It's no secret that silver and gray pair beautifully with cool, ashy hair colors, which is why it should come as no surprise that ash brown hair with silver highlights—getting more specific, foil highlights—is the first highlight option on our list.
When it comes to the highlights, you should opt for shades such as cool blonde, ash blonde, or platinum – they will ideally match the silver lining of your gray hair. A good practice to stick to cooler tones rather than warm golden tones. You want it to compliment the natural silver or white in your hair.
Neutral shades like soft blonde, mushroom brown, light copper, and caramel blonde balayage are the easiest to blend gray into (and maintain over time without wanting to shave your hair off). Plus, Cosgrove points out that it's easy to overwhelm your face with color.
Choose cool tones, with tonal blends of colour - highlights, balayage and other techniques for layering colour all work really well. Ash brown, icy blonde, mushroom tones, and even inky bluish tints to grey can work well.
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.
Is it better to go lighter or darker to cover grey hair? As for your permanent colour kit choice, for the best grey coverage, Josh recommends choosing a shade close to your natural root colour (that's the colour between the greys.) "Make sure to never stray more than two shades away from this,” says Josh.
A more graduated haircut such as the 'lob' – a long bob that sits slightly beneath the jawline at the front – is a great alternative. “The subtle layers will frame the face, making it appear fuller.” Softer styling also creates a youthful effect.
Ten out of ten colorists agree, shades that are warm-toned read more youthful than cool-toned hair colors. Spicy copper reds, rich caramel brunettes, and soft honey blondes will warm up your complexion for younger-looking skin (hold the retinol).
“Lowlighting is the best way to start the process or even just blend away some of the gray that you currently have.” Lowlights tend to be lower maintenance than highlights and grow out in a natural way, which is great if you don't want to constantly be in the salon chair.
The Colors to Avoid with Gray Hair
Here are a few to steer clear of: Muddy Neutrals: Beige, taupe, and other muted tones can make your skin look washed out and ashy. Earthy Yellows and Oranges: These warm tones clash with the coolness of gray hair and can make your complexion look sallow.
Sunkissed, golden, honey, caramel and champagne colours are often excellent, and browns stay warm and golden feeling, never too dark. Strawberry blonde and red can also work well. Greys stay warm, more like a pale gold than anything remotely blue.
Foils: Traditional foil highlights will give you a consistent blend of highlights and lowlights throughout your hair, starting at the roots. Foils can help ensure every stray gray gets covered and can help diminish a sharp line of gray root regrowth—essential if you wish to blend gray hair with dark hair.
Honey blonde is a rich, warm color. On the blonde shade spectrum, it falls somewhere between a caramel shade and a buttery hue, but it can also be worked as a bronde (brown blonde). Just think, quite simply, of the color of honey, and you've got this trend in one. It's glossy, gleaming, glowy and golden.
Rich jewel tones such as emerald green, ruby red, and sapphire blue are great options to bring out the silver tones in bright grey, white grey, or silver grey hair and if you have a cool undertone, you'll look fabulous in these colours.
Going blonde is a great way to blend or cover grey hair, especially with shades like ash blonde that naturally complement silver tones.
Neutral shades like soft blonde, mushroom brown, light copper, and caramel blonde balayage are just a few shades that play well with blondes and grays. As far as highlighting gray hair on dark brunettes, sometimes lowlights work better to cover grays, as adding highlights can overaccentuate their appearance.
There's no defined hair color that is more youthful, but darker colors can look harsher over time. Consider going for a more multi-dimensional hair color with lighter and darker pieces overall. Typically, a safe bet is to ask for balayage highlights that are around two shades lighter than your natural hue.
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.
Silver, ashy, blond, and platinum are indeed the most popular hair color choices for women over 60. And with good reason! Instead of coloring to hide your grey hair, you can choose to embrace it. I've seen way too many women with poorly colored dark brown hair color that just doesn't look natural or flattering.
"I recommend choosing lowlight shades that complement natural colors, like ash brown or soft silver," adds Cavalcante. Growing out your natural gray into full-on silver is becoming a highly sought-after look, but it takes a good amount of time and a hefty amount of patience—lowlights can help during the transition.
What color is ash blonde? Ash blonde colors have a cooler tone than honey or golden blondes. They can range from icy white to a darker blonde with gray undertones.
Another gray hair coloring technique to consider is having your colorist apply your hair color with foils. It will be much like getting highlights, except you won't be lightening your hair, you'll be coloring it gray. This will help you transition between the two shades more seamlessly and naturally.
Get the Right Cut
Rock a great cut with lots of style and texture, and get a trim every 6-8 weeks. Women who are 100% gray often wear their hair short. But consider long layers. They can be beautiful and add movement to healthy, bouncy hair.
According to Bellemare, purple shampoo is a great option for those with gray hair as it can help neutralize yellow tones. This brassiness can develop from environmental factors such as pollution, UV exposure, hard water, heat styling and product buildup, says Bellemare.