To put blonde dye straight onto grey hair? | Mumsnet (2024)

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To put blonde dye straight onto grey hair? | Mumsnet? ›

It depends on the shade of grey. With a white-ish grey you might get away with putting blonde on it; if you're a steely grey it won't cover it. Highlights might be better; you could blend the grey in for a silver-blonde look.

You can also go with high-lift dye, which is a type of permanent dye that includes additional boosters and ammonia to strip out stubborn or dark gray. High-lift dyes lighten and deposit new color simultaneously so that you don't have to bleach your hair. Gray hair is fragile so it's best to avoid bleach if you can.

Blonde blends better with grey

So blonde is a good choice if you want to make your grey hair or grey roots less noticeable.

If you leave the bleach on your gray hair for a long time, it might turn white. However, there is no guarantee for this, and the results might not always be effective. Also, keeping the bleach on your hair for an unnecessarily long time will cause dryness and brittleness.

Covering Grey Roots on Blonde Hair

Instead, shade the root a little deeper than the mid-lengths and ends, using a medium or dark blonde hue. If those greys are especially stubborn and your client wants them entirely blocked out, select colours from depths 8/0 or below for guaranteed 100% coverage.

Neutral shades like soft blonde, mushroom brown, light copper, and caramel blonde balayage are the easiest to blend gray into (and maintain over time without wanting to shave your hair off).

Traditional Highlights for Gray Hair

Because they usually start at the root, they allow you to break up gray regrowth with a few lighter pieces, while giving the hair movement and dimension. If you're working with blonde highlights, look to cooler tones, like ash or icy blonde.

Gray hair is typically more coarse and more difficult to cover. Using a permanent hair color will give you the best coverage. It also helps if you choose a target color that is neutral or has some gold or red tones in it. Ash colors generally do not cover gray hair on their own.

And if you use bleach on gray it will turn a yellow color. Bleach removes the color from the dark melanin in your hair (which remains with darker gray hair), it leaves the lighter melanin (which is responsible for blonde hair) this is why bleached hair always turns yellow.

What color does grey turn when you bleach it? ›

Most black shirts will turn orange or red. Gray and brown will usually turn pink. White will turn...

Since grey hair lacks pigment entirely, these dyes won't stick or be able to achieve the same results as they would on hair with existing color. Even if you use a permanent hair dye, it may not take as well on grey hairs because the hair strands are typically coarser and more resistant.

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.

Demi-Permanent or Semi-Permanent Color

You can also try semi-permanent Color Fresh for up to 30% coverage. While a demi-permanent or semi-permanent hair color can be applied to any level of gray, it's often used to camouflage early grays, giving 30-70% coverage.

If your goal is simply to cover grey hair, pick out a color that matches your current hair color and apply to the areas of grey. Or, if you're feeling ambitious, you can try dyeing your hair a darker color. Dye allows you to cover a larger area compared to root spray or root powder.

Once you have bleached the hair, you are ready to tone. For grey hair going blonde, we would recommend a simple rule. Use 50% base mixed with 50% of your desired toner.

Just know that if you're wanting to go lighter, generally hair dye both box and professional will only be able to lighten your hair 1-2 levels without the need for pre-lightening, aka bleaching. So if you're looking to go from dark brown to blonde, this most likely won't be possible.

A color trend to tame grey hairs

Ash blonde is THE perfect transitional color, following the appearance of any first gray hairs. It's an elegant way to tackle this problem as it allows you to avoid having obvious roots or demarcations which are too distinct.

Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color LB2, Ultra Natural Blonde (Piña Colada), is specially formulated to provide up to 4 levels of lift without bleach. LB2 is best for anyone looking to achieve a natural-toned blonde with natural hair between light brown and darkest brown.