Photo: Ece AK

Should you go lighter or darker with hair as you get older?

' Basically, as your skin tone lightens with age, so should your hair colour. 'When you first notice white hairs, ask your hairdresser to blend them, and eventually you'll move to a lighter natural colour' explains Ashleigh.

goodhousekeeping.com - Hair colour mistakes that make you look older - Good Housekeeping

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Your hair is your crowning glory, and getting older makes no difference to that. However, over the years, hair itself can change, turning grey and becoming more coarse and dry for many women.

When this happens, it can be tempting to reach for the nearest bottle of hair dye in a bid to turn back the years – but how can you use hair colour in a way which makes you look fresh and radiant, rather than simply ageing you further?

We asked expert colourists to reveal the biggest hair mistakes that make you look older, and how to avoid them…

1. One-dimensional hair colour

‘Monochromatic colour, which is flat with no dimension, looks really hard and is very ageing’ says Jack Howard, UK colour spokesperson for L’Oreal, who works at Paul Edmonds. ‘It’s particularly easy to fall victim to this if you’re using a box dye or overlapping colour.’ Instead, Jack recommends visiting a colourist at your hair salon to have multi-dimensional colour applied. ‘Mimicking nature with light, hand-painted pieces of colour placed where the sun would naturally hit is the most flattering way to wear your colour’ he says.

2. Sticking to the hair colour of your youth

It’s understandable that people assume the best way to tackle their grey hair is by dyeing it back to their previous natural hair colour. However, according to Ashleigh Hodges, creative director at Jamie Stevens salon, this is a mistake. ‘As we lose pigment in our hair, we also lose it in our skin’ she explains. ‘It’s a gradual process, so our hair colour should reflect this.’ Basically, as your skin tone lightens with age, so should your hair colour. ‘When you first notice white hairs, ask your hairdresser to blend them, and eventually you’ll move to a lighter natural colour’ explains Ashleigh. ‘This will actually make you look younger, whereas trying to stay the hair colour you were originally won’t suit your new skin tone.’

3. Leaving grey hair untoned

Plenty of women choose to embrace their greys and wear the colour with pride – and why not? After all, celebrities such as Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep have all demonstrated that grey hair can look chic and gorgeous. However, there’s a big difference between flat, dull grey hair and the shimmering silvers we see on the red carpet.

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‘Grey hair has no tone in it, so you need to add warmth, otherwise it can look flat and one-dimensional’ says Francesca Dixon, creative colourist at Hari’s hairdressers. ‘I know women who normally opt for ashy tones might tend to steer clear of anything warmer, but trust your colourist on this one’ she adds.

4. Bleaching the life out of grey hair

Grey hair needs to be treated with tender loving care (the hair mask is your new best friend!) so diving into colour options that strip the life out of it is a bad idea. Joe Hemmings from Bloggs Salons says: ‘Grey hair is coarser, so be careful not to over-highlight or process locks, as the condition of the hair can suffer, which in itself is ageing.’ Also remember to use plenty of reparative treatments on grey hair that’s been coloured – as well as masks, hair oil and targeted shampoos and conditioners are good options.

5. Hair that’s too dark around the hairline

According to Jack Howard, this is a big no-no, but he emphasizes that this doesn’t mean if you’re a brunette you suddenly have to go blonde. ‘A good colourist can graduate the brunette shades, creating a seamless look which gets progressively darker from back to front’ he says. ‘This will be flattering around the face and give hair shine, depth and interest.’

6. Dated chunky highlights

Think of early noughties hair trends and no doubt those chunky, stripy highlights rocked by many a girl band will come to mind. Let’s be honest though – some of us are still wearing them. ‘Foil highlights look so dated – that stripy uniform colour is so unflattering’ says Jack, who instead favours balayage, where colour is painted freestyle onto the hair. He continues: ‘Look at any celebrity these days and you’ll never see a stripy highlight; everyone has balayage because it’s painted in exactly the right place to suit you, it grows out naturally (so is lower maintenance) and looks bang up to date, and therefore youthful.’

goodhousekeeping.com - Hair colour mistakes that make you look older - Good Housekeeping