Hi there! First of all, I want to say how exciting it is that you’re considering embracing your natural grey—it’s a beautiful, empowering change. The process can be smooth with the right planning, realistic expectations and an experienced hairstylist. Let’s walk through what you need to know before we start.
Understanding Your Current Hair and Goal
- Current Color: Focus on your current hair color (artificial color). Is it dark, medium or light? Does it have Yellow, Gold, Orange, Red, Brown, Blue hues, or bright fashion colors in it?
- % Of Grey: How much “salt and pepper hair” do you have? Your stylist could tell you.
- Goal: Do you want to “Blend” your current artificial hair color to your roots as you grow out your natural, so you do not see a dramatic line of demarcation? Or do you want to “Transition” to reveal your natural color with a blend of white/silver strands?
Your answers will determine whether you do a “Blend” or “Transition”
Things to Think About Before Starting
- Patience is Key
- Both “Blend” and “Transition” can take several months to a year (depending on your length of hair, hair growth speed, and on the method you choose.
- You’ll likely go through an “in-between” phase where your hair is a mix of shades—it’s totally normal.
- Budget
- Both “Blending” and “Transitioning” services are pricey. You are paying for the stylist’s extra time, training, expertise, and appropriate products as well as multiple service to achieve your goal. Ask for pricing before you start the process.
- Prep The Hair
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- You should prep your hair with specific salon services to remove any buildup and strengthen your hair before any services. Ask your stylist what you should use.
- Commitment to Maintenance
- Both “Blend” and “Transition” will require regular salon visits (every 4-6 weeks), until the artificial hair color is eliminated or neutralized.
- “Blend” gives you a gradual grow out period but takes longer until your hair is all natural grey color, whether “Transition” is a more dramatic shift towards your natural hair color.
- Toners, Glazes and Professional Home Care Products.
- Toners and Glazes help soften the line of demarcation (between your grey roots and the existing color), as you “Blend” the hair, however you are still putting color on your hair at the roots, but it fades easier. Toners and Glazes can also eliminate yellow hues on your existing artificial hair color, reflecting more grey or neutral hues.
- Professional home care products are necessary to control fading and condition of hair as you go through the color change. An experienced hair stylist will insist on it.
- Pixi Cut Is A Fast Option
- A shorter cut can speed up the process dramatically by eliminating more of the artificial hair color, revealing your natural grey. If suitable to your face shape and lifestyle a pixie cut will get you to your natural hair color the fastest and most economical way.
Color Transition Options
- Cold Turkey (Let it Grow Out)
- You stop coloring entirely and let the grey grow in naturally.
- We can help soften the demarcation line by blending techniques like:
- Root smudging with a no ammonia, no peroxide color
- Glossing the ends with an acid color
- More frequent trims to slowly remove the artificial color
- Less expensive but not appealing if you have long hair or dark colored ends but lots of grey
- Grey Blending with Microfoils/Lowlights
- If your artificial hair color is a light blond, you might add neutral/cool-toned highlights and silver lowlights to your existing hair color to create a salt-and-pepper effect and tone the ends with a Silver toner to control any yellow hues that might remain. Stay away from straight cool tones since they can turn your hair green.
- Total Transformation or Color Correction/Lightening
- If your artificial hair color is dark or if you have multiple shades of colors, you will need to remove all dark hair color with microfoils and get them as light as possible (ideal color is the inside color of a banana). Treat your hair with a strengthening service, dry hair and Lowlight with a silver color that matches your natural grey (pepper) color. This helps mimic your natural grey pattern and eases the contrast between old color and new growth. Finish with a toner to seal in all colors.
- This method is more immediate but also more intense—there’s potential for dryness or damage, so it requires strong hair health and commitment to regular Collagen/Conditioning Treatments.
- If the hair has been colored at home with Box Color, this option might not work since hair will not discolor evenly. A strand test might be done prior to choosing this option.
- When the hair is healthy, strong and professionally colored this “Transformation” can give you instant gratification. However it is not a onetime deal since all artificial hair color fades with time. Maintenance will still need to be done as color fades.
- Costly & time consuming (4-8+ hours based on length of hair and depth of existing artificial hair color )
Upkeep and Products
- Professional Home Care (shampoo, conditioner, leave in, styling products)
- Purple shampoo (to keep grey bright, neutralize yellow)
- Toners/Gloss treatments every few weeks to refresh tone and shine
- Professional Collagen/Moisturizing Treatments to maintain hair health
- Possibly root touch-ups/foils with a semi-permanent glaze until your natural grows out complete
Final Thoughts
Embracing grey is a personal, powerful decision. The good news is, there’s no one right way to do it—At Salon Greco we’ll tailor the plan to match your lifestyle, hair health, and comfort level. The journey may have a few phases, but the end result is an authentic, low-maintenance, and beautifully you.
Would you like to ease into it gradually or go for a more accelerated change?
I have been doing Grey Transformations for over 10 years. MS me on Instagram at Cathie@salongreco and lets book a consultation, of call 678-546-5116.