How To Seamlessly Blend Greys With Highlights and Lowlights

Once upon a time, spotting your first grey hair meant immediately plucking it or scheduling a dye job to conceal your changing hue. Nowadays, more and more people are relying on grey blending to usher in their grey hair era. This modern colouring approach intentionally merges your silvers into your base colour to help camouflage your greys without the need to commit to a full-head dye job. Whether you’re seeking techniques for grey blending on dark hair or want help transitioning slate roots into silvery balayage, we’ve got the tips you need. Keep reading as we share how to blend grey hair with highlights and lowlights, how to find the right colours, and more.

What Is Grey Blending?

Grey blending is a hair colouring technique that involves blending grey hairs with your base colour to help soften the contrast between shades. Typically, the process involves either highlighting your hair or adding lowlights. As a quick hair colour 101, highlights are lighter than your base and help add brightness to your hair. Lowlights, on the other hand, are a touch darker and can help give your hue richness and dimension. Combining the two results in a complementary mix of light and dark tones that work with your greys by subtly infusing them into the final look. When done correctly, grey blending can help your silvery strands appear less obvious, ensure a smoother transition into grey hair, and soften a harsh line of grey at the root.

It’s worth noting that blending grey hair may sometimes be confused with grey coverage, but the two are not the same. The latter method completely conceals your greys by colour-matching them to the rest of your hair, often with a permanent or ammonia-free hair dye. The former, meanwhile, isn’t actually meant to hide your greys. Instead, it helps them integrate throughout your mane for a natural-looking, multi-tonal effect. Think of grey blending as a way to make your silver strands background noise instead of the stars of the show.

Who Is Grey Blending Best For?

Grey blending is a great option for those who want to embrace their incoming greys without committing to a drastic hair colour change. Many people gradually transition to grey hair with highlights and lowlights because it allows them to hold onto their signature shade while trying a dimensional and modern new look. And, although grey blending is suitable for all hair colours, it does come with unique advantages for dark brunette to black hair. Grey blending on dark hair can help soften the stark contrast that exists between light silver and deeper brunette or black hair—a huge bonus for those who struggle to hide prominent greys without frequent dye jobs or glosses.

Tips for Blending Grey Hair With Highlights and Lowlights

Blending grey hair is highly customizable and can look a bit different for everyone. Many factors can influence your final look, including what your existing base shade is and the amount of upkeep you’re willing to devote to your new colour. Here’s what to keep in mind when planning out your look.

1. Choose the right technique

Different hair colouring techniques yield different results, and deciding on the best one for your mane ultimately boils down to personal preference. If you’re still unsure, examine how much grey you have in your hair and how much blending you’ll need—that can help you determine which of the following techniques are best suited for your strands:

• Foils: Traditional foil highlights will give you a consistent blend of highlights and lowlights throughout your hair, starting at the roots. Foils can help ensure every stray grey gets covered and can help diminish a sharp line of grey root regrowth—essential if you wish to blend grey hair with dark hair.
• Balayage: For more lived-in colour that naturally blends with your greys and base colour, balayageis the way to go. This hand-painted highlighting technique yields a natural-looking gradient effect and can help subtly “connect” your grey roots to the rest of your hue.
• Foilyage: The foilyage technique is similar to balayage, except sections of hair are teased and wrapped in foils to intensify the brightness of your highlights. Consider foilyage if your goal is to blend greys with a lighter, brighter blonde.
• Babylights: Opt for babylights if you have minimal greys around your face or around the crown of your head. This technique involves brushing super-fine streaks of colour onto the topmost layer of hair to illuminate your hue and make greys less noticeable. These lightened strands can also help brighten your grey mane and give it an overall more youthful-looking appearance.

2. Consider your base colour

For grey blending, you’ll typically want to opt for highlights or lowlights that fall within two levels of your base shade. The goal is to create a natural blend—not add extreme highlights that completely transform your hair colour.

