Forget facelifts. Nothing takes years off like finding the perfect hair colour
When women spend thousands of pounds on clothes and even plastic surgery in an attempt to look younger, I am baffled. All they needed to do was spend a few hundred on the right hair colour — it can instantly knock a decade off!
Grey may have become fashionable recently but I don’t do it. Full stop. It’s fine if you’re 20 and have a young face, but it makes someone in their 60s look about 100!
My mother was white haired by the time she was 40 and I started going grey at 24, so I’ve been a blonde ever since then. I can assure you I know what I’m talking about!
If proof of how your hair colour affects your overall image were needed, Theresa May’s transition to grey is a good example. A couple of years back, she sported a blonde bob which was a lot more flattering and had the overall effect of brightening and lifting her face.
Since then, she has chosen to embrace her natural colour, however the lack of warmth has somewhat aged her (not to mention she’s now running the country!). Subtle blonde tones could really lift her complexion.
hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has chosen a natural blonde shade which brightens her skin tone and knocks years off of her. hillary’s got her colour right.
Mature women often believe that — because they haven’t changed their hair colour when they were younger — they can’t start now. Why ever not? Unless you’ve had chemotherapy in the past four to five months (in which case you shouldn’t be doing anything to your hair) then you can definitely change the colour.
What I would strongly advise is that you visit a salon rather than attempting to do it yourself at home — particularly if this is your first foray into hair tinting. Try to pick a salon where someone specialises in colour. Remember that the wrong cut can be hidden with styling, the wrong colour could be with you for at least two years.
Before you do anything else, explain to the stylist exactly what colour you had in mind. ‘Light brown’ could mean any one of about 30 shades.
Take a picture along with you. I often advise people to buy a wig in the colour they think they want and to wear it for a day, as it’s very hard to imagine what a particular colour will do to your look.
YOU may, of course, find that once the technician has seen what you’re after, she or he will have some advice for you. I find, for example, that a common mistake women make is thinking they can just go back to the shade they were when they were 25.
You may have been a deep shade of chestnut back then, but trying to do that now will just make you look washed out because your complexion will have changed.
As skin ages it tends to look duller because it has less elasticity and so doesn’t reflect light as well. That often means you need to warm up your complexion with your colour. of course, if you have a very pink complexion (like mine) then don’t go over the top with this. Too bright a shade of blonde will start to look brassy.
Personally, I tend towards a warm wheat shade rather than anything too gold. That way I get the warmth without the whole thing looking too overpowering.
Conversely, if your skin is quite sallow (and this may have been exacerbated by age) then your stylist will probably advise you to steer away from anything too ashy which will just wash you out.
People with very pale, porcelain skin (think nigella Lawson) should avoid blonde all together — it will just make you look ghostly.
Go instead for brunette shades, but do remember that the cardinal rule with brunette is that it has to be glossy. Take advice from your colourist on conditioning treatments for coloured hair.
Another really important point about going brunette is getting your hairline right. hair at the hairline is
naturally lighter so nothing screams ‘dye job’ louder than really dense colour in this area. A good colourist will graduate the shade here for a natural look. If your skin is dark then you can go brunette or even — if you’re brave — experiment with red. however, with reds you are looking for a blue-red as opposed to anything orange or yellow-y which will look awful. Before embarking on your colour, the stylist should do a strand test (with hair pulled forward from just above your ear).
Go home and live with this for a few days, look at it in different lights because the lights in the salon will be different from your house. Do you still like it? If you don’t then that’s fine, the hair above the strand will fall over it and cover it and you and the technician can discuss other options. They will work with you to find a colour you love.
Women’s biggest fear about getting their hair coloured is that they will look like ‘mutton dressed as lamb’. honestly, this is completely wrong. When you get the right shade you will simply look more youthful because your whole complexion will look brighter. The effects can be every bit as good as a face lift and at a fraction of the price!
I promise you — because I’ve seen it happen time and time again — when you find your perfect shade and see how fresh it makes you look; you’ll kick yourself you didn’t do this years ago.