Grey hair is hot right now with the younger generation. Somehow that doesn’t sit right for me. Being a recently transitioned to grey hair woman, I resent the fact that girls in their twenties are spending hours and hours in the hair salon, trying to get what nature has given me naturally.
Whom am I kidding? I think it is awesome!
For once, I am on the easy side of being in fashion and maybe, I dare say, trendy.
However, one of the things I have noticed after letting my hair go gray was that none of my old wardrobe seemed to look good on me anymore. I had tons of clothes on the beige/brown spectrum. Wearing those shades most definitely made me look older and frumpier now that I had let my hair go gray.
So I reached out to Jill Kirsh, the colour guru, for some help and tips. And I thought I would share them with you today.
But before we begin, let me introduce you and tell you a bit about Jill Kirsh.
Jill Kirsh is a color expert and Hollywood’s Guru of Hue. Her unique color system has been the talk of the fashion world for the past ten years. She’s been featured several times in InStyle Magazine, Life & Style Weekly, Inc.magazine, E!News Online, Backstage, RedBook, the Los Angeles Times and on every major network and numerous local news affiliates including HGTV, Hallmark and Soapnet, plus myriad websites like AOL, BeautyRiot, Shopafrolic and more. She was named Best Color Consultant in the Best of LA issue of Los Angeles magazine and is frequently called upon by Red Carpet celebs, Grammy winning musicians and titans of business for color coaching. In addition, Jill is featured as the Color Expert on the IPad App for the hit movie Divergent. You can find her at Jill Kirsh Color.
If you aren’t convinced that colour makes a difference, or that Jill knows her stuff, check out this post on E News!
What If Your Favorite Red Carpet Dress Was a Different Color? See the Difference!
Here is visual proof that colour does make a difference. Just look at these before and after photos! Can you see how the colours on the right makes the models look younger and more vibrant. Read on for your best fashion choices for your grey hair.
The Best Style Choices For Gray Hair
- Avoid mustard, olive green, camel and rust. These colours tend to make you look like you have jaundice and no one wants that! Instead wear mint, lavender, rose red and taupe, especially close to your face as well as in your makeup choices. The easiest way to choose your fashion colours is to keep in mind that grey hair is enhanced and highlighted by jewel toned colours. Think of your favourite gems ladies. If you stick to those hues, you will look younger and more vibrant.
- Don’t wear yellow or gold jewelry. For the same reasons as above it is best to stay away from anything that will make your skin look older and sallow. You want your jewelry to give you sparkle and accentuate your fabulous grey hair. Choose white gold, silver and platinum instead.
- Stay away from amber, coral or yellow topaz. Those are cheap stones anyway and your amazing midlife self deserves the best. Your jewels are emeralds, rubies, amethysts, garnets, rose quartz and of course, diamonds. You can find all of these gems set in glorious white gold, silver, or platinum online at Diamondere, a custom fine jewelry retailer.You are a queen so go ahead and adorn yourself in luxury.
- Veto tortoise shell, tan or bronze eyeglass frames. Bring colour to your face and accent your silver locks with burgundy, steel blue or pewter eyeglasses choices.
- Dismiss cinnamon brown handbags, boots, wallets, belts and other accessories. Go for pink or white in the summer and wine coloured leather accessories in the winter. These colours will look great with your grey hair and make even the most boring outfit more fun and youthful.
***NOTE: The above tips are for grey, silver or white hair ladies only. Check out this post for salt & pepper hair guidelines.***
How To Choose The Best Colors To Wear With Grey Hair
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Keep in mind that all of the above are suggestions and that some of the recommended options may not work for you. You may be able to wear some of the colours on the don’t list as well. Only you can decide that. Don’t be afraid to experiment and ask a friend for their opinion. You should also take selfies so that you can have an objective view of your colour choices and fashion decisions.
Of course, if you are anything like me, you need to be led by the hand and shown exactly what to wear. Good news! You don’t have to have your own personal stylist to be able to dress the best for your newly transitioned grey hair.
