Type of product: Cosmetic powder compact
Price: $20 - $30, can get bonus packages online
Package contains: Color compact and application brush
If your hair is 30% (or more) gray and you regularly color it, you know how noticeable your roots can become after a few short weeks. What’s worse, pale roots next to a pale scalp can make you look like you have seriously thinning hair.
Read more: How aging affects your hair
Unfortunately, people who develop skin sensitivities to hair products or allergies to hair color as they age may not be willing or able to use hair dyes as often as they'd like to cover those roots. Enter “Great Hair Day”, a powder product designed by comedienne and entrepreneur Joan Rivers to fill in the blank spaces on your scalp between hair colorings. While Joan Rivers may not be the first person you'd consult for beauty advice, this is a great, easy to use powder with better staying power than the eye shadow often employed for the same purpose by professional makeup artists on their clients.
How It Works:
Applied with a brush from a cake of pigmented powder directly onto the scalp. The powder darkens the scalp to blend in more naturally with hair color.
When To Use It:
The powder is most appropriate for people trying to conceal gray roots between colorings, or to camouflage small areas of thinning hair. In addition, the powder will reduce shine on the scalp, making it less noticeable.
How To Use It:
Each package includes a powder compact, brush, and instructions. Users are advised to part their hair with the pointed end of the brush, and apply a generous amount of the powder onto the scalp, working from the back of the head towards the front. The brush can then be used to blend the powder into the hair, stopping the color application ¼ inch (.5cm) before the actual hairline.
The color is a cream-to-powder formulation, designed to last between shampoos.
Color Choices:
Blonde (for light to brown hair), Brunette (for medium to dark hair), and Salt and Pepper (a gray-taupe color for light to dark hair that is already gray).
Features: According to the package instructions, the Great Hair Day color is sweat-proof, transfer-proof (ie: won’t rub off), non-toxic, non-staining, and best used to hide hair loss, bald spots, thinning hair, and gray roots. While it’s designed to last between shampoos, the information provided suggests it may need to be reapplied if you shampoo only once a week, and after each shampoo as it will have washed off.
As someone who started to go gray at the age of eighteen, and didn’t begin coloring my hair till many years later, I’ve experienced hair “au naturel”, highlighted, and dyed. I really hate it when my gray roots show, because my hair looks so thin. While hair coloring products appear to be quite safe over the long-term, I don’t want to use them more often than every three weeks, and the Great Hair Day product allows me to cover up white roots for a few days before the next coloring. After some trial and error, I decided that a combination of colors (Brunette and Blond) was the right color for me as the Brunette alone seemed too dark. I bought them in a large kitchen and bath store at $25 for each compact, but bonus offers for multiple compacts are available online.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Really conceals bald spots and camouflages gray roots
- Portable
- Sweat-proof so it will last through workouts
- Easy to use once you have practice blending it
- Can be used by men or women
- Inexpensive if you order online with bonus pricing
Cons
- Not suitable for large balding patches
- May take some time to get used to applying it evenly on the scalp
- No access to testers to determine the right color for you
- The brush included with the compact is a bit soft for even blending of the powder
- Can be expensive if purchased as individual compacts
Overall, this is a great product that is easy to use and effective for helping your hair appear thicker and concealing gray roots.
