From Blonde to Silver (and Everything in Between!) with Colour-Freedom Metallic Glory

A few years ago, I had what I like to call "The Great Bleach Disaster of 2013". I really wanted Danaerys Targaryen hair so bleached it and bleached it again and, well, you can imagine what happened. I experienced breakage, the awful cotton wool-feel, lost elasticity and my hair was just generally in a terrible condition. I learned from it and would never, ever bleach my own hair again. 

Fast forward to 2016 and, when my friends from home were over with me at uni one weekend, I spotted something in Superdrug that made me think "oooh!". The "something" in question was this:

Knight & Wilson Colour-Freedom Metallic Glory in Silver Grey

What? Permanent silver hair colour?!? I'd only ever seen silver achieved after toning white hair and, as such, I'd never attempted it after what I described in paragraph one happened. I was absolutely in love with silver hair that I'd seen scattered about the Internet but thought it was out my grasp. Would this change everything? Would I finally be able to achieve a silver hue??

My friends said I should go for it so I bought a pack. After the weekend, I decided to take the plunge and go for it. This was my hair prior to dyeing (except with some roots coming through):

So, it says for this particular shade that hair should be at least a level 9 blonde with no warm tones such as yellows or oranges. As you can see in the photo, I had some warm tones in my hair. My roots were also particularly warm. I wondered if the dye would tone these parts down and make the parts that had been highlighted previously silver. I should probably have toned before applying it but the warm parts were quite dark compared to the rest so it may not have made a difference. But anyway. This was the result after leaving it on for 35 mins (10 mins longer than the stated time to see if it could blast away the warmth):

Not bad, eh?? I really liked it in my bedroom light (it was dark at this point). Near my roots you can see some warmer parts but they didn't look too bad to me.

Well, until I looked at it in natural light. I don't have any photos of it in daylight at this stage but it was pretty obvious that it had worked beautifully on my highlighted parts and not marvellously on the rest. It had toned it down a bit but that was about it. However, I wasn't too surprised. The stubborn warm bits had been lingering for a while and the dye did explicitly state that any warm tones may clash with the dye and produce unwanted results. So I wasn't surprised in the slightest.

I decided to try a toner that I'd bought on a whim at the same time as the dye. This was a toner I'd never seen before and it was quite new to the market, made by the sister company of ColourB4 (thought I recognised the font/logo):

ColourOn Ice Cool Blonde Toner

It's pretty dark coming out of the tube and is a very indigo-shaded thick cream (apologies for the awkward hand picture, I couldn't get my camera to focus in any other position!):

So I had faith in it. The results were great, it really toned down the warmth and made the silvery parts even more silver:

I was happy, though I could still see some warmth. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been. The toner also made my hair feel incredibly soft so I was a fan straight away.

A few days later, I curled my hair for a mad scientist-themed night out with friends. I noticed my roots, which were stubbornly staying warm and were beginning to irritate me:

The rest of it looked lovely, though I did notice some warmth stubbornly staying in throughout the rest of it, underneath, too.

This pic was what convinced me that I needed to do something about it:

Behold my amazing Photoshop skills! My roots looked brown. BROWN. I'm not even brown naturally, I'm a dark blonde. NOPE, thought I. That was it. I was going to have to suck it up and get some bleach on there if I wanted the whole thing to be silver.

For the past 18+ months I've been looking after my hair a lot more. I've reduced the amount of sulphates and silicones I've been using, slathering it in coconut oil fairly regularly, using argan oil on the ends, using far less heat, etc. So the condition of it has improved massively. I also invested in a boar brush, which makes it feel particularly silky. So I was less worried about bleaching it now, though still somewhat anxious so I made sure I knew what I was doing this time.

I refused to go over a 20 volume developer and was prepared to spend more time lightening it. I also invested in a colour remover (JoBaz, which I've used and raved about before on here) and Wella Color Charm toner (T14). I had also heard about a trick to try and reduce the impact of the damage a bit: using coconut oil before bleaching (leaving the oil on during the bleaching process). I had accepted that I would be damaging my hair (but absolutely REFUSED to let it get to the stage that it had been in 2013) and was prepared to trim off some of the length if necessary. I did do a strand test before proceeding to make sure I wasn't going to fry my hair. I was also prepared to look the heck after it following the processes. 

