Lowlights, which, unlike highlights are actually a few shades darker than your hair, bring out the most natural look versus using brighter traditional highlights, says Michael Canalé, Jennifer Aniston's longtime colorist and creator of hair care line Canalé.
Going for lowlights means picking a shade that's similar to your natural base color or something one to two shades darker. Blonde: Cool tones like light ash brown and medium blonde complement cool shades of gray without going too dark and unnatural.
You can apply the lowlights all over your hair, or just focus on the top part. You can even leave a few strands at the front of your face lighter; this will help frame your face better. Pretreat your hair with 20 volume hair developer, if needed. If your hair is very coarse, it may not take permanent colors very well.
Basically, highlights are lighter than the base strands of your grey hair and lowlights are darker. Highlights require bleaching and the darker your grey more is needed to reach your desired level of colour.
How to Maintain Lowlights on Gray Hair. “Lowlights done using a semi- or demi-permanent color can last between six to 12 weeks depending on how dark you lowlight your hair,” says Gregory. On that note, for the most natural-looking blending, it's best not to go darker than two to three shades of your base color.
If you add the right hair colour, your 'grey' hair will act as highlights, giving you a completely new look that will get you noticed for all the right reasons. Professional colourists usually recommend a darker shade for your roots and a lighter shade that matches your natural hair for the rest.
Lowlights also have the perk of making your color look more natural, and can create a more seamless grow-out process. To achieve the perfect blend, ask your colorist for blonde hair with lowlights that are no more than three shades darker than the blonde color.
We suggest opting for an all-over color service to fully mask every gray hair on your head with a uniform shade. However, highlighting may be better if your goal is seamlessly blending your grays.
Traditional Highlights for Gray Hair
If you're working with blonde highlights, look to cooler tones, like ash or icy blonde. This way, they'll be closer in tone to those natural silver, white and gray strands.
1. Blonde Highlights. There are three reasons we recommend blonde highlights Opens in a new tab when covering grays. First up, the difference between blonde and silver shades is subtle, so gray roots won't appear as visible - even if it's been six to eight weeks since you last went to the salon.
When planning the transition to gray hair with low lights, consider a semi-permanent color. Instead of a color deposit, which is what permanent colors do, semi-permanent colors will temporarily deposit color on the surface of the hair.
Grey blending is a subtle way of handling your greying hair. It is an approach that blends the grey with colours similar to your natural hair tone. It's an option that allows you to embrace and enhance your greying hair, rather than hiding it. Your natural hair colour is the inspiration for the final effect.
Shades of copper, auburn, and burgundy are a great lowlight, but should not be any darker than the base color. "Going darker with the lowlights can create a harsh unnatural effect," explains Papanikolas. "Blending in these shades of red can give the color more pop and vibrancy."
Shades like gold, brown, and red can complement greying hair and give a vibrant pop of colour to your face. Another option is to choose glasses with transparent frames or pastel frames, which have a softer, more delicate look.
Caramel, honey, gold, copper, and strawberry give a healthy brightness that makes us look and feel younger. (Framing your face with lighter shades draws the eye away from any complexion concerns, as well.)
Blonde highlights can brighten your natural hair color and help to disguise gray hair with a blended finished look. Blonde highlights can also create depth and interest in your overall hair color by adding brightness to your natural hair color and mixing in the gray hairs so they're less noticeable.
Typically put in a foil, highlights and lowlights also help blend in the natural hair color while getting a full-coverage style color. Something as simple as creatively placed foils can easily mask your gray hair and grow-out for longer than just your basic root retouch formula from the salon.
Your stylist will either use foils or balayage to give you lowlights using a demipermanent color. Where your stylist puts the color will determine the look. "My preference is to highlight around the face by keeping the lowlights in the crown and underneath sections," Schaudt said. I Want More!
Anyone who has blonde or light brown hair make excellent candidates for lowlights. If your hair is black or very dark naturally, then lowlights will not work for you, because it will be tricky to find a lowlight darker than your natural colour.
Cleverly placed highlights and lowlights can add depth to fine hair, making it appear fuller. A good colourist should advise the best way to achieve this, so talk to your hair stylist about your needs and the overall effect you want.
Henna. One of the most popular and gentle ways to treat gray hair is using henna powder. Henna is a powdered form of leaves which essentially helps to treat the gray hair when used every month. Henna comes with natural color pigmentation, thus, covering the gray roots easily.