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.
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.
If you have medium or high porous hair, your hair has trouble keeping moisture which, in turn, causes hair color to fade faster. It can't lock-in the dye. If your hair always feels dry, it may be because it's porous. Try adding more hair oils, creams, and conditioning treatments to your hair care routine.
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).
Best Long-Lasting: Clairol Nice'N Easy – Medium Cool Blonde. The Clairol Nice'N Easy permanent hair dye provides natural and vibrant color made with a blend of tones and highlights. The cream contains conditioners that soften hair and add shine. It provides 100% gray coverage that lasts up to 8 weeks.
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.
Hair loss after hair dyeing is common due to the manipulation of the hair shafts during the dyeing procedure. Permanent dyeing involves rubbing the dyestuffs into the hair and scalp and then rubbing the hair and the scalp with rinsing with water to remove the extra dye.
A common reason behind fast-fading hair color is insufficient processing time, meaning the hair color did not stay on long enough. This especially holds true if you or your client have grey hair. Grey hair cuticles are tightly packed down and take longer to open and absorb artificial hair color molecules.
While certain nutrient deficits and health conditions may spawn premature gray hairs, it's impossible to restore your natural hair color if your grays are genetic or due to natural aging. If you're looking to help stop the rate of graying hair, changes in nutrition may work, but only if deficiencies are the root cause.
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).
The timing between dyes, according to Lint, is roughly every four to six weeks. If you're stretching that time gap pretty thin, however, there are methods to cover your gray roots in the meantime. "There are lots of products, such as powder or makeup, that cover your gray and then wash out when shampooed," says Lint.
The outer cuticle layer of greys can be more tightly packed and layered, making them resistant to colour absorption. As a result, it can be more difficult to colour resistant grey hair and to cover visible regrowth.
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.
2. Condition with a combination of 1/3 apple cider vinegar— I like this organic apple cider vinegar from Bragg —and 2/3 conditioner. The vinegar actually helps the hair dye to remain bonded to the hair, according to my awesome stylist Viviane of Marina Beach Hair.
Although there is a popular belief that using salt and white vinegar to set dyes in your fabrics work, it actually does not. The acid in the vinegar helps set the dye, but is only essential in the dying process and does not really work for cotton dyes.
1. Best Overall:REVLON Colorsilk Beautiful Color.
Choose a hue that's close to the color of your scalp. It will draw less attention to thin tresses. There's less contrast between skin and hair tones to draw the eye.
Consider a semi-permanent color.
Semi-permanent hair colors are less damaging to hair because they are free of ammonia and peroxide. Also called hair gloss, they may bring shine and change the tone of your hair.
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.)
Don't assume that grey hair makes you look older
Hair naturally loses pigment as we age, but stylist Paul Falltrick points out that the notion that grey hair makes you look older is increasingly becoming a misnomer: "Grey shades can be stereotyped as ageing, but a clean-looking grey is stunning" he says.
Even though permanent hair colour last longer than demi-permanent or semi-permanent hair colour, you will still need to ensure root cover up every 4 to 6 weeks.
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.