To my horror, a few weeks ago, I found my first grey hair right in the centre of the top of my bonce. It could not be more conspicuous if there was a great big flashing neon arrow pointing at it. I’m only 27 and therefore not quite ready to go naturally grey yet (if I want to go grey I shall dye it grey thank you) so I was straight on to Hairbomb to purchase my favourite dye all the while wondering why has this happened to me?

Well perhaps the mystery as to why hair turns grey could have been solved thanks to some smarty-pants scientists (I have a bit of a soft spot for scientists because before joining the Hairbomb family I used to be one…shh). So anyway for the first time ever scientists have identified a signalling protein (just think of a text messaging protein) which coordinates the hair follicle (produce hair) stem cells and the colour supplying stem cells (just think of the signalling protein sending them text messages.

Scientists have called this process the Wnt Pathway and when activated the colour supplying stem cells can produce the pigments that colour hair. If the pathway is inactive the colour supplying cells lose the ability to produce colour, resulting in grey hair.

Although this research may offer the clues to creating therapies to stop people from greying, for many it comes a little late and not all of us can pull off grey hair as well as George Clooney or Helen Mirren. So are my three key tips to dying over grey hair successfully as grey can sometimes be annoyingly resistant to hair colour.

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

Grey hair can take longer to absorb hair dye than regular hair so when colouring your hair apply it to the grey strands first as it can take 45 minutes for dye to penetrate grey hair. So if a dye takes 20 minutes to work, apply the hair dye to the grey areas 25 minutes before the rest of the hair. Make sense? Good

SMOOTH DOWN THE GREY

You may get better results if you soften up the grey hairs before you dye them. This can be done by applying a 20% peroxide on the grey hair and combing through. Make sure you don’t take a nap at this point as the peroxide should be left on the hair for only 10 minutes. Apply your hair dye as usual.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

Although this isn’t a tip on how to dye grey hair it could prove to be useful. Dye your hair when you don’t have anywhere important to be for a few days. The results on first dying may be god awful. Even if you do all the right things it may not protect you from a disaster. Give yourself some time to rectify any mistakes…you wont regret it.

This is your friendly neighbourhood hair guru signing off...until next time citizens

- Gems