BEAUTY CLINIC: Making grey hair gorgeous

Jo and Sarah answer real questions from readers: to put your query, go to beautybible.com 

Q I have short springy wavy hair, which is light-ish grey – a bit pepper and salt – with sun-blond streaks from the summer. I would like the shape to have more definition – and look a bit more glam – but my colorist says it is not advisable to put in darker grey streaks. Is that right and if so what can be done?

A According to colour expert Steven Little of John Frieda in London, it is indeed very difficult to create steel grey low lights in lighter grey hair.

The only way he has had some success is to use a nearly black colour and apply it in very, very fine streaks. ‘So you almost can’t see them but they do create definition,’ he says.

However, Steven’s best advice is to add an ash colour, in thick ‘pieces’ ie not streaks or lights, around the perimeter of your hair, not so much on the crown or round the face.

So exactly what colour is ash, we asked… ‘Well, it’s the kind of classic natural English mouse colour that people usually want to get rid of,’ Steven explained. In this scenario, however, ash should blend in with your greys and blonde but also give the more defined effect on the shape that you are looking for.

The good news is that grey hair is absolutely bang on trend as icons like Jamie Lee Curtis flash their silvery barnets. In fact, we are meeting more and more women who have given up covering their grey and gone (more or less) back – or forward – to nature.

Just remember that grey hair tends to be drier and coarser, making it hard to get shiny and often less manageable. So give it lots of TLC, in the shape of moisturizing products and regular intensive treatments such as the Mythic Oil range from L’Oréal Professionel.

Philip Kingsley offers a Pure Silver Shampoo, £17.10 for 250 ml and Conditioner, which we haven’t tried but the reviews are unanimously five star. The product we have tried (often) and are huge fans of for deep conditioning is the late trichologist’s Elasticizer, £32 for 150 ml, which is a pre-shampoo treatment – much loved by beauty editors.   

Beauty Bible loves… 

Benamôr, £6.16-25.50. 

Benamôr is a brand we first stumbled across in Printemps’ gorgeous new beauty building, tucked just behind Boulevard Haussmann in Paris. We trundled a selection of products back home, fell a little bit in love – and so are delighted that this fabulous Lisbon-based line (which was launched in 1925 by a pharmacist who created ‘miraculous ointments’, so we’re told) is now available in the UK.

That, of course, was the time of Art Deco – and the designs of that time are reflected in its gorgeous packaging. The ‘hero’ product is their Créme di Rosto, with a blend of anti-blemish actives and purifying rose. But we’re kinda addicted to several of the other products in the line. Some favourites, here. (The products in tubes come in great travel sizes, BTW, which are great for trialling – though we think the whole range offers great value.)

Benamôr Rose Amélie Hand Cream/from £7 for 50ml – we like a wardrobe of hand creams, and this delightfully rose-scented oil is a sinks-in-fast formula that’s great when you’re out and about, leaving hands silky through its blend of shea butter, aloe vera, argan oil and Inca peanut. (A new one to us, that.) 

Benamôr Rose Amélie The Miracle Dry Oil/£17.50 for 100ml – a wonderful, rapidly-absorbed blend of argan, sunflower and sweet almond, infused with hand-picked rosebuds. Divinely rosy.