Gray Silver Locks

For anyone that has been surprised to see a gray hair peeking through their tresses, the silver gray hair trend may seem shocking. Why would anyone young want to dye their hair silver when those with gray hair spend so much time and effort to cover it up? The answer is that the color is striking on a youthful face, especially when paired with darker roots.

Celebrities have adopted this trend.

Left: Rihanna with gray hair. Right, Kylie Jenner leaning gray.



Gaga Gray: Lady Gaga sporting gray hair with darker roots.

 

Instagram models with gray hair will stop you mid-stream.


Gray hair curls. (original source unknown.)

Young model, gray hair, red lips



Rocking gray hair

We especially like the style with purple roots. If you are considering a gray hair transformation, know that this color comes with a lot of maintenance. The look isn't designed to let your grey streaks flow. It takes a lot of lightening on the ends, dark root upkeep, and specialized shampoos so that the color doesn't turn to a  brittle blonde hue. Heavier eye makeup and / or darker lips prevent an overall washed-out appearance.

Samy Fat Foam Hair Color Review

This is the fourth foam hair coloring product we have tried. To our knowledge, we have tested every major brand on the market. Samy Fat Foam isn't sold everywhere, but we do see it in some drug stores and in WalMart. We were curious, but waited to try it because of their lack of color selection. There didn't seem to be many options for brunettes. Finally, we were determined to give it a whirl, and picked a shade that was a little darker than our normal hair color, Samy Fat Foam N4, Dark Brown.

Upon opening the package, you realize the purpose of the round red top. It is the shaker emerging from the box.

The box contains:
Base Solution 1, Powder Color 2, Shampoo and Conditioner Packets, Gloves, Directions, and the Shaker with Lid.

What is different about Samy Fat Foam:

• The directions have one line of English, then a line of Spanish. The two languages are not in separate sections like we are used to seeing. It can make you do a double-take while reading them.
• There is no application dispenser or pump. You mix the contents in the shaker and scoop the foam out to apply it with your hand.
• Samy Fat Foam has both a shampoo and conditioner. Most at-home hair color products have one tube to use after coloring.
• The color itself is a powder, not a liquid, as you can see below. It is added to the shaker after pouring the bottle of Base Solution 1.  

The directions state to screw the red cap on tightly. It clicked right into place.

Upon shaking the container to vigorously to mix it, you unscrew the lid to reveal the foam. This is the part that should be done over inkless newspaper or something to cover your countertop. The directions didn't suggest this, but see how the foam is spilling over the sides? Trust us on this one. Save yourself some clean up time and avoid staining your countertop.

The Result:

We applied the foam to the roots first and allowed it to process longer for the grey outgrowth as the instructions indicate. Samy Fat Foam did cover the greys, but we found the product to be drying to the hair. The application was easy but messy. We noticed the powder kind of stuck to the top of the lid, and didn't mix quite as well as we would have liked to see. It did color evenly though.

The process would have been less stressful had there been a little more foam color. There were concerns about not having enough color to cover the ends of long hair. It rinsed well using the shampoo and conditioner provided. The shampoo is clear and has a fruity/perfumed smell. We found it hard to open the packet and literally used teeth to rip it apart in a hurry. The blow dried hair was a similar shade to what was depicted on the box - maybe one to one an a half shades darker.

Glambo's Verdict: 

Samy Hair Foam is effective, but it wouldn't be our first choice considering the other foam hair color options on the market.

Click below to to see Glambo's other foam hair color reviews:

L'OREAL Sublime Mousse

Clairol Nice n Easy

Johh Frieda Precision Foam Colour

Thanks for reading!

(All photos are copyrighted. Glambo, LLC)

John Frieda Precision Foam Colour

John Frieda is our third brand of foam hair color we have reviewed here at Glambo. (See L'Oreal Sublime Mousse and Clairol Nice N Easy posts.) This is our overall favorite of the foams so far, with one exception:

The color shown on the box is misleading and does not match the end result on the hair. The black and white photo on the front may seem more artsy, but it is not helpful when picking a color for your strands. The John Frieda Foam Precision Hair Colour is usually found in a separate section near the shelves of other hair color brands. At first, we thought it was just the store lighting, and we actually purchased a brown-black color. Knowing that anything with the name 'black' is going to be super dark, it was later exchanged for 4BG Dark Chocolate Brown. We had to rely heavily on the name versus the pictures shown on the box. At least for the brunettes, the John Frieda foam colors will dye your hair darker than what is shown. The best indicator we found is the photo on the side of the box. (See Photo Below, but even her hair looks highlighted to us.) Plan on spending some time in the store selecting a box to take home.

Once the stress of actually picking a color was behind us, we opened the box to see the contents and read the directions. We were pleasantly impressed. John Frieda seems to be going for more of a high-end look. We like the thicker gloves and the fact that we didn't have to peel them off of the directions. These have a surgeon's style tighter fit to them. The bottle of conditioner looks like a travel size that you might pick up at a beauty supply store.

