Is this the solution to the tyranny of midlife hair dye?
Asmile spreads across my face on a sun-kissed spring day. There i am in the car, humming a breezy tune, bathed in the smug, healthy glow that a morning fitness class bestows.
i’m feeling good in myself and enjoying the sense of wellbeing that comes from having the worst of the weather behind us.
i am happily imagining this reflects in my appearance as i adjust the rear-view mirror for a quick peek. Disaster. A sunbeam plays across my hair, and i see not the tousled and youthfully-coloured tresses i thought were my signature look, but a crispy floss of tired straw, a base colour that screams ‘fake’ at my pale winter skin and a contrasting grey hairline. i look like someone without a hair regime. my hair is wearing me.
This is the fate of many women who have reached the age where hiding greys is a grim battle, and the fun has gone out of our hair.
‘Colouring your hair shouldn’t be a tyranny. it’s meant to be exciting.’ i am in Josh Wood’s Atelier, and the man himself is running his fingers through my mane. i cringe and mutter that i wish it didn’t feel like a packet of crisps. ‘Crisps,’ he nods sadly in agreement, and lifts a section of hair to look at the roots, which are showing a centimetre of grey.
Josh is not known to the fashion and beauty world as the ‘king of colour’ for nothing, and this season he has invented a new technique to bring the magic back to tired winter hair.
‘We saw the need for something to revitalise over-coloured, ageing hair,’ he says.
HIS TECHNIQUE, Hibernation Hair — so called because it’s the perfect transitional style to take you out of your winter slump — is ground-breaking. it brings dull, lank hair back to life, with an inside- out method that leaves the bottom layers of hair a lighter shade than those on top.
Josh explains: ‘We colour the hair starting at the nape of the neck, so that the weight of the dye is underneath. Warmer tones on top like blonde wood or wet sand are applied free-hand to graduate the colour so it looks more natural.
‘Adding more colour underneath is also a great way of adding body to the hair,’ he adds. ‘The sense of light and movement that this gives to the hair is instantly youthful: think of the fluid hair of teenagers.’
Also, he points out, the salon maintenance becomes less urgent. ‘With more natural tones on top, the roots are less noticeable.’
As someone who scuttles to the hairdresser, my handbag a shield over my head to cover the fastgrowing grey roots, i am keen on a carefree approach. like many women over 50, i resent the money and time i spend at the hairdresser, yet feel powerless to change it.
i want my hair to look good, but i don’t tend to take into account the fact that the seasons change, that my skin colour and condition change, and that i am inevitably getting older, so not only is there a lot of grey lurking under years of colour, but my hair is also thinner than it used to be.
Josh Wood to the rescue. ‘ We want people to leave here looking as though they haven’t even been to the hairdresser,’ he announces. ‘ Their hair should be natural, but groomed.’
Yes. Natural, but groomed. i had never articulated this before, but it’s exactly what i want. i love the idea that by having hair that looks healthy and cared for, i will also look vibrant and well.
No one wants to look like their granny in the hair department. But i don’t want my hair to make me look younger than i am; i’m 52 and have no problem with my age. i just want to look my very best.
Josh says that you must talk to your colourist every single time you go as though it is your first visit — with curiosity.
‘Ask questions,’ he says. ‘ show me a picture of yourself with your hair looking how you like it. show me another photograph from a magazine of a style that you like, or of a friend’s hairstyle you have always loved.’
most women, says Josh, get stuck with a ‘look’ that belongs to an earlier stage in their life. ‘ most commonly it’s when you first fell in love,’ he says.
it might be a style that was great in your 20s but the colour and shape don’t fit you any more.
And given that hair is such a visible signal of a woman’s wellbeing, it makes sense to take as much care over it as one does over skincare or clothes.
‘ Think seasonally. Have something different because summer’s coming — it’s a great time to change the colour,’ Josh says. ‘But make sure it’s in good condition. This time of year it makes sense to start a routine with a weekly hair masque.’
BY NOW, my own Hibernation Hair is complete: Josh has given me highlights around the face and in the lower layers, with a base tint in soft brown — closer to the colour my hair would naturally be if i hadn’t dyed it to death.
light, airy tones run through the bottom layers to add body and movement. it is also less of a contrast with my pale skin than my previous darker tone, so makes me look glowing and healthy.
The proof of the pudding, they say, is in the eating, and when i walk out, i join the Central london crowds heading home.
Dodging a couple of teenagers on their phones i am suddenly faced with a plate-glass shop window and see a woman walking towards me. she looks great: confident, happy, and bouncing with vitality.
it takes a moment for me to recognise myself with my new chic, natural-looking hair. When i do, i have to smile. This is much more of a walnut whip now than the packet of crisps i had been wearing earlier. i am out of hibernation — bring on summer!
Josh Wood Atelier is in London and oxfordshire, josh woodcolour.com. hibernation hair from £95. Consultation with Josh Wood: price on application.