Do you want to cover your grays without putting the health of your hair at risk?
In that case, the best option for your gray hair are ammonia-free dyes.
I’ll tell you a bit about my history with gray hair.
I remember that fateful moment very well.
It was in the morning.
What I usually do every morning, I was about to wash my hair and was looking in the mirror when I notice them.
I noticed it, better said.
“Noooo!” I exclaimed when I came face to face with the first, feared…. Gray hair!
With the second or the third gray hair, the shock wasn’t as strong as with the first, but admittedly, it’s just as annoying, be it one, two or fifteen!
Going back to that morning and to my gray hair reflecting in the mirror, I suddenly felt like the grandmas in movies with their whole head gray.
“Nooooo!” I said again
I already had gray hairs!
It was fine with just one – for now – but that meant that more would surely show up. (Actually, that’s exactly what inevitably happened).
And now? What do I do?
I knew I shouldn’t rip it out, because the myth is that if you pull out one, seven grow back in its place.
I wasn’t in the mood to try out if it was true or not.
Also, if it did happen, I would have the same problem but multiplied by seven.
That day of the start of my gray hairs marked a before and an after in my relationship with my hair.
Right after I washed it and left the house, I felt like the whole world was looking at my first white hair.
It looked like the star of the rest of my hair.
I didn’t wait a second to figure out how to hide it, how to conceal it, or disguise t, dye it, …. And get rid of it!
Whatever it was, I needed to do it.
And soon.
The first thing that occurred to me was thinking of if there was an “assassin” for gray hairs, like the ones from the mafia that someone comes and boom, chao gray hairs. (Well, I think that at this point I should stop watching so many movies… ).
Getting back to reality, I started research to analyze the bet products that would work for me so that you couldn’t see my horrible gray hair ever again.
I talked with my hair stylist, with my friends, with people at work, with my neighbors and I pulled together a long list of products.
That I did.
I learned a very important thing.
If I wanted to cover my gray hairs without mistreating my hair, I had to look for ammonia-free hair dyes.
If I didn’t, I would resolve the problem of gray hairs, but I would be adding a pretty aggressive chemical to my hair.
And I didn’t want that.
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Why to choose an ammonia-free dye for your gray hairs
Ammonia-free dyes have other benefits for our hair.
One of them is that, despite what you may think, ammonia-free dyes maintain the intensity of the color.
And the best thing is that the intensity doesn’t fade with washing.
However, many people still think that by not having ammonia, these dyes take longer to penetrate and therefore, last less time in your hair. Even though, these products usually contain other natural ingredients that have a similar effect as ammonia but that aren’t as damaging.
Another point in favor is that they usually give a shinier touch than dyes that contain ammonia.
So, the balance started leaning towards products for grays without this chemical component.
In addition, when it comes to the list of colors available that are ammonia-free, it’s almost as extensive as those products that contain ammonia, so finding one that is my color wouldn’t be a problem.
After highlighting the benefits of ammonia-free dyes, I did a bit of research about products that exist on the market and which would be the best for my imperious need to cover up my gray hair and prevent the appearance of more white hairs.
So after my exhausting race around stores and my friends’ houses, I compiled what I thought were the best options.
That’s why, here, I’ll tell you a bit about the ammonia-free dyes that are most effective for covering up unwanted gray hairs.
Semi-permanent vs permanent: Which should you choose for your hair?
I’ll tell you that there are options for all tastes.
There are temporary, semi-permanent and permanent dyes.
We are going to talk in detail about each one of these two options.
Temporary dyes
Check temporary dye price on Amazon
Temporary dyes are those that lose their color slowly with washing.
These are a good option if you are going out in a rush and when you need to cover only one or very few gray hairs.
You can use them when you do highlights, for example, to just color a few pieces of hair and get a coloring that covers the white hairs without covering your whole head.
In my case, I felt that I had found the idea remedy to attack the first ones!
A good temporary coverage without ammonia is L’Oreal Paris with the Magic Root Cover Up Spray.
It not only doesn’t have ammonia, it also doesn’t have peroxide nor synthetic colorants.
It allows you to retouch the grays from the roots with just a “spritz spritz” of the spray. In addition to that immediate result, it doesn’t stain your clothes.
It comes in a wide variety of tones so that you can choose the best that adapts to the color of your hair.
If you have black hair, choose the black spray.
If you have dark brown hair, choose the dark brown spray, and so on.
Another thing that I like a lot about this spray is that it is very economical.
It’s a lot less expensive that dyeing your hair in a beauty salon.
Semi-permanent dyes
What these dyes do is they don’t penetrate the hair very deeply. Instead, they deposit the color on the cuticle of the hair.
They last longer than temporary dyes, but they also lose their color little by little with washing.
The good thing is that in addition to cover gray, it can help us change color if we are looking for a temporary change.
The bad thing is its effect doesn’t last that long and the gray hairs end up coming back again.
For those temporary changes but that last a bit longer, there is Garnier Nutrisse Natea, that can be a good option in price-quality relation.
It covers grays for just a few weeks, even though it offers a new shinier color and with more life without having to reapply the product as often as with the temporary spray.
Permanent dyes
And finally, we get to the classic permanent dyes.
They are the dyes that last with the passage of time and stay in tact with washing.
This option is the longest lasting, and as such, it requires more care, for example, at the time of applying it, so that it doesn’t stain our clothes.
But, being careful, we are talking about the longest-lasting solution possible. And within these permanent dyes, we have a wide array of products to choose from.
If in addition to temporary achievements, we are looking for a good price, Wella Kolestint is the best option to care of your wallet.
Since normally we believe that less expensive means lower quality, what can happen is that we don’t always get full coverage of all of our grays.
We can complement the treatment with another product to get the result that we want, for example a good anti-gray shampoo.
Although, in the first moment, it’s a valid option to get out of a bind because it’s one of the most economical dyes.
Another option that many consider the best on the market, comes from L’Oreal Paris and it’s from their Recital Preference line.
This dye doesn’t just completely cover gray hairs, but it also is long lasting and at the same time cares for your hair.
Remember that in this case, the results are final; there is no margin for error.
So if in the end, you choose to dye your hair with permanent color, I recommend that you go to a professional beauty salon, unless you have experience dyeing your hair, of course.
Conclusions
Well, that’s my research about products that cover grays without ammonia.
There are many more, but I told you about the ones that worked best for me.
And also, I’ll tell you that after the initial desperation over that first white hair, you don’t have to worry because, luckily, we have a lot of options to go back to our natural color or to choose the one we like best and cover those grays!
And now, tell me a bit about you.
At what age did you get your first gray hair?
How do you cover your grays?
