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.
If your hair is light blonde, you can even go for sandy or pearl highlights, which will mix well with grey. 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.
Opt for an all over colour right away when dyeing your hair or transition with highlights for a gradual, natural look. Each time you colour, choose a lighter shade to bring you closer to the grey shade in your hair.
Silver hair toner is a popular option when it comes to showcasing your grey. Instead, a blue pigment is used to neutralise yellow undertones. Gradually, your hair stylist can reduce the colour pigment at each application, smoothly easing you into an all-grey look thanks to a silver toner for hair.
There are three main ways of transitioning to gray hair from dyed hair: the cold turkey method (letting the dye grow out or cutting it out), the salon transition (having a stylist blend your dyed hair to match your natural gray), or the dye-strip technique (a combination of various methods).
“This technique mixes the gray strands with your natural hair tone, resulting in a subtle, blended look.” The difference between gray blending and other coloring techniques is all in the amount of coverage you get.
"To blend that line of demarcation, ask your hairstylist to paint babylights (very thin highlights) throughout your hair," suggests Martin. "This will help to blend those grays in with your colored hair, creating an allover salt and pepper effect."
The service: Express Grey Blending. What is it? A low commitment grey blending with intense vibrancy and shine. Benefit: Up to 70% grey coverage with intense vibrancy and shine in only 15 minutes. Luxurious shine and vibrant color finish.
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.
For gray blending, you'll typically want to opt for highlights or lowlights that fall within two levels of your base shade. The goal is to create a natural blend—not add extreme highlights that completely transform your hair color.
The best app for trying on gray or white hair is YouCam Makeup. It offers a highly realistic gray hair filter that lets you experiment with different shades of gray, silver, or white, so you can find the perfect look before making any changes to your hair.
Warmer caramel, golden, or honey highlights contrast beautifully with cool gray for depth and shine. Their sun kissed hues flatter many skin tones too.
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.
Traditional highlights involve uniform colouring and often require frequent touch-ups. Balayage, on the other hand, provides a natural-looking, low maintenance option for grey hair coverage.
Best Toner for Natural Grey Hair
The best toners for blending your lengths in with your natural grey hair are the Wella Colour Charm T18 Lightest Ash Blonde and Wella Colour Charm T14 Pale Ash Blonde. A combination of both (half of each) will give the most natural shimmery silver grey results.
Highlights in a Cool Blonde Shade
There are three reasons we recommend blonde highlights Opens in a new tab for covering grey and white hairs. First up, the difference between cool blonde and silver shades is minimal, so grey roots won't appear as visible (even six weeks after your last colouring session).
Usually, your colourist will blend your greying hair with a mix of highlights and lowlights designed to give your colour dimension and frame your face attractively. Lowlights turn your hair darker than your natural colour, while highlights add shades that are lighter.
Softer Grow-Out: Because the technique mixes greys with similar shades, the transition as your roots grow out is more subtle and less noticeable. Lower Maintenance: Grey blending allows you to go longer between salon visits compared to full coverage, as it avoids harsh lines of regrowth.
The Best Low-Maintenance Hair Colors for Gray Hair
Dimensional Brown: brunette shades that contain a mix of undertones will provide a beautiful dimensional result. It gives the added benefit of making the regrowth of gray hair look less noticeable than using a highly saturated uniform shade.
Redway recommends “reducing heat styling and protecting hair as it can alter the color and texture as well as try to avoid chlorine in water as it can tint your color,” she says. How long does it take from the first gray hair to going full gray? “On average between five and 10 years,” says Onuoha.
Blonde blends better with grey
Grey hair in blonde hair or grey roots in blonde hair blends better than with darker hair. So blonde is a good choice if you want to make your grey hair or grey roots less noticeable.
That said, certain conditions may temporarily restore pigmentation. For example, if greying is caused by a vitamin deficiency, stress, or an underlying medical condition, addressing these issues may slow or even partially reverse greying. However, the complete reversal of naturally aged hair remains a challenge.
When growing out colored hair, consider opting for low-maintenance hair color techniques such as balayage or ombre. These techniques involve painting highlights or color onto the surface of the hair, allowing for a more natural-looking grow-out process.