Gray Blending
Recently I had the chance to coach at a friend’s salon. Her salon caters to the local neighborhood and has a high percentage of middle-aged women with varying amounts of gray hair. Many of them return to the salon every 3 weeks to “cover” the gray. I worked with several of these clients to help them move into a manageable, less expensive method to color their hair, cover the gray and decrease their “Chemical Dependency” as I like to call it. If you are one of the many clients out there that feel that they must return to the salon every three weeks to cover gray hair, with just a change in perception you can decrease your investment in time and money on your hair.
If you look at “gray” hair, it is your natural color mixed with individual white hairs. As we age, all of our natural color gets cooler and darker, so it creates the “gray” or “salt and pepper” look. The percentage can vary anywhere from 1-100%, but remember that anywhere from 25-75% white hair still contains 75-25% natural color. So quite often when you get your hair colored, all of the natural color goes warmer or “brassy”. This is due to the oxygen in the formula that diffuses the pigment. You will achieve 100% coverage, but with an unnatural look. If you transition from gray coverage to gray blending, you can reduce this result.
Think of gray hair looking like a piano keyboard, you have white keys and black keys. Conventional gray coverage is like latex paint. If you paint the keyboard with latex paint, you cannot tell what was black or white. All keys are going to look the same. But imagine if you used a wood stain. If you painted the keyboard, you would still see the original depth of the keys. The white keys would then look like a highlight or variation of tone. So, as the new white hair grew back in, the low contrast would not be as harsh, so you don’t need to reapply as soon. You can go in between visits longer.
Ask your stylist about gray blending. It is lower maintenance, more gentle and less expensive!