Hair color is one of the most transformative and effective techniques in our beauty arsenal to achieve a total makeover. That effect, however, is reversed by visible roots two months into your hair color.
Luckily there’s a way to outgrow the pesky growth! Grow out natural hair color with these quick tips.
In this article:
- Grow Out Natural Hair Color | Masking Gray Hairs
- Grow Out Natural Hair Color | Lightening Darkened Hair
- Grow Out Natural Hair Color | Smoothen the Process
- Grow Out Natural Hair Color | Best Hairstyles That Transition to Natural Hair Color
RELATED: Upgrade Your Hairstyle With These 13 Shadow Root Hair Color Ideas
The Easiest Ways to Grow Out Your Natural Hair Color
Grow Out Natural Hair Color | Masking Gray Hairs
1. For Blondes: Embrace Platinum
It’s a hair color that’s both modern and classy, perfect for the urban woman you are. Don’t forget your purple shampoo to turn those gray hairs silver or platinum. It will also keep the brass and yellow tones at bay.
Color your hair to a silver or platinum blond using a semi-permanent dye. Semi-permanent dye is formulated without ammonia and is far less damaging than permanent ones.
2. For Brunettes: Explore With Highlights and Lowlights
Transitioning to gray hair is exceptionally troublesome for brunettes because the sheer contrast makes your gray hairs that much more visible. Experiment with highlights and lowlights every six to 12 weeks. This will help mask the growth and allow you to seamlessly transition to a full gray head of hair over time.
The most powerful technique for transitioning is patience. Doing anything rash without first consulting a stylist (or this blog) may set your further back from your natural hair goals. Expect to wait six months to a year for your gray hair to fully grow out.
3. Get Regular Cuts
With hair growing only half an inch each month, soften the blow and blur the demarcation line with regular haircuts in addition to highlights or lowlights. Cutoff your colored hair regularly until you amputate it completely. Eliminating split ends is a great way to grow your hair beautifully, healthily.
4. Use a Toning Shampoo
If you haven’t already read our article on the best purple shampoo, you should know that brass on gray hair is not a good look. A good toning shampoo will neutralize yellow tones with purple pigments. A great toning shampoo will reveal a more brilliant and luxurious finish.
Grow Out Natural Hair Color | Lightening Darkened Hair
5. Let It Grow Out
Sometimes, you can’t fight fire with fire. Lay down the hair dye and wait for your hair to grow out.
Removing hair dye isn’t a process that can be done at home without the touch of an expert. It’s not as easy as coating your hair with a blonde box dye either. If it can be helped, give your strands time to recover from the dying process.
6. Ask Your Stylist About Soap Cap Application/Color Remover
If going natural is on today’s schedule, ask the salon about color removal or a soap cap application. It’s a process to remove dyes from your tresses, but note that it’s still a chemical process. It’s less damaging than bleaching itself but still contains bleach and peroxide.
Color removal will take a toll on your hair, so if your hair isn’t in good condition round back to our previous tip above.
7. Lowlights
Mask those over-grown roots with lowlights at the crown of your head to create a subtle transition back to your blonde hair. Choose a transition shade that will bridge your original color to your dyed one. You’ll end up with three shades on your hair and plenty of volume and texture!
Opt for a shade close to your natural hair color and create a gradient effect in the midsection for a balayage style. Choose a shade or two lighter than your own if you miss your natural color, but want to maintain dimension and style.
Grow Out Natural Hair Color | Smoothen the Process
8. Lessen Shampoo Days
Your hair follicles secrete natural oils meant to hydrate your scalp and nourish your hair, so allow it to work its magic instead of scrubbing it off. Even if you use nourishing shampoos daily, you may end up stripping your hair of moisture. If your hair is extremely oily, it may be sign that you’re washing your hair too much and your oils are overcompensating for the dryness.
On days when they need freshening up, use a dry shampoo instead. Luckily, we have an article on the best ones here!
9. Use Only Shampoos With Hair-Loving Ingredients
On days when you’re scheduled to wash your hair, shampoo only with ingredients that will help your hair rebuild and resurrect. Keep an eye out for these key ingredients: collagen, biotin, and proteins (or peptide complex). Bonus if your haircare contains natural herbs with antioxidant properties as these will protect your hair from environmental aggressors.
10. Treat Your Hair Like Colored Hair
Even if your hair looks like it’s back to its original shade, don’t forget that it still took some dye and treatments to get it there. Stick to your favorite color-safe shampoo, give your hair time to heal in between salon sessions, and easy upon the styling tools. Invest in treatments that were made to rehydrate colored and chemically-treated hair.
Sulfates are known to open up your hair shafts and release pigments in the process, but there’s no need to be afraid of them. You will still find expert and quality formulations with sulfate that are color-safe and hair-loving.
11. Apply UV Protectants
Heat is damaging to hair, but it’s important to keep in mind that styling tools aren’t the only source of heat. The sun is just as damaging especially under long exposure. If you find a shampoo or a leave-in conditioner with UV and heat protection, grab it!
RELATED: 10 Hair Color Corrector Products You Can Use At Home
Grow Out Natural Hair Color | Best Hairstyles That Transition to Natural Hair Color
12. 3D Balayage
Balayage is a gradient coloring technique, and a 3D balayage is synonymous to contouring and highlighting your hair. It creates dimension and the illusion of body. For hair growing out, it’s a smooth way to transition from your natural tones to your dyed hair.
Your stylist will apply a shade close to your original color from your roots to the midsection and a apply a darker or deeper shade towards the lower section. As your hair grows out, it will look like an extension of your balayage hair. A seamless and effortless transition.
13. Shadow Roots
If you haven’t caught up to our article on shadow roots, read about them first there! This is one is for the dark-haired beauties.
Shadow roots are a low maintenance technique that allows natural dark hair to grow out seamlessly. Your hair color will be darker at the top and transitions to a lighter shade towards the end, creating the illusion of a shadow. Imagine highlights, but reversed.
14. Highlights/Lowlights
Blondes that dyed their hair dark will benefit from highlights or lowlights. Apply highlights every six to 12 weeks to assist in the transition from your blonde to dark hair. This will eliminate the harsh line between your original hair and dyed hair.
15. Pixie Cut
If you’re done with hair dyes and chemical treatments and your dyed hair has reached a certain point, it’s time to amputate. Chop off your hair and rock a fun and flirty pixie cut! You will need to visit the salon monthly if you’ve fallen in love with the look, but this will help you work your way back to virgin hair.
16. Layered Bob and Lob
Textured layers will work with the different tones in your hair to create dimension and body. Layers will also give you an excuse to cut off the last of the bleached sections of your hair – goodbye demarcation line!
Check out Brad Mondo’s vegan hair mask recipe to accompany your shampoo days:
If you read this before your first color session at the salon, I hope this informs your decision before you take the plunge. If the straight line on your tresses is what brought you to this article, then take comfort in the fact that there’s still a way.
Natural is one of the best looks you can cop, and it pairs best with confidence! Grow out your natural hair color and embrace what your mama gave you.
Have you found the solution to the color block on your locks? We’d love to hear from you! Let us know in the comments section below.
UP NEXT:
- Freshly Applied Colored Hair Care Tips
- 10 Best Shampoo For Colored Hair To Keep The Color From Fading Away
- 11 Best Natural Dry Shampoo That Actually Works
We aim to feature the best of the best in the makeup world, and maybe that can include you! WRITE to us!
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for the latest makeup, hair, and nail trends. Don’t forget to subscribe to our Youtube Channel for cool makeup tutorials.