Dyeing gray hair: camouflage, full coverage and home toners

Although gray hair can be a normal aspect of aging, you don’t have to accept it if you’re not ready. There are various methods you can use, depending on whether you want to totally conceal your gray hair or just mix it in. Options range from full coverage to subtle camouflaging strategies, meeting a wide range of needs and tastes.

Consider camouflage options if you’re starting to notice a few gray hairs and want to make a subtle change. By blending gray strands with your natural color, these techniques help create a transition that is more gradual. If you’re looking for a look that doesn’t need to be touched up often, they’re ideal.

Full coverage options are offered for those who would rather make a more significant alteration. To attain a consistent color, you must dye all of your hair for these. Complete eradication of gray hair can be achieved with full coverage, giving the appearance of youthfulness and freshness.

If you’re thinking about dying your hair at home, there are a variety of toners and dyes made just for this use. You can get a natural look at home with toners instead of having to go to the salon all the time. From the comforts of your home, you can successfully manage gray hair with the right products and techniques.

Which color is better?

The main rule when choosing a tone for gray hair is to take into account the characteristics of the dye. Resistant ammonia dyes will cope with the task of camouflage without problems. If you still prefer ammonia-free toners, you will have to give up light natural shades. The color intensity will not be enough to cover the gray hair, and the coloring may turn out dirty yellow or even greenish. But brighter shades are chestnut, black, red — very welcome. When choosing a dye, remember that the color should be in harmony not only with your wardrobe, but also with your skin tone. Aging skin has its own characteristics, and an incorrectly chosen tone can make it dull, earthy. Speaking of harmony. With a good colorist, you can still get an incredibly beautiful blonde in the very shade that will favorably emphasize the advantages of your appearance. Consult with a specialist and evaluate the lightest cold shades of the palette Redken Blonde Idol High Lift or L"Oréal Professionnel Majirel (this dye has an incredibly durable line Cool Inforced, reliably covering gray hair). In the line L’Oréal Professionnel INOA all colors are also created taking into account this feature, they emphasize a healthy skin tone and make the face visually younger.

Features and technology of coloring gray hair

Gray hair is linked to more than just the aging-related cessation of pigment production by melanocyte cells. Many women observe that as time goes on, their curls become more porous, dry, and tough. Because of this, selecting the stain color carefully considers not only how to cover up gray hair but also how the dye will react to the altered structure of the hair and shield the individual strands from additional harm.

Naturally, it is challenging to perform at home because you can’t just guess at the proportions and get the exact opposite result. Because of this, SalonSecret experts advise having gray hair colored in a salon.

Rules for dyeing gray hair

When dyeing gray hair, you should remember a few simple rules, they will help you achieve the perfect result and even slow down the appearance of new gray hairs! 1. When choosing a paint, pay attention not to the picture on the package, but to the digital code. As a rule, the code consists of two digits. The first indicates the depth of the shade: from 1 (black) to 10 (platinum blonde), the second – the main tone: from 1 (blue-violet) to 7 (red-brown). In most cases, to effectively cover gray hair, you need a dye no lighter than the sixth basic tone. 2. Avoid very intense black. Although gray hair is very well covered by black, the grown gray roots will contrast strongly with the color of the rest of the hair. An alternative to black is rich brown, bronze and reddish shades. 3. Carry out a pre-pigmentation procedure. Pre-pigmentation helps to solve the main problem of gray hair – porosity. By filling the hair with pigment from the inside, special pre-pigmentation products restore the lost natural hair color and prepare it for coloring. The procedure is especially important if there is a lot of gray hair and it is unevenly distributed. If the hair was previously colored, the stylist will carry out bleaching. You should not be afraid of this procedure, since modern technologies allow you to make it soft for hair and scalp. So, in the compositions of L"Oréal Professionnel colorists add a concentrate SmartBond, protecting keratin bonds in the structure of the hair shaft. And Matrix has a product to which the manufacturer has already added a bonder – this is a bleaching powder Light Master.

4. Try mordonsage. This technique of preparation for coloring, which involves loosening the upper layer of the hair cuticle, is necessary for the so-called glass gray – thick gray hair that is very difficult to dye. The method makes the curls more manageable and promotes better penetration of the pigment. 5. Take care of the accurate color transfer. In the salon, this problem will be taken on by the colorist. He will select a dye that creates an even coating, if necessary, prepare the background of lightening and, possibly, apply a spray of Metal Detox from L"Oréal Professionnel to your strands for 2-3 minutes, which neutralizes copper setting in the structure. As shown by studies by L"Oréal Professionnel and the University of Ioannina, copper is not our friend. This metal is insidious: when it gets on your hair with water, it accumulates in the hair structure, damages it, and the color due to copper is not as expected. We recommend supplementing the salon procedure Metal Detox with home care based on sulfate-free shampoo and mask from the same range for maximum hair strength and protection from the harmful effects of copper.

6. After coloring your hair, take care of it. Use rich moisturizing and care products after coloring because gray hair is particularly susceptible to moisture loss. L’Oréal Professionnel’s Vitamino Color shampoo and conditioner deeply hydrate and nourish the curls, enhancing the color’s quality and leaving them shiny. Apply thermal protection before laying if you enjoy curling your hair or use an iron frequently and won’t give it up. Examples of such products are Kérastase Régénérant, restorative Pro Longer, or Matrix Brass Off, which are designed especially for colored hair.

If you frequently color your gray hair, remember to tend to the regrowing roots in between salon visits. Using hair concealer sprays is really convenient. For instance, L’Oréal Professionnel has a concealer called Hair Touch Up that can be used to cover up regrown roots. There are four color options for the product: dark blond, light chestnut, chestnut, and black.

