If you have gray hair, highlights can be a good way to give your hair dimension, soften the contrast between your gray hairs and your darker strands, or to just give your hair an overall brighter look.
The type and color of highlights will depend on your natural hair color, how many grays you’re dealing with, and how much maintenance you’re prepared to have to do.
Can Gray Hair Be Highlighted?
Yes! Gray hair works really well for highlights, as it’s an easy way to blend in your silver strands without committing to full coverage color.
If you’ve got scattered white pieces, or larger gray sections, highlights can help to soften the contrast and make your regrowth look intentional rather than abrupt.
You can choose subtle brightness, cool tones that match your natural silver color, or go for warmer “ribbons” to add a little dimension.
Your results will depend on your starting level of grays and your hair’s prior color history. Bring some pictures of what you’re looking for, and mention how often you’re able to come in for touch-ups.
Gray hair does grab onto pigment differently to your natural color, so you might get faster fading from the sun, hard water or just from using heat styling tools.
Effective Highlighting Techniques for Gray Hair
If you have scattered grays or silvers, you can ask for face-framing highlights to help blur them in without the obvious lines.
If you have concentrated grays, foiling techniques with fine weaves and back-to-back foils will help break up solid gray sections, and brighten your hair up evenly.
Balayage works well if you’re wanting softer regrowth, as the painterly placement keeps roots diffused and touch-ups less urgent. If your hair is resistant to color, your hair stylist can pre-soften, or use a gentle gloss after lightening your hair, to refine the tone as well as adding beautiful shine.
Make sure you stay on top of your color maintenance, using sulfate-free shampoo, always use heat protectant before any hot hair tools (even blow driers), and you can try a purple shampoo from time to time, to banish any unwanted brassy tones peeking through.
Selecting the Right Highlight Colors
Gray can read cool, warm or even slightly yellow depending on your natural hair’s base color and the lighting.
You’re going to want to choose shades that complement your undertone, and the level of contrast you want with your natural base color.
Start off by thinking about your skintone’s compatibility – if you look better in silver jewelry, go for an ash blonde, pearl or icy beige, but if gold looks better on you, go for honey, champagne or a soft caramel.
For a seamless blend, stick to natural tones within one to two levels of your gray, as they’ll help to brighten without looking brash.
However, if you want more definition, your stylist could add some face-framing contrasting shades, but keeping them fine, so they don’t look like stripes.
You can also think about the season, and seasonal trends. Shades like a cool mushroom looks pretty in the winter, whereas warmer beige pops more in the summer months, especially if you have a tan.