Jill Kirsh has designed a wallet size, customized swatch book that’s filled with pieces of fabric of all your best shades for your grey hair. You can use it as guide for shopping for everything from tees, shorts and nail color to party dresses, jewels and stilettos! In addition to these being all your best shades, every color in your swatch book coordinates with each other, so you can have a wardrobe that totally rocks. You can shop Target or Neiman’s, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about the hue!
Jill also has a line of makeup products that are mineral based and fragrance free. The makeup kits are pre-filled with all your best shades for the eyes, cheeks and lips, based on the colour of your hair. All the lip products, blush and shadows are paraben free. As well, all the products are cruelty free and are made in the USA. These shades blend beautifully with each other and compliment the hues in your swatch book.
For Jill’s whole line of products, including these beautiful scarves below, or to book a personal consultation, see her website at Jill Kirsh Color.
Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with me Jill, and I look forward to featuring you again soon.
Check out these other gray hair posts:
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Check out these gorgeous silver sisters!
Celia
Monday 20th of October 2025
I thought I could edit that comment since readers will probably be wondering (can't find a way to edit). This did drastically cut down on my hair loss. I wish I could say it's all growing back but I'm not sure yet. I do feel good that it appears I'm not continuing to lose the large amounts that I was before (3-4 times as much). I can't seem to use conditioner though, I've tried several and it appears all the conditioners I've tried so far cause like three times the quantity of hair left in my sink afterwards ☹️.
Celia
Monday 20th of October 2025
I chose to go gray when I discovered that the 35 years of losing hair was probably due to coloring it since I've been losing hair for 35 years! No one had ever told me that coloring your hair could cause hair to get thinner, even though I had been agonizing over my hair loss all those years, including to my hairdressers. So when I read an article saying it was a possibility, and did some research and found a lot more written about it, I told my hairdresser, "No more – no coloring, no highlighting, no fake transitioning, just all natural transitioning."
Determined to save my hair and having made the decision to go ahead with it, it was much easier than I thought it would be! I had black hair until my current hairdresser highlighted it during the pandemic, and lightened it some more since, (trying to work toward going natural). So I didn't have to go from straight black to white, but it was still obvious, but more so in the beginning. It's now been almost a year and I have only a little bit of color left at the bottoms of my hair now, maybe 2 inches at the sides and hardly any in the back, my hair is thicker at the back and it apparently also grows faster there. I did not cut it short either because short hair takes me longer to style
I have actually enjoyed the process. For the first time in many years, I started wearing a French braid, which gave me a really cool mix of colors twisting through the braid, and I'm sad that that opportunity is going away (I always got compliments on the unique look). I started trying lots of different styles which I hadn't done for a while. And I was happily surprised to see that my hair is more silver than it is gray. Sometimes when the light is right, I look in the mirror and my hair actually looks like it is sparkly silver. And my hair is lighter than my two sisters' hair! After all these years of me looking younger!
Of course throughout the year I've had people that have informed me, as if I didn't know, that there are ways to transition without it being so obvious, haha, and I was always happy to tell them, "no, I like it this way, I purposely chose to do it this way." I've been proud of the way I've let it go natural, without getting uptight or self-conscious. I've just enjoyed the process, and I don't mind if it takes a while yet. I'm not in a hurry. Not waiting for it to be all gray, just enjoying all stages of the transition.
Laura Parker
Tuesday 22nd of October 2024
Don’t pay any attention to these ‘stop doing this’ articles. They are BS! Do whatever you want!
Diane
Tuesday 24th of October 2023
I have platinum gray hair, olive green eyes and a warm/cool undertone. Olive green, coral & camel are my best colors.
maguerite
Tuesday 13th of February 2024
@Diane, I have a similar coloring but blue green eyes. I will try the colors you mentioned. I have a few camel items that are called "Honey" from Eileen Fisher but they look like that camel color. I feel right in it. I'm not sure about camel but I think I'll try it. I find a dark olive green is nice in a fuzzy wool.
Bette
Saturday 23rd of September 2023
Some very good "going grey" tips. However, ladies of color... it doesn't apply to you. For instance the color Coral or Mustard can be a SPECTACULAR color on you.