How to Care for Gray Curly Hair: Simple Tips for Healthy Silver Curls

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Embracing your gray curly hair can feel like a whole new chapter in your hair journey. The texture shifts, the color changes, and suddenly you’re learning what your hair needs all over again. But with a few simple adjustments, your silver waves and curls can look healthy, shiny, and absolutely beautiful.

? Thanks to Lisa Fennessy of The New Knew and Joli Campbell of QuickSilverHair for contributing to this post. These women both rock their gorgeous gray hair and help others do the same.

Why Gray Curly Hair Needs Extra Care

As your hair loses melanin (the pigment that gives it color), it doesn’t just turn gray or white—it often changes texture too. Gray hair can feel drier, coarser, or even a bit more wiry. It may also be more prone to yellowing from sun exposure, pollution, or product buildup. The good news? A few tweaks to your routine can make a huge difference.

Common Challenges with Gray Curls:

• Dryness – Gray hair produces less natural oil, so it often feels dry and rough.
• Frizz & Coarseness – The texture can feel more wiry or uneven compared to pigmented hair.
• Yellowing & Brassiness – Environmental exposure can cause discoloration over time.
• Breakage & Fragility – With age, hair may become finer and more prone to damage.

And you’re definitely not alone if you find gray curls tricky to style. When I polled my audience, 62% said they struggle with styling their grays. The texture changes can make styling feel unpredictable at first, but a few simple tweaks usually make a big difference.

Simple Tips for Healthy Gray Curls:

• Prioritize moisture. Gray curls crave hydration. Use rich, nourishing conditioners and lightweight leave-ins to keep strands soft.
• Clarify regularly. Build-up can dull gray hair, so a clarifying shampoo every 1-2 weeks helps keep your silver bright.
• Protect from the sun. UV rays can cause yellowing. Wear a hat or use products with UV filters when you’re outside.
• Use purple shampoo sparingly. It helps neutralize yellow tones, but overusing it can make your hair look too cool or dull.
• Be gentle with heat. Always use a heat protectant, and keep hot tools on the lowest setting.
• Trim regularly. Keeping up with trims helps avoid split ends and keeps curls looking fresh.

Expert Advice from Lisa Fennessy and Joli Campbell

Lisa Fennessy, CEO & founder of The New Knew, recommends shampooing less often, regularly deep conditioning, and using a heat protectant.

Shampooing daily cleanses off the protective layer of sebum that covers the hair, causing the shaft to dry out. Try shampooing your hair less and use a moisturizing shampoo that will clean hair but won’t strip it. I like doubling down and using a moisturizing purple shampoo which also helps cancel out any brassiness at the same time.

Use a hair mask weekly to deep condition hair. Choosing a protein-based treatment (soy, rice, quinoa, or other plant-derived proteins) can help improve strength, shape, volume, color, smoothness, gloss, and moisture. 

Use a hair protectant after every wash. Hair exposed to sunlight is more brittle, stiffer and drier and has a reduced water-absorption capacity. And light colored hair (including gray hair) is more susceptible to this.

Lisa Fennessy – The New Knew

Joli Campbell of QuickSilverHair adds:

The best simple advice I can give for silver hair: always use products that are clear, white, or slightly off-white, and steer clear of products with most any other color to them; this includes green tints from olive oil or avocado oil, which are now in abundance in the curly world. 

I always say use heat and UV protection, and use your heat tools on the lowest possible setting. Try to avoid issues before they start because once your hair starts yellowing it can be very difficult to stop it and reverse it.

Joli Campbell – QuickSilverHair

Product Recommendations for Gray Curly Hair

Here are Lisa’s top product recommendations, which you’ll love if you’re looking for organic products:

?My top purple shampoo pick for this is BRUNS N°24 SILVERSCHAMPO. This is a very gentle shampoo that is a good fit for gray hair that is on the dryer side and needs more moisture. 

P.S. I’ve tried pretty much every natural purple shampoo on the market. Come see my before and after pics here. 

?I love OM’s Coconut + Pracaxi Deep Conditioning Hair Mask which will have you at hello with it’s coconutty-dreams-really-do-come-true scent. But it’s also a beast at moisturizing and leaving hair feeling super soft and conditioned without feeling weighed down.

?I adore EVOLVh’s SuperFinish Polishing Balm which defrizzes, adds moisture, softness, shine, strength, prevents breakage, splitting AND provides UV and heat protection.

Lisa Fennessy – The New Knew

Joli also shares her personal simple routine:

I like to keep it simple. My waves get very easily weighed down and my style only lasts a day. I only wash every other day or sometimes I can stretch it one more day depending on what I started with.

I typically only use shampoo, conditioner, a leave-in of some sort, and gel. If I need it I will seal my dry hair with an oil. So most days I only use 3-4 products.

By The Way Life Changing Leave-in, is a great leave-in for straight to curly silvers, really helps fight frizz. Bounce Curl Moisture Balance Leave-In Conditioner with UV and heat protection is another good option.

Loma Firm Hold Gel is the ONLY gel that I have ever found to do the job on my finicky silver waves.

I diffuse with the Laifen Swift Hair Dryer. I love the oscillating temperature setting that autocycles through cool, medium, and hot, that way my hair never gets too hot.

I seal my hair once it is 100% dry with Loma Nourishing Oil. I don’t do this every washday but it really helps with shine and holding the style just a wee bit longer.

Joli Campbell – QuickSilverHair

Joli’s other go-to products include the SEEN fragrance free shampoo and SEEN fragrance free deeper conditioner.

Other products I recommend for gray curly hair include:

The Bottom Line

Caring for gray curly hair doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming. The key is moisture, protection, and being gentle. As your hair shifts, so will your routine. With a few adjustments, you can keep your silver curls vibrant, healthy, and full of life—and embrace every stage of your curl journey with confidence.

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