Highlights for grey hair: How to enhance it

Nowadays, gray and white hair is among some of the top trends for so many clients. While spotting gray hairs used to be a source of dread, this look is now a fashionable, sophisticated, and highly requested style in many salon chairs around the globe. This sleek style works for young and mature clients alike, whether it’s enhancing naturally gray hair or creating new colored styles for influencers who want to sport this white or gray look. Regardless of age, gray hair is now seen as both glamorous and edgy.

Fortunately, there are many new products available that allow hair colorists to treat and care for gray hair properly, whether it’s naturally gray or a flawlessly colored look. Keep reading to discover our top recommendations for enhancing the beauty of gray hair with highlights for your clients of all ages.

 

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Una publicación compartida de Hair stylist surrey (@thomashillshair)

 

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Una publicación compartida de Manuel Mon (@manuelmonoficial)

NATURALLY GRAY VS HIGHLIGHTS VS BLENDED WITH COLOR

As color professionals, it’s your responsibility to help your clients find the best possible solutions for any and all of their hair concerns—especially when it comes to gray hair. When speaking with your clients about highlights for gray hair, you’ll want to first consider all possible options: color treatments, highlights, or blended with color. Below are the top factors to consider when weighing these style options:

Color Treatments for Gray Hair

With Color Excel Gloss by Revlonissimo™, you can take your client’s gray hair and transform it—allowing it to shine beautifully as the standout color in their hair. This is one low-commitment deposit-only color option that enhances naturally gray hair and is very easy to apply. Color Excel Gloss by Revlonissimo™ effectively neutralizes unwanted yellows or brassy tones in gray, silver, or white hair and reduces oxidative appearance.

This product creates gorgeous, glossy results with its unique acid technology and ammonia-free* formula. To beautify natural gray hair, use the shades Nude Satin .123, Silver Ash .1, Intense Iridescent .22, or Mushroom .821. After rinsing the hair post-application, you’ll also want to use a pH-balancing shampoo—like Magnet™ Ultimate Post-Technical Shampoo—to wet hair and massage softly before rinsing out thoroughly. This shampoo helps rebalance the hair’s pH levels after technical services and helps seal in color.

Balayage Highlights for Gray Hair

Another excellent option for gray hair is creating gray and white highlights to mix with natural grays for a fun and gorgeous effect. With this approach, it’s not about hiding gray hairs, but rather, blending them into the hair to make them even more visible. For blonde hair with natural grays, you can play with pearl shades. Alternately, for brunettes, try working in darker tones for the most complementary results. For natural redheads, apply blonde hues. Balayage is a fantastic option that will not require a lot of maintenance for the roots and is a useful technique for adjusting previous colorings.

White Hair

Creating purely white hair will require bleaching. That’s why, when taking this approach, it’s important to be extra diligent with the timing and aftercare. For more information on bleaching, check out our article on how to perfectly bleach hair.

 

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CARING FOR GRAY HAIR

One of the main causes of undernourished or fragile gray hair is the lack of moisture. For this reason, it’s crucial to always offer moisturizing products that do not contain additional pigments. For gray-haired clients, your greatest allies will be purple shampoos, such as Eksperience™ Color Protection Blonde & Grey Hair Cleanser, which moisturizes the hair fiber while also helping to fight yellow tones. This delicate, sulfate-free hair cleanser is infused with violet colorants and helps to keep light shades looking naturally bright for longer. Additionally, it is always recommended to use moisturizing masks to deliver extra moisture to natural white, silver, or gray hair to make it shine even more.

 

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TIPS TO ENHANCE YOUR CLIENT’S GRAY HIGHLIGHTS FOR GRAY HAIR

Here are some of our top expert tips to recommend to your clients who are naturally gray or thinking of taking the plunge into gray or white hair:

• Always keep the scalp and hair moisturized with high-quality moisturizing products, so that gray hair remains healthy and easy to tame.
• Use purple shampoo to care for white or gray hair, without exception! This will help neutralize brassy tones and help keep the color bright and vibrant, as if your client just walked out of your salon.
• Use semi-permanent color masks such as the Nutri Color™ Filters Toning Filters to help refresh the tone and ensure flawless color from roots to tips.
• Remember: Never pull out gray hairs! This may damage the hair follicle.

*formulated without adding ammonia.

WHAT CAUSES NATURALLY GRAY HAIR?

Gray hair appears naturally due to a loss of melanin in the body over time. Melanin is the pigment that creates the beautiful variety of shades we naturally find in people’s hair, eyes, and skin. However, melanin begins to diminish with age, which can result in new strands growing out in gray, silver, and eventually white shades. Once the hair follicle completely loses melanin, it will remain this color permanently.

Although it is largely tied to the natural aging process, there are many factors at play when it comes to graying hair—including genetics, stress, environmental influences, and smoking. Regardless of when you might experience your first gray hair, remember this one cardinal piece of advice: Gray hair should be fully embraced and celebrated! 

Now that you know how to recommend some of the top care and style tips for your gray-haired clients, check out this step-by-step guide on how to beautify grays using Color Excel Gloss by Revlonissimo™.