So. I did this over the course of 2 days. Not recommended by many as it's so many processes and harsh on the hair. I had a slight deadline though as I was heading home from uni for Easter the day after the 2nd day. I would still advise resting though and conditioning and treating the hair in between. But anyway.

Stage one was the colour removal. I was sad to lose the fab colour from the previously highlighted parts of hair as they did look stunning. I was also curious about what the colour remover would do to a silver dye and whether it would completely remove it.

It removed it beautifully. It also caused the strange green ends (which had previously been coloured with LaRiche Directions in Neon Blue and Violet). That was fine, I was planning on putting the blue/purple back in at some stage, anyway.

Very brassy roots, as you can see. I then bleached it with Jerome Russell powder bleach and Wella Color Charm 20 volume developer after having had coconut oil sat on it for about an hour. This was the result:

Slightly less brassy roots, yay! The condition of it didn't feel too bad at all, a little dry but it was to be expected. I then caked it in coconut oil again and slept overnight in it.

The next morning, I noticed there was still a lot of brass and it was a pale orange rather than the required pale yellow. I guessed that I hadn't left the bleach on for long enough (due to my panic about a possible Great Bleach Disaster of 2016!), only around 25 minutes, and I didn't cover it or apply heat, either.

So, another bleach was necessary. Using the same products (and having covered it in coconut oil again), I bleached and left it on for around 40 minutes this time, covered it in cling film and applied heat via a hairdryer for around 2 minutes.

The result:

Muuuuch better! It was now at the required stage with very little brass. I also noticed that, once again, apart from some dryness throughout, it was otherwise intact and ok. It didn't feel like cotton wool, it wasn't snapping off and even the ends weren't too bad. Amazing. I honestly believe the coconut oil helped make it more manageable and less dry and will never bleach again without first covering it in coconut oil first.

Right, so, onto the silver dye! Finally! I had toned it after the first bleach with ColourOn (which didn't do a huge amount this time because there were a lot of orangey tones, but it again left my hair feeling super soft so huge points for that) and then Wella Color Charm T14 (which helped a lot but didn't touch the roots, unsurprising considering how brassy and warm they were). So this felt like such a process! Would it be worth it?

I had to get the Graphite Grey this time as all 3 Superdrugs I'd checked in the city had sold out of Silver Grey (this line is exclusive to Superdrug). I decided to leave the dye on for a very short amount of time as a) this one was darker and b) I knew my hair would be porous at this stage so would grab the colour and come out darker. I left it on for 10 minutes before rinsing and conditioning.

Did it work?

Well?

Yes. Yes, it did.

OH YEAH

YEAH IT WORKED

I AM SO HAPPY

NO MORE BRASSY ROOTS

I am so, so happy with the final result. There isn't an ounce of brass anywhere. The shade came out perfectly - a nice mix of grey and silver. The lighting isn't the best and I'll update with a daylight picture at some point. But WOW. I absolutely adore it. And I can't believe I managed it! AND I can't believe I managed it without destroying my hair!! Look at it! It honestly looks and feels like I haven't processed it several times over the weekend and I'm staggered. 

I heartily recommend Knight & Wilson's silver dye range. I loved the Silver Grey (on the parts that were at the right level for silverising), I love the Graphite Grey. I need to rave about this dye for a bit because I loved everything about it.

The dye itself is quite thick so really easy to apply with a brush and bowl, which I did (I prefer that to using the bottle for boxed dyes). The smell is actually quite pleasant, hard to describe but much nicer than the usual whiff. I ADORE the colour (MY HAIR IS SILVER, GUYS). And a very pleasant surprise was the after-colour conditioner:

This conditioner was a very pleasant surprise and WOW, do they sell this separately?! If not, they seriously need to consider doing so. It made my processed hair feel amazing. It honestly, truly does not feel like I've bleached it at all and I'm staggered at the quality. BUT GUYS,

LOOK,

SILICONE-FREE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. IT JUST GETS BETTER. I AM IN LOVE.

I need to store this stuff for the rest of my life.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE, FOLKS??

It tells you the strength of the developer on the bottle. I've never seen this on a box dye (and I've been dyeing my hair since I was 14 - have I just missed it all these times??) and for me it's a huge added bonus. Then I know exactly how much processing is going on and it's fabulous.

