Another day, another hair trend breaking lose from the ‘90s/’00s archive. This time it's the turn of ‘sonic silver hair’, which top hair colourist and Matrix colour ambassador Zoë Irwin has spotlit as the cool-girl shade to know – especially since the cooler colour pairs perfectly with the temperature of the current season.
What is sonic silver hair?
Essentially, it's a soft silver hair colour that feels retro and futuristic in equal measure. “It’s a kind of beigey, soft silver,” explains Zoe. “We’ve seen a lot of greys previously,” she adds, but things are moving towards sheerer, glistening, glossier renditions: “as opposed to the heavy, ashy grey that became so mainstream [in the early noughties] that it just wasn’t cool any more. This is silver for a fresh audience, it’s a much more subtle, delicate tone,” she says.
“The trend is ultra sheer, has a high shine and is super iridescent. When you start to take hair this kind of beigey-silver colour, it becomes very futuristic, and anything that feels futuristic always has a soft modernity to it,” Zoe adds.
What inspired sonic silver hair?
The trend is rooted in ‘90s and ’00s trends. “Many of you will have seen the rise of something called Gen X Soft Club, which has been a huge TikTok trend,” Zoe explains. “Just to give you a little bit of background, it’s a re-emerging trend from the late ‘90s, early 2000s. We started to go towards a cooler palette – more beige tones, pale blue tones, lots of greens – and everything became really simplified. Gen X Soft Club is Y2K's cooler, obscure younger sister. It’s less gaudy, it's simplistic,” she adds.
One TikTok user, @fckboyfuneral, summarised the trend – noting: “The Gen X Soft Club aesthetic was prominent in the late ‘90s, early 2000s – that's not the maximalist, pink, blinged-out kind of look [that was also popular at the time]. It was all about minimalist fashion, sterile design and urban city night life. It took that retro futurism and toned it all the way down to very muted colours – lots of blues, greys, greens – blurry city lights, if you've ever seen the 2 Become 1 video by the Spice Girls, it was exactly that.”
As for sonic silver hair – Zoe explains her choice of words. “The reason I called it Sonic Silver is because the iPod launched in 2001 and really changed the amount of music we listened to. We weren’t really referencing the past, the music of the time was really quite original. It felt like a sonic generation, it’s very much referencing the time,” she says.
It's not lost on us that digital devices, like the iPod, were synonymous with futuristic silver shades too.
Who does sonic silver hair work particularly well on?
Rather than a safe bet, the trend offers a shade that's a little more alternative. And even though it's delicate and soft, the shade still feels gritty and has a daringness to it that warmer tones simply don't – so this shade is for the rebels.
“The beige, silver and ash tones are really flattering on people who have a high pink tone within their skin,” says Zoe. “But equally, one of the reasons this has become so popular is because it’s amazing on Asian skin. It’s been heavily influenced by Japan [and Korea] because of its versatility within skin tone."
How to get sonic silver hair?
The secret to pulling off the perfect silver? A great toner. The good news is, they've come along way since the nineties and noughties.
“If you think of previous ashes… I know that when applying ash toners to some clients they would be really nervous because they feel like you’ve lightened their hair and they’ve got a freshness and a glow – and then some ash toners can take that away and make it darker. This is the second generation of toners,” says Zoe, who favours the Matrix professional Silver Lining range.
“One of the big things with ash toners in the past, is when they’re developing, a lot of colourists get very nervous – so they often rinse them off very quickly. However, [Silver Lining] gives you this amazing confidence. You get a high shine and longevity of the colour. You really are seeing a six-week result. This is not something that can be compared to a silver shampoo or mask, it’s way way more iridescent than that,” she says.
How to style sonic silver hair?
It's your call, but to lean even further into the Gen X Soft Club aesthetic, short is the way forward. “In the 90s and early 2000s, we all had short hair. It was a huge thing – the cleanliness of it,” says Zoe. But we've also seen it applied to alt mullets, bobs, braids and long layers. Here's some of our favourite ways to wear sonic silver hair…
Wet look sonic silver hair'90s cropped sonic silver hairBlown-out sonic silver hairTwo-tone sonic silver hairBouncy bob sonic silver hairSonic silver locsSpiky sonic silver cropXXL sonic silver hairJellyfish cut sonic silver hairSoftly-cropped sonic silver hairFor more from GLAMOUR's Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLjApqauqp2WtKLGyKecZ5ufY8Kse8Crq6KbnJp8tLvNoppmq5mhw6a%2BjKGYoqo%3D