Grey Matters

I HAVE GREY HAIR! I HAVE GREY HAIR! I’ve said it! I’m a woman of a certain age and I have grey hair!

Like many of us, my greys are predominantly on my parting and around my hairline. There is no research to support why the greys start appearing at the front, the preference would be for the greying process to start at the back of our necks and for it to slowly work it’s way up and forward but alas mother nature has dealt us a cruel blow by starting our dis-colouration off at the very front of our heads the place where it is most noticeable.

I colour my hair every 6 weeks and by week four of six my roots are starting to shine through, a silvery line along my parting. Luckily I can disguise my parting by wearing my hair up, but I don’t want to wear my hair up constantly and I don’t want to get into the trap of colouring my hair every 4 weeks so I decided to check out three “inbetween” colour products.  All three are designed to do the same thing, temporarily colour your greys inbetween visits by, or to your Hairdresser.  I chose three products in three price brackets, cheap, mid range and ‘how much??!’ Here are my findings….

The first product I tried Cover Your Gray by Cover your Gray was out of intrigue as it is cheaper than a cheap mascara (I admit to having used mascara in desperation on stray grey’s in the past, and also a Sharpie which actually worked better than the mascara). You can tell by the spelling that Cover your Gray is a product from the States, but widely available here.

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I bought mine from Amazon but you can also buy instore from Sally Salon Services and online from EBay and brilliantly it’s under £3!
It’s the size of a lipstick and for emergency touch up’s it does a pretty good job.
It comes in a range of colours and you can’t really go wrong with the application, just dab it on. This product is good for the odd grey, it’s not really going to work if you have a line of grey down your parting as over application would be quite obvious, and could easily look ‘waxy,’ as if you have coloured your hair with a crayon – not something I’ve tried, but please leave a comment below if you have! – for the price it’s worth buying and keeping in your handbag for emergency touch ups.

Earlier this year the big buzz in the hair and beauty press was the long awaited arrival of the Josh Wood Blending Wand, I couldn’t wait! Would it be the answer to my prayers?? Sadly not….

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Only available from Marks and Spencer with a reasonable price tag of £12.50 and a range of colours, I thought this had to live up to the hype and be a winner but the product was messy to use and left a warm almost red glow on my parting and when I looked online for product reviews, these were the two main gripes from other users.
So disappointed was I with the Wand that I returned it to M&S and turns out that I wasn’t the first to ask for my money back. It’s a great idea, it just doesn’t work.

I’ve saved the best till last, the wonder product that is Colour Wow Root Cover Up Their strap line is “The next hand held device to change your life” and I don’t disagree at all, it’s brilliant!

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It looks like an eyebrow powder, comes in a neat little package with a brush that is thicker at one end than the other. Use the thicker end to apply the powder to cover your parting and the thin end to apply around your hairline.
With a range of colours, you can match up to the colour of your natural re-growth or fading professional colour, or go for a lighter shade to cover the regrowth on your highlights, which is genius! click here to watch a tutorial and be amazed!

Colour Wow isn’t the cheapest product of this type on the market, but in my opinion, it really does work. If you want to “try before you buy” and get the right colour match, which I’d recommend, pop into Spack NK where Colour Wow costs £28.50. You can also buy it online for just under £25 at QVC and Amazon, but check out the P&P costs.

At the end of the day we need to “embrace” our greys?! But I hope that on the days you don’t feel like “embracing” your greys and with a few days left till you see your hairdresser you’ll find that one of the products above is just what you’ve been waiting for. I’d love to know your thoughts and if you have any questions or comments please leave them below, it would be great to hear from you.