New York stylist Ashley Javier used to have a code word to ease the pain for young clients going prematurely grey.

He'd call the unwanted hair "sparkles." Now he calls them stylish.

If you think it's been a grey winter, just wait until summer when silver strands that have been sprouting up on the fashion runways are expected to hit the streets and the heads of fashion-forward twenty- and thirtysomethings.

"A lot of these women aren't old enough to remember blue rinses and those beauty-school granny colours – the women they thought of as 'older' didn't do that," says Javier. "So for their generation, (grey) seems a little undiscovered."

Supermodel Kate Moss showed up at a Longchamp handbag launch in Paris last month sporting silver streaks, causing fashionistas of all ages to wonder whether hard partying was coming back to haunt the 36-year-old. Young models were sporting steely streaks in elaborate bouffants at Chanel's recent haute couture show.

Even 13-year-old fashion blogging phenom Tavi Gevinson had gone grey at last week's New York fashion week – a look that Javier describes as more Golden Girl than It Girl. "She looked just like Estelle Getty (the elderly star of the 1980s sitcom) with her glasses and pillbox hat," Javier chuckles.

Toronto hair stylist Mike Baronowski bleached his brown locks platinum last fall and loves the light look, which he says has started catching on among young Asians because it's such a break from black.

His boss, Yorkville stylist Greg May, sees silver as rebellious and retro – a throwback to the 1980s and a way for young people to make their mark on a new decade.

"I find it actually makes me look younger," says Baronowski, 22. "I don't even remember the '80s, so this just seems futuristic to me."

May says some older clients have been asking for silvery highlights and he's getting more demand for grey. "I have men coming in asking for that Richard Gere older-man look – and they're 30 years old."

Rosedale hair stylist Rita Renouf, 55, finds all this quite amusing, having spent decades fighting back grey before letting her own wavy locks return to their natural silver a few years ago.

"It used to be that young girls hated my hair – I looked old. Now all of a sudden I'm finding that a lot of girls are very envious of my colour. I've never had 20- to 25-year-olds go crazy over my hair. But it's quite beautiful, I have to admit."

Javier describes the ideal look as streaks of Japanese anime-style colours, such as slate grey, blue or seafoam green. Don't go all grey "or you'll look like you're wearing a wig," he warns.

The man who has styled the hair of Hollywood icons such as Penelope Cruz and Uma Thurman cautions that this "new wave of possibilities" requires meticulous bleaching and toning. Otherwise you risk walking out of the shop looking like the blue-rinsed Mrs. Slocombe from the British comedy Are You Being Served?

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"These colours are meant to be empowering. The sexiness comes from the fact that not every girl at the party looks like you or has this colour," says Javier.

"It's so tricky to make sure it doesn't look tragic that, when you do get it right, there's a certain aura about you. People remember you."