Meanwhile, female celebs are getting a lot more comfortable with their greys, too. Actress Shay Mitchell previously admitted, “I call them wisdom hairs — more wisdom, great!” before noting “I am getting older. I am happy. You know what that means? I have more experiences. You can’t freak out about [grey hairs].” But she acknowledged she tends to pluck them out when she comes across them, adding: “if you don’t like it, then dye your hair — no problem.”
And Jennifer Aniston told Glamour US, “You do you! If you want to go grey, go for it. If you want to keep colouring your hair, that’s great too. I think everyone should feel confident in whatever choices they make, including embracing natural colour or texture. Hair is a creative way to express yourself, and I love that your mood and energy can change with the change of a hairstyle, cut or colour. Embrace whatever is going to make you happy.”
And, if you don’t want to choose between completely covering or embracing natural grey hairs, you don’t have to. There’s a third camp that sits somewhere between the two: Grey highlights.
What is grey blending?
“There’s been a move towards natural hair enhancement and grey blending is the latest movement in hair colour,” explains Robert Eaton, Wella Professionals Technical Director. The premise is this: by blending highlights or balayage through your hair, you can offset or accentuate your grey strands, depending on the colours you pair them with.
Like OG balayage, the technique creates light and shade throughout the hair. Sections of sweeping highlights are blended seamlessly in amongst other strands to break up blocks of colour and ensure hair looks multi-dimensional. The difference here is that the tones of the highlights are deliberately chosen to blend away greys or spotlight them.
For instance, ash grey and cool-toned blondes can camouflage greys into a tonal masterpiece that bounces light away from the greys and makes the whole thing look effortlessly deliberate. Meanwhile, shots of silver and ice blonde can help to illuminate and celebrate natural greys, drawing the attention towards grey streaks rather than hiding them.
Either way, to keep things look natural, the same rules of traditional balayage are applied. Highlights are subtly introduced around 3 centimetres from roots (meaning they’re gloriously low-maintenance and you can grow them out with no repeat salon visits if you prefer). The face-framing strands are brightened to add an illuminating effect to skin, and the ends are left natural.