Silver grey hair complements lots of different skintones, and works for all hair lengths and hair textures. Silver grey isn’t usually a natural tone of grey hair, but there are things you can do to get a silver tone for your grey hair, which looks shiny, bright and pretty.
Is Silver Grey The Right Shade For Your Hair?
Silver grey hair looks stunning, but it is not universally flattering on everyone. It comes down to your personal skintone, on whether silver grey will enhance your appearance, or leave you looking washed out.
Cooler skin tones typically complement silver hair color beautifully. If you have pink, red, or blue undertones in your skin, a true silver color, or icy grey colored hair will likely suit you well.
Warmer skin tones can still look beautiful with silver gray hair, but you need to choose the perfect shade of silver. Consider softer, muted grays with beige or ash undertones, rather than stark white hair or bright silver. This will stop your hair color from clashing with your beautiful natural golden or peachy undertones in your skin.
Your natural hair color also matters. If you currently have dark hair, it’s going to need significant bleach treatments to achieve a true silver, which will inevitably damage your hair. Lighter starting hair colors will make the color change easier, and cause less hair damage.
Choosing The Best Silver Tone For Your Skin Undertone
As I explained above, your skin undertone will help you decide which shade of silver grey will look the most flattering on you. To do this, you need to work out if you have warm, cool, or neutral skin undertones.
Identifying Your Skin Undertone
Check the veins on your wrist to work out your undertone. If you have blue or purple veins, this shows you have cool undertones, while green veins suggest warm undertones. If you see a mix of both blue/purple and green, you likely have neutral undertones.
If you have cool undertones (with pink, red or blue colors beneath your skin), you can wear most silvery grey shades. Pure silver, platinum blonde and icy grey tones will complement your skintone the most.
Warm undertones (with peach, golden or yellow colors) look best with warmer silver tones. Champagne silver, mushroom grey, or silver with subtle beige undertones will work beautifully for you. Plus, salt and pepper hair with warmer grey tones will look particularly stunning against your skintone.
Those with neutral undertones have the most flexibility, as both cool and warm silver shades will work for you. You can test silver wigs or temporary colors before committing, to work out which color is best for you, before committing.
How Light You Really Need To Go For Clean Silver
You need your hair to reach “level 10”, the palest yellow blonde, before you’re able to dye your hair silver.
Silvery grey hair dye, and silver hair dye just won’t do anything on hair that’s too dark. Cool tones in silver need a nearly white base, to show up properly.
Any remaining warmth or yellow tones in your hair, will just muddy the final result, and will end up giving you a greenish or dull grey, instead of the clean silver you want.
Minimum lightness levels for different silver results:
| Silver Style | Required Base Level | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Icy platinum silver | Level 10 | Palest yellow, almost white |
| Bright metallic silver | Level 9-10 | Very pale yellow |
| Steel gray | Level 9 | Light yellow blonde |
| Silver highlights | Level 9-10 | Depends on contrast desired |
If your hair still looks yellow or brassy after hair lightening treatments, you’re still not ready for silver application. You will have to have even more bleaching sessions, or use a purple hair toner, to neutralize any warm tones first.
Toning Silver Grey Without Going Purple Or Green
Purple shampoos can end up over depositing color, and leave your silver grey hair with unwanted purple/green tints. So, you need to be mindful with how long you leave toning products on your hair, and how often you use them.
Use your purple shampoo once or twice a week, and apply it for just 2-3 minutes, and don’t leave it any longer, so it neutralizes any brassiness, without staining your hair purple.
Before you apply your purple toner, use a clarifying shampoo to remove any product or mineral build-up on the hair. Clean hair will absorb toner more evenly, preventing patchy purple/green areas.
If your hair has already turned purple, using a clarifying shampoo will help you strip out the unwanted purple pigment.
If your hair as a green tint (which usually comes from chlorine/mineral deposits), you can use clarifying shampoo the same way, with good results.
Hi, my name is Gemma, and I’m the owner of MakeupMuddle.com. I’m a true beauty obsessive, and love writing about anything to do with beauty – I have been a beauty writer since 2012.