‘Silver Hair’ book could totally revolutionise how we see going grey

Lorraine Massey is famous in the haircare world for helping ‘curly girls’ embrace their curls, waves, ringlets and more. Now she’s turning her attention to much-maligned grey hair and rocking a totally fabulous head of silver curls to prove how great it can look.

In 2001, Massey published a hugely popular book called Curly Girl: The Handbook that called on woman of all ethnicities to embrace their natural curls and treat them kindly, rather than trying to straighten, relax, blowdry and gel them into submission. She set up her own haircare range – DevaCurl – and her own salon chain – Devachan – that catered specially for curly, wavy and afro hair, and is credited by plenty of self-described curly girls with freeing them from the tyranny of the straight-hair fashion.

But Massey can see there’s still work to do on grey hair, which still suffers from plenty of misconceptions, so she’s now published a book called Silver Hair: A Handbook in which she urges women to forget myths surrounding natural grey hair, and insists there’s no one set of rules for everyone.

With the subtitle ‘Say Goodbye to the Dye and Let Your Natural Light Shine’, the book looks at everything from deciding to drop the dye, to tips on how to do it as subtly as possible, the best cuts, and how to keep it looking its best.

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Massey told the Star Tribune: “For years, the colour industry has been making billions by convincing women they don’t look good the way they are. And we’ve gotten caught in a cycle.

“We see a little silver and we dye it. When it starts to grow out, it doesn’t look so good, so we keep dyeing it. And the age thing comes up a lot. The truth is, you don’t look older when your hair is silver. You look different. You look like you.”

Read more: Turn heads with winning looks and expert style tips for grey hair

While Massey says it can take a while to fully transition to grey or silver if you’re used to dyeing your hair, it’s important to be patient as it will be worth it in the end. One tip she offers is to add some low-lights and subtle streaks to disguise the colour change as it grows out.

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For those that don’t have the patience for growing their dye out, she recommends going for the chop to speed up the process, but admits many are reluctant to do that.

Read more: Gorgeous grey: Hair pro says ‘ignore the rules’ when ditching the dye

Meanwhile, addressing the long-held idea that a short cut is best for grey hear and older faces, Massey told the Star-Tribune that it’s “imperative” to have a good cut – but one that’s tailored to you individually, not just from a photo in a magazine.

The book features real-life women sharing their own experiences of embracing grey hair, as well as recipes for homemade hair products, and a quiz to help you decide if you’re ready to “un-colour”.

Have you embraced grey hair? Do you think the stigma around it has gone in recent years?