When we think about our anti-aging routines, our minds rarely venture past skincare. We’re brushed up on retinol knowledge and other anti-aging products, but our minds rarely go to our hair. Sure, we’re mindful of maintaining our gray hair (or covering it!) and getting regular trims, but the biggest anti-aging secret has everything to do with color. This article will cover the hair colors that age you, and guide you gracefully to youthful hair coloring.
Handling Regrowth and Hair Colors That Age You
Let’s start with regrowth. After hair salons were shuttered during COVID-19, many women have discovered just how many greys they actually have, or perhaps they are embracing their natural color over the forced color.
In the case of growing in the white/grey regrowth, I suggest having the old color on mid-length and ends adjusted as close as possible to the regrowth hue. This means stripping out darker shades. Use a trusted professional for this. For example, if you have been using brown tones to cover greys, after stripping you may end up orange. And in some cases of ash brown, you will end up green! The principle here is to remove the old color from mid-length and ends and to erase the regrowth line by adding low lights and/or highlights to create a connection harmony. Complicated I know, that’s why you need a good professional colorist.
I would also suggest a shorter haircut during this procedure which will help eliminate even quicker the old color.
How to Grow Out a Lighter Shade on Brunette Roots
In the case of growing out a lighter shade on brunette roots, it a fairly easy procedure to add back color pigment to the midlength and ends.
Youthful Regrowth for Blondes
The best is to be a blonde and go gracefully white. To keep the transition youthful apply highlights (or even some low lights around the root area) to project a youthful regrowth effect.
Blonde just blends with white hair. So with an imaginative colorist, all kinds of hues can be placed to add youthful shine halos to the overall surface.
How To Maintain Youthful Vibrancy with Red Hair
With age, a redhead will lose its vibrancy. To avoid that hair color that’s too bright and ages you, avoid strong tones and soften the red with a strawberry blonde hue. It still resonates with a redhead but in a soft flattering way.
The Biggest Hair Coloring Mistake You Can Make
The biggest mistake you can make with your hair is opting for a shade that’s too dark. That brunette shade of your 20’s? Don’t do it. Nothing is more aging to any mature woman than a hair color that is obviously too dark. What we need to remember is to have a connection between brows, eyelashes, and hair color for it to work.
Our skin colors often fade out with age and require a softer hue to flatter. Add a few milk chocolate highlights within the dark chocolate base for an attractive (not harsh) approach.
Hair Colors That Can Make You Look Younger
- Caramel highlights: For those with dark hair this is a simple way to soften and lighten your look.
- Rose pink: If you are adventurous this look can make you look quite a bit younger. Pink is a young fun color that will automatically make others think you are younger.
- Bronde or Broomstick Blonde: The dark base brightens up with warm blonde highlights as it goes. Again, this can soften your face and help you appear younger-looking.
- Soft Black: As you age black hair can begin to look a bit severe. Adding in a slightly brighter black will create a more vibrant look.
Hair Colors that Age You
- Bleach Blonde: Don’t wash yourself out, instead use a mix of more natural colors. Plus, when you bleach all of your hair it damages it and makes it automatically look older.
- Yellow Gray: There’s no need to completely cover up gray, especially since it’s gotten so popular. But depending on how it looks you may need to add in some gray highlights to make it look better.
Invest in Proper Home Care
The most important aspect of coloring or even not coloring our hair with age is to nurture the strands. In more cases than none, white and grey hair can even set in with a different stronger texture resembling coarse almost wirey strands. So it’s vital to keep that hair hydrated. I recommend the Iles Shampoo which is brilliant on gray hair. If you suffer yellow tinges in your gray caused by medication, heated tools, even some towns water supplies will stain white hair through the added chemicals used to purify the water, this shampoo will remove them usually from the first use! Then follow with the Iles Formula conditioner. This product is the best conditioner I know, it is award-winning, and works to repair instantly on application. The result it delivers is soft, sumptuous, lustrous hair from the first use.
Color-Safe Shampoo
Shampoo should be sulfate-free + paraben free + silicon free and have a PH between 5.5 to 6.5 for healthy hair and healthy scalp. The right shampoo is a colorist’s best friend as it heals over porosity bars. Porosity bars deliver uneven color results.
Color-Safe Conditioner
The perfect PH to look for is between 4.0 and 5.0. The Iles Formula conditioner conditions like no other, in that it shuts tight the hair cuticle without leaving any residue like keratin, protein, or silicon on the hair shaft. That means healthy conditioned hair that is not weighed down.
Color-Safe Protection Serums
The right serum, like Iles Formula Signature Collection, will protect your hair from heated tools and fading. For example, red hues will immediately fade when the heat is applied to them, so a quality serum is a must. Be sure and also look for UV protection in your serum — applying a small amount every day will reduce fade.
Header images via Vogue Hair Salon in Danmark
