How to Grow out Grey Hair the Natural Way...Without Feeling Like You've Given Up

How to Grow out Grey Hair the Natural Way...Without Feeling Like You've Given Up

In this article, we’ll discuss how to grow your hair out grey in a way that doesn’t feel like you’ve given up. We’ll also look at how to enhance the tone and shine of your grey hair naturally.

Once upon a time, many women would have DIED then admit they’d gone grey.   

We spent a lot of money and time covering any single strand of white as though it would instantly mark us out as ‘old’.  

This isn’t surprising when you realise it was only a few years ago that a magazine singled out Kate Middleton, zoomed in on her roots and showed a couple of wiry grey hairs, insinuating she’d let herself go.

Thankfully, we’re much more considerate around aging these days and lots of us are embracing our natural silver hues as beautiful and special.

Instagram is full of brilliant influencers like @k_going_grey and @thesilverlining_1970. Stars like Jamie Lee Curtis and Andie MacDowell wear their beautiful silver hair with pride.

But it can be a challenge to know where to start – and there often is a bit of a painful process when you stop colouring your hair to let the roots grow.

Grey hair can also often be wiry, coarse and harder to manage if you don’t have the right expertise.

That’s where we come in.  Let us share our expert knowledge of naturally managing your hair to make the process of going grey the natural way as painless and effortless:

1.       Be Prepared for Patience

Hair grows on average around three inches in six months.  Over a year that’s six inches.  So, it will be a while before you have luscious grey locks sweeping around. 

The bit most people report as being the hardest is the very first bit – the initial root phase.  Many women share that they feel a little ‘unkempt’ during this time – most of us are very used to getting a touch up regularly.

There are some helpful solutions.  Some women choose to crop their hair and just go straight out grey from there. That requires a lot of confidence though. 

Some use a natural hair colour and instead of colouring the whole root, just pull a few lowlights of colour through the front using a comb, so it looks softer.

Once you get to the six month mark, it starts to look more like a grown out dye and some women blur the line of hair colour and grey to look more ‘ombre’ in tone.

Whatever you do, will take time though so it’s important to be gentle with yourself.  Search the hashtags #grombe and #greyhair for some inspo to keep yourself motivated.

2.       Focus on Shine

Grey hair is hair that has basically lost its colour molecules. Without colour the hair absorbs the light rather than reflects it, so it doesn’t shine as easily as dark or bright hair does.

We recommend a weekly treatment with a clarifier for grey hair to remove environmental build-up and pollution. This helps the colour stay ‘true’.

Then we suggest you use hair oil, through the ends regularly to help with reflection.  This is also a lovely way to add definition, tame flyaway strands and reduce wiriness. 

Simply add one or two drops of a natural hair oil to your palms and pat, don’t wipe into the hair.

The herb Amla is a brilliant treatment for shine. It also neutralises brassy or yellow tones in your grey for that true ‘silvery’ shine we all hope for.

3.       Get Creative

When was the last time you tried to style your hair differently? Often, we’ve been blow drying and shaping our hair the same way for years, but a new approach can work wonders on your confidence.

There are some lovely ideas for plaits, blow dry and updos that will keep you feeling ‘presented’ even if you’re not loving the ‘growing out’ phase. 

Our partners at Acala also have some gorgeous zero waste hair accessories that may help.

4.       Treat Regularly

We suggest that to keep your grey hair growing in a healthy, bright way, that you treat fairly frequently.

In Ayurveda, the herb Bhringaraj is loved to help reduce hair fall, premature greyness and promote youthful fullness. 

5.       Keep it Cut

Don’t be tempted to skip your hair maintenance.  Grey hair needs to be cut regularly to manage the nature and condition of it.  As we age we lose some of the ability to keep our hair shiny and in good condition, so the older the hair, the more likely it will look less vital.

A good trim, every six to eight weeks will work wonders in maintaining movement and shape.

6.       Brighten Up

If you’re very fair and you fancy adding some gold lights to your hair, lots of lighter haired people enjoy using Cassia, or neutral Henna to your treatment regime. 

It’s not a colour per say, it just works to bring out the sunshine in your hair. If you’re blonde it can make the growing out process much more manageable.