28 Silver-Blonde Looks to Inspire Your Next Hair Color (2024)

Choosing a Shade: Take undertones into consideration, but know that hair has to be pre-lightened to a level 10 to achieve silver-blonde.

Maintenance Level: Typically high, unless you do a darker root. Generally, it's difficult to achieve a silver-blonde color because the process involves various lightening, lifting, and toning measures. You'll need to have your roots done every four to six weeks, Huckabee says.

Similar Shades: Pastel and platinum both speak to the icy tones found in silver-blonde.

Price: Pre-lightening is around $150 and up, while full color usually starts at $200 and up. This can depend on the salon and what its own pricing dictates.

Darker Silver-Blonde Tones

What sets this silver-blonde apart is the noticeably cooler, darker tones. If it were strictly platinum, there would only be a white undertone; instead, you can see a more silver, metallic gleam to the hair.

An Iconic Silver Pony

Celebrity hairstylist Kristin Ess (she works with the likes of Lucy Hale and Lauren Conrad) knows a thing or two about hair. When she posted this shot of silver hair done up in what's essentially #ponytailgoals, we had to wonder: How did she maintain this vibrant hue?

Yanchuk recommends clients purchase a purple shampoo and conditioner to control the tone of their hair at home. Luckily, Ess's eponymous hair-care line makes a fantastic Purple Shampoo ($12) that expertly tones hair so your new icy color lasts longer.

Strong Blue Tones

To get the right color, you have to lift (AKA lighten) natural hair to the palest tone possible, until it's nearly white. Only after the hair has been lifted can you go in and tone, which involves adding in blues and violets to achieve the silver hue of this wavy style here.

Lightening Hair

Whether you have naturally blonde hair or dark hair, Yanchuk says you still must lift your hair to a level 10 (pale blonde) in order to tone it properly silver. This means that naturally darker hair, like this darker base Yanchuk's own client started with, is more challenging to get to pale blonde. Sometimes it can take more than one appointment to get there.

Cooler Undertones

While she thinks silver-blonde looks amazing on anyone with cool undertones or pale skin, Yanchuk is quick to note "if you are confident and style your hair well, anyone can rock a beautiful silver-blonde."

Take Lady Gaga, for example, who dons silver-blonde hair with ease. She also looks amazing in every style and hair color under the rainbow, but the point is, while undertones can be taken into consideration with this shade, it's all about creating a look you like.

Paging Daenerys Targaryen

We're totally in love with this silvery-white creation by Yanchuk herself— and we 100% agree with what she says about rocking hair color with confidence. This look is seriously Mother of Dragons hair goals. If you need us, we'll be off dreaming of this epic hair and looking into hair growth products, stat.

Finding the Right Balance

Yanchuk says this hair color, like the silvery-blonde confection show here, is a very high-maintenance look only because pale silver hair is "just white, with the tiniest amount of blue/violet pigment."

There's a fine line here. If you use too much blue/violet pigment, it'll darken your hair past a pale silver, into a darker muted gray color, she says, which means the pale tones won’t remain in your hair very long.

Blonde Balayage

Balayage artist Tressa knows her way around blonde, as evidenced by her stunning portfolio showcased on her Instagram feed. She has several recent iterations of silver-blonde hair, but we're especially swooning over this version with just slightly dark roots. Keeping darker roots is common for this style, while the ends tend to be as silvery as possible.

Stormy Gray

Cassondra Kaeding is a celebrity colorist and Redken ambassador at Mare Salon in West Hollywood. This moody gray is basically a stormy skyline come to life, and it's epic.

Silver for Different Textures

Texture can sometimes be an issue when trying to achieve silver blonde tones. This, of course, depends on what you're working with. Fine hair generally lifts much faster and easier then coarse hair will, as seen in this silvery-gray look on beauty blogger Nami.

Yunchuck says that coarse hair will tend to "stay in the level 7/8 zones, with more yellow and orange pigments remaining," which doesn't allow you to tone with a pale silver color. If this is the case, you can always opt for more of a gray or dark silver color, but Yanchuk says you cannot get a pale silver-blonde unless you're lifted to nearly white.

