Best hair color to hide gray roots (according to a professional colorist)

  

 

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Best way to cover up gray roots between colorings

 

 If you have gray roots and you want to hide them, you’re not ready to transition to full gray hair yet. 

And I hear you. Because going gray is a turning point in any woman’s life, even for celebrities. I know from experience.

 

Many of my clients who decided to go gray went through quite an uncomfortable experience.

It isn’t easy to see that your hair has up to three colors while gray hair grows. Also, it’s not possible to speed up the process by cutting more than twenty centimeters of hair.

 

So I understand that if you’re not ready to wear all white or gray hair, you want to disguise the gray roots.

As a colorist,  my first piece of advice is that blonde is always the best color to disguise gray roots. 

 

Of course, if your hair is black, you cannot color it blonde. If you do, the blonde dye will cover your gray hair, but your lengths and ends will still be black.

I don’t think you want to go through life with two-colored hair.

 

So,  if your hair is dark, you have two alternatives to disguise gray roots: 

I’ll tell you more about both options later.

 

 If your hair is light brown 5, dark blonde 6, or blonde 7, you can apply a dye that is two levels higher to disguise gray roots easily. 

 

 Alternatively, if it’s very light blonde or extra light blonde, highlights will conceal your gray roots. 

 

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As you can see, you need to consider your current hair color to choose a color to disguise gray roots.

Let’s take a closer look at each case.

 

What color to choose to disguise gray roots in dark hair

In this case, you’ll have two alternatives to disguise the gray roots, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

When I refer to dark hair, I mean black 1, dark brown 3, and brown 4.

Is your hair one of these colors? Let’s see what you can do to disguise gray roots.

To disguise gray roots in dark hair you can change the color

 You’ll have to bleach your hair.  It could be one of the disadvantages.

If you want to change the color of your dark hair to disguise gray hair, you’ll have to remove the dark pigments from your hair. And that’s achieved with a chemical process called bleaching.

 

You’ll need to go to the salon to work out a bleaching plan with the professional to avoid hair damage.

This is very important  because gray hair is fragile and could easily be damaged  during bleaching if you don’t have professional training.

 

The colorist will bleach your hair and remove the darker colors. Then, you can decide which color to apply.

  My professional advice is that you start to scale colors slowly. For example, you can reach a dark blonde 6 or blonde 7.  And when you renew the color, apply some highlights.

 

This way, the small highlights in extra light colors will disguise the gray roots.

If you don’t want to bleach your dark hair, you can disguise your gray roots with a semi-permanent hair dye the same color as your hair.

Why a semi-permanent hair color?

Because semi-permanent hair color doesn’t contain ammonia and isn’t applied with a developer. Therefore,  you’ll damage your hair less, and gray hair will be concealed with each color renewal. 

 

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The color of the semi-permanent hair dye should be the same as your hair. That is, if your hair is dark brown, you should choose a semi-permanent dye dark brown 3 for the gray roots to be concealed and even.

 

What color to choose to disguise gray hair in light-colored hair?

There are two main groups of light hair options:

 

Medium colors:

 

Light colors:

 

If your hair is in the medium colors, you can apply dyes up to two numbers lighter to disguise the gray roots. Then, with time, you can work your way to lighter colors.

For example:

 

If you maintain the two-level difference between your color and the dye you choose, you won’t have to bleach your hair and your gray hair will be concealed.

However, if your hair is light brown 5, and you want to disguise your gray roots with a light blonde hair dye 8, you’ll have to bleach it. No hair dye lightens hair more than two levels.

Once you reach lighter blondes, you can apply highlights to further disguise the gray roots.

 

If your hair is light blonde 8, very light blonde 9, or extra light blonde 10, the colorist will be able to apply the highlights without bleaching your hair previously.

For example:

This way, your roots and the rest of your hair will have an even color with various shades of blonde that will lighten your face and disguise your gray hair.

 

Conclusions

You need to consider your current hair color to choose the best shade to conceal gray roots. Gray roots are very easy to conceal on light or very light hair by coloring or applying highlights.

Alternatively, to conceal gray roots on dark hair, it’s best to bleach hair to a dark blonde 6 or blonde 7. Then, go for highlights as well.