To Do: Go Gray
Gosh going gray. Ugh! Right? Well, not anymore! I used to think that there were only a few alternatives to actually going gray gracefully. Let’s see.. (1) cut all your hair off and let it grow out gray, or (2) see #1.
We are living in the 21st century my friends, and with apologies to the beginning of the Six Million Dollar Man TV show (I age myself, I know, but I am going gray, so duh): “Friends, we can rebuild the color. We have the technology…Better than it was before. Better… stronger…faster.” Check it out!:
“Whah? That’s amazing…” you croak! Yup…I know. But wait for it…first you have to read a little background.
MY STORY
I used to respond to people who commented on how often I changed my hair styles and my hair colors by saying “hey, easier than changing husbands, ha ha”. Well then I got divorced. Oops. I was going to have to come up with a reply better than that!
The truth is I loved changing my hair color and my styles…
…but as I got older, it wasn’t working out so great anymore. My hair was becoming thinner (a natural part of aging) and I started to see more and more gray (um, also natural). I felt lucky though, because my gray was coming in as strands here and there. Some people’s gray comes in at the roots or just at their temples, or, even for some, in patches throughout the head. This is can be problematic if you want to go gray gracefully, or have been coloring your hair forever, and it’s now gray underneath and you don’t know what to do. More on that later. For now, back to me.
For the last 10 years, I have colored my own hair (you can read my blog on that here )…but in the last six months, I have just decided to let it go gray. So freeze-frame: the color was a dark brown like this…
I chatted with my hair stylist for ideas on what to do, and I told I was having to color the gray away every couple of weeks. I wanted to go gray, but I didn’t want that two-tone look, where you hair is brown, and then black in some areas and then gray through it…blah blah, I know you know what I mean.
She suggested Aveda’s Black Malva shampoo and conditioners, which brings out cool, deep tones in natural and tinted dark shades and discourages the appearance of red or brassy tones. She thought it might be enough to cover the brown I had been doing and ease it into the darker color of my hair, while still letting the gray strands peak through. She was right! And over the last few months, as my hair has grown, I have been able to cut the brown completely out, but it looked fine as it was growing out. And I even got Angelo, my husband, on to the bandwagon for his “salt and peppa’” look, and he uses the products now too.
The Aveda shampoos come in 4 different routines for this idea…one for gray/silver, one for darks, one for blondes, one for browns. We will probably switch to the silver/gray shampoo/conditioner soon.
If your situation is like mine, that is, strands of gray with color treated hair that isn’t too far off from your current hair color, you may be fine with this approach as well.
MY GRAY ISN’T LIKE YOURS, LIZ
Ok now back to the amazing “new” color processing that allows those of you going through a different gray cycle to actually keep your hair long AND go gray without having to cut it all off “pixie-style”.
Can you imagine not having to get your color done every few weeks? Not waking up seeing that gray in your hairline? Not. Having. To. Worry. About. Your. Roots? Sounds pretty good right? The amazing colorist responsible for these transformations is Jack Martin, from Irvine CA. He owns his own salon and freely reveals his formulas on his Instagram feed (@jackmartincolorist). Now these changes DO NOT HAPPEN IN A REGULAR APPOINTMENT. Many take hours! And I mean 8 to 10 hours, and clients wait months for an appointment and come from all over the world!
This transformation took 11 hours for example, including the stretch break!:
Here’s how Jack described it:
- This client came to me seeking gray silver color to blend and match her blotchy gray roots so she can stop coloring her hair black boxed color, total service was 11 hours, I started the long process by removing the artificial dye using @malibucpro cpr for 45 minutes then @pravana color extractor for 20 minutes each process, then I bleach the whole head starting from where her gray roots starts in foils by taking thin baby strands and in some areas bigger chunks to follow the pattern of her natural gray roots by using the amazing big 9 by @guytang_mydentity with 30 vol mixed with @olaplex and leaving her natural gray roots out of foils for about 4 hours until I reached level 10 pale yellow blonde, during processing I had to open each foil and reapply a new lightener mixture to warm areas, in the meanwhile I colored the hair that left outside foils with guytang mydentity dark shadow mixed with 10 vol to create that salt and pepper pattern to match her natural gray roots since dark shadow is a dark gray color, processing for another 30 minutes, rinsed first the hair outside the hair then removed foils and rinsed the whole head, quick shampoo then pre toned with @redken shade eq 1/2 oz 9P 1/2 oz 9T mixed with 1 oz clear and 2 oz of processing solution for 20 minutes, rinsed well, dry 70% then applied @kenraprofessional 10 SM with zero lift developer on the hair that has been worked on only (I didn’t apply it on her natural roots) process for 30 minutes. Shampoo, cut and style with round brushes.
Now, of course, that’s way too technical for us lay people, but it wouldn’t be for your colorist. Almost all the questions in his feed are from colorists and other professionals wanting to emulate his work and learn how to do this themselves for their clients. Pricing will be somewhere between $700 to $1000 depending on where you live. For a 10 hour process, that includes the cut…that’s not bad, I have to tell you. And of course, it would not have to be repeated!
BUT YOU SOLD ME HALO EXTENSIONS, LIZ
Many of my clients are halo extension wearers..halos are the non-damaging way to wear hair extensions and are a “modern miracle” in and of themselves in my beauty book (see my picture collage above, where I am wearing a different halo in each image)! Here’s another time I was wearing a halo. My own hair was maybe to my chin or so.
To me, it’s so fun to change it up! (But I digress…) Now, halos are typically already color treated - they come in over 40 colors and I have never been able to NOT match someone…unless they were gray! But now, even halos can be color treated to be gray as Jack showed:
CONCLUSION
There is now a way to go gray without cutting all your hair off. You don’t have to stay stuck on the hamster wheel of coloring your hair all the time if you don’t want to…it is up to you! This is for the woman in control!