Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Beauty Boss: Stressed by greying tresses? Get to the root of the problem at home

© Shutterstock / YuriyZhuravovPost Thumbnail

Hairdresser Michael Van Clarke shares how to cover up fading colours until we can all get back to the salon.

We’ve been without our marvellous mane tamers, dealing with roots and stray greys, for a while now.

And with another few weeks to go until we can rely on the professionals to tousle our tresses, hairdresser Michael Van Clarke offers some tricks to help those who aren’t embracing the faded look.

Vegetable colour

“If you have any complicated techniques then you’ll need to learn to enjoy roots, but you can fashionably call it ombre now,” Michael laughs.

Michael says if you want to tone down grey hairs or make hair richer, use a vegetable colour which is harmless and doesn’t give your colourist any correcting issues when salons reopen. This will be a product that you do not have to mix. It will wash off entirely in about 6 to 12 washes.

Different styles

“Some of the temporary root colouring products can help in an emergency but they aren’t designed for two inches of regrowth,” Michael says.

“If white hair is crowding out the temple area then try different hairstyles to cover it. If hair is tied back then shorter pieces left down around the face also help. Side partings that angle upwards towards the crown stop the parting being seen so clearly.”

Enhancement

“Colour shampoo will give gentle colour enhancement,” Michael suggests. “This will just sit on the surface of the hair and last you until your next shampoo. In terms of dye, be careful. Semi-permanent colour, despite the name, will stay in the hair until it’s cut off.

“Retail products can be harder to colour-correct in the salon afterwards. So don’t rush to the chemist to buy semi-permanent hair dye straightaway.”

Tint

“If you won’t accept anything less than full coverage of those white or dark hairs then it has to be a tint. When you’ve gone as long as possible, start only with the hairline and parting. This will give you a few weeks more. If you have a centre parting, move it to the side and slant the line back up towards the crown. This can extend the need for a full head tint another few weeks.

Touch-up

“Don’t attempt highlights at home! It’s the most skilled process of a hair technician. If you’ve had your highlights done recently enough, I’d say you can push it for two to three months with some novel styling techniques.

“Try using a touch-up pencil for your roots – you can get different tones — and they are very good to tide people over.”


For more tips, visit vanclarke.com