Given that gray hair tends to be a bit drier, it's necessary to add moisture to your haircare routine, through a deep conditioner, a shampoo, or your styling products.
To quench your parched grays, harness the deep moisturizing properties of natural butters and oils, including shea butter, olive oil, or coconut oil. On a cautionary note, applying too much of these intense oils can leave thin or fine hair greasy and weighed down.
Best overall: Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Conditioner, $26. Best for frizzy gray hair: Pureology Hydrate Soft Softening Treatment, $41. Best for natural gray hair: Pattern Lightweight Conditioner, $25. Best for short gray hair: Kérastase Blond Absolu Strengthening Conditioner, $44.
Shampooing your hair 1-3 times per week should be perfect. Make sure you are using very moisturizing conditioner, and perhaps include a weekly hair mask in your regimen. Seal in moisture after the shower with a good leave-in conditioner, hair oil or moisture serum. This will calm unruly hair and soften your strands.
2. Moisture is more important than ever before! Grey hair tends to be more dry, so be diligent with conditioners and moisturizers. Always use oils to seal in moisture, use a daily leave-in conditioner, and if you're still struggling with dryness, deep condition more often- even up to once a week.
When you go grey, your hair may feel quite dry. But this is not because of its texture — it is because hair usually greys at an age when your sebaceous glands (which are attached to each hair follicle) begin to secrete less oil than before.
A Toner Is The Way To Go
But to make it shine and look silvery, it should have a blue undertone. A violet toner neutralizes dull yellow undertones. Your gray hair absorbs the pigment and imparts a desirable shade of silver and platinum.
Use natural, SLS-free shampoos or choose products with mild surfactants like cocamidopropyl betaine. Go for hydrating conditioners and hair masks that contain plant oils like shea butter, argan, jojoba, and coconut oils. These will keep the strands moisturized and minimize frizz.
Graying hair doesn't mean your hair will fall out, but you do need to start using specialized shampoos to help protect your strands. These include purple shampoos that prevent your gray strands from turning yellowish in tone and those that keep your hair from becoming brittle.
Take an inch of your hair and stretch it, if it doesn't stretch or breaks, feels dry and rough, it is brittle/damaged and needs moisture treatment. If the hair stretches far and does not return and/or breaks, feels mushy, gummy or cotton candy-like, your hair needs protein.
Vitamin B-12 deficiency is one of the most common causes of prematurely graying hair. Researchers have noted that vitamin B-12 deficiencies are often concurrent with folic acid and biotin deficiencies in people whose hair has started to turn gray early.
“Just like you would for coloured hair, use a shampoo and conditioner that is formulated for naturally grey strands to maintain their health. Most importantly, use a good conditioner and leave-in conditioner, as sometimes grey hair can look very dry and frizzy,” advises Bhatia.
Because gray hair needs more moisture than other hair (more on that below), you must get regular cuts to avoid split ends. Split ends can easily travel up the shaft and become a major source of frizzy gray hair.
As we mentioned, gray hair's lack of sebum can make it feel dry. To reduce further dryness, you'll want to wash it as infrequently as possible. "Washing every other day or three to four times a week can help with this," says Mazzei.
If you've got gray hair, purple shampoos are now officially your new best friend. They'll remove all the unwanted brassy and warm undertones that taint your beautiful silver color, leaving you with bright, shiny locks.
Purple shampoo has been used for decades by hairdressers, mostly to help tone and neutralize blonde and gray hair, getting rid of brassy or yellow tones for an overall more cool-toned look.
Using a purple shampoo on grey hair can help to remove brassy yellow shades, leaving you with a flattering silver undertone.
Grey hair has very little melanin, while white hair has no melanin at all. As you go through the aging process, your hair might turn grey before going completely white. For some, this process is so drastic that the hair simply turns silver and then white.
Your hair turns gray or white from a loss of melanin, a pigment-producing component that produces melanocyte cells. These make up your natural hair and skin color. The less melanin you have, the lighter your hair color. Gray hair has minimal melanin, while white has none.
Known as protein overload, having too much protein in your hair may cause it to appear dull, dry, and brittle. Keratin, the main protein in your hair, can be added to your hair to strengthen your strands.