Arey Grey Reviews

Even though it's nothing to be ashamed of, gray hair can chip away at a person's confidence because it separates them further from their ideal self-image.1 Given how big the anti-graying hair products market is, it's clear that many people feel as though their hair color doesn't match the appearance they want.2

If this sounds like how you feel, then Arey Grey may be a solution. Every item in the brand's product catalog aims to address the factors that underlie graying hair, with several of them comprising powerful ingredients that show promise toward that end.

In our review, we assess Arey Grey's main product lines and try them for ourselves to see whether they can deliver on their claims.

The System is a supplement-and-serum tandem formulated by Arey Grey to address nutritional factors that underlie gray hair and to effectively delay, slow, or reverse the graying process — all at a modest price compared to the competition. The marquee ingredient, used in the serum as well as five other products in the catalog, is a powerful peptide supported by research to stimulate hair pigmentation. Not all of Arey's ingredients have research backing for their anti-gray claims, but many have demonstrated potential to counter oxidative stress, a common denominator in gray-hair causes. Some, however, may pose health concerns and are categorically not recommended for those with liver conditions or who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or allergic.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

To assess Arey Grey's potential to restore hair color, we exhaustively ticked through the products’ ingredient lists and held them up to currently available scientific literature. Whether a particular ingredient did or didn't show promise toward its purported effect, we noted it, and we scoured additional research to confirm or disconfirm their safety for specific populations. We personally ordered the products, too, since playing the customer role allows us to evaluate a brand holistically and gain direct insight into purchasing, customer support, and product use.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

Our overall view of Arey Grey was based on four criteria that are likely to motivate consumer decisions:

• Effectiveness: Can Arey Grey truly help with gray hair?
• Safety: Does it pose any health concerns?
• Cost: Is the price reasonable relative to the competition?
• User experience: Are the products easy to use? Is customer support responsive and helpful?

Once we'd completed our research and practical testing, we found that Arey Grey performed adequately to quite well in each category. The following sections cover the specifics.

Effectiveness

Let's address the main question right off the bat: Can Arey Grey delay, slow, or reverse gray hair? It has the potential to, yes. But the likelihood of success may depend on you.

Several ingredients in Arey's products, particularly the two that compose The System, have demonstrated decent potential to achieve their intended effects. Not Today, Grey (the capsule supplement) includes key botanicals and vitamins that can stimulate repigmentation (e.g., para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA),3 black sesame,4 and fo-ti)5 and others that can fill nutritional deficiencies associated with the graying process (e.g., vitamin D).6 Meanwhile, To the Root Serum delivers a powerful peptide at a concentration that has successfully reconverted hair to its original color in a clinical trial.7 Not all of the ingredients are on the same level, but the most promising ones look great in the research. (The same can be said for competitors Vegamour and Mayraki.)

The thing is, even so, you're unlikely to see the desired results with Arey Grey if you don't meet the company's parameters for its ideal user. If you have more than 30% gray-hair coverage, you're not the ideal user, and ditto if your hair has lost all of its pigmentation (i.e., if you have white hair). The products might improve your hair quality and strength, but you shouldn't expect any substantial color restoration. (Again, the same can be said for products by Vegamour and Mayraki.)

Safety

Arey Grey should be safe for most users, but its products contain some ingredients that could give you cause for concern.

The big one is a botanical called fo-ti, which is:

• The "most common cause of herbal product-related injury" per LiverTox8
• Used in all of Arey Grey's products

Now, for most people, Arey's products aren't likely to contain enough fo-ti to cause toxicity, but some people may be more sensitive than others.

Sensitivity is also a concern with other ingredients. PABA has carcinogenic potential and is toxic in large quantities,9 26 Not Today, Grey has enough vitamin D to be excessive for some users,10 and allergies to jojoba oil (in the leave-in products) and sesame (in several products) aren't uncommon.

On the bright side, it's not all health risks and precautions with Arey Grey. The company's operational practices are solid, such that its facilities are NSF-certified, and none of its products exceed the safe threshold for gluten acknowledged by the National Celiac Association.

So, as long as you aren't sensitive to certain ingredients (or pregnant or breastfeeding), Arey Grey should pose little risk to you. The same goes for the competitors we mention throughout this review, which also contain fo-ti and PABA. Otherwise, you should exercise reasonable caution and consult a medical professional before using an anti-graying product.

