Silver is SEXY! How to Help Clients Transition to Grey Hair

Episode 82 is a first for this show! Never before have we spoken about how to help clients grow out their hair colour & the emotional aspects involved in the process. 

This is a bit of a controversial service that not every hairdresser is onboard with but it has a place in hairdressing and is a powerful and skilful service to bring into any salon. It’s not for everyone, but it is something that can set you apart from other salons if you grasp the understanding of how to approach this conversation with your clients with a curious and experienced mindset to support their questioning and guide them to transform their hair, whatever their reasons may be.

I’ll be talking with Natalie Varrasso, who is a Melbourne Hairdresser, Salon Owner and Author in Australia that has developed a fast and friendly way to help women who are wanting to transition back to their natural hair colour ( usually being a white, silver or grey) and married up with a personalised haircut that is perfectly designed for that individual. Results have been overwhelmingly positive and she has seen the difference in women that thought they would never feel confident or sexy again, walk out of her salon with a very different demeanour.

I have helped many clients transition from solid colours to textured foils in my career as a Colourist, and have also had the pleasure of helping many of my regular clients transition completely away from colour altogether. Let’s celebrate all choices and welcome diversity in our industry (and yes, that includes grey haired folk too!)

LET’S MEET OUR GUEST – Natalie Varrasso

Natalie has been styling hair since 1992. Growing up with both parents that were hairdressers running their own hairdressing salon businesses, it is fair to say Nat feels a hairdressing salon is her most natural environment.

Since the young age of 16, Nat always draws a clientele of a mature age group of women with her styling. Cutting hair was what came most naturally to Nat and over the years she has developed her skills to work intuitively with the natural fall of the hair and create effortless hairstyles that present classy edginess and confidence.

Nat’s technique of cutting with the natural movement of hair has morphed into her approach to how she colours hair. Today Natalie specialises in helping women to work with their white hair whether that be transitioning from coloured hair to colour free hair or including the white hairs to be part of the colour design and eliminating obvious regrowth.

Natalie says – “There is a huge emotional difference between colouring regrowth of white hair compared to colouring regrowth of natural coloured hair”. 

Natalie is all about creating hairstyles that suit each individual, her consultations are inclusive of looking at the bone structure, profile appearance, lifestyle, styling strengths and environment of her guests. Gathering all this insight allows for amazing and empowering hair design to happen as well as a personalised goal and direction for a colour transition. 

LOVE YOUR HAIR BLONDE, BRUNETTE, RED OR GREY

Natalie’s most recent achievement is her new book, titled  ‘LOVE YOUR HAIR discover your best hairstyle’. Written in 2020 – launched in 2021.

In this book, she takes the reader/client through consultation and empowers them along the way by sharing the knowledge that is missing from what they need when visiting a hairdressing salon and bridging the gap between hairdresser and client. Plus offering lots of information about hair as it ages and how to discover your best hairstyle.

Her book was written with the consumer in mind, however, it’s a fabulous training manual for hairdressers and something that could be really helpful to introduce to your salons team training for advanced colour concepts and personalised consultation strategies. And that’s why I am excited to share with you a colourful conversation that’s outside your comfort zone …. Because we are talking about how to help clients embrace their greys and the steps, techniques and bookings you’ll need to set up to help them transform their hair.

PRO TIPS FOR GREY TRANSITION COLOURING:

• Consultations need to consider hair type and emotional reasons for going grey
• Clients will need several appointments & a commitment of 4-6 bookings to explore whether transitioning to grey is right for them and if they are really ready
• The technique is determined by the clients natural growth & natural colour pattern and grey areas to help decide what to apply and where & can vary from client to client
• Transition Expert is a searchable term that clients are searching for online (this is a great thing to include in your social media bio and posts if seeking to attract this work)
• Lowlighting and highlighting need to be customised to suit the client and different phases of growing out a solid colour

Listen to learn more in Episode 82 of the Colour Kristina Talks podcast to find out how to Help Clients Transition to Grey Hair!