Silver Saga Years

As an author of romance novels, I love creating stories. I also love all things beautiful. And one of those things is beautiful hair. So, when I started going gray, I fought it, associating grey hair with being drab and old. I certainly didn’t feel drab or old. But every time my hair color faded in a week or two, I knew I had to do something. I had to create another story to my life — My Silver Saga Years!

After spending some time looking at Facebook reels on going silver, I learned silver is the new blonde or black! I found that even youngish, middle-aged women are letting themselves go grey. Grey is beautiful. But how to go grey is the real challenge.

Some women choose gray-blending while others let it grow out. And then there are those who take the plunge, visit a salon and ask to have their hair transformed to silver. I thought about these various paths and decided to go gray as fast as possible. I told myself, “You can always go back to auburn hair color.”

I’m a DIY sort of gal, so I visited a beauty supply store for consultation. My first step — remove as much dye as possible using a color remover. I assembled my supplies, protected my granite countertop, and began. After thirty minutes I found that it did remove my auburn hair color, but I was left with golden blonde hair.

The next day I went to the drug store and bought a silver toner designed to remove yellow color. It did remove some yellow, but not enough to achieve the silver color I wanted!

Back down to the beauty supply store the next day for more supplies. This time, after consultation, I knew I had to use a cream lightener followed by an ash-blonde toner with added violet. The result was a lovely violet. Still no silver in sight!

The following day, I conditioned my hair really well with hot oil and did a little strategic lightening, dabbing on the lightener here and there to select hair strands. It resulted in lovely silver color, but some sections were still slightly pale yellow.

I think I was on day three or four when I decided to use the toner again. I mixed the ash-blonde toner with the violet toner and #10 volume developer and dabbed it on the pale-yellow areas. It worked! I now have silver hair. And I will post my actual photo in future posts. Right now, I’m using an edited photo.

I don’t recommend that others use my DIY attempts. A lot could have gone wrong. But as a widow, I seize the day and know that life offers no guarantees.