Elena Komissarova

Toning shampoos are required to maintain the exact shade as it was in the salon, in addition to the camouflage Hair Touch Up. Therefore, Matrix has everything you could possibly need: brass for cold blondes up to tone level 8, and so silver with blue pigments for extremely light blondes (they counteract undesired warm tones). With purple pigments that work well against copper tones, a shampoo called Dark Envy has been created specifically for women with brown hair types, giving their hair a subtle hint of coolness.

There are various approaches to dying gray hair, depending on your desired style and upkeep schedule. While full coverage offers a more uniform appearance, camouflage techniques offer a subtle solution for those looking to blend gray strands with their natural color. Furthermore, home toners are an economical and practical choice for keeping color in between salon visits. To assist you in selecting the best course of action for your needs, this article examines these approaches.

Fashionable coloring for gray hair in 2025

1. Highlighting

If you still have a small amount of gray hair, one of the safest ways to get rid of it is to highlight your hair. By the way, gray hair can be highlighted to make it appear more refined and elegant, in addition to being hidden.

2. Balayage

Ash balayage, a popular look this season that involves tinting individual strands a silvery-gray hue, is most easily achieved on gray hair. The technique gives the curls a radiant shine and splendor because of the color transition, which can be both sharp and smooth.

3. Toning

Ideal for hair that has a hint of gray in it. Gray hair strands will appear slightly lighter, and natural hair color will be enhanced by tinted paints. Toning, strictly speaking, is the process of creating a shade on hair that has undergone either a sophisticated or traditional highlighting procedure (balayage falls into the latter category). Tone-on-tone coloring would be a more accurate term for the process if you were coloring with a toning paint without first lightening. But colorists are habitual people, so the master will understand if you ask for something simple like "just to tone a little in a similar color, only with a reddish nuance."

4. Shatush

Shatush is a gradual shift in hue from the tips to the roots. When painting gray hair, the paint is applied evenly along the length, progressively varying in shade intensity.

Review of the best dyes for gray hair according to SalonSecret

Natalia Sitdikova Stylist, Redken Artist

Using a cationic polymer strengthening complex, staining does not harm hair. Be advised that this dye does not blend in; rather, it totally covers gray hair, regardless of how much of it there is.

Socolor mimics the color of natural cold mistakes by having natural cold, neutral, and natural with light gold, brown-medal, red-brown, and natural-gystar with a light natural orange. It also has ash-purple. The options for producing an infinite number of shades with a high density of gray hair coating are expanded by the palette’s wide range.

Egor Fastov Tutist, Matrix technologist

The acidic pH of the formula and the strengthening bonder in the dye take care of the fragile structure of gray hair, and it is no longer so important that its tasks do not include painting or at least light camouflage of gray hair. We recommend paying attention to the light part of the palette, and especially to the group of opal shades that have won the hearts of SalonSecret experts. We talked about them with Maria Artemkina, a color hacker for the brand Matrix. As our expert reports, the mania for acid toners took over the coloring world just a couple of years ago, when they first appeared. Their specificity lies in their light texture, the ability to neutralize unwanted shades without affecting the natural color of the main mass of hair. In what cases is it beneficial?

The goal of popular hair coloring techniques like "airtouch" and "babylights," which create the tiniest vertical strands in a light shade to conceal growing gray hair, is to extend the gray hair’s thread and conceal it so that it can be colored in a more subtle way. The bleached strands get color from acid toner tinting, while the overall tone of the hair mass stays the same! Stylists advise waiting up to eight months for rare shade correction when using such coloring. Girls with gray hair volume ranging from 5% to 50% can wear it.

Maria Artemkina Colorist, Matrix technologist

To maintain the highest quality of lightened strands, the colorist suggests using acid toners for those who have chosen to go completely blonde in an attempt to conceal a greater amount of gray hair.

The ingredients taurine and cationic polymers, which repair the hair body, are already present in matrix acid dye composition. Along with the stylish color, the dye’s ammonia-free formula offers the added benefit of lasting up to 21 shampoo cycles. For every need of a refined lady, the new palette features four shades: pearl pink, pearl gold, pearl ash, and pearl mother-of-pearl.

Maria Artemkina Colorist, technologist Matrix

There are several ways to manage gray hair based on your lifestyle and preferences. Using techniques for camouflage, you can achieve a softer look by subtly blending grays with your natural color. If you want to gradually introduce a new hair color or just lessen the visibility of gray hairs, this is the perfect technique for you.

Full coverage options offer a consistent and uniform color for those looking for a more dramatic change. With this method, all gray hair is completely covered, leaving you looking young and refreshed. If you’re looking for a more polished look or if you prefer a full color transformation, this is a great option.

Another option that is both affordable and practical is to use home toners. They can change the tone of your hair or assist in keeping your color vibrant in between salon visits. They may not offer as much coverage as salon treatments, but they are still ideal for touch-ups and bringing some color and brightness to your hair.

Ultimately, how you want to handle your gray hair and your personal style will determine whether you choose for full coverage, camouflage, or at-home toners. For the most fulfilling outcomes, think about which approach best suits your needs and lifestyle. Each method has a unique set of advantages.

Video on the topic

How to dye gray hair a tone lighter. Without red roots. Dyeing gray hair at home.

Dyeing gray hair Step by step at home | Lessons on dyeing gray hair blonde

You have 100% gray hair?))) Do you want a nice, natural color?))) We tone your hair!))

WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO DYE GRAY HAIR 3%