I want to look better -- not younger

August 29, 2014 2:07 PM

Is there a home hair dye that won't cover my gray?

I have boring medium brown hair that is starting to turn a beautiful silver. It's about 85% brown and 15% silver.

I like playing with new hair colors, but want to keep the silver. Is there a brand of dye that can do this?

posted by 1066 to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (7 answers total)

I talked to my hair stylist about this and she told me she could isolate the greys with foil so they didn't get dye on them, but that was the best she could do and it would be time intensive and costly as a result. I'll be watching this thread with interest.
posted by sockermom at 2:14 PM on August 29, 2014

Previously. This is a thing that I'm also interested in, but I suspect that we're out of luck.
posted by MeghanC at 2:20 PM on August 29, 2014

Just anecdotally: I used to use L'Oreal Preference in my shade (very dark brown) but it stopped covering my greys, so I switched to their Excellence blend. So maybe try Preference?
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:50 PM on August 29, 2014

Min New York has kits that include a bottle of blocking agent to color the hair selectively. They have several different colors from light brown to black: example 1, example 2. Not sure if men's hair color is appropriate for women's hair?
posted by rada at 3:05 PM on August 29, 2014

I would think just don't leave the hair dye on as long. It's not that easy to color grey.
posted by serena15221 at 6:10 PM on August 29, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Yeah, I've been trying to do the exact opposite with white beard whiskers. Normal light brown/reddish dye will rinse out with the white ones looking blond, however within a few days they're completely bleached back out again. This is with just normal hair dye mixed 1:1. So that might be an option. You could always snip out a lock or 3 and glue them together at one end and experiment on that as well before risking the whole head of hair. Just leave them in the window and wash them with the same shampoo when you wash your hair to get an approximation of how long it will take to fade/rinse through for that brand/color.
posted by mcrandello at 4:26 AM on September 1, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks all.
posted by 1066 at 3:03 PM on September 10, 2014