So there you go! This was by no means an easy process and I was quite tired after doing it all in the space of around 24 hours in total! Oh, the backache. But I am so, so chuffed with the result. And I absolutely love the Knight & Wilson permanent silver dye range. I haven't tried any of their other products but will likely do so in the future. If you're looking to go silver, this is the range I'd recommend by far.

BUT BE WARNED

As you can see, I did need to bleach my hair and I already had light hair. So, if your hair is dark or has brassy tones, be prepared for having to lighten it. As you can see from my results, it worked well on the previously highlighted parts and not so well on the warmer parts BUT it does say this on the box!! So I was prepared for this and not surprised at my initial results. 

I highly, HIGHLY recommend spending some weeks/months getting your hair into a good condition before you do anything along these lines. I believe that, along with the coconut oil, is why my results were good. My hair feels fine (a little dry but I will be taking good care of it from now, conditioning it plenty and using as little heat as possible) because it was in a good place before I undertook this process. Don't say I didn't warn you!

And not forgetting! The traditional cat photo of my gorgeous Cleo being all snuggly:

No-Bleach Lightening My Roots

So, it's been a while since I added anything to this blog. That's because, not long after my "red to blonde" post, I had my hair professionally highlighted so I didn't do any DIY hair stuff for ages. My mum treated me when I went to the hairdressers with her at some point in the summer (August?) (thanks mum!) and my hair was quite a warm blonde. I explained to the lady I wanted really ashy hair (think Taylor Swift) so she put some highlights in and toned my hair and I loved it. I was a bit wary of having bleach put in my hair after The Great Bleach Disaster of 2013 but my hair was in good condition again by this point and she assured me my hair would be ok. It survived beautifully and I really liked them. I can go for much longer these days without being bothered about my roots (which aren't terribly dark anyway) so only got my hair re-highlighted in November (and the only reason I did then is because I was going on TV and didn't want roots on national telly). It looked fabulous again (I had a different lady this time who put some darker ashy bits in along with the highlights) and I was happy up until this weekend.

I'm a second year university student and, with it being January, I had exams. All thoughts of my appearance ended when we broke up for Christmas and revision started. I lived, breathed, ate and slept microbiology for six weeks so I didn't pay any attention to my hair. I emerged from my isolation after the final exam a couple of days ago, blinking at the light outside, breathing in fresh air and caught sight of my hair and saw how tired it looked (it must have been reflecting my own fatigue - those six weeks were incredibly challenging). My roots were very visible and the blonde had yellowed. I'd used a funky reddish-pink semi-permanent on the ends (La Riche Directions in Rubine) the previous weekend for a cousin's birthday meal and even that looked tired.

I'd noticed a very small amount of breakage after my hair was highlighted in November so I pondered whether I did want highlights again. The ladies at the salon my mum's a regular at are fabulous but it would be a while before I could go again and I decided I didn't want it highlighting again. I didn't want to get into a pattern of highlights, damage, highlights, damage, etc. I decided to sort it out myself and just hoped I wouldn't make an absolute hash of it. I don't know why I was so worried about doing my own hair again, as I've been home-dyeing it since I was 14, but there was a bit of worry I'd end up with vivid orange roots. But I couldn't wait any longer and I felt a kind of desperate urge to take care of my appearance after having abandoned it for a while so decided to go ahead.

I decided to use a high-lift blonde dye to lift my roots, then use an ash blonde over the top to even the whole thing out. I would then tone if necessary and I also equipped myself with some new silver shampoo that I'd read rave reviews about to keep the brass at bay. I wasn't naive enough to think the high-lift dye wouldn't damage my hair but at least it would be less damaging than bleach.

So. This was my hair before I started The Process:

Rooooooots! I'm naturally around a level 7 dark blonde and it's ashy as HECK. Sadly, whenever I lighten it it goes really warm (which is unsurprising but still disappointing). It really does look tired here :( I soaked it in coconut oil (100% coconut oil, no additives) for a few hours a couple of days before I did this to prepare it. Coconut oil is absolutely fabulous and it's been a life-saver for my hair. My hair itself isn't fine but I don't have a great deal of it so it's kind of thin (it was lovely and thick when I was younger, I blame ageing and also The Great Bleach Disaster of 2013 - entirely my own fault on that front).

