The Gray Coverage Kit

The GreyCover plan for coloring gray safely and less often, or growing it out on a date you choose

GreyCover's calculators each answer one part of coloring gray at home: a kind of color, a developer, the grams, a touch-up date and a grow-out year. None of them meets the others. Two start from a growth rate of 1.25 cm a month that you have probably never measured, the touch-up scheduler starts from a root line nobody chose on purpose, and none of them puts a patch test on the calendar. The Gray Coverage Kit joins them into one plan. It measures your own growth rate from three readings, sets the developer by what your product allows and never stronger, mixes one coloring's bowl, and puts the allergy patch test 48 hours before every coloring. Then it turns the root line you accept into colorings, patch tests and money a year: on the worked example, a 1 cm line at 1.3 cm a month is 17 colorings a year and a 2 cm line is 8, with the same color. And it sets a grow-out date by the length you keep: 20 cm takes 15.4 months, keeping half takes 7.7. Every figure is computed by GreyCover's own calculators; the worked numbers are examples and are tagged as such, and the product's instructions always come first. It is not medical advice and says nothing about why hair grays. Included: 7 steps with named rules, a rate and patch test log, a coloring card, a grow-out tracker, reference tables and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked out from the numbers you enter in the calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the kit, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Measured Rate Rule: three regrowth readings four weeks after coloring, turned into your own growth rate
• The Product Wins Rule: the kind of color by gray share and texture, and a developer never stronger than your product allows
• The Half-the-Bowl Rule: the color, the two shades of a blend and the developer, in grams, for one coloring
• The 48-Hour Rule: an allergy patch test on the calendar 48 hours before every coloring
• The Root Line Rule: every root line's calendar interval, colorings and patch tests a year, and cost
• The Cut Rule: the grow-out date for each length you keep, with the milestones
• The Same Months Rule: keeping the color and growing it out side by side over the same weeks
• A printable rate and patch test log, a coloring card and a grow-out tracker
• Reference tables: developer volume and hydrogen peroxide, grow-out months by length and rate, root lines
• A quickstart that closes the loop on your starting scores

The kit picks up where the free Gray Coverage Calculator leaves off. The calculator picks a kind of color; the kit adds how often you will use it, and what that costs. It measures your own growth rate instead of the 1.25 cm average both the Root Touch-Up Scheduler and the Going-Gray Timeline start from, sets the developer by your product (never stronger than it allows) with the Developer Volume Calculator, mixes the bowl with the Color Mix Ratio Calculator, puts an allergy patch test on the calendar 48hours before every coloring, and turns the root line you accept into colorings, patch tests and money a year. Then it sets a grow-out date by the length you keep, and puts keeping the color and growing it out side by side over the same months. The worked figures are examples; your own readings and your product's instructions replace them. It is not medical advice and says nothing about why hair grays.

Before any coloring

• Do the manufacturer's allergy patch test 48 hours before every coloring, even with a product you have used before. A hair dye allergy, including to PPD, can be severe, and a black henna tattoo in the past raises the risk.
• Follow the product's own instructions and the developer volume it names, and never leave it on longer than the maker's processing time. Do not color over an irritated or broken scalp.
• Wear gloves and work in a ventilated room.
• Never use hair dye on eyebrows or eyelashes: it can injure the eye.
• Rinse it off and get medical help at once for swelling, blistering or any trouble breathing.
• Keep dye and developer away from children.