Soft, luminous, and face-framing, this is the highlighting trick to know now
Now is the perfect time to elevate your grays, with plenty of inspiration for mature hair highlighting techniques this season. We saw French blending (a Meryl Streep favorite) and root tapping (seen on FW26 runways), followed by Emma Thompson’s clever “greige” highlights.
“It’s not a cover-up; it’s a flexible technique rather than a long-term commitment,” notes Siobhan Haug , color specialist and co-founder of Haug London Haus , on the growing appeal of gray highlighting. No matter how far along you are in your gray hair journey, highlighting offers a versatile, personalized refresh. “Woven highlights let glimpses of your natural color show through between the shades, so regrowth blends in softly as your hair grows out. And if you fancy more coverage for a season? It’s also easily done.”
But if you want to embrace your silver strands and spotlight them with confidence, “silver framing” is the next trick to know. A-listers like Salma Hayek and Andie MacDowell have already embraced the technique, but recent Fashion Week shows, such as Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood, have given it new life.
Ahead, everything you need to know about “silver framing” this winter—and how to make it work for you.
Depending on your preference, silver framing can deliver a subtle, transitional result or a bolder one that feels reminiscent of a money piece. “But the general idea is to create a natural highlight next to gray hair,” says color specialist and STIL Salon founder Christel Barron-Hough . As the name suggests, luminous silver strands are highlighted directly around the face to frame it—think of it as a “halo” effect.
“I’d work with either chunky or very seamless weaves around the area where you need to create a blending effect, then I’d lighten the hair very white and clean, and use a toner to create a silvery tone.”
Haug adds that these silver-framed sections can be as thin as half a centimeter or considerably thicker, as Hayek and stylist Stacy London show. The appeal lies in self-assurance: “Putting your white or grey front and center around the face is a confident statement. The highlights then add nuances of light, creating a rich, multitonal blend.”
MacDowell proves that radiant, reflective strands of silver, when strategically placed around the face, add brightness and dimension to an otherwise all-over gray color.
“Platinum on silver works really well as it blends the white hair,” adds Barron-Hough. “You can also do reverse blending, which involves adding a lowlight into the mix to create a ‘salt and pepper’ effect.”
Alternatively, if you’re working with colored or brunette hair with grays that are only beginning to emerge, Haug suggests “sun-kissed honeycomb shades or a teak toner as these will look more natural woven in amongst the whites.”
As with many color techniques, your hair type and starting level of grays matter. According to Barron-Hough, lightening very deep, dark brown or black hair to a pale silver can be difficult. “So generally, this would suit someone with a dark blonde starting point, or someone with lots of grey hair.”
That said, you can work from a light brown color. “This simply requires a bit more finesse and technique when lightening,” Barron-Hough explains. “The key here is to make the highlights very thin, as this will lift better.”
Or, if your gray hairs appear at the temples and through the parting (which Haug says is usu…