CHOICE 1: You’re going to color away your gray. Yourself.

This is a natural first reaction. After all, the grays are few and far between, and they just “interfere” with your natural color, causing it to look a little faded and “blah.” So you reach for the bottle. But what bottle? There are a lot of coloring choices out there.

Before you do anything at all, it’s best to know the vocabulary.

The Language of Color

Temporary

Color that coats the hair shaft, then washes out. Good to “refresh” color, or try out a new shade.

Demi-Permanent

Uses low-volume peroxide. Some have no ammonia. Color fades gradually, over 8+ weeks with no grow-out line.

Semi-Permanent

Non-peroxide color that coats the hair. Also called glazes, tints, toners or washes. Because of translucent quality, can optimize hair shine. Can cover gray and darken but, without peroxide, will not lighten hair. Washes out over 4-6 weeks.

Glaze

A sheer, conditioning, semi-permanent color gloss. Adds shine, but can also stain hair.

Permanent

Changes the natural hair color by penetrating shaft with peroxide. Reacts with the cortex of the hair to deposit or remove the color. Will not wash out. Roots will need to be re-touched every 3-4 weeks.

Herbal

Organic and natural. Coats the shaft without penetration. Has a conditioning and thickening effect, but may also dull hair due to build-up. The best known herbal color is henna. Caution: turns hair without pigment orange.

Bleach

Oxidizes hair pigment with peroxide into a colorless form. Can weaken hair and increase porosity, leading to frizzing.

Your first foray into covering gray might be a color-enhancing shampoo. Its non-invasive pigments deposit color on the strand, as you shampoo. At best, they're fine for a bit of brightening, and it's easy to select a shade because they are generically formulated for blondes, brunettes or redheads. A color-enhancing shampoo does little more than refresh or “revive” your natural color, but it's a good pick-me-up, if your hair's got the first gray blahs. Next shampoo, it washes off.

You might also want to try a temporary water-soluble rinse. Roux Fanciful is probably a name you recognize from drugstore shelves, and it’s a good example of a wash-out rinse. These products are a fun way to experiment with color, without making a commitment one way or the other. They’re not going to lighten your natural color, but they can tone it a little. See how you look as a deeper brunette, an ashier blonde, a richer russet-haired beauty. Then, if you choose to cover your gray in a more permanent way, you'll know the direction to go in.

As more and more hair loses its pigment, your natural color may begin to look faded — pale by association. It may also appear duller, since pale strands reflect less light than darker ones. This is when many women switch to semi-permanent products that last up to six weeks. But now it's time to start thinking seriously about what you are doing.

So many choices, so little time

When you’re ready to move into semi-permanent, or permanent color, you’ll find lots of products available to you; in fact, you can wander for hours through the aisles, looking at every gleaming, non-gray head of hair on every box. It’s tempting. And the hair color companies want to make it very easy for you; they want to make it safe, and practically goof-proof. Do-it-yourself products can work very well, if you use them correctly.

Learning to do it right

As easy as it all sounds, this is not fail-proof territory, and if you want the best results, you need to do a little research. I’ve interviewed lots of hair coloring experts in the book, and that’s a good place to start. If you want, talk to your own experts – yes, a colorist at a salon you go to will give you advice, even if you’re just a cut and blow-dry customer. In the meantime, here are a few tips from Going Gray, Looking Great!

YOU HAVE — More natural color than gray

Opt for a semi-permanent color in a shade slightly lighter than your natural hair color. Robert Oppenheim, former Chairman and President of the Clairol Professional Products Division, advises “When you pick a color, always err on the lighter side, always. Don't fall for the package shot and think the color is just what you had when you were twenty. First of all, it shouldn't be what you had when you were twenty. Secondly, there's a big chance that it's going to be too dark against your skintone now. You can always go a little darker next time, if the shade doesn't suit.”

While going too dark is risky, instantly obvious, and very harsh, using a shade or two lighter won't do a thing to your natural haircolor, if there is no color lifter, like peroxide, in the product. Say you're a medium brunette; you pick a lighter, golden brown. Your brunette won't change a shade; but your gray will take the golden brown, and turn into subtle highlights. It's a very soft, very natural effect, and it follows the same coloring principle a professional uses.

YOU HAVE — More gray than natural color

Permanent color will give the most dramatic results, and completely cover the gray. But it's a physical change, requiring very careful application. The color isn't going to wash out. Once the hair shaft is chemically altered, it remains that way. For the most natural effect, choose a shade close to your own, and look for new products that offer lively chromatic effects, reflecting light in different ways.

The stakes get higher if you go too dark, so the lighter-is-better rule is absolutely essential when you're using permanent color. Says Oppenheim, “If you make a mistake, and you have to lighten it, it's very expensive. That's correction work, and that has to be state-of-the-art. You'll need a professional who really knows what to do.”

The art of applying color

Whatever type of color product you chose, don't be surprised if your gray hair resists color stubbornly. Gray hair has a thicker cuticle, so the color may take longer to penetrate to the cortex. That's why it doesn't “grab” color. It also doesn't hold it. After a few shampoos, your hair can turn brassy.  Here are some tips:

• Save the hairline area until last. This is probably the grayest part of your hair, and you may have to leave the color on for the maximum amount of time. If you are using a dark color all over, the hairline can become black or drab, and lighter is always more flattering around the face.
• Cover a white streak with care. If you want to cover a patch of gray that isn't pleasing, choose a product that is one shade darker than your natural tone. The predominately pigment-less area will “take” one shade lighter than the product color, and you'll have a match. But segment carefully, and keep the darker color away from your pigmented hair, or you’ll be back to square one.
• Avoid touch-up trouble. With permanent color, you will have to retouch as the hair grows in, and this takes a steady hand and precise segmenting of hair to maintain an even color look from root to ends. Thicker formulations make it easier to apply color to the root area first without overlapping onto previously colored hair.
• Keep it simple. Experts advise not tackling anything complicated, like a two-step coloring process, by yourself. It gets tricky to bring your overall hair color to the shade you desire, and the results have more to do with your underlying pigment tones than the actual product you select.