Box dye not covering greys

[Curlewwoohoo]

I've just started dying my hair to cover greys. The dye I used which was garnier one has not covered the greys well at all. Can anyone recommend a brand that does?

Am a bit annoyed as it's a load of faff and now I am stuck for a few months!

Hmm, I actually really rate Garnier Nutrisse for grey coverage! Did you use Garnier Olia? That’s less effective than Garnier Nutrisse.

I personally find that Schwarzkopf isn’t great for covering greys and neither is L’Oréal casting creme gloss.

Good brands (in my experience) are L’Oréal Excellence, Garnier Nutrisse and Clairol Nice N Easy.

Sadly, to cover grey, you pretty much have to go with permanent dye with ammonia in. The nice semi-perm no ammonia ones just don’t seem strong enough for the coarse and thick nature of grey hairs.

I would also say to leave the dye for slightly longer on your roots (5-10 minutes longer) if grey coverage is your goal.

It depends what colour you're going and how much grey hair you have. I only have an odd 'white' strand and use garner, but I dye it really light like golden auburn. If you're dying it dark, or with deep red tones I've found it doesn't work as well.

I use L'Oréal Excellence and it covers my greys pretty well.

Thanks for the tips! My hair is mid-brown with a reddish undertone. I am trying to keep it natural ish but both times so far it's turned out much darker than I anticipated. The nice n easy I used first time did cover the greys better but came out super dark. I've not got much grey, less than 25%.

Oh yes, box dyes are always much darker than they say on the box (unless you’ve bleached first but then it will fade on bleached hair so you can’t win). Try using two shades lighter than you think you need (so if you like the look of a 5, get a 7). Either that or get it professionally done.

Are you sure you're catching all the greys when you apply the dye?

I bought a home hair dying kit off Amazon and use that to be extra thorough. The brushes have pointed tips you can you to section your hair and then use the bristles to work the dye right into the roots. I pay especially attention to my hairline and the hair above my ears as I used to miss baby grey hairs there.

I mix up half a box of L'Oréal excellence every three weeks or so and just do my roots in a shade that looks a couple of shades lighter than mine on the box and it works really well (an annoying faff though!)

I use Clairol nice n easy and as other have said, half a box every 4 or 5 weeks and just do the roots/hairline with a brush. Works pretty well but you do have to work it in at the roots with a brush. I leave it on for longer and put a plastic cap etc over as well which gets a better result.

I recommend eSalon - it’s online and tailored to your hair

I'd suggest esalon too as the colour will be matched to exactly what you want.

Esalon dyes - do they come out darker too? And should I order one with ammonia to cover greys then? Assume ammonia is bad for hair and that's why they make ammonia free?