Hair goes grey as we get older, so lots of people have to deal with the results of their silvering locks. For some people, the grey-going process is a big ol’ nothing, but if you’re self-conscious about your grey hair and you want to do something about it, we’re here to help you out.
In this article, we’ve brought you lots of great ways to hide grey hair on dark hair, including dyeing tips, hairstyle adjustments, and helpful hacks —there are lots of different ways to hide, avoid and delay grey hair on dark hair, and we’ve unpacked them all.
How to Hide Grey Hair on Dark Hair — 3 Different Ways
If you want to completely or partially mask your grey hair, there are lots of ways to do it. In this section of our guide, we’ve addressed the best ones.
#1: Dye It
Yep, the most obvious solution, and the one you were expecting to see first.
If you want to fully hide your grey hair, you can dye it. You could go for your natural dark color, or embrace the opportunity to mix things up and completely change your color instead. If you do want to match your natural hair color, make sure you’re careful to find a good product that matches your hair properly. This shade selector is a good place to start.
If you’re not confident in your own abilities, you should go to a stylist instead, where you’ll get your hair matched and dyed properly. And if you find a stylist you like, you can keep going back for the same style, color and service, making it easy to keep those greys in check.
If you don’t want to dye your full head of hair, you can just focus on the roots, or add some highlights, which can hugely hide and mitigate your greys. Because you have dark hair, even a small few highlights can help to blend the existing greys with the rest of your hair.
You could even fully embrace the grey life by dyeing your hair white! Or if you prefer using non-synthetic dyes, consider dyeing your hair with henna instead.
The downfall of dyeing your hair is you have to do it regularly, as those pesky little roots will keep squeezing through and revealing their true colors. Regular dyeing can also be a little damaging, so if you don’t want to endure the hassle of perpetually dyeing your hair, here are some other things you can do.
#2: Play With Your Style
This might sound like a big waste of time, but it really isn’t. There are many ways you can style your hair to effectively hide its greys.
- Playing with your parting: Often, hair starts going grey around its parting, so if you change your parting, you can hide lots of your greys. Try experimenting with side partings, zig-zag partings and centre partings to find the style that best masks those grey hairs.
- Adopt some accessories: You can cover your grey hair by accessorizing your hairstyle. Consider hats, headbands, and scarves, which are particularly effective at hiding gray hairs.
- Create a crown braid: With a thick crown braid, you can effectively hide the parting of your hair, and totally hide your gray hairs, at least from the front. Check out this video to learn how to create a crown braid yourself:
- Updos and buns: If you gather your hair up on top of your head or pull it into a bun, you can easily hide any gray hairs that grow closer to your crown, although this method won’t work if you have gray hair along your hairline.
- Grow out your bangs: Instead of a crown braid, curled bangs can also help hide grays at the part of the hair. Tease your bangs a little to give them some volume and hide what’s behind them.
- Add volume: Voluminous styles with a lot of waves or curls hide grey hairs by adding texture. They create the illusory impression that there’s much less grey hair by simply making the hair as a whole look more piecey.
All of these style tips can be particularly useful for people with dark hair, who sometimes find it a little harder to hide their greys. So give them all a try and you might be pleasantly surprised!
#3: Darken Small Spots
If you don’t want to fully dye your hair, you can instead use some hair products to hide only the grey hairs. These are particularly effective on dark hair, when the grey hairs can really stand out.
- L’Oréal Magic Root Rescue Coloring Kit: This root coloring kit is basically just the same as hair dye, but it’s designed only to be used on your roots rather than all of your hair. It’s easy to use, and provides quick and reliable coverage of greys.
- L’Oréal Magic Root Precision Pen: This product is as easy to use as a marker pen. It’s a type of “hair makeup” that colors the hairs temporarily, and comes out with a wash. It’s a fantastic choice if you only have a couple of grey hairs you need to hide, or if you usually dye your roots and need something you can use between sessions.
- L’Oréal Magic Root Cover-Up Spray: If you want a one-time solution that’ll wash out, but still cover more greys than the pen, this is it. It’s a spray-on color that hides a ton of grays at once, and will last until your next shower.
What Not to Do About Grey Hair
All of the above will help you to hide your grey hair. But there are lots of mistakes people make in their pursuit of a grey-free head. Here are some of the things we suggest you avoid doing.
- Don’t pluck them out: If you routinely pluck your grey hairs out, you’ll wind up damaging your follicles —and if you damage your follicles, there’s a good chance you might cause bald patches, which most people consider worse than having grey hair.
- Don’t stress about it: There is a persistent myth that stress is a major cause of grey hair, but there’s very little scientific evidence to back it up. We still think you should try to reduce stress from your life, but it’s probably not the cause of your grey hair.
How to Prevent the Growth of Grey Hair
If you want to stop more grey hairs from emerging, you should eat good food, get lots of exercise and live a healthy lifestyle. As always, if you live healthier, your body will function better. Here are some specific things to consider:
- If you smoke, stop: Smoking is linked to the earlier onset of grey hair, so stopping now can slow down the rate at which your greys are growing.
- Try to eat lots of vitamin B-12: Deficiency in vitamin B-12 is actually one of the major causes of prematurely-greying hair. Consider supplementing b-12, or eat foods that contain high amounts of it.
- Also eat a lot of Vitamin D: Vitamin D deficiency is also associated with early graying, so eat more eggs and make sure to get a little bit of sun.
In short, anything that’s good for you is probably also good for your hair! If you’re really interested in adapting your diet to hold off those greys, here are more things you might want to consider eating.
No Need to Feel Grey
That’s everything you need to know about how to hide grey hair on dark hair. You’re now equipped with all the hacks to disguise those annoying greys, whether momentarily or forever.
By dyeing, styling, and living well, you can massively reduce the effect that grey hair is having on your life. However, remember that growing grey happens to everyone eventually, and it’s all just part of life. There is now a movement of women learning to accept their greys, and there’s nothing wrong with doing the same. You might be going grey, but you can always stay graceful.