A sampling of my root touch-up journey from Oribe, Style Edit, L'oreal, Color Wow, Rita Hazen, Clairol and others.
Sprouting gray hair for the first time can feel like being visited by a ghost — unexpected, unwelcome and a lingering reminder of both the future (you're closer than ever to death!) and the past (the youth you no longer have!). While I admire women who embrace their grays, at 51, I'm not quite there yet. But salon appointments can be costly and inconvenient, and even maintaining your hair color at home with at-home dye jobs requires that you stretch your color to keep your secret silver crown hidden from the world. That’s where the best gray-root touch-up products — namely, sprays, sticks and powders — come in to save the day.
"The most effective way to cover gray roots at home is to use a root touch-up kit," says New Jersey hairstylist and colorist Jennifer Korab. "The ones that work best are root concealer sprays or powders for a quick, but temporary, fix. Choose a shade that matches your hair color and apply in sections for even coverage."
I've used several root touch-up products for years, and when I began reporting this story, I assumed most would perform about the same. But after two weeks of testing more than a dozen sprays, powders and sticks, I found that gray root touch-up options on the market are far from equal — in fact, many barely worked at all.
At their best, root touch-up treatments should be effective, affordable, easy to use and highly pigmented — without transferring to your clothes or pillowcases or leaving behind a telltale mess. The list below highlights the best root touch-ups I've tested — most are sprays, which I found far superior to sticks and powders. Many have earned a spot in my regular hair care rotation as my go-tos whenever I'm in a ghostly gray hair pinch.
Update, June 24, 2025: We checked all product prices and availability. Our top pick for the best root touch-up product remains unchanged.
I waited until I was 12 weeks out from my last visit to the colorist and my hair had ample gray roots. Over a two week period, I tried more than a dozen sprays, sticks and powders. I rated them on: coverage, pigment quality, shade match, ease of use and value. I also tested the endurance of each product (sprays uniformly lasted until my next wash, powders often disappeared by midday, sticks were somewhere in between) and if they transferred to clothes while I was getting dressed and sheets while I slept. Finally, I reviewed the formulas themselves to see if and how they changed the texture of my hair — were they sticky or tacky? Did they weigh my roots down? Did they add a benefit like crown volume?
Application type: First things first, assess your needs: Are you mostly covering a silver streak or an entire, months-between-dyeing ashy crown? Sprays are most effective for coverage over large areas along with more precise color matching and staying power. A powder or stick works best for small sections of the hair, or areas where you need an extra zeroed in application.
Shade range: If your hair is a more straightforward color (say medium brown), you can get away with a product with a super limited shade range, but if you have blonde or even auburn hair, you'll need more variety to find a closer match.
Oribe's Airbrush Root Touch-Up Spray: I discovered this product on a number of best lists but, when I tried it myself, I found the formula to be a sheer mist that did literally nothing for me (see photo above).
Color Wow Roots Cover-Up: Similarly, while this product is popular on social media, it was ineffective at covering my crown roots, no matter how much I applied.
The "best" way to touch up your grays will depend on which type of treatment you prefer: spray, stick or powder. If you're using a spray, angle the nozzle 2-4 inches away from the target area and spritz sparingly — if the product is of high quality, a light mist will do. For better coverage, use a comb while the product is wet to spread through the entire area and keep it from getting matted in one place. Some stylists I spoke with recommended using a makeup brush for both powders and sprays and painting them on, though this seems like far too much work for me!
"If you're using root powder [or spray], you can touch up your gray roots as often as you need — it's totally temporary and washes out with your next shampoo," says Korab. "So, if your grays are showing and you’ve got somewhere to be, just dust it on and you’re good to go. Some people use these products daily, others just when they want a little boost between salon visits. As for professional or at home hair dye, every 4-6 weeks is recommended."
Depending on the type of treatment, temporary cover-ups can last days or hours. Most root touch-up sprays will take you from application until the next time you shampoo. Powders may not last a full day.
We received complimentary samples of some products and purchased others ourselves, but we reviewed all products using the same objective criteria.
