I never thought these words would ever come out of my mouth. I’m proud to have long silver hair!
When I first found multiple silver stands at the early age of 14 years old, I was horrified. “Who would want to be with someone that had silver hair?” I would never have a boyfriend or a husband, because, I was aging before my time. Silver hair was for my grandparents, not me.
How foolish I was at that young age to think I needed a boyfriend or a husband to make me whole. That my hair color would be the determining factor in my life. It did play a small role, however I had a lot of life to live and a bunch of growing up to do.
I went on to graduate high school, and then after that I attended cosmetology school. Why not tackle the silver hairs “head on” and that’s just what I did. I had gotten quite good at hiding those grays, but as we all know, it’s a losing battle. So I decided if I was going to color my hair, I was going to know how to do it and even be in the business that took care of that for other people too. Over the years my hair has been about every color you can imagine, with the exception of black. I started coloring it my natural dark brown, then went into all different shades of reds. Next was the light caramel browns and beiges and on to blonde. The colors got lighter over the years, and the time and money spent in the salons got longer and more costly. I was bleaching and toning my hair when I finally said “enough is enough.”
That was almost 6 years ago, and I’ve never looked back.
I have learned a few things about gray/silver hair that I want to share with you.
Gray/silver hair tends to be thinner and drier. It is important to make sure that you have a good hair mask to apply at least once a month, if not every couple of weeks.
Gray/silver hair is the most fragile of all the hair colors, because it lacks melanin. Melanin is what gives you the color in your hair.
When using hot tools such as a blow dryer, curling irons, flat irons etc. make sure to use a low heat setting and heat protection products on your hair before styling.
Gray/silver hair will change color with over use of hot tools. And also needs sun protection products if you’re out in the sun a lot. We take care of our skin we need to protect our hair too.
Since Gray/silver hair often is drier and so it doesn’t need to be shampooed as much. The longer you can go in between washing the better for your silver locks.
If you have silver/gray hair that has a yellowish hue or have over-used hot tools, and it has left you with a brassy color or even a greenish hue, you need a product to help cancel that out. The best shampoo to use are shampoos with a purple hue. The purple shampoo will help knock out any of the brassiness or yellow tones in your hair. I recommend you use it every other shampoo. I use a moisture shampoo and conditioner when I’m not using a purple pigmented shampoo.
I try as much as possible to let my hair air dry naturally. If I do have to use the blow dryer, I will use a diffuser and try and only dry my hair close to my scalp and let the rest dry on it’s own.
I have naturally curly hair, so I also use different curl creams and oils. What I use and where depends upon the weather. When the humidity is high, I will use some lighter hair oils for frizz and focus on the shorter curlier hair near my scalp. When the air is dry outside, I tend to use creams and moisture-based products in my hair concentrating on the ends.
I’ll list below the products and tools I’ve used over the years that have worked well on my hair. They vary in price, and I do change products every couple of months.
Please feel free to leave me a question or comment. I’ll answer them the best I can, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll research and get it for you.
XO
Photographer/Sam Moore
