Whether you’re ready to beautifully rock your naturally gray hair or you’re still weighing whether to ditch the dye, letting your natural gray locks grow out and shine can liberating, gorgeous and ultimately worth the effort.

If you’re at the stage where you're considering embracing your natural gray, you’re probably tired of dyeing your hair and realizing it’s becoming a real headache trying to keep up with the relentless rebound of your gray roots. (Been there, we get it.) 

Maybe you’ve researched a bunch of aspirational, silver-haired beauties on social media, created your own silver-hued inspiration board, chatted up your stylist about your coloring options or even stalked the hair product aisles trying to find a quick fix before deciding whether (and how) to embrace your natural gray grow-out .

Regardless of where you’re headed with your grow-out strategy, we’ve got several approaches from the lowest maintenance to the highest and hopefully answered all your Qs along the way.

For the record, though, to us, letting your inner Silverist shine is why we’re here, and we promise you, it’s gorgeous on this side of your naturally gray journey.

This is literally as straightforward as it gets. And as simple as its name: This gray hair grow-out strategy is truly going cold turkey. The idea is to simply stop coloring your hair and let those lush silver locks grow in. It’s also the cheapest route to take and especially makes sense if you’re someone who wants to avoid any additional exposure to harsh chemicals. 

• Step 1: Ditch the dye. 
• Step 2: Hold on for the ride. Yes, progress might feel slow while you let locks grow. That’s normal. In fact, there’s a saying “a year to the ear,” meaning that’s roughly how long it takes for your natural silver tresses to reach ear length, then another year for them to hit your shoulder. 

The biggest downside to this method for most people is the dreaded demarcation line that becomes very visible between your dyed grays and your new growth. It can be a real mental challenge to feel self-conscious about potential judgment, comments or stares from people who assume you’ve let yourself go or you’re sporting the unkempt look, but honestly, they’re probably not your tribe and their criticism may come from a place of their own feelings about gray hair, rather than anything to do with whether or not it looks good on you. In fact, negative comments about gray hair are almost always 100% of the time a reflection of someone else's fears of aging, rather than anything to do with how it looks on you. And remember, this is a transition and it’s temporary. You’ll feel so much better once you begin seeing a significant amount of grow-out and it’s obvious to the world that, no, you weren’t too lazy to book your next salon appointment, and yes, this hot silver mane is intentional.

Grow-out tips

1. Follow Silver Sisters on social media 
   Community is everything during your grow-out journey. Connect with women on social media who have natural gray hair or are going through their own gray hair grow-out to remind yourself, we're all in this together. 
2. Take weekly selfies
   It’s all about your mindset. Taking selfies gives you a sense of progress because you’ll see growth real-time even though it might feel slow at times.
   

3. Consider frequent trims
   While some people might suggest a style overhaul, like a pixie or a much shorter hair length, that’s not necessary unless you feel like it. You should wear whatever style makes you feel like a queen. And rocking a cut that’s not you will definitely have the opposite effect. Instead, consider getting trims more frequently during the transition period to give you that feeling of progress or ask your stylist about creating a more layered style to help mask that demarcation line.
4. Add a toning shampoo to your haircare routine
   Now that you’re no longer perking up your hair with fresh color, you may notice that your still-dyed locks begin to look brassy. While many toning shampoos were originally developed for blonde hair tones, they can also work on silver/gray tones. Adding a purple or blue toning shampoo will brighten up your new natural grays as well as tone out the brassiness of your old dye job during your grow-out. Toning shampoos can be drying so try using them sparingly every one to two weeks.
5. Learn to style a headscarf
   Let’s be clear: We don’t think you need to hide your grow-out. But if you’re in an industry or situation where the challenge of literally having two very different types of hair on your head just isn’t the visual metamorphosis you want everyone else to witness, no judgment here. Using a stylish head scarf can be a fashionable way to hide that line of demarcation. Remember: You’re like a butterfly, transforming without a cocoon! You get to call the beauty shots.

Ready to fast-track this whole process? If you’re confident enough to rock the buzz cut, go for it. It’s literally the short-cut to the gray hair grow-out, and personally, we think it’s sexy AF. 

• Step 1: Cut it all off! 
• Step 2: Watch your gorgeous natural growth grow back in without any demarcation line at all. 

Honestly, we love this strategy because It can be super interesting to see how your natural gray hair pattern grows in. People often say it looks very different from what they expected. That’s because when you’re dyeing your hair frequently, it’s difficult to see, and therefore predict, what your natural hair will look like when it’s grown out. You probably won’t see your pattern until you have several inches of growth. And even then, you’ll likely discover that your pattern continues to evolve or change over time. Surprise! You might not just get a whole new silver shade, but also a new style.
 

Grow-out tip

• Treat your scalp with TLC
  Really the only “downside” to this strategy is that you need to be comfortable sporting a shaved-head look. One way to feel more confident is by treating your scalp as luxuriously as you treat your hair or face. Don’t forget to moisturize your scalp and remember to condition new hair as it grows.

If you’re down to handle using a little more hair dye, but not down with a demarcation line, this strategy is for you. It’s less drastic than a buzz cut, faster than going cold turkey and requires less maintenance than the gray blending technique. This strategy is super simple and is kinda like a master of illusion. 

• Step 1: Part your hair on the side.
• Step 2: Dye only a small, 1- to 2-inch x 5-inch strip of hair (hence the name) starting at the roots — think “skunk stripe”. 
• Step 3: Style hair, parting down the middle and distributing the dyed hair among the grays so hair looks naturally highlighted, when in fact you’re simply hiding your grow-out. 
• Step 4: As the silver hair secretly grows out underneath that strip, continue to dye only that strip to help mask the gray hair grow-out line. 
• Step 5: As your natural grays become more fully grown out, they’ll slowly mask the dyed strip, especially if you flip your part to the other side.

Gray blending is one of the least noticeable, but most extensive, ways to help you transition to naturally gray hair. You’ll need to find an experienced colorist who analyzes your hair’s natural growth pattern, which tends to be a mix of dark and light shades. Most colorists add a series of highlights and lowlights that match your natural growth pattern so new growth more seamlessly blends in with the look you already have. Typically a colorist also adds gray toner over all of your tresses to give you an overall silver look. 

So if it’s that easy, why isn’t everyone using this strategy? First, the process can take all day and so can be expensive since you're booking up a stylist's entire day (definitely find someone who's a specialist in this process). Also, it’s not a one-and-done treatment. Because all gray toners eventually fade out — even the ones labeled as permanent hair color — you’ll want to commit to repeating this process several times over the course of your gray hair grow-out.

When asked how it feels to be on the other side of the gray hair grow-out journey, most women describe their post-hair dye state as “liberating” and “free”. And the ultimate bonus is all the money you’ve saved not swinging by the colorist every couple of weeks.