The Better Blog
Whatâs the Best Way to Transition to Gray Hair?
Transitioning from your dyed or natural hair color is typically slow and gradual. Itâs a process that may take months, sometimes a year, depending on your hairâs length when you start. Patiently waiting for your hair to go full gray as a part of aging can often be the most challenging part. Most of us would love to avoid the gray roots and dry, wiry strands that can come with it. But the best method for gray hair transitioning isnât as tricky as youâd think.
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Why Anyone Can Benefit from Purple Shampoo
If youâve ever taken an art class, you might remember that purple lies opposite yellow on the color wheel. It is the coolest color on the spectrum, while yellow is on the warm end. Purple shampoo is a tone-correcting hair-care solution intended to neutralize brassy or yellow hues using crushed violet pigments.Â
But did you know that purple shampoo can benefit anyoneâs locks regardless of their color or condition? Whether itâs natural or dyed, damaged or healthy, light or dark, purple shampoo can infuse vibrancy and volume into your hair.
What Are Some Common Issues with Gray Hair?
While your hair is unique, the changes in quality, thickness and texture you experience when going gray are common issues. Luckily, the right products, consistency in using them and a little determination are all you need to make your silver strands shine.
I Want to Start Coloring My Grays⊠What Are My Options?
Whether your hair is just starting to gray or youâve been rocking a full head of stunning silver strands for the last few years, the question remains the same: To dye or not to dye?
If youâve decided that dyeing your hair is the right move for you, then you probably have a few questions, such as:
- Should I lighten my grays or darken them?
- Do I want to completely cover my gray? Or should I make my natural grays look more like highlights in darker hair?
- Does my skinâs undertone matter? If it does, how do I determine mine so that I choose the right hair color for my skin tone?
Letâs pause here for a moment because this last one is super-important and will become a common theme throughout your hair-coloring journey. While your skinâs undertone is probably not the first thing that pops into your head when contemplating your new hair color, itâs actually more significant than you might think. Have you ever heard horror stories from friends whoâve left the salon, looked in the mirror, and felt that something about their new color was just⊠off? This might have been due to them or their stylist not taking their undertone into account.
Fear not: All colors come in both warm and cool tones, so your skinâs undertone shouldnât keep you from getting the hair color you really want. It just might mean getting a different version of brown, blonde or purple. Yes, we said purpleâmore on that later.
How to Transition to Gray Hair Gracefully
In 1956, Shirley Polykoff coined the ad slogan âDoes she ⊠or doesnât sheâ for Clairol, removing the stigma of dyeing oneâs hair and unleashing millions of women to openly and confidently choose what color they wanted their hair to be.
Fast-forward to 2020, where the latest slogan might just be âTo dye ⊠or not to dyeâ as lockdowns caused many women to start embracing their grays.Â
Being in the hair-care business, we just had to take a closer look. We caught up with two 40-something female entrepreneurs whose gray-hair journey began in their mid-20s. Longtime friends, colleagues and now cofounders of Sway, a visual content studio in New York City, Nicole Hyatt and Rebecca Karamehmedovic share many loves: photography, dogs, travel and tacosâbut their silver strands are certainly not one of them. In fact, their opinions on the matter couldnât be more different. Nicole began coloring her hair the moment she spotted her first few grays while Rebecca has never once concealed her silver strands.
We get to the root of the issue. Hereâs what they had to say: