Last Updated on January 28, 2023 by Gaga
Going Silver Isn’t an Easy Process
To get beautiful, silver hair color, you must first use bleach until your hair becomes almost white. The darker your current color is, the more bleaching sessions you need to lighten your hair gradually. Only the base that’s light enough will make the color show up and last.
In other words, it’s best to seek help from an experienced hair colorist from the beginning. A skilled colorist will safely guide you through the necessary stages to get a perfect light base and then will mix the colors properly to achieve the desired look. This way you’ll avoid serious hair damage and reduce the appearance of unwanted yellow tones.
Silver is a High-Maintenance Hair Color
Silver hair color is short-lived and needs special attention between coloring sessions. Without proper maintenance, your silver hair can soon become prone to frizz and lose its color vibrancy. Darker tones are slightly more consistent than lighter ones.
Fortunately, there are products specially formulated to refresh the color when your silver hair starts to show signs of dullness and fading.
How to Maintain Silver Hair
1. How to Wash Silver Hair
Don’t shampoo your hair immediately after coloring. Wait several days before shampooing to allow the color to set and to give your hair time to replenish its natural oils.
To make the silver color last longer, try to shampoo less often. Frequent shampooing will result in fast color fading.
Never use hot water for washing your hair. Hot water lifts the cuticle, allowing color pigments to escape. Use regular conditioner every time you wash your hair. Finish with cool water to seal the cuticle. Don’t use cool water near the roots and over your head as cool water isn’t good for your sinuses. (I learned this the hard way!).
2. Best Shampoos for Silver Hair
Use mild sulfate-free shampoos that are designed for colored hair. Sulfate cleansers are too harsh for bleached hair that’s already dry and porous and has difficulty retaining color.
Olaplex No.4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo is a color-safe and highly moisturizing, repair shampoo. It helps maintain bonds within hair fibers to restore internal strength and reduce the breakage of processed hair.
The matching Olaplex No. 5 Conditioner is another product to keep your silver hair shiny and healthy.
A quality dry shampoo for colored hair will help you to expand the time between washes.
Dry shampoos and too many different products can build up on your hair, causing the color to lose its vibrancy. Silver hair gets dull easier than some other colors. When the signs of buildup become obvious, you need to use a gentle clarifying shampoo that’s meant for colored hair.
3. How to Keep Silver Hair from Turning Brassy
A couple of weeks after the coloring session, your silver hair may start to show yellow and orange tones. These tones are common after bleaching.
The easiest way to eliminate unwanted warm tones is to use a purple or silver toning shampoo and conditioner. Look for sulfate-free toning shampoos to avoid color fading due to harsh sulfate cleansers.
Use shampoo once a week to keep unwanted warm tones under control and sustain your sparkling silver. Some mild toning shampoos can be used in place of your regular shampoo.
To enhance the toning effect, use the corresponding purple/silver conditioner.
Purple toning masks are milder than purple shampoos. Purple masks don’t dry out the hair as they have moisturizing and nourishing ingredients. The toning effect is usually slightly weaker than when using a purple shampoo.
4. Purple Toning Shampoos for Silver Hair
Suggested brand: Aveda Blue Malva Color Shampoo gently cleanses hair and scalp, neutralizes brassy and yellowing tones, and adds brightness and shine to silver and gray hair. It has a terrific scent and doesn’t leave your hair feeling stripped. The shampoo contains ammonium lauryl sulfate, but it is not listed high on the ingredient list, which means that there’s just a small content of sulfate cleansers present in the shampoo formula.
If you prefer using products from the same line, you can purchase the Blue Malva Color Conditioner made by the Aveda company.
Silver TLC: How to Keep Silver Hair Healthy
1. Deep Conditioning Helps Reduce Breakage
Since your hair has gone through the bleaching process, you may experience dryness, brittleness, and breakage. Deep conditioning ensures that the active ingredients penetrate inside the hair, reduce the effects of damage, replenish moisture, and increase the elasticity of hair fibers. Do deep conditioning once a week or whenever you notice that your hair needs moisture and extra TLC.
Related product: MATRIX Total Results So Silver Triple Power Toning Mask acts as a hybrid between a toner and a deep conditioner. The conditioning ingredients make hair feel silky smooth, while purple pigments banish unwanted yellow tones and give a cool-toned finish to silver and blonde hair.
2. Protect Your Silver Locks from Heat
To prolong the longevity and vibrancy of your silver color, limit the use of heat styling tools. Allow your hair to dry naturally or use a hair dryer only when your hair is almost dry. Also, use a low heat setting when do use a blow dryer or a flat iron, and make sure to apply a good heat protectant. To curl your hair, use methods that don’t require heat such as foam hair rollers.
3. Protect your Silver Hair from Environmental Factors
Hard water: If you live in an area with hard water and don’t have a whole house water filtration system, invest in a filtered showerhead. It’ll remove chlorine, heavy metals, and other hard water deposits, resulting in less mineral buildup and more shiny and manageable hair. Your silver hair will also be less prone to discoloration.
Another way to eliminate hard water deposits that can ruin your color is to use chelating shampoos. This method is less efficient as chelating shampoos are pretty strong and may affect the longevity of silver hair color negatively.
Chlorine: Before hitting a swimming pool, put on a swimming cap or saturate hair with a chlorine-protecting conditioning product such as AquaGuard Pre-Swim Hair Defense. Rinse hair thoroughly immediately after swimming in a pool or salt water.
Sun exposure: Wear a hat if you’re planning to spend a day out in sunny weather or use good sunscreen for your hair to prevent discoloration and sun damage.
4. Use Color-Depositing Products to Refresh your Silver Colored Between Salon Visits
The silver color fades quickly requiring frequent salon trips, which could be quite expensive. Fortunately, it’s possible to extend the time between salon visits using products that temporarily deposit direct dye pigments onto the hair shaft such as color rinses and color-depositing conditioners. These products temporarily revive the shiny and silvery look of your locks and neutralize the unsightly yellow tones, helping your silver hair stay gorgeous for longer. The good side is that they don’t damage your hair, while the biggest drawback is that the application can be a messy process.
Related products:
- Color Rinse: Roux Fanci-Full Temporary Color Rinse (42 Silver Lining)
2. Color Depositing Conditioners: Keracolor Clenditioner (Silver) and Celeb Luxury Colorditioner (Silver) and Celeb Luxury Intense Color Depositing Colorditioner Conditioner, (Silver)
If you find that all written above isn’t enough to protect the integrity of your hair, you can try some at-home bond-repairing treatments. Also, consult your stylist about using Olaplex Bond Multiplier or other corresponding bond-multiplying treatment when bleaching and coloring your tresses.
Gaga is a blogger and founder of the Softer Hair website. She often says that insomnia is to blame for her first blogging attempts. Being the night owl, she hated the morning alarm. She left her office job and returned to what she loved most - writing.
I cannot find any shampoo or conditioner for white hair. I am not blond, gray or silver. Just white! Any suggestions for those of us who seem to be ignored by the shampoo industry?