26 Root Coverage Sprays, Powders, Gels and Temporary Tints That'll Keep You From Permanently Messing Up Your Hair Color

They’ll help get you through until the next time you can visit your colorist — and will spare you the perils of going the permanent DIY boxed route.

Salon closures across the country during the coronavirus pandemic have brought a barrage of struggles along with them: Most notably, beauty professionals and entrepreneurs have lost their livelihoods, uncertain when they’ll be able to return to work safely. While prioritizing public health and showing support to beauty creatives and business owners is of utmost importance right now — read up on ways to do that here, here, here and here — there are also likely plenty of people who are left wondering what the hell to do about their hair right now.

Many of us are looking forward to a time when we’ll be able to safely visit our beloved, trusted hairstylists and colorists once again. In the meantime, we can focus on not messing things up too much for them. Most pros, like colorist Kathleen Rose, caution against attempting DIY box dye jobs at home. “If you attempt at-home color and it comes out uneven — or worse, damages your hair — you’ve created a very tricky situation for your stylist,” she explains. But with many of us relying on Zoom meetings and video calls to stay in touch with loved ones and conduct business, it’s understandable that we’d want to do something to conceal roots and grays. That’s where temporary color kits, spray-on root concealers, brush-on powders and swipe-on gels come in.

Just about every hair brand — from professional to drugstore — offers some sort of hair-color touch-up or concealing product, many of them specifically developed to look natural, stay put without rubbing off and offer targeted coverage exactly where you need it. With a variety of formulations and applicator tools on the market, it’s surprisingly simple to find options that seem actually doable for those of us who don’t have cosmetology training. Ahead, we’ve rounded up 26 root coverage sprays, powders, gels and temporary tints that’ll save you from permanently messing up your hair color. Take a deep breath, Venmo your colorist (if you can afford to do so right now) and read on.

Click through the gallery below to see (and shop!) them all.