Cost

Excluding bundles, pricing across Arey Grey's catalog lies within a $32-$55 range (or $30-$41 with subscriptions). Specifically, with Not Today, Grey and To the Root, you're looking at respective subscription and one-time costs of $34-$45.33 and $41-$54.66.

That's modest compared to comparable capsule and topical products by competitors Mayraki and Vegamour. Here's a quick comparison:

You can see, then, that Arey Grey's products occupy the lower end of the cost spectrum within its competitive landscape. What's more, all Arey Grey U.S. orders ship for free, whereas Mayraki and Vegamour have free-shipping thresholds. Hence Arey's high rating in the Cost category.

We wish only that buying The System bundle amounted to an actual discount, the way it is with Vegamour. As it stands, buying The System from Arey Grey as a one-time purchase is (for some reason) $0.01 more than you'd pay if you bought the constituent products separately, and the subscription price is exactly the same price as a set of separate purchases.

User experience

We largely had an easy time ordering our products, interacting with customer support, and using The System products. Our order arrived in seven business days (not bad), customer support usually answered our questions in less than nine hours (quite good), and To the Root Serum is easy to apply — leaving no film, residue, or odor.

The one issue we had was with the Not Today, Grey capsules. The problem is that they're large. We mean noticeably larger than most capsules we've tested — 2.2cm long and 0.7cm wide, whereas a "standard" size would be more like 2cm and 0.5cm, respectively. Our testers normally don't have difficulty swallowing pills, but they had a little trouble with Arey Grey. That's certainly something to consider, if you're wary at all of taking a capsule supplement.

Arey Grey is a hair-care brand that specializes in products for treating gray hair. "Arey" is the phonetic spelling of the French word arrêt, meaning "stop." Arey bills its products as "The Wrinkle Cream of Haircare."

Importantly, the company specifies that its products are for treating gray hair, not white hair. The difference is that gray hair still has some melanin left in it, whereas white hair has none. (We get into the whole melanin business in a later section, "What causes gray hair?")

Though our review concerns two specific products, the company's entire lineup is worth examining for its vastness alone. Excluding bundles, merchandise, and gift cards, it comprises nine distinctive offerings, all of them suitable for people of any gender:

Five of the products — To the Root, Calm It Down, Scrub Scalp Exfoliant, Wait a Sec, and Wash Shampoo — feature Arey's proprietary Mela-9 complex, a formula that centers on a powerful peptide for hair repigmentation. Learn more about Mela-9 and its potential in the section titled "How does Arey Grey work?"

Arey Grey’s brand reputation

Arey Grey happens to have profiles with both the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Trustpilot.

The company isn't accredited by the BBB, but its profile currently has a B bureau rating. We wish we could glean something meaningful from the customer testimonies, but they're lacking in both quantity and substance. As of this writing, there's just one customer review, along with only three customer complaints in the last three years. The review gives the company just 1 star and speaks of "non existent [sic] customer support," which doesn't jibe with our own experience. The one visible customer complaint is from someone accusing Arey of "getting" her husband's credit card number, which wouldn't have been possible without a customer inputting the data willingly.

The Trustpilot profile, which is unclaimed, follows similar lines, just with a bit more substance. At this time, we see only four customer reviews. Two are 1-star, and the other two are 2-star, amounting to a total customer rating of 2.7 stars out of 5 — Poor by Trustpilot's standards. The reviews center on the following issues:

• Canceling subscriptions: Two reviewers complain that it's hard to cancel subscriptions, which isn't consistent with our experience. Subscriptions are manageable through your user account, and you can also email Arey Grey to initiate a cancellation.
• One-time purchases: One reviewer says it's impossible to make one-time purchases. That's just not true.
• Non-receipt of orders: One reviewer says they never received their order and that Arey Grey couldn't do anything because of failure to notify within 48 hours. This one seems like a valid complaint, as non-receipts do happen.
• Dislike of a product: One reviewer (the same who complained about one-time purchases) says the Wait a Sec Dry Shampoo "does nothing" for greasy hair. Their testimony doesn't align with Amazon reviews.

Our broad takeaway is that Arey Grey is susceptible to the same mistakes as other companies (i.e., logistics), some customers misunderstand brand procedures, and supplements don’t work the same for everyone.

Gray hair is hair that has lost some of its pigmentation. Recall that gray isn’t the same as white — if you have white hair, it has lost all of its pigmentation.

To explain how hair goes from pigmented to gray to white, we should first discuss the hair cycle and the process by which pigmentation is possible.

