Coloring Gray Hair

Coloring gray hair presents a special challenge, even for skilled hairstylists. As you may have learned through experience, certain colors cannot be put directly on gray hair. The result will be hair that has an un-natural, unattractive cast to it. For example, a red haircolor applied to gray hair may turn out pink. Ash tones may end up green, blue, or violet. To color gray hair successfully, it is important to gain an understanding of the natural pigments found in hair.

Melanin is the pigment that gives hair it's color. Though we may perceive a person's natural haircolor as being blonde, black, or red, every person's haircolor is in fact a variation of brown.

There are only three color pigments found naturally in hair, they are blue, red, and yellow. These pigments are combined in various proportions to result in the color of your hair. Hair that has a large majority of red and yellow pigments will be red. Hair that has more blue pigment will be brunette, and people who have more yellow pigment will be blonde.

The laws of color dictate that if you mix these three primary colors together (red, blue, and yellow), you will always get brown. Then why does hair turn gray?

As a person ages, the molecules of melanin separate and move away from each other. As the molecules dissipate, the hair will take on a gray appearance. A common myth, even among hair professionals, is that gray hair is devoid of all pigmentation. If that were true, the person would be an albino.

The sizes of the molecules are also important. Blue has the largest molecule size, followed by red. Yellow is the smallest molecule. Because of it's size, yellow is the last color pigment to remain in the hair, which explains why it's easy to bleach hair from brown to yellow, but very difficult to bleach hair out of the yellow stage. Gray hair sometimes retains the yellow because of it's small molecule size.

To successfully cover gray, all three pigments must be present in the dye. In the salon, we use a series of colors that are designated N (for natural or neutral). N Series haircolors have all three colors present, which will replace the pigments that have been lost in the aging process.

If you choose to color your own hair, always select a color that says natural or neutral in the shade. This will ensure a more natural result.

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