COLOR HOW TO: Mixed Metal Formula of Gold, Silver, Rose

Zach Schneider always creates some of the coolest looks at his Hairborn Fashions salon in Villa Park, Illinois. And when we spotted this silver fox on Facebook, we knew we had to track down the hair color formula and steps.

"I hate to be one to say 'The pictures don't do this color justice'... but it did look pretty gnarly in person," Schneider says. "It literally looked like it faded from silver steel to a 14K gold. My client here, Nora, has been wanting to go to this silver/gray color... but she came from black over red over black over red over black... that whole deal. So these photos are her second sitting of lifting out the black and going for this look."

Here, Schneider explains what he did to get Nora here, AND what he would do if another person were to request this look.

"First, I lifted her hair out with Wella's Blondor to a level 10, to get any hint of yellow out of her hair, throughout the root/shaft area," he says. "Her ends were still a bit resistant, and had a strong feel of yellow, but I planned to work with that. I toned with Redken Shades 9V and let it over-process to get that noticeable violet tone to omit any sign of yellow where I could. I then applied Wella's Color Touch 7/89 (medium blonde pearl) with 6-volume developer all over and let it process for 25 minutes. The 7/89 tweaked up the yellow-ness of the ends to give it that perfect gold as a wedding ring look to it. Although we deposited a level 7 onto the hair, it will not and accept a grey feel if there is any yellow-ness to it at all. Sounds goofy lifting so high, just to bring the color back down."

Here's how he would do it if a client asked him to replicate the look....

"Still, I would lift to a level 10 to get rid of the yellow feel where necessary," he says. "I would then go in with an ombre effect and paint in 8GG by Aloxxi, to get a solid gold/yellow feel without going to dark, then go back over with Wella Color Touch's 7/89. The 7/89 will pick up silver/gray where its depositing over a level 10 but it will add just enough tone where the 8GG was applied."