Gray hair poses some unique challenges. It's coarser than your natural hair, and gray hair follicles make less oil, making it drier as well. This makes it harder for color to penetrate, so you may have to leave it on longer, which can cause more damage.
Root Powder
Between permanent dyes, root powder is a simple way to cover your grays. Apply with a brush over your gray roots until your grays are no longer visible. As with root spray, this is a temporary coverage solution that washes out.
Your hair is damaged.
Brittle, split, and dry hair won't take hair dye the same way healthy hair does. If your hair is damaged, the dye's chemicals will penetrate the hair cuticles differently, and you may end up with patchy or faded color.
Colors like butterscotch, 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 colors to hide gray.
For grey hair coverage, we generally recommend that you aim to color slightly lighter than the natural hair color level of your client. In this case we would suggest you go for a color starting in level 6 (Dark Blonde) or 7 (Blonde).
We suggest opting for an all-over color service if you want to fully mask every gray hair on your head with a uniform shade. However, highlighting may be better if your goal is to blend your grays seamlessly.
According to hair biology experts and styling experts alike, grey hair is more resistant to color than younger hair because of its texture. The relative lack of natural oils in the hair compared to younger hair make it a rougher surface that tends to reject the color being applied, especially around the roots.
Just as with blonde hair, red hair requires a little extra tender love and care. Hack admits that red hair is his favorite to color, but that she's noticed many women don't realize the extent of after-care that's needed. “Red is the hardest color to keep lustrous and the hardest color to remove,” she adds.
3) Permanent Hair Color
Permanent hair colors are ideal if you want complete 100% gray coverage. They are recommended in cases where you have 50% gray hair and more. Permanent hair color contains more ammonia and opens the hair cuticle, allowing the color to penetrate deep into the hair.
Gray hair can be colored many different shades, such as platinum blonde, medium brown, or pure black (for this color, we recommend Simply Color Jet Black 1.0).
Permanent hair color allows you to get full gray hair coverage, often in one single process service. You can also change your color drastically from your natural shade. With a permanent color application at Symmetry Hair Studio, you can cover stubborn grays completely.
Pre-softening the hair is a technique used by many hairstylists for coarse grey hair. It involves applying just the color directly on the hair with no developer, letting it sit for a few minutes. Then, mix your formula and paint over previously applied hair.
Demi-Permanent or Semi-Permanent Color
While a demi-permanent or semi-permanent hair color can be applied to any level of gray, it's often used to camouflage early grays, giving 30-70% coverage.
Your hair dye will not be darker in color even if you keep it in longer. Rather, it's the strength of the hair dye that determines whether it will be lighter or darker on your hair. The processing time for hair dye is constant. So even if you leave your hair dye for two hours, it won't result in a darker shade.
1. Best Overall:REVLON Colorsilk Beautiful Color.
Hot roots occur because the heat from your scalp causes the colour at the roots to develop faster than the colour on the mid-lengths or ends. This can lead to a lighter colour result at your roots than the rest of the hair.
The Best Style Choices For Gray Hair. Avoid mustard, olive green, camel and rust. These colours tend to make you look like you have jaundice and no one wants that! Instead wear mint, lavender, rose red and taupe, especially close to your face as well as in your makeup choices.
First, can lowlights actually cover gray hair? Yes! Lowlights, which, unlike highlights are actually a few shades darker than your hair, bring out the most natural look versus using brighter traditional highlights, says Michael Canalé, Jennifer Aniston's longtime colorist and creator of hair care line Canalé.
Caramel, honey, gold, copper, and strawberry give a healthy brightness that makes us look and feel younger. (Framing your face with lighter shades draws the eye away from any complexion concerns, as well.)
Gray blending is a subtle hair color application that oscillates between highlights and balayage. Like a game of chiaroscuro, the colorist will first lighten large sections of hair with a light balayage, then accentuate the effect on a few finer strands to blend in the gray hair naturally present.
Instead of dyeing all of your hair, try adding highlights or lowlights to hide those silver hairs. By blending highlights in your hair, you can hide stray grays without too much additional maintenance.
Swap in a clarifying shampoo
To keep your gray hair bright and shiny, switch out your hydrating shampoo for a clarifying shampoo once a week. This helps to remove impurities and product build-up. Follow the clarifying shampoo with a purple-based conditioner (more on this in a minute).