We have a lot of customers at Believe who qualify as Baby Boomers, and they are proud to have made it –healthier and fitter—than any other generation, into their late 50's and beyond. But no amount of vitamins, supplements or yoga classes can erase on of the most visible passages of time...gray hair. When you go gray, is mostly determined by genetics, but how you go gray is up to you. No need to have mousy, washed out helmet hair like the “old” ladies or gentlemen of the last generation. Silver is the new black, baby and gray is great (with a little help.)
One of the reasons for going gray we hear the most at Believe is that our customers find their hair needs dyeing every few weeks—say every three instead of every 6--and then roots show up. Since these are often gray roots, they look dull. Or silver roots which shine like beacons announcing “I need to be dyed.”
Maybe you are tired of the battle or maybe you just want to let your true—more mature—self out and the effort to constantly look younger be damned.
Whichever the reason, here are some things to consider before you take the plunge. (If you went silver or white young in life, read on for tips on keeping your shiny silver vibrant and consider not getting your hair colored. Silver hair framing a young face can be striking.) But if you are of an age where your hair is starting to turn due to normal aging...Consider this:
- If you bristle when someone guesses your age as over 40 or sees you with a young child and assumes its your grandchild and that doesn't bring a smile to your face, you might not want to go gray. If you're still squeezing into miniskirts and dating 20-somethings, the fact that you might get treated differently with gray hair is probably not going to make you happy.
- Do you have wildly interesting streaks of grey or white now? If they are framing your face or giving you men an adorable Jon Stewart skunk streak, you might not want to mess with success. Let your hair alone until more has gone gray—then decide if we should color or not. The same goes with highlights. If you are used to lots of blonde (or even other color) streaks, letting your whole head go one color—even if it is silver—might not offer enough “drama” for you.
- Are you confident enough to pull it off? Remember Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada'? Now there was a confident silver-haired woman. So is Jamie Lee Curtis in all those yogurt commercials. From Dame Helen Mirren to Richard Gere, confidence is the magic key to making gray magical instead of mousy.
- Are you a “dirty blonde”? The problem is light hair going gray looks dirty, so either make it all gray/silver or color it all blonde. In this instance, hit 'em hard or go home.
- Got six months? If your hair is long, no matter how good a job we do at blending your roots to hide the demarcation line it's going to take a while to let your gray grow in. (Your hair grows about a half an inch per month.) Consider a shorter style for this period and then, when its passed, you can grow long lovely silver hair like Emmy Lou Harris.
- Can't stand the wait? Get lowlights in the meantime to help blend in newly-emerging grays and come into Believe often for cuts to get rid of that old dyed hair.
- Get tough. Silver hair can grow out coarse or wiry. We at Believe will show you how to use a flat iron to jeep the frizzies in check. Anti-frizz serum like Chromastices Repair will help too, Keeping your hair in great condition both by using a daily conditioner and occasional deep conditioning like Aestelance Protein or Mud Masque will help keep up the moisture content of aging hair.
- Don't forget to drink gallons of water and take an age-appropriate vitamins. Water helps keep your hair from being dull and the vitamins help it grow more quickly.
- Going for the gold...err silver: If you make the decision to cross that line into gray or silver, we're behind you 100%. We'll recommend shampoo (like Aestelance Clarifying), conditioner (like Scruples White Tea) and even a few tricks of the trade to bring out the gloss (A clear semi-permanent glaze).