The Secret Growing Out Gray Hair Gracefully

This post was originally published on October 20, 2020.

More and more women are growing out gray hair and embracing their natural hair color. And we can understand why! Growing out gray hair has so many advantages over continually coloring your grays. For example, imagine all the money you’d save if you didn’t have to dye your roots every five weeks! However, transitioning to gray hair is a major commitment, and requires a lot of patience to get through the awkward transitional phase. But if you’re ready to take the plunge, we have a few tips on how to grow out gray hair gracefully.

So if you want to know the best way to grow out gray hair, keep reading!

The Best Way to Transition to Gray Hair

1. Go for a Big Chop

If you’re looking for the quickest way of transitioning to gray hair, you can cut your hair short. Like, really short. The concept is simple: grow out approximately one inch of your gray roots, then ask your hairstylist for a pixie cut. If you’re ready for a big change, this could be your solution!

However, most women aren’t ready for a major change in hair color and length. If you’re not ready for a big chop, then this won’t be the best way for you to transition to gray hair. If you’d like to maintain your length while transitioning to gray hair, keep reading!

2. Growing Out Gray Hair with Highlights & Lowlights

Another option for growing out gray hair is to try a transitional hair color. If you have a lot of grays and you’ve been coloring your hair for a long time, the line of demarcation between your colored hair and natural hair color may be very strong.

To blend that line of demarcation, ask your hairstylist to paint babylights (very thin highlights) throughout your hair. This will help to blend those grays in with your colored hair, creating an all-over salt and pepper effect. For many people, this is the easiest way of transitioning to gray hair from dyed hair.

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3. (Temporarily) Color Your Roots

However, highlights can be expensive. If you want to save money and avoid a trip to the salon, you can also opt to just grow out your grays on your own.

There will most likely be days when you want to throw in the towel and hide your gray roots. On those days, use a temporary pigment on your roots like Toppik Root Touch-Up Spray.

Toppik Root Touch-Up Spray is an easy-to-use, quick-drying spray pigment that clings to your roots, instantly camouflaging gray hairs. Root Touch-Up Spray comes in five shades. Choose the shade that most closely matches your colored hair (not your roots), and the flexible color pigments will adjust to perfectly match your hair color.

Root Touch-Up Spray washes out with shampoo and conditioner, so you don’t need to worry about it leaving any trace on your gorgeous grays! If you need a quick and easy way to disguise your roots while transitioning to gray hair, this method will be perfect for you.

4. Use Semi-Permanent Hair Color to Transition to Gray

Another option is to have your hairstylist glaze your grays, which effectively turns them into highlights. Once your roots reach a certain length, you can cease the glaze treatments and cut your hair to match the line of demarcation.

5. Tone with Silver Shampoo

Light hair (including gray hair) is more prone to brassiness. To neutralize those yellow tones, you can use a purple or silver toning shampoo. If you already have light-colored hair, a silver shampoo can help to blend your grays with your blonde hair. Just be careful not to use silver shampoo too often, or you could wind up with lavender hair instead of gray hair!

6. Get Support

Growing out gray hair is a major change. Not only does the process require a serious commitment (at least one year if your hair is longer than chin length), but embracing your natural gray roots is also a big identity shift for most women.

Luckily, there is a growing gray hair community! Check out gray hair hashtags on your favorite social network. Many people are going through the same experience. Engaging with others who are growing out their grays can help you to feel less isolated during the awkward transitional phase.

Do you have any tips for growing out gray hair? Share your experience with other readers in the comment section below!