Your First Signs of Gray Hair
First off, whatever You Do, Do NOT Pluck! Apparently, this is as close to a cardinal sin as one can get. Sure, when it’s just a stray strand or two, grabbing the tweezers can feel super tempting—but you may live to regret the shortcut. Plucking can damage the hair follicle and the strand may never grow back—and as you age and your hair naturally thins, you’ll need every strand of hair you can get. Gray hair is perfectly good hair—it just needs pigment. Never under any circumstances pluck perfectly good hair from your head!
It's tempting we know, but don't do it!
.jpeg)
Here are some things you can do until you make it into the salon.
Play With Your Part Line. For many women, grays often grow more heavily on one side of the head than the other. If grays are more prominent on one side, try switching your part to the other side. A zigzag or diagonal part may also help conceal grays that are growing in more scattered around the head.
Turn Grays Into Highlights
​
If grays are numbering more than just a few, you can paint highlights directly in small sections to turn those wiry strands into a face-brightening effect. Stick to a highlight shade that’s close to your base color, and it’ll look very natural.
BUT...
if you decide to go with the (gray) flow.
A huge challenge [for women going gray) is blending out the gray gracefully, so the re-growth isn't harsh looking. The problem is that growing out gray is best done cold turkey — the more color you add to blend it out, the longer it’s going to take to get rid of the old color. I usually tell clients to embrace headbands, scarves, and other hair accessories to disguise the growth. Growing out gray is very difficult when it comes to making yourself look pulled together.
Gray can only be created by nature, and if you want to replicate that, it will require very pale white highlights and weekly toning to keep it silver-looking. You don't want to interfere with natural growth.
Because you essentially have to bleach the color out of the hair, this is definitely not something you should try at home — there are too many opportunities for things to go very wrong. It's almost impossible to recreate natural-looking gray hair chemically, which is why usually professionals don't even attempt it. Trying to save a few $$$ by doing it at home could result in orange or yellow streaks, so definitely talk to your stylist if this is a look you are considering.
So, remember... Yanking is a bad thing because normally if there's one, there's more. And what I've noticed with my clientele is that they yank one, see another and think it's the same one coming back—yank that one, and before they know it, they have a little bald spot on their head. That seven gray hairs grow where one was pulled out is a myth—if only it were true! Everyone would do it just for thicker hair. It's the opposite. If you keep pulling hair out it will stop growing; it's just like with waxing or tweezing.
​