One thing to note when preparing to color with John Frieda Precision Foam is that you do not shake the bottle to mix the color. The sticker is a great last minute reminder for the do-it-yourself hair color pros who are accustomed to the shake!shake!shake! It mixed well after tilting the bottle 5 times as per the directions.

It's recommended to dispense a tennis ball size amount of color into your hand to apply to the hair. Do not squeeze the contents of the bottle directly onto the hair in order to ensure even application.

The foam did not drip, although it will definitely stain if it gets on your skin or countertops. Don't get spoiled and lazy by the ease of application and look for drops that may have spattered. We had a lock of hair graze an arm, and it left it's dark mark. There is an ammonia smell that will make itself known a few times throughout the coloring process, so don't be surprised by that. After all the anxiety over color selection, we noticed that the inside flap of the box has the color listed so that you can cut that tab and save it for future reference. That is a great, much needed bit of assistance.  

We used this product twice. It was applied once to my own hair, and the second time, we tried 5B Medium Chocolate Brown on another model with white /grey roots. The coverage for resistant greys was good, but not perfect. We have yet to find an at-home hair color that is, and will be shouting from the roof-tops when we do. We were correct in our assumption that the actual hair color is darker than the pictures and are glad we took our time finding the right color. Overall, John Frieda Precision Foam Colour is a good buy, once you determine the best shade for you. It is easy to apply, and it colors well without overly drying the hair. This foam hair color gets a Glambo Kiss on the Cheek.

Hair Color that Froths, not Foams

Clairol Nice 'n Easy Foam Hair Color Review:

Hairdressers across the country tell us that more and more people are opting to color their hair themselves. The foam colors seem like a great option to avoid to the do-it-at-home mess.

The ads for Clairol's Nice 'n Easy foam make everything look so simple. Although we like the color, we detest their delivery system.

What was Good:
The color had adequate grey coverage. We applied it to the roots first, then distributed the color throughout the rest of the hair. We also left the color on longer as recommended on the box to better cover those resistant greys. What was surprising was that the newly-dyed hair actually matched the color depicted on the box. That doesn't happen often in the at-home hair color world.


The Ugly Truth:
The bottle has issues! We made a HUGE mess! We got hair color on: The tile grout, the sink, the wall, the mirror, an eyebrow, one cheek, and an arm. Oh yeah, the shirt we were wearing got color splotched on it too. -That rarely happens to us!

Here's How it Works:
You dump one solution into another, then reapply the regular cap. And then you shake... and shake and shake. Next, you take off the top and apply the foam nozzle. Then, you have to SQUEEZE the color out! Although the product looked foamy, it was actually the consistency of frothy eggs. So, we covered the bottle tip and shook it some more - a process we had to do many times.

At first, it seemed easy to apply the color directly to the roots, but the product seemed to run. Although there was clearly solution left in the bottle, we had a difficult time getting it out about 2/3 of the way through. So we had to shake some more. Finally, we gave up and dumped the hair color into one hand like a shampoo. That helped get the extra product onto the ends of the hair.

Again, the favorable result and color coverage was surprising after our drippy application ordeal. One thing we did notice was a blotch higher up in the hair from where the product was squeezed out of the bottle. This happened even though we thought we had done a good job working the color through the hair. The stress of cleaning up the color spots before it stained our skin and work area was probably the culprit.

With Clairol's Nice 'n Easy Foam, the tresses may look good, but the bathroom wall will need a paint touch-up.

The color gets a GLAMBO KISS but the Dispenser gets a GLAMBO DISS. (Since this post, Glambo has reviewed two other foam hair colors. Click John Frieda Precision Foam and/ or L'Oreal Sublime Mousse to see our comments.)

Black (Hair) is Back at that 2011 Oscars

Glambo's Red Carpet Review: The dresses were beautiful, as always. We noted the lack of necklaces on most celebrities, and the absence of all jewelry on Hillary Swank. Jennifer Hudson presented in body glitter. A-list actresses like Reese Witherspoon and Oscar co-host Anne Hathaway appeared to be wearing false eyelashes with a hint of sparkle, which we liked.

What we couldn't help continuing to comment on was the new hair color - especially on the men. (Not that we would actually accuse anyone of a bad bottle job.) The guys all seemed to be sporting darker locks than they had in the past. Two of the best examples were Matthew McConaughey and Jude Law. The hair on their head was obviously darker than their eyebrows and facial hair. Even men with a naturally dark do appeared to be wearing a deeper, one dimensional shade. Christian Bale's darker hair was accentuated by the presence of his brownish-red beard, as seen below.





Left: Christian Bale at 2011 Oscars. Right: Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves 2011 Oscar Red Carpet. (Both Photos by Kevin Winter, Getty Images.)

Whatever the reason, darker hair seems to be the new trend. We continued to watch tv and surf the web. From soap stars to prime time hotties, lighter shades and subtle highlights are gone, replaced by darker tresses. We joked, "Is everybody trying to look like Jon Hamm?" If so, we are not complaining because, after all, women love the idea of Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome.

Jon Hamm as Donald Draper in AMC's 'Mad Men'