If part of your scalp is starting to turn silver, it may be time to kiss your beloved one-color locks goodbye. Instead of dying your hair a solid black or brown every month, you can simply embrace your lighter strands and use them to your advantage. By that, we mean, turning your natural "highlights" to real ones that you wouldn't want to get rid of.
"Color weaving or foil weaving is a technique used for creating dimension," explains Katchie Mejias, the owner of Katch Beauty Lounge. It usually involves giving the hair two to three different colors, which includes base color and highlights. Aside from adding dimension to your hair, color weaving can help you camouflage strands that have turned gray or white. "Since you will be adding highlights, the white hairs would blend right in," says the colorist. So if you have a few silvers to hide, here are Katchie's best tips to achieving perfectly color-woven locks:
1. Make sure your hair is in good condition.
For best results, your hair shouldn't have been previously rebonded or permed before coloring. Some colors require a bit of bleaching to achieve, and having recently done a chemical treatment might lead to breakage!
2. Start with a subtle color palette.
If you're a first-timer, Katchie suggests not going for a dramatic change right off the bat. She recommends starting with baby highlights and going for cool tones like ash and blonde beige, as these are less likely to turn brassy as they fade. Warm tones like gold and red, on the other hand, are more prone to a brassy tone. A safer bet is a caramel color, which Katchie deems more natural-looking.
3. Get a good base color.
Your base color will make sure that the light colors you'll be getting from color weaving will appear more natural and less streaky. This will help hide white hair more effectively as well!
4. Be prepared for bleaching.
"If you're going for cool tones such as beige blonde or ash, matte bleaching may be required to achieve the color," explains Katchie. "But if you're going for warm tones such as light brown, chestnut, or caramel, it can be achieved with a colorant or high lift colorant."
5. Show your stylist reference photos.
There are tons of ways to color weave, so it's important to communicate the exact look you want to achieve. For example, in the photo below, thin ash blonde highlights were added to a rich brown base color. According to Katchie, doing a lot of thin weaving creates an equal distribution of light and dark hues.
Another example of thin weaving:
Meanwhile, this is what a combination of thin and chunky weaving looks like. The base color here is ash brown, which was toned with a light ash blonde. This is definitely more of an intermediate shade if you have virgin hair, but for those with a lot of white strands to hide, it's a good option!
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