hard growing it out, but I find using toners/glossings makes the grey look better, it can help naturalise the colour, or we can even give your hair more top. I have two clients who are embracing their greys. One lady has a blue grey, and the other has a pinky grey. You can achieve these by coming in every 2-4 weeks for a top up toner. It doesn’t damage the hair. What it does do is fill you with more with confidence.
ELLA When people start growing out their natural grey, you can start thinking of all the fun things you can do with it. Such as playing around with fashion colours (pink, yellow, purple, blue) or enhancing the grey by applying a toner every 2-4 weeks to make it more silvery/grey and adding shine to your hair. Shine is one of the things that is often lost with natural grey. Adding colour or shine this isn’t much commitment and is not damaging to the hair. Fanola purple shampoo can help enhance the grey at home – I really recommend this, it’s the best purple shampoo I have used and it actually works.
KATE
I’m loving my natural greys coming through!!! I have been in the hairdressing industry for thirty years and I have been colouring my hair since I was sixteen and I have been many colours. When I was a teenager I was blonde, this was okay because I had short hair, so the condition was always good. Back in the eighties we didn’t have the knowledge about keeping your hair in good condition. Olaplex wasn’t around back then!
When my hair was long I used to put a brown/ black semi on it. This was quick and easy and my hair was lovely and shiny. I kept this look through my thirties. Then I met Sam, who, as I am now in my forties, very diplomatically asked if I had thought about going lighter – she mentioned the word ‘age’ and whether it looked right being dark haired. I then had highlights put through. Sam was right, it went better with my skin tone.
When I hit 45 the greys started to appear big time. I knew I didn’t want to get to the point where I was really grey and then decide to grow my colour out. Also, when I hit my forties I started to use more natural products and avoiding chemicals. I have a lot of natural red tones in my hair and every time I coloured it and got out in the sunshine the ends went so ginger. With that and then the greys, I wasn’t happy with the overall effect.
Now, my hair is my natural colour. I’ll be honest, the past two years have been challenging with my greys especially, especially as I am in the hairdressing industry. Mind you it got to the point where Sam wouldn’t colour my hair for me, so that made it easier!
My greys are at the stage where they look like streaks and when I have been in the sun it can turn the greys yellow. So now it looks like I have had highlights. Now and again I wash my hair with Fanola purple shampoo, which cleans the greys. My hair is in really good condition and I love it. I’m always getting positive comments about it.
I found that when I started letting my natural grey come through, it was other people around me who had more of a problem with it than I did. I got comments like “you’re too young to be grey”, “why do you want to look old”, “grey hair looks ugly”. Luckily the people who I care about in my life encouraged me to do it.
It can be an emotional journey and about finding yourself as a person especially if you have always coloured your hair. I found groups on Facebook like ‘Grey and Proud’. This has thousands of women embracing their greys and not bowing to society pressure. I feel if you are confident in how you look then don’t worry about what other people think – embrace your greys. I will never colour my hair again and I wish my hair had more greys! FRAN
I feel that if you are fighting against grey hair and having to colour your roots every 3 to 4 weeks then what’s the point. It’s a losing battle, not to mention it’s not good for your hair. If it’s going grey then go with it and embrace it and most of all enjoy it. There is nothing more natural and beautiful than someone who is comfortable with who they really are. Work with your beauty don’t cover it up. I love it. ESTA I love it when a client tells me they want to grow out their colour and embrace their natural grey. There is so much you can do with that natural look – it’s not ageing and boring like we’ve been taught to think. A lot of people don’t realise how pretty their natural colour is because they are colouring every 4-6 weeks and don’t get to see it to appreciate it. Some people ask me if it will be boring with grey hair, but I think it’s the opposite. We can use different toners/ purple shampoo for a subtle change or something bolder with bright fashion colours and pastel colours for brighter and fun looks, and these processes are a lot easier to do on natural hair.
But it has to be right for you. Going grey is something you have to do when you’re ready, and if you don’t feel 100% ready to go grey then wait. There is always time. That said, for anyone reading this blog who is thinking I want to try my natural look, then my advice is come into the salon and talk to us about your options. It could be the best thing you’ve done for your hair for a long time.
With love
Samantha and The SE Team