Covering grey in naturally brunette hair - is there an “easy” option I’m missing?

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Hi all, I’m mid 40s and while still mainly dark there is now enough grey in my hair to be pretty noticeable if I don’t cover it up - I’m not ready to go grey yet so recently I’ve been putting a brown box dye on it which does the job but I’m not keen on the “flat” effect I get from it. I’m open to the idea of getting it coloured professionally but worried about getting on a treadmill of constant expensive appointments, and also of damage to my hair if I get some blonde put in (which I’m assuming would be the “best” way to make greys look less obvious as they come through).

For the ladies with brunette hair who’ve chosen to cover the grey- how do you do it? Is there an option I haven’t thought of between box dye and highlights?

Highlights 4 x per year, hides greys and not too £££ looks very grown out before thr appt tho lol!

If you haven't got that many I would use a semi perm dye in a lighter shade than your hair then the grey hairs will look like highlights, and you won't have the growing out issue as it will fade

Thanks @JanewaysBun - do the greys look quite visible by the time you get the highlights done or do they blend in with the highlighted hair further down? Do you find it damages your hair (I have thinning hair already so a bit nervous of bleach!)

Henna, if you don't mind red highlights.

@OldieButBaddie I did think about that but wasn’t sure if a lighter colour would “take” on dark hair without using bleach - can you actually lighten your hair enough this way to blend in grey? Thanks for the reply by the way 🙂

I'm almost 40 and have some greys at the front in my dark brown hair, I've been using the light brown just for men on the front bits and eyebrows and have to say it's a game changer. 5 minutes. God men have it so easy.

Thanks @Acatdance - I’d prefer to avoid red tones if I can as they don’t really work with my skin tone

I dont think they are too obvious, and if i do i use thr spray on hair dye from boots for a week to really eek it out.

You can also get brown main dye with a few foils if you want to preserve the haor a bit, so greys gone but blonde in there to break it up

Sometimes I use Casting, which quickly fades on the greys to a lighter, golden colour so looks a bit like natural highlights. The only problem with this the brown bits eventually fade to a brassy colour. The other thing I have started using is Clairol Colour Gloss, which is like a vegetable dye.

I am finding this to be so very difficult.

I have dark brown hair, now very salt and pepper on the top and front. Not grey at the back or nape.

I didn’t want to have one permanent colour as I thought I’d look like a playmobil figure. So I had two similar colour brown baby highlights and the hairdresser left out some of my hair so that there wouldn’t be a demarcation line. It worked well until I got more grey, and then I felt that I was more grey than highlights. Whereas I wanted to be more dark and not more grey.

So last time I had the highlights but also a permanent colour on the roots. It’s not been what I wanted. My hair doesn’t hold onto colour well, it fades to dark blonde, and so the highlights have faded blue the permanent colour on the roots hasn’t faded at all, so it looks patchy and of course I have the obvious demarcation line, and it’s only been three weeks and my hair doesn’t grow very fast at all.

It’s such a pain.

My hair is similar and so far I haven't done anything about it - but I did read on here about a shampoo that covers greys which I thought I'd try (and then forgot the name..!) Might have been John Frieda (I just googled and that was the first hit) but I could be wrong.

Sorry, not especially helpful but hopefully gives you something to search for online.

Just for men, applied to the white bits with a mascara wand?

I have a balayage so I have dark roots with blonde through the rest of my hair, I buy a hair root touch up, Clairol do one but I prefer Superdrug own make, I just dab it on around my hairline and parting to hide the greys, I also use Superdrug Colour fix which is a wash out root touch up, looks like a mascara £4.99, it's great for using in-between a proper touch up.

This sounds great, I really don't want to dye my hair yet and mess with my lovely natural colour so love this idea

I use Plantur 39 Brown shampoo. There’s a conditioner too. I’m 64 and keep my hair long. The Plantur 39 makes the grey/white hairs (which are about 20% of my hair, the rest is dark brunette) a dark blonde colour. I’m really pleased with the results.

John Frieda does “Defy Grey” which is similar but I’m sticking with Plantur because it’s a caffeine shampoo as well.

I do get my hair coloured at the hairdressers but in between I use L’Oréal root touch up spray. It washes out every time you wash your hair but is useful for a quick spray to cover up grey

Qualified colourist here. I don't work in a salon now and do a different job. But I use a semi permanent diluted with shampoo. It does a couple of goes. Just half the mix and mix with shampoo. Work into your hair on top mainly. Leave 20 minutes or so. Wash out. Saves money and not too harsh.
If you just use the semi permanent without this method go slightly lighter. There's so many to choose from.

Or have low/highlights done.

I'm in the same boat and it's a pain. I've been dying it for years and have always had to stay dark as lighter colours go brassy on the roots or don't cover the greys. I'm sick of the regrowth though and my natural dark brown looks too harsh now.
I recently switched to Nice and Easy semi permanent (the lasts 24 washes one) to try and lose the regrowth line and improve condition. So far it's definitely helped with blending them in and much less obviously regrowth. I'm trying to stick with it as I'm hoping I can eventually let it grow out naturally lighter/blended without having to commit to highlights.

I'm also brunette, mid 40's with greys. I've used casting colours for years. I hate the stark line that permanent colours leave, and find the semi castings still covers the greys. I'm naturally dark brown, but don't buy anything darker than light brown because they always come out darker. After 1-2 washes though, it looks more natural.

I've found using the box root cover up in a shade lighter than my natural hair, and intermittently dragging it down the lengths gives good coverage and very natural effect but just enough variance not to look blocky. I am a mid-dark brown and use the dark blonde shade.
Also, using a Revlon volumiser dryer on hair that is 50% dry really gives a shimmer to it plus movement and bounce.
Wash and condition hair, comb through, spray with heat protection, go and have a cuppa and then come back and dry it.

I’ve been greying for years and I reckon now the full length of my hair is grey. I have very noticeable white roots. I actually think they don’t ‘take’ the dye in the same way as the rest of my hair. There’s no way my hair grows as fast as those roots show! Any dye that’s lighter than the darkest brown shimmers red on my roots. It’s a pain to keep on top of it and I do it every 3-4 weeks, there’s no way I could afford that at a salon.

I use temporary semi permanent dye just at the roots, every three weeks.

I have emergency brunette spray just in case (I can't be bothered to dye it that week)

The combination of the two is the least taxing. I found hairdressing with grey on brunette hair a nightmare as my roots really do need doing every 21 days. There is no option for blending with highlights here.

Using a semi permanent dye means it fades and you don't get the harsh dye look of reapplying permanent dye to the same area.

My hairdresser said at my last appointment that 2024 may be the time to do blonde with dark roots so I don't have to go often to him, and he'll highlight and blonde me and dark hair me (I guess thats balayage?) So that the greys looks like they're meant to be there. So I think this comment will be my future and I agree with it. He's amazing with hair. He does my mum dark but she goes VERY often and I don't have that money or will, he said I'd have to come back every 6 - 9m roughly the way he's planning to do my hair- but I think it'll depend on how grey I am. I also have greys in patches at the front and one random small patch back of head but can Still cover these patches. But my future hair will be that as written above.

Mindyourfunkybusiness: that sounds beautiful. Could you post a photo of a similar style please?

I have highlights every six months and do the roots myself with a Clairol root touch up every 6 weeks. Costs less than a tenner and takes 10 minutes.

I think I’m about 30% grey, mostly at the hair line on the right hand side of my face. Not ready to grow it all out, though 90 minutes into a highlights appointment, it does start to sound attractive.