Forget traditional highlights, 'Greige Lights' is the new, elegant technique for enhancing silver and greying strands - and it's celebrity-approved.
While autumn typically brings with it a range of rich and warm hair trends, like fiery copper and coffee-toned shades, 2025 is also set to usher in several new and subtle hair colours and cuts. The Power Pixie, for one, delivers drama and versatility; there are also cosy bob cuts that embrace 'undone' texture and, what brings us here today, a low-maintenance, grey-loving colour technique dubbed Greige Lights. In a similar vein to how the 2024's Crystal Clear hair trend embraced natural silver strands, this look is all about enhancing, not concealing.
It works to add warmth and brightness to cooler, steely greys, either to subtly refresh your look for the new season, or to help blend your natural blonde or light brown strands into any emerging greys - for a soft transition. So, if you're keen to try the trendy colour, we've quizzed industry pros on the ins and outs - from requesting to maintaining it at home.
What are Greige Lights? The emerging autumn hair colour trend, explained
As mentioned, this latest colour technique seeks to brighten your greys by adding complementary beige and blonde tones to blend and elevate them.
Having coined the term, Tom Smith, trend forecaster, Global Ambassador for Olaplex (along with evo, CurrentBody, and Calecim Professional) and Founder of AEVUM Salon, describes it as a blend of beige and grey, "woven into blonde highlights, honouring natural silver while brightening and warming the complexion."
The beauty of this look, and why it's becoming so popular, lies in how it "reframes grey hair as aspirational," remarks Smith, adding that it's: "a valuable starting point on which to build, rather than fully conceal. It’s elegant and considered rather than bold and shouty."
How to request greige lights
If you're keen to embrace this look but are unsure of what to ask your hairdresser for, Smith says to: "Request customised colour in a combination of tinting, highlighting, smudging and blending for a subtle multi-tonal grey-beige-blonde-blend that is unique to your natural grey placement."
Who will Greige Lights work best for?
As mentioned, this twist on classic highlights is ideal for those looking to embrace and incorporate their natural greys, rather than dying over them. As Smith further elaborates, the look is, "for those interested in embracing their natural hair but wanting dimension and warmth - to lift the complexion."
How to maintain the colour
As for how often this look will have you traipsing back to the salon, Smith notes that greige lights are actually more low-maintenance compared to classic highlights. "They blend with natural silver or white hair, so you only need appointments every ten to twelve weeks with glossing or glazing in between to refresh tone and shine."
To care and extend your greige strands at home, Smith says, "periodic use of a violet-toned shampoo will neutralise yellow," but recommends balancing this with a "hydrating conditioner and a colour-protecting mask every fortnight. A light hair oil or nourishing serum will keep the blend luminous, hydrated and soft, as natural grey hair tends to dry out faster."
RRP: £28
Smith recommends a violet shampoo for maintaining the brightness of your colour. Olaplex's 4P purple shampoo works to tone and neutralise brassiness, whilst also moisturising your hair - leaving it soft, radiant and shiny. It's suitable for natural blondes, all-over colour-treated hair and of course, balayage and highlight treatments, like greige lights.
RRP: £20
Smith also suggests adding a hydrating conditioner to your routine, and this one from Color Wow is specifically designed for colour-treated hair and works to nourish and protect it. The formula offers three levels of heat protection and is enriched with avocado oil, to moisturise your strands, preventing colour fade and boosting shine.
RRP: £26.20
A hydrating, colour-protecting mask is also a good idea, and this one from L'Oréal features resveratrol (a powerful antioxidant) to help nourish and strengthen your hair, whilst preventing colour fade, all in just three minutes. .
Your Greige Light inspo
The trend is best for those with greying hair, as the whole purpose is to use and build upon those tones by adding warmth with blonde and beige, thus giving it the name of 'greige.'
This subtle but elevated hue, while perhaps more niche than some of the hair colour trends this season is set to bring, is already proving popular among celebs. In fact, Smith cites Pamela Anderson, Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron and Sarah Jessica Parker (to name just a few), as sporting either the perfect beige-blonde colour to use as a reference for blending with your greys, or with very chic iterations of this woven technique itself.
For example, there are hints of both creamy beige and silver in Sharon Stone and Sarah Jessica Parker's roots and through their strands (pictured above), but each colour blends subtly into the next. There is no harsh or obvious contrast, but still, their hair looks fresh and luminous. It's also great to see this trend on a variety of hair lengths and styles, further proving its subtlety, low maintenance, and versatility.
