I guess I should be grateful that I wasn’t completely gray by the time I turned 30 like my mother and her mother before her, but I still get annoyed when I see gray hairs popping up around my hairline.

Thankfully I found a few easy ways to camouflage my gray situation and buy myself an extra week or two between colors without having to leave the house wearing a beanie every day.

1. Change Your Part

I know, it seems like total commons sense to change your part and hide those grays at the temple, right? I mean, only an idiot wouldn’t think to do this. RIGHT?

Sadly, I only figured this out in the last year or so. Even though one temple might be loaded with dozens of grays the other side might have not a one (like mine). Who knew?!

BONUS: Changing my part also gives my hair added volume.

To make myself feel better (and less idiotic) I’m adding this to the top of my list and we can all pretend this is huge beauty news.

2. Cover Grays With Your Mascara

A L’Oreal color specialist once told me to use a black Sharpie pen to cover my stray gray hairs. I thought this was a genius idea but when it came down to doing the dirty work, I could never quite hold the strand of gray and properly color it with a Sharpie. I’d either miss the whole strand or only get part of it.

Then I bought the Oscar Blandi Pronto Colore Root Touch-Up & Highlighting Pen, which has a brush-like applicator and works really well, but I lost it before long.

Since mascara is part of my daily routine, I know it’s always at hand and I can lightly coat the gray hair in no time at all. So far, this tip has worked best for me when I need some fast coverage.

3. Touch Up Roots in Ten Minutes with Color

If you have ten minutes to spare, my favorite way to get rid of grays is with Clairol Nice ‘n Easy Root Touch-Up (I use the medium brown shade). This formula is made especially for covering grays and it’s SO EASY!

This morning I applied this in less than 4 minutes, then sat at my computer and responded to emails for ten minutes before taking a shower. Even though it takes ten minutes to process, it’s really only application time that counts (I mean, I would have been at my computer anyway)—totally worth my time!