There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and grey hair. But going grey isn’t the end of the world – and it’s certainly not the end of having a good-looking head of hair. Whether you’ve got a dash of salt ‘n’ pepper or gone full silver fox, there are limitless grey hairstyles that you can turn to.

The beauty of grey hair lies in the fact that, visually, it’s high shine and high contrast. This means it looks great long and short, with precisely coiffed, wet-look styles and messier, natural hairstyles alike. It also needs some TLC, though. Here’s why grey hair happens in the first place, how to look after it, and the best hairstyles to showcase that beautiful head of grey.

What Causes Grey Hair?

It’s perhaps the most obvious sign of ageing, and getting those first grey hairs is likely to have you contemplating your own mortality in the mirror, pulling out rogue greys furiously, and crying, “Why, God? Why?” But there’s no divine intervention at work here. It’s usually down to the ticking of the biological clock.

“Hair begins to turn grey when the melanocytes that produce the melanin – which give the hair its colour – begin to deplete and become ineffective,” says Eva Proudman, consultant trichologist at UK Hair Consultants. “This is largely due to the ageing process but can be genetically related too.”

But “grey” is a misnomer. “The term grey is slightly misleading as the hair is white,” says Proudman. “It looks grey as a result of being mixed in with normally pigmented hair and this is what gives us that wonderful array of grey hair tones.”

How Does Going Grey Change Your Hair?

You’ve probably heard lots about how your hair changes more than just its colour when it starts greying. But there’s a lot of conflicting information out there. Does the hair get coarser or softer when it starts to grey? And does it get thinner as well?