Step one was the high-lift blonde. I settled for this one as I've used it before on darker hair with some success:

Garnier Nutrisse Truly Blonde 101 - ultra light beige blonde

It claims to lighten up to 4.5 levels, which was fine for me as I only wanted to lighten it around 2 levels. I didn't want to go any higher than a level 9 because, as much as I love really light blonde hair, my roots would have been more obvious more quickly. I've been a level 10/11 blonde before and it was lovely, but the roots! I pasted it onto my roots and the underside of my hair first for around 15 minutes, then spread it throughout the rest and left it for another 15. This was the result:

It definitely lifted my roots which I was happy about, but left them very brassy, which wasn't at all surprising. Perhaps I should have added heat/wrapped my hair during the process but ah well. It nicely boosted the rest of my hair where it had been highlighted before to a lovely ashy blonde. It also faded the pink ends, which was fine because I was planning on re-pinking them anyway. I kind of liked the faded look to them.

I got a better picture in the daylight the next morning:

Next was the ash blonde dye. I went with L'Oreal because their dyes seem to dump a lot of ashy tones which is exactly what I wanted:

L'Oreal Recital Preference 9.1 Viking - very light ash blonde

Again, I painted the roots first for around 15 minutes then pulled the rest through the rest of my hair for a further 15 minutes. The result:

It took away the orange but was still slightly brassy, as I saw the next morning:

I'd probably use their other ash blonde series in the future because this one didn't seem to make my hair as ashy as I'm used to. Not bad, though. The rest of my hair looked like this:

The highlighted parts were stunning, a silvery ash shade that I adore. The warmer parts running through, as can be seen on this pic, weren't too bad. They seem to make a huge contrast on this pic but weren't that bad in real life. I also re-pinked the ends.

Toner time! Glad I invested in this, I had a feeling I'd need it. The one I chose was this:

Wella Color Charm T14 - pale ash blonde (previously Silver Lady)

I opted for this one rather than T18 because this I think has more blue tones in it, which I figured I'd need. I mixed it with 10 vol developer (not 20 as the box recommends. I didn't want to lighten my hair any further, just wanted to tone it and 10 vol is colour-deposit ONLY). The box says to apply it to towel-dried hair, but I accidentally missed this instruction and applied it to dry hair. It didn't seem to have any adverse effects but I would recommend following instructions where applicable (pay attention, future self). I applied this to my roots only, I didn't put it anywhere else on my hair. I left it on for 25 minutes, washed it off and this was the result:

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Brass GONE. I'd read rave reviews about the Color Charm toners online and it didn't disappoint. The brass is gone. The roots and some parts of my hair are a slightly warmer tone than I was after, but at least there is no brass and I can work on the warmer parts over time. 

I also invested in this silver shampoo:

Bleach London Silver Shampoo

I tried it during this process but can't give an honest review of it yet as I used it alongside all the other stuff I was doing. It is the most heavily pigmented shampoo I've ever seen and there were so many good reviews online for it. I went to Boots where it seemed they didn't have any in (none on the shelf!) but luckily another customer had asked a staff member if they had any in and she brought some out! So I nabbed some and will give a review of it once I've had the chance to test it properly. It smells good and it didn't seem to dry my hair out, unlike Provoke Touch of Silver, which I find quite drying. I've also used Shimmer Lights in the past, which has a gorgeous smell (I think so, anyway! A lot of people seem to hate it - it is very floral) and leaves my hair soft. So, we'll see.

So yes! It was a long process (couple of days) but I'm happy with where it's at now. I may use a stronger high-lift dye the next time I do my roots, but, as my hair condition isn't too bad right now, I might just do this again. The ends of my hair are a bit dry but other than that, it seems fine. Which is a huge relief, as I didn't want to damage it too much (this process is damaging, there's no avoiding it to have lighter hair, but it's nowhere near as bad as bleach). I'll keep conditioning and coconut oiling it. I rarely use heat to style it (apart from my wayward fringe which needs straightening nearly every day) and dry it on the lowest hairdryer setting to keep damage to a minimum, so yeah. It should be fine.

I hope this helps anyone who is looking to go lighter! I realise for a lot of people that bleach is the preferred (and sometimes necessary for very dark hair out there) option but this may be of some use to the lighter-haired ladies and gents out there. 

Note: No, I am not a professional hair person and I do this entirely at my own risk. I've probably done some things wrong, there are probably easier ways of doing this, etc. But this works for me and my hair feels fine, so yes.

Bonus cat photo! Meet Tiger. Isn't he gorgeous?