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The Story Behind Avera
For six years, I was a hair stylist on film sets in Paris.
My job was to make sure the actresses' color looked perfect under the spotlights — a light that forgives nothing. And in the middle of a shoot, there's no blocking three hours for a salon appointment between scenes.
So I learned to do things differently.
On set, we combine seven pigments that interact with each other to create depth — exactly like a colorist in a salon when they mix their shades. Box dyes use two or three. That's why the result looks flat and you can spot it from across the room. Our blends passed under cinema spotlights without anyone seeing the difference.
And then one Sunday, my mother called me crying.
Her gray hair wouldn't hold color anymore. She had tried everything. Three different brands, hours of processing time, tutorials on the internet. Every single time, the same result: flat, orange, or gone in two weeks. She had spent hundreds in salon corrections. She couldn't look at herself in the mirror anymore.
I went to her place the following weekend with my on-set pigments. I mixed a formula in her kitchen. Twenty minutes.
She looked at herself in the mirror and said nothing for ten seconds.
Then she whispered: "It's me. It's me from before."
And she cried, but not the same way.
— Élena Mercier, Founder
