How to: Become a Silver Mermaid/Unicorn

Hello! And apologies for yet another lengthy absence. I have a lot of photo-heavy posts to bring you, mostly from my trips to Paris!

Today's post is all about getting Silver hair! I frequently get asked on my Instagram @hibkoko how I get my hair the colour that it is. After finding the time, I managed to take some photos on Friday to show the process and even better, to show the process from blonde hair that isn't white.

My hair at the moment is pretty much white without any toner on top, so every few washes I like to add in some silver shampoo and hit my roots with some Directions silver toner (as they are usually brassier than the rest of my hair). Silver can be a hard colour to get and to maintain as it flits it and out quite easily, so you really do have to do a lot of maintenance on it if you want to keep it perfectly so.

One important thing I'd like to add in is that your hair is more likely to take any colour (not just silver) if it is light and more porous (the ends of your hair will always be more porous than the top). Trying to dye black hair silver by just putting a toner on will obviously not do anything. And you can't expect perfect results straight away! Over using toners and shampoos can damage your hair, so don't use them everyday, as you'll find that they won't work with everyday use and will dry your hair out. Always have a hair mask or serum around that you can use on your hair when it's especially dry! I have an oil serum that I put into my hair each time I wash it, and an intensive mask I use maybe once or twice a week to keep my hair feeling soft :)

These are the two products that I used:

I've been using this silver shampoo ever since I became blonde! I will always recommend it...it's a miracle product :)

Another product worth checking out is the Schwarzkopf Provoke Touch of Silver range. It's a very strong silver product, you don't need to leave this on for long at all!

Onto the photos!

Here are my extensions brand new and without anything added. These are colour #613, or "bleach blonde". They were quite golden which was strange as #613 is usually a lot less so, but either way, I was still able to work with these fine. My hair now is a lot lighter than these so it was interesting to see how I'd be able to match everything up!

Just to show comparison, my hair wet next to the dry extensions. This is my hair a few washes after using silver shampoo.

I toned my hair extensions entirely with silver shampoo and I also left a Wella toner on the hair for about 10 minutes too just to see if it would do anything. I used two ways to do it, the first step being:

Fill up your sink with water - it can be cold or warm, maybe not really hot.

Squeeze in some silver shampoo into the sink and mix it around

You can add in as much or a little to your preference - the shampoo can be quite strong and for my own hair, I tend not to leave it on for too long as it works really quickly!

Put your extensions into the water and submerge them, leaving them there for as long as you feel necessary. The longer you leave them, the more they will absorb. This is the correct way to wash hair extensions by the way, so when you need to just refresh them a bit after a few wears, just fill up your sink with water, squeeze in your shampoo and mix, and leave the extensions there to soak .They'll absorb the water and will get clean! When I had micro ring extensions I used to separate the loose hair on my head and really lather that, and then put shampoo through the rest of the hair and leave it for it to clean.

I left the extensions in the water for about 15 minutes and they went a lot whiter and the gold colour went away. I took them out, squeezed the excess water out and then put some Wella Colour Fresh toner on for 10 minutes just to see what would happen. The hair went whiter again and was pretty much a perfect base to put some more silver shampoo on. I lathered some silver shampoo into them, and left this mix on the hair for another 10/15 minutes (see below - this photo is from Saturday morning when I added some more toner)

Again, the more shampoo you use, the more effect you will have,which is why these look quite dark.

I washed off the shampoo and rinsed the extensions and then hung them out to dry outside :) If you can see, the extensions are not as gold as they once were! It's important to let your hair dry naturally, either on a towel somewhere warm, or outside in the sun, as strong artificial heat can damage them, and when you pay however much for your extensions, why ruin them by burning them?

The next day, I wet the extensions so they were damp and I put the silver shampoo lather mix on them twice, for a total of 10 minutes each time (which you can see below). The bigger wefts will generally need more shampoo and maybe a little more time.

These are the extensions after I rinsed them and look how silver they are! So happy :) I put them back onto the washing line to dry in the sun.

Completely dry on the line and while you can still see some blonde in there, the majority of the hair has gone a nice silvery colour which will blend nicely with my own!

And the end result! Look at that difference! Quite a genius I should think ;) The extensions are actually slightly darker than my own hair but the blend is really natural and nice! Once your extensions are done you can leave them and continue to top up the colour on your own hair rather than tampering with the extensions.

Here is me last night in natural light, and I love my hair! Enjoy my face ;D