Blend Gray or Gray Coverage? How to Choose the Best Look for You

Much like wrinkles, grays are an inevitable part of aging. We actually think well-cared-for silver locks are to die for, but if you’re not ready to embrace your grays yet — no worries. There’s plenty of options to blend gray hairs or cover them entirely. Find out your hair coloring options below, and discuss them with a professional cosmetologist for the best advice.

Blend Gray or Cover?

Which option is right for you will depend on the coverage you want, your hair color, and the condition of your hair.

If you’re really hating your new grays and you don’t want anyone to know you’ve had them, full gray coverage may be the best option for you. This all-over application matches your natural, or current, hair color. It covers any hints of white or gray at the roots.

However, with full coverage, you will end up needing to be in the salon more often to touch your roots up. Most people find they will need a touch-up every four to 6 weeks depending on how much of their root color has gone gray.

Another option is to blend your grays. Instead of giving full coverage, this adds other colors that are similar in shade to your natural color. In this sense, it incorporates the grays instead of fully covering them.

Because it’s blended instead of fully covered, you won’t end up with a visible color line as your roots grow back in. Because of this, blending grays can be lower maintenance as you’ll have fewer visits to the salon.

We’ll dive into both techniques a little more to give you some more information on which might be the best for you.

Full Gray Coverage

As we mentioned above, the process for full gray coverage will depend on how many grays you’re tackling.

A general rule of thumb is the more gray at the root the more problems full coverage may present. This is because gray hairs are coarser and harder to get good color penetration on. Darker hair presents more coverage issues than blonde hair for the same reason.

This isn’t to say it’s not an option for you if you have more than 50% grays and dark hair, but you’ll need an experienced hairstylist to do the best job. They’ll need to add a base color or pre-lighten to get a good match with your roots.

Another great option to get your hair looking healthy after a full application is to get a gloss treatment. Because gray hairs tend to be drier and lackluster, a gloss treatment will enhance your overall color for shiny, healthier-looking hair.

Blending Gray

There’s a lot of options when it comes to blending grays, each with their own unique results.

Traditional highlights are the most obvious option. Your hairdresser will use foils to highlight sections of your hair to break up gray regrowth. This is particularly great for blondes as ashy or icy highlights blend well with silver.

Lowlights can also be used to blend grays. They’re a great option for people with darker or red hair as lowlights blend better with natural hair than highlights. Your hairdresser will tactically place these over gray strands to blend them in with your natural color.

Balayage is becoming an increasingly popular option to blend grays. Balayage won’t entirely cover grays, but very lightly blend it so the grays complement your natural color. Especially for blondes, this can create a sun-kissed glow.

Last but by no means least, babylights are great for wispy grays. They mimic natural highlights you would get from the sun and blend away small strands of gray.

Learn to DIY

Now you know your options on whether to cover or blend grays you can speak to your hairstylist with confidence.

If you’d like to learn the secrets of the beauty industry, Tenaj is a leading cosmetology school with programs covering hair school and beauty school. Get in touch to find out more about our programs today.