THE UNSALTED

A couple of months ago I decided to go for a longtime dream of mine: dyeing my hair grey. I did my research, found a professional hair salon, et voila. It took me a total of +- 14 hours at the hairdresser, spread over a two day visit, but the result was magnificent. To accomplish grey hair (or any other pastel color), you need to bleach your hair as light as possible. Yeah, quite the process.

Sadly for me, the grey color would only last a few days, and was completely gone after 2 showers. After 3 re-coloring sessions and an empty bank account I put up the white flag and admitted defeat. When visiting another hairdresser just a few weeks ago, I learned that my hair hadn’t been bleached enough, which is why the color had difficulty sticking. My eye twitch following that remark lasted about a week.

I was officially left with bleached-blonde hair, which I personally did not like at all. With a yellow tone to it, I felt like a twelve year old with a constant red face. Honey blonde just isn’t my look. At all. So I did some research. I had heard about silver shampoos before, but I never bothered experimenting with them, nor needed one of those in the past. A silver shampoo is a shampoo meant for (mostly elderly) people with grey hair or blonde (colored) hair. It neutralizes the warmth, basically removing the yellow shine/pigment from your locks. When used frequently enough it can completely subtract the warmth from your hair color and leave you with a grey, ash color instead. If you have very bleached hair, you might even accomplish getting grey hair just by using this.

Considering I had already spent a fortune on my hair, I decided to look into budget friendly shampoos and stumbled upon the Reflex Silver Shampoo by Schwarzkopf, available at Kruidvat (BE, NL). You use it the same way you’d use any other shampoo, but before rinsing you should leave it on for about 3-5 minutes to give it a chance to work its magic. Silver shampoo is bright purple, and a good one should stay that way (foam included) until you rinse it out. Schwarzkopf’ did the job exactly as expected. I could already see the difference after one try, and people would even ask me if I had dyed my hair again. To be fair: I’ve always been living on the edge when it comes to timing, so I left the shampoo in for about 8 minutes instead of the “maximum” 5. I know, such a daredevil. I did this not only to get the best result, but also because my hair isn’t super blonde, so it would automatically work less than on more bleached hair. Makes sense, right?

Anyway, I am very content with the outcome. My hair is still blonde, but with an ash tone and grayish impressions. The yellow pigment is almost completely gone. The easiest thing about this is that I can continue to use it as a regular shampoo, to maintain this color and maybe even improve it. The Schwarzkopf Reflex Silver Shampoo costs 5,20 euros and contains 250 milliliters. Seems like a good deal to me. Be sure to use a good conditioner afterwards, because silver shampoo tends to dry out your hair a little bit. Don’t worry: you won’t be left with extremely dry hair. Just continue caring for your hair afterwards.

Oh, before I forget: even though I’m happy with this one, you might have a different experience. Every person reacts differently, so it’s possible that you don’t get the same result as I did. That’s okay. There are so many different Silver Shampoos you can try, so start testing!

(c) All photos taken by me, tU.