• Blonde hair: People with blonde hair typically have an easier time transitioning to grey hair with highlights since the two shades are similar in tone. Cool-leaning colours in light to dark shades like platinum, ash, beige, and medium blonde are especially well-suited for grey blending.
• Brunette to black hair: Grey blending for dark hair can be a bit trickier since there’s a significant contrast between the greys and your base colour. As such, you’ll want to be strategic about your technique—going too cool or light with your highlights may make it look as though you have dark hair with grey highlights. Warm caramels, golden tones, and dark ashy colours (like mushroom brown) can help add dimension to your hair and intermingle with the greys without calling too much attention to them. As for lowlights, stick with darker, rich shades like mahogany, espresso, and chestnut to make your base pop.
• Red hair: If you’re a natural redhead, multi-dimensional lowlights and highlights can help blend your greys for a natural-looking end result. Consider opting for strawberry blonde highlights to camouflage your greys and add some darker auburn or copper lowlights for the sake of depth and dimension.

3. Think about upkeep

You can allow your highlights and lowlights to grow out naturally (that’s the purpose of grey blending, after all), or you can adhere to a touch-up schedule to keep your look fresh. Pick whichever suits your routine and makes you feel the most beautiful—there’s no hard-and-fast rule for embracing your greys.

Foils usually require touch-ups every 8-12 weeks, depending on how fast your hair grows. If you like a seamless blend of greys with your highlights and base colour, then aim to get your colour touched up every two to three months to maintain the look. For balayage and foilyage highlights, the touch-up period is a little more lax—you’ll want to plan for a colouring session every 3-6 months.

How To Maintain Grey Hair With Highlights and Lowlights

It doesn’t matter which base colour you started with or whether you opted for lowlights or highlights: the maintenance for grey hair remains the same. To keep your newly-coloured hair looking and feeling its best, follow these tips.

1. Use a haircare system for colour-treated hair

A haircare system specifically designed to maintain the vibrancy and longevity of colour-treated and grey hair can keep your mane in prime condition. We’re partial to the L’Oréal Paris Colour Protect Shampoo and Conditioner, a dynamic duo that nourishes and preserves coloured hair for up to 40 washes*. Enriched with Vitamin Cg + UV filter to help prolong colour vibrancy and protect the hair fibre against UV aggressions.

*Instrumental test after application of the Colour Protect Shampoo and Conditioner of the range.

2. Add weekly masks into your routine

Natural grey hairs tend to be stiffer and coarser than their pigmented counterparts—and adding dye into the mix can increase the likelihood of strands becoming dry and brittle. Applying a deep conditioning treatment can help restore much-needed hydration and softness to your colour-treated tresses. Once a week, show your hair some extra love by swapping out your daily conditioner for a hair mask for deep conditioning, renewed softness and shine.

3. Limit hot tool use

As mentioned above, grey hair tends to be drier than the rest of your hair—and heat damage can compound that dryness. Since you’re already embracing your naturally greying hair, why not do the same for your texture? Try a heatless style to give straight hair body and volume, or apply L’Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic Gloss Leave In Hair Serum to damp hair after showering to help define natural curls and waves.

If you absolutely must pick up your hot tools, be sure to prep your damp strands with a heat protectant. It’s also a good idea to turn your tools to the lowest setting to minimize your hair’s exposure to potentially damaging high temperatures.

4. Try a temporary root touch-up

A root touch-up is a quick and effective way to temporarily conceal incoming greys between dye sessions. We like the L’Oréal Paris Magic Root Cover Up for its quick application and its lightweight formula that lasts until your next shampoo. Simply spritz some on your roots and comb throughout your lengths to blend and your colour will look instantly refreshed.

Men are often left out of grey blending hair conversation, but they have options, too. Enter: L’Oréal Paris Men Expert One-Twist Permanent Hair Colour, a hair colour for men that specifically targets grey blending. The easy-to-use, mess-free formula has a brush applicator that allows you to brush the colour onto your hair for seamless grey blending that lasts up to six weeks.