The 50 Shades of Silver Project

This project was born from the idea that we all go into ditching the dye having no real idea what our natural color will be. Several years ago, I had this idea of showing you as many variations of natural gray hair as I could find. I couldn’t quite figure out how I was going to accomplish such a large-scale project, and get all the photos I needed that would work to show the many variations of silver there are in the world.

Then, just recently, a beautiful silver sister posted her photo in one of the silver hair groups on Facebook it was a photo of her ‘after’ hair at the salon…the quintessential photo of the back of her freshly styled hair. It all clicked into place…these were the photos I needed to show the true variations of silver hair.

Along with this idea of collecting photos, through the years I have been giving unique names to silver sisters to describe their natural color. ‘Gray’ seemed so blah, boring, and tainted by the horrible hair dye commercials and ads. For many, they don’t resonate with ‘silver’ and some are bored with ‘salt and pepper’ as a description. The idea was to give you options to describe your unique color.

I wanted to share ALL the potential in 50 Shades of Silver. I wanted to celebrate the beauty and uniqueness that Mother Nature bestows upon us as we walk through life. Our hair is this canvas of many colors, that truly cannot be replicated in the salon.

Please note monitor colors vary widely from device to device. The original photos in this post were given to me by their owners and have been unfiltered and unaltered except for size. The natural translucent property of white hair is to reflect light and the colors around it.

Silver here is defined as any color of the natural graying process.

I’ve labeled the photos with some creative alternatives because gray hair comes in a multitude of shades depending on your born-with-it color. Some of these ladies are my friends so I was able to give them a color that suited not just their hair color, but also, who they are.

Call it whatever feels best to you, but whatever you do let’s stop calling gray hair ugly and old.

Silver is a color too and there are as many words to describe it as there are different shades of it, which I hope I have proven in this project.

Silver is now what we call gray. Why? Because gray has a lot of societal angst tangled up in it. From women being shamed to dye their grays to keep their husbands, friends, and jobs to being outright called old and ugly.

From the brightest white to the golden hues remaining in a former red head, to the darkest charcoal, no matter what color your silver is, it has a unique beauty all its own.

Even those that add a little flourish of color from teal and blue to purples and pinks…they create a beautiful patina to accentuate their natural hue.

Age & Hair Color Have Nothing In Common

No matter if your hair is sleek & straight, beachy waves, curly spirals, or soft cherub curls the silvers sparkle and shine through.

Silver hair reflects its environment and changes accordingly. With subtle shifts from front to back…

Not only do the hues and variations of silver hair change from room to room or from artificial lighting to natural, but it changes when straight, wavy, or curly.

The front and the back can be entirely different with Mallen streaks on the temples or a natural gradient of white in the front to darker gray at the nape. It evolves and changes depending on if it is long or short.

From year to year, it can change growing lighter and lighter and even sometimes regaining pigment and going dark again.

One’s silvers can change from haircut to haircut, wavy to curly, the color can look different on one side versus the other, and depending on the color you wear or the light you are in.

Silver hair is like Mother Nature’s Brush strokes, some have streaks throughout, some have streaks underneath, some are white in the front and their natural born-with-it-color at the nape…

Mother Nature does it best, matching natural silvery highlights and lowlights to our skin, eyes, and even our personalities.

The same hair, the same day, the same color, only difference is light, and it can be like a chameleon.

To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

This color evolution can begin in puberty and continue well into your 90’s. There are a rare few who are immune to the process of graying, but even those who seem to not be gray may actually have pigment loss and change that just doesn’t fit into a gray zone at all. Think of your sister with blond hair which has grown darker as she has aged. Or your red-headed husband whose copper has patinaed over time but hasn’t turned any sort of shade of silver.

We tend to have this idea that gray is a blend of black and white, but it can be warm gray, cool gray, red tinted gray, blue tinted gray, greige (a beige tinted gray), and so forth. It can be white as snow or as dark as graphite, and everything in between.

When I started this project, I wanted to make sure it was a very diverse collection of women, not only in hair color; but age, race, and ethnicity. The women who submitted photos for this project range in age from 39 to 85. They are Indigenous People, Asians, Indians, Black, Hispanic, and White, they come from ethnic groups from all over the world. It was a pleasure to put this project together and meet (virtually) all these beautiful women. They shared their journeys with me of ditching the dye or never having colored their hair at all. They were not only generous in sharing their photos but genuinely excited to be a part of this project.

Thank you to all of you for being in the 50 Shades of Silver Project.

I hope you enjoyed this post and video. If you did please share it, the point of this project was to prove all shades of silver hair are BEAUTIFUL!

I hope you found this post educational and helpful.

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to share.

As always it is about so much more than the hair.

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