Celebrity Hairstylist Bryce Scarlett Reveals How to Get Gorgeous Grey Hair

Celeb stylist and Moroccanoil brand ambassador Bryce Scarlett is no amateur in creating photo-ready hair. After working with the likes of Margot Robbie, Brie Larson and Hailey Bieber, he’s learned a thing or two about making tired strands look luscious and shiny — which is exactly why we turned to him for the run-down on how to care for grey hair. Whether you’ve been rocking a platinum mane for some time, or are just starting to notice more greys, read on for his best A-list tips.

Why does grey hair get brassy?

While colour-treated blonde hair tends to go orange, grey hair tends to yellow. Grey hair lacks any pigment, so it can turn colour very easily with exposure to water, sun and other environmental factors. Eventually that builds up and your hair can start to look dingy.

How can you counteract environmental factors and get your best, brightest grey?

As per the colour wheel, you want to look for formulas that deposit a purple tone in order to counteract yellow or orange. What’s most exciting about purple conditioner is that you can use it on its own on days you don’t want to shampoo your hair. Instead, you can just rinse and use the conditioner, which is especially ideal for grey hair since it tends to be really dry, and cutting back on shampoos really helps. Or, if you’re really attached to a certain shampoo, you can still use it with the purple conditioner to get that added color deposit. If you’ve never treated your grey hair in any way, I also love Malibu powder treatments. You use it once like a shampoo and it removes all the build-up and tarnish from your hair and primes it perfectly for toning with the purple shampoo and conditioner. It will give you that bright, reflective look that makes grey hair so beautiful.

How often should you use a purple toning product?

Everyone’s hair is different, but if your hair is very, very light, I would say the most you want to use a purple shampoo and conditioner is every third wash. For some, that might mean only using it a few times a month.

What else can you do to help care for dry grey hair?

One of the things that’s most unsettling to people when they go grey is how their hair changes texture. It becomes more coarse and the cuticle feels a lot thicker. Shampooing less and finding a gentler shampoo definitely helps. Heat styling is also extremely drying. Talk to your stylist about getting a haircut that will work with your natural hair texture, if possible, so it will wear well when you air dry it and you won’t lose moisture while heat styling.

What are some things you can do if you’re just starting to get some grey hairs?

Your natural base colour is something you should protect as long as you can. Once you start covering it with all-over hair colour, you become a bit of a slave to the salon. Your natural hair colour is always going to be the shade that’s most youthful and flattering on you. If you start getting greys as a blonde, start getting more highlights to help blend them in. If you have dark hair, try to find a stylist who’s willing to just colour those areas and add lowlights by hand. If you start covering your greys, having a healthy balance of your natural hair colour mixed in keeps your overall colouring looking more authentic and less aging.