“Greying” with Grace: How to Color, Maintain, or Transition Grey Hair
Posted by Johnaé De Felicis on Nov 3rd 2021
Wisdom is not the only sign of aging gracefully - so is grey hair, the beautiful "crown of splendor" that makes the mature woman truly look platinum-quality. Whether you choose to hide your silver streaks with a hair coloring solution or wear them loud and proud, there’s a right and wrong way to manage grey hair. To steer you in the right direction, we’ve put together a few pro tips for coloring, maintaining, and transitioning grey hair.
Pro Tips for Damage-Proof Grey Hair Coverage
When your roots need a touch-up in the color department, it’s important to consider how much grey hair you currently have when determining the amount of grey hair coverage that’s needed. In certain cases, less is more.
If you only have that one “grey stray” that pops up here and there, a root touch-up pen may be ideal for blending it with the rest of your hair (rather than a full-on dye job). An easy fix for small patches of grey hair that are less undisguisable? A cover-up spray for your roots.
Both are temporary solutions that aren’t as long-lasting as a permanent dye, which women normally opt for when the grey hair growth is nonstop and they want a color treatment that won’t fade every few days.
If this helps, here are some other tips for maintaining color-treated hair.
Pro Tips for Healthy
Grey Hair Maintenance
The key to maintaining natural grey hair? It’s all in the products. As hair turns grey, the melanin fades, sebum production in your scalp’s oil glands begin to slow, and your hair also loses its elasticity. That explains why it feels drier and less shiny as you mature, and why the texture of grey hair takes some adjusting to as it relates to your hair regimen.
We recommend using hair solutions that will ensure that your hair never lacks in the areas of moisture and deep conditioning, like the Design Essentials Platinum® Deep Moisture Collection.
Things especially get tricky as your hair shifts from its original pigment to grey. This is a time when you may feel obligated to color-treat your hair the most, which requires healthy hair maintenance if you want the color coverage to look right.
As an alternative, you can also try wearing a protective style until you’re out of this phase. Wigs are a popular go-to since they are easy to maintain.
All wig lovers know that wigs can look old and tired as soon as a week after daily use–that is, without the proper care.
If you want to extend the life of a new wig by preserving its freshness, we suggest using the Design Essentials Wigs & Extensions Collection for regular maintenance purposes. These products work well on both human hair wigs and synthetic wigs.
Platinum Hair Essentials
Pro Tips for Transitioning from Color to Natural Grey Hair
We’re in an era where women are choosing to embrace their natural beauty more each day–and we love to see it!
Grey hair normally emerges in the prime of our forties or fifties. Most mature women go through stages of wanting to dye their grey hair to cover it up. After a while, you may decide that the salt-and-pepper look is just more of your style.
Going grey full-time? It's a scary feeling at first (kind of like the “big chop”), but once you commit to it, follow these best practices during the transitioning phase to keep your silver streaks aging like fine wine.
Avoid color-treating your hair during the transitioning phase. As tempting as it may be to grab some dye or cover-up spray and go to town on your roots, your hair won’t be able to transition entirely until the dyed hair has fully grown out. You’d basically have to start the process over each time you color it.
This transitioning period is the perfect time to add some highlights and/or lowlights to your hair, as they’d blend gorgeously with your silver streaks. You can try highlighting your hair at home if you’re comfortable enough, but your safest bet is to leave this to a salon professional. If you visit the salon regularly, just ask your stylist to add them in on your next hair appointment.
Wear protective styles as much as possible. This may help curb the desire to color-treat your hair. Aside from wigs, updo's are another style that will afford you the ability to hide stray greys without dying it. Need ideas? Check out these five quick hairstyles for moms.
We hope you feel much wiser about healthy coverage, maintenance, and transitioning practices for natural grey hair. Au naturale or dyed, the versatility that grey hair provides gives “50 shades of grey” a whole new meaning! Celebs like the gorgeous Tia Mowry-Hardrict have shown us what greying with grace looks like. Now, it’s your turn. Share a photo of how you’re rocking your crown these days (natural, dyed, or any other way), and tag us on Instagram!