Quarantine Hair But Your Still Care
Though the coronavirus outbreak isn’t predicted to peak in most places until much later this month (at the earliest) people’s “quarantine hair” mistakes are already going viral. That shouldn’t be too surprising; beauty salons were among the first non-essential businesses to face mandatory closure at the outset of the outbreak, and there’s something about stressful situations that makes people want to cut, color, and change up their hair. Plus, even if you’re not itching to do something wild, most people still want to look and feel their best (maintaining normalcy) even if they only see coworkers on video, so the impulse to cover gray hair at home isn’t just about vanity!
So before you reach for that box dye and run the risk of ruining your roots, your day, and your bathroom countertops, we asked the experts what you should try first. So here’s how to cover gray hair at home without turning your guest bathroom into an impromptu salon!
The Exceptional Home Team Asks The Experts The Best Way to Cover Gray Hair
According to Ruthie Zwilling (see her work here and here) at Lavish Wayzata, there’s a clear winner among the different ways people can touch up gray roots at home during coronavirus-related quarantines, stay-at-home orders, and salon closures:
Use Concealing Products To Cover Gray Hair Without Dye
Some salons, including Lavish, carry easy-to-use products to hide gray hair. These products — usually sprays, powders, and concealer sticks — offer a low-maintenance solution for masking grays between appointments, and can be a quick-and-easy way to cover gray hair without dye. For example, Lavish carries Bumble & Bumble brand toning spray powder, which they’re making available for curbside pickup at their Wayzata salon location.
One of the best things about these kinds of products is you can use them to cover gray hair with highlights (one of the most popular ways to minimize the appearance of grays these days!) More specifically, they’re really the best way to cover gray hair without ruining highlights you worked hard with your stylist to get right! Like any other process used to cover gray hair at home, there are better and worse ways to go about it, so talk to a stylist before buying if you’re feeling unsure.
Use Salon-Quality Hydrating Products To Help Repair Hair As An Act Of Self-Care
Even if you’re not too worried about needing to hide gray hair and are willing to wait out the quarantine with visible roots, now is still the perfect time to get your hair healthy. To that end, Ruthie recommends trying out any Kerastase-brand masque treatment (also available for Lavish customers). Choosing to use a hydrating mask once per week won’t cover gray hair, but will help restore vibrance, smoothness, and shine to hair that’s been damaged by stress or box dye experiments. Plus, we need to practice self-care now more than ever, and establishing a healthy hair routine is just one way you can do that.
To use those treatments, Ruthie recommends a simple process: shampoo your hair in the morning, towel dry, then apply a quarter-sized dollop of the masque to your hair (working it through from roots to ends). Then clip your hair up for the day and rinse the masque out that night. Though some of us may end up with more visible roots than others, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t all come out of this with healthy, hydrated hair!