Peekaboo Color

Scroll through colorist, stylist, and CEO Bescene Linh Phan's Instagram page to get hair color inspo for days. We're particularly enamored with this gray and lime-green peekaboo style.

Lived In Highlights

Cool highlights and dark roots prove that silver-blonde hair doesn't always have to be high-maintenance.

While darker roots make for a nice grow-out phase, Yanchuk says it might mean mixing multiple toners to create a soft blend from the roots to the ends. This color melt technique is tailored to each person's hair and depends specifically on how the color has lifted.

Healthy Curls

Jasmine Sanders is an expert at rocking blonde shades on her natural curly hair, and we love when she veers into cooler territory, as seen here. To keep your gorgeous curls healthy during a hair transformation,your stylist might integrate Olaplex or other techniques for bond maintenance and restoring moisture.

Platinum Cut

The color, in combination with the blunt cut, is giving us major futuristic vibes. The color requires both in-salon and at-home upkeep, Huckabee warns. Even with a short style, the dyeing appointment itself is long.

Blonde Highlights

Colorist (and Ramirez-Tran Salon co-owner) Johnny Ramirez's signature lived-in color, rendered with icy blonde highlights, is a cool-toned win.

Silver-Blonde Pixie

Cara Delevingne is no stranger to major hair changes, having gone from dirty blonde waves to an edgy buzzcut over the course of her career. We just so happen to love this silver-blonde pixie she sported for a moment in 2017.

Icy Highlights

Matt Rez, a Los Angeles-based colorist and Redken ambassador, is known for his impeccable blonde results, and Hunter Schafer's years with icy strands are no exception.

Beachy Blonde

Stephen Garrison is a colorist at Roil Salon in Los Angeles, and we love his beachy take on ice-blonde highlights. This style is a great example of how to make silver-blonde hair a bit lower maintenance, as the client's roots are kept darker.

This Silver Lob

We just had to include another one from Phan, because this lob is cut and colored to perfection.

The Middle Ground

We can't stop obsessing over this not-quite-platinum, not-quite-gray color.

A Platinum Bob

We're obsessed with this blunt bob and dark roots combo. As we mentioned earlier, keeping your roots dark makes for a low-maintenance grow-out process and also looks super edgy on a stylized cut like Chris Weber Mirlach's creation above.

Say No To Brassiness

Keep hair looking as sleek and light as Cynthia Erivo's icy-silver pixie by using proper toning shampoos. Yanchuk loves Milkshake’s Silver Shine Shampoo ($20), noting it's very strong. Oftentimes, she recommends using it diluted once a week. "I also love Kevin Murphy’s Blonde Angel Wash and Rinse ($41), which are slightly less pigmented but still amazing at keeping your blonde hair cool," she says.

In-Between Upkeep

Yanchuk says that aside from using a purple or silver shampoo and conditioner at home, clients can also come into the salon for toning services to maintain glossy waves like these.

Treatments and Masks

Anyone who is lightening their hair needs to keep up with hydration, whether they do this via masks at home or in-salon treatments, Yanchuck says.

Like with these long silver waves, a take-home mask is highly recommended for weekly use. Yanchuck likes Amika Soul Food ($28), Kevin Murphy, Loma, and Olaplex ($28) for at-home masks.

A Little Bit of Both

Is it silver? Is it blonde? It's both! For a dynamic color wrapped up in one cute style, opt for a shaggy lob.

Shadowed Roots

Sara Lim (AKA Slim) at the Ramirez Tran Salon in California created shadowed roots and color-corrected her client's hair, sending her home with an Olaplex treatment to rebuild bonds.

Interstellar Blonde

Sam Newberry, founder of Wicked Hair and Beauty used Faction8 from the Interstellar Collection ($15) by Pulp Riot to get this amazing color.

Zoe Kravitz's Silver Braids

Zoe Kravitz always looks fantastic. It's an indisputable fact, in our opinion. These silver-blonde braids, though? They might just top her dark pixie. Look at the detail! The shades!