As much as I love leaving a salon feeling years younger with fresh color and a bouncy blowout, getting professional single-process hair color every six weeks is a major time and money investment. (Especially for someone whose main goal is just to cover grays.) For so long the idea of at-home hair dye to conceal my gray(ing) roots seemed too daunting, but after months of putting off a trek to the salon, I suddenly had no other option.
Surprise! The traditional box dyes today are actually pretty foolproof (and admittedly life-changing). But, if roots are your major concern, you'll be left with lots of non-reusable dye. Luckily, bountiful root touch-up options exist, from creams, gels and sprays to pencils and powders. To find the best products to conceal unwanted visible roots, we narrowed down the "best of" to eight. Our picks are based on how shoppers say the formulas vanish grays, stay in place, are mess-free, how long it lasts and the color match. Ahead, the eight best root cover-ups that'll keep you satisfied in between (extended) salon visits.
