When You Embrace Your Gorgeous Gray Hair You Also May Need To Overhaul Your Style - Here's Why

Going gray is a gorgeous way to confidently embrace your changing body and own your personal sense of freedom and self expression. There are several tips for rocking gray hair with confidence, and there are also particular haircuts that perfectly flatter gray hair. But embracing your gray hair also means that your overall coloring changes; gray hair reduces the color contrast between your hair, eyes, and skin, and many women note that they feel washed out by their gray. The makeup, clothing colors and general styling they wore before don't always work the same way they did before going gray. 

Since gray hair changes things, Women.com spoke with Jeannie Stith, CEO of Color Guru, to get her expert take about when it's a good idea to overhaul one's personal style after going gray. "Hair is a huge part of your overall coloring, so as you go gray, colors that looked fantastic with brunette, red, or blonde hair may suddenly feel a little off," Stith said, explaining why women may feel the need to change things. Thankfully though, Stith said that you don't have to overhaul your entire wardrobe. "Often, it's about making smart adjustments to the colors you wear closest to your face," she added. "The right shades can make gray hair look intentional and beautiful, brighten your complexion, and keep you from looking washed out." As so many celebrities have embraced their graying natural color, it's helpful to make strategic changes to your style in order to enhance that gorgeous gray, just like these women. 

In order to make the most strategic styling choices for gray hair, pay particular attention to color.  Jeannie Stith told Women.com that going gray doesn't automatically mean that cool colors look best; gray hair can be warm, too. Plus, skin and eye color impact warm and cool tones as well. Then Stith explained color analysis in a nutshell. "Pay attention to what happens to your face when you wear a certain color," Stith told us exclusively. "Does your skin look brighter and more even? Do your eyes become sparklier and more noticeable? Or are you suddenly noticing shadows, redness, or discoloration before you notice yourself?" This is a simple, at-home way of doing color analysis, but Stith suggested that a professional color analysis could be beneficial, particularly if your gray hair is a significant departure from your previous color. 

It's also wise to reevaluate neutrals. "Black, beige, camel, stark white, and certain grays can behave very differently once your hair changes," Stith explained. "Sometimes a softer charcoal, navy, cream, mushroom, or another neutral you never considered before becomes much more flattering." Color analysis applies to makeup, too. Since gray hair means a loss in pigment, it can be very flattering to add color back into the lips and cheeks to balance things out, so note which shades of blush and lipstick make your face seem brighter and fresher.