If you have dark hair, highlights may be a little tricky, as the contrast can be too jarring. If you are a medium brunette, some golden, chocolate or light auburn highlights may blend nicely with your colour. But if you are a dark brunette, using lowlights to achieve a daring salt-and-pepper look may serve you better.
Extra Tip: When choosing highlights, warmth can be your best friend, opt for warmer tones that complement your natural brunette shade. This creates a cohesive look and prevents grays from appearing stark. Consider highlights with a hint of gold or copper to add warmth and counteract cool tones in grays.
Colours like butterscotch brown, light auburn and golden brown, or ash brown for those with a cool skin tone, are all versatile brunette shades that aren't too dark and are some of the best hair colours to hide grey.
Opt for Highlights and Lowlights: Adding highlights and lowlights to your hair can help blend the dyed hair with the growing gray hair, making the transition less noticeable (1). Highlights, which are lighter than your natural gray shade, can be strategically placed to create a more seamless look.
So, what are the benefits? First up, it means that clients who love highlights but want to blend gray hair can get coverage, all without losing that lust-worthy, light-reflective glow. Blending gray hair with highlights can also look more natural and youthful than a one-shade process, and make locks appear thicker.
Choose the right highlight hues for your hair shade
To seamlessly blend in your greying hair, you will need hues that are 2-3 shades lighter than your current colour but, at the same time, close to your natural hue. This helps the highlights blend with your various coloured strands.
Pick a lighter hair colour
A lighter colour will then look better. Your hair follicles produce less pigment as you're turning older. If there's no more pigment being produced in the hair follicles, your hair turns pigmentless.
If your hair is brown, you may need to bleach it more than once before you apply the grey dye. It's important you get your hair as light as possible before you attempt to turn it grey – this will help ensure a more even tone and vibrant, all-over colour.
Gray blending is a hair coloring technique that involves blending gray hairs with your base color to help soften the contrast between shades. Typically, the process involves either highlighting your hair or adding lowlights.
“There are many ways that you can transition your hair [to gray],” says Whitney, “including having your hair dyed to match your roots, adding lowlights or highlights to help with the line of demarcation [i.e., the line where your pigment meets the grays], cutting your hair short or simply letting your natural hair ...
Root sprays and root powders offer a quick and temporary way to cover up gray hairs: simply choose a shade that matches your natural color and apply to the roots.
Opt for caramel or honey-toned highlights that complement your natural brunette base. These soft highlights will seamlessly blend with your greying hair, creating a natural and radiant look.
What Is Mushroom Brown Hair? Mushroom brown hair is inspired by the natural, earthy tones of mushrooms, like portobello, shiitake, and porcini mushrooms. It's generally considered to be a neutral brown hair color that features undertones of light gray, silver, or beige.
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For folks who have shorter hair, the transition to gray is a lot faster than if you have a longer hairstyle. As an option, growing out your hair for at least 2-3 months and cutting off the dyed parts can give you a fun pixie cut.
Premature graying may be reversed with vitamin B12 supplementation only if vitamin B12 deficiency is the cause. If you are graying due to other factors, such as genetics, zinc deficiency, and medications, your gray hair cannot be reversed.
This technique blends gray hair into the hair color design rather than covering it up entirely. The aptly named technique mimics the palettes, tones, and patterns seen in various styles of herringbone wooden flooring to create seamless highlights that intentionally feature grays.
A root smudge or root shadow is one of the most effective ways of covering gray strands on hair with highlights. Not only does it guarantee full, even coverage, but it also gives the whole highlighted look with a more natural-looking feel.
We both settled on a smoky, darker shade of silver that wouldn't feel out of place among my naturally dark strands, and most importantly, allowed me to still live my brunette truth. "A gunmetal silver highlight is a great option for brunettes, mostly because this is in the same tonal family," Marcy explains.
Salt-and-pepper If you want go grey with dark hair and really embrace the “silver fox” look, try dyeing your head a blend of white, black, and grey. This style is perfect if you have a lot of grey roots coming in and want them to blend in with the darker tones at the ends of your hair.
Grey blending is a subtle way of handling your greying hair. It is an approach that blends the grey with colours similar to your natural hair tone. It's an option that allows you to embrace and enhance your greying hair, rather than hiding it. Your natural hair colour is the inspiration for the final effect.
The best coloring technique for gray hair ultimately depends on your desired look and how much coverage you want. We suggest opting for an all-over color service to fully mask every gray hair on your head with a uniform shade. However, highlighting may be better if your goal is seamlessly blending your grays.
If you are looking for a low-impact, natural effect then lowlights are a safer way to color grey hair. Your stylist uses foils to apply the color so it doesn't lie directly on your scalp. That means less exposure to chemicals and fewer potential allergic reactions.