How to Tackle Greying Hair

How to tackle men's grey hair

How to Tackle Greying Hair

A four-point plan for getting
 your color back

Words by

The Valet. staff

Photography by

Courtesy

Published

June 28, 2021

Updated

April 4, 2024

Note

Items featured in this story are independently selected by the editorial team. Purchasing via our links may earn Valet. a portion of the sale, which helps fund our editorial mission.

There are some universal truths when it comes to those pesky grey hairs. They show up when you least expect it and they arrive much quicker than you were anticipating. Some Valet. staffers spotted their first greys in their mid-20s while others in their 40s have yet to sprout one. Those damn grey hairs don't play fair. The first thing to remember is that this is not a sign of your youth fading.

“There are two main factors that cause grey hair: the decrease in melanogenesis and the increase in oxidative stress in the hair bulb,” says celebrity hairstylist Jay Small, who's become something of an expert in fighting greys. “We have found that beards are where most men identify their grey hair first—this is because the rate of growth in beards is so much faster than head hair.” If you've recently noticed more grey than you'd like to see, you have some options. Here is what the experts suggest.

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Your Grey Hair
Game Plan

Arey Not Today, Grey Supplements

Slow the Process

Jay Small is someone who knows that good hair is tied with nutrition. He started researching how and why hair goes grey to help his clients and found that there was only a 30% link to genetics. “That left 70% that we could help influence,” he says. Small developed Arey's “Not Today, Grey” supplements that provide your system the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are usually lacking when we go grey due to an increase in oxidative stress. Fixing that deficiency has been shown, in qualitative studies, to slow the greying of hair by 90% and the added nutrition results in fuller and smoother hair. It's not an instant fix. You'll need to use it for at least three months to let your hair adapt and grow, but our testers so far have been impressed with the progress. Small says men should see grey hair as “a message from the body and realize that it is important to be proactive.”

Not Today, Grey supplements,
$45.33 by Arey

Cremo Styling Cream

Style It Correctly

Contrary to popular belief, grey hair is unlikely to be coarser in texture than your other hair. But because grey hairs can be more noticeable, you might see them sticking up more than other hairs. Which means a styling product is necessary to keep them tamed. And because grey hair can look dry and less vibrant than your natural color, a product with shine makes your hair look and feel a bit more alive. A little of this styling cream goes a long way to condition and control the hair while leaving you with a natural sheen that makes hair look soft and healthy.

Styling cream,
$12.99 by Cremo

Menfirst 3-in-1 Shampoo and Conditioner

Gradually Darken
 Your Hair

Maybe you don't want to actually dye your hair. You simply want to throw a darker filter over it in real life. Consider a gradual darkening product, like this well-reviewed conditioning shampoo. Unlike a dye, this utilizes a chemical-free hypoallergenic fixation process that bonds cationic pigments to hair (not skin). That's a lot of science talk to say that the more often you use, the darker the hair gets. It's particularly effective for early patches of grey at the temples or on your beard. It allows you to bring back your hair from the onset of grey without a drastic, overnight change.

3-in-1 shampoo and conditioner,
$18.99 by Menfirst

True Sons Demi-Permanent Dye

Dye It

When it comes to dying your hair—especially at home—subtly is the name of the game. Hair is not all one color, so a bad dye job is easy to spot. What makes this modern alternative to at-home hair dye so great is that it's not a full permanent dye. Known as a “demi-permanent dye,” it uses less peroxide and no ammonia, so it only mildly absorbs into the hair and washes out in 15 to 20 washes. You control the depth of the dye by how long you leave it on—our tester tried the minimum—15 minutes. There was no mess, no drips and no nasty chemical smell. The result is really good. Natural, varied hues of browns and much of the grey hair was gone. But some remains, for a more natural look. Plus, this works on your beard and body hair too.

From $29.99 per kit,
at True Sons

Or Embrace It

Instead of running from the inevitable, you could embrace your inner silver fox. Men's Health has pulled together all the male celebrities who ran with the salt and pepper and look all the better for it.

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