The hair cycle

The hairs on your head have definite life spans (so do the hairs on your body, but we're talking about the scalp today). They cycle through growth and shedding anywhere from 10 to 30 times, but each one does so independently of all others (i.e., some hairs cycle more than others). Each cycle takes years and passes through multiple phases. Some people say there are three phases; others say four. Let's go with four phases here so we can be a little more comprehensive.

What affects hair pigmentation?

Recall melanocyte stem cells (McSCs) from the previous section. They're critical because they become a specialized type of cell called melanocytes, which produce a pigment called melanin.15 There are two types of hair melanin — eumelanin (dark) and pheomelanin (light) — and the proportions of each injected into your hair cells by melanocytes determine your hair color.16 Without melanocytes, hair would naturally be white.

The melanocytes continue to inject hair cells with pigment throughout the hair cycle, but they don't last forever. The pool of McSCs within each follicle has to generate new melanocytes to maintain hair pigmentation. But McSCs can fail, and when they do, it's goodbye to melanocytes and no more pigment for the follicle they once served.17

You'd be right to guess that McSC failure corresponds with advanced age, but aging isn't the only factor associated with graying, especially when it happens earlier than expected. Sometimes, there are major external factors such as the following, described in a 2022 review in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology:18

Other factors are important, too, to be sure. Genetics is one — attributed to the IRF4 gene — although genetic etiology seems to account for less than 30% of graying.20 Nutritional deficiencies and lifestyle factors, such as smoking and diet, are more significant.21

Interestingly, there may be a common denominator among the most prevalent causes of gray hair — oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress and gray hair

Oxidative stress occurs when the body experiences an imbalance between pro-oxidants and antioxidants.

Pro-oxidants include elements you may have heard of: free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Neither is necessarily bad — in fact, your body needs them — but both are unstable. Free radicals steal electrons from other cells, and ROS easily react with the molecules in a cell. The result in either case is a chain reaction that leads to cell death.22 23

And all cells are susceptible to death via oxidative stress.24 Melanocytes are no exception.25

Not Today, Grey and To the Root are the two Arey Grey products we're mainly focusing on in our review. Their formulations are largely unique to one another, though there is some overlap in ingredients. The latter is promising as an agent of repigmentation and for slowing gray progression, while the former seems to play more of a supportive role in the effort by filling nutritional deficiencies and mitigating oxidative stress.

Let's break down their components.

Not Today, Grey formulation

Not Today, Grey is an oral supplement. Arey purports that with two capsules a day, users ought to notice a healthier scalp, healthier hair, and repigmentation in 1-3 months.

The research on Not Today's ingredients points to its utility for delaying gray-hair onset by helping people obtain key nutritional values and warding off oxidative stress, especially if their graying is due to relevant circumstances or deficiencies.

Here’s how the research on the key parts of the ingredients bill breaks down:

To the Root formulation

While palmitoyl tetrapeptide-20 (PA20) isn’t the only ingredient in To the Root, it is the marquee player. In fact, it’s the heart of Arey's proprietary Mela-9 complex, which includes antioxidants and extracts for delaying or reversing gray hair (and probably fo-ti, featured in every Arey product).

PA20 is what's known as a biomimetic peptide, a synthetic substance that mimics naturally occurring peptides, and a peptide is a string of amino acids, also known as the "building blocks of proteins."40 As such, peptides can go a long way toward improving hair health because proteins can change key hair properties, including color.41

A couple of recent studies have examined PA20 directly for its capacity to delay or repigment gray hair.

Study one was an in vitro/ex vivo study published in 2018 in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science. The researchers came up with two important findings. The first was that PA20 can enhance catalase expression and decrease intracellular H2O2 levels; that is, it increases an antioxidant enzyme (catalase) whose deficiency correlates with gray hair and reduces a reactive oxygen species (H202, hydrogen peroxide) whose accumulation may facilitate graying. The second finding was that PA20 may actually activate the melanin-producing process.42

Study two was a case study that looked at a branded PA20 solution called Greyverse, which is standardized to a 2% concentration. The subject was a 25-year-old woman with a history of graying who underwent five months of topical treatment with Greyverse. By the study's end, she had more than 90% conversion of gray to black hair. Analysis of her plucked hair showed increased synthesis of eumelanin, which is present in all hair colors to varying degrees.7 (We should mention that Arey Grey's PA20 is also standardized to a 2% concentration, confirmed via customer support.)

Of course, in terms of scientific evidence, we'd prefer a large-scale human trial to a cell study or a single-subject case, but we're impressed by the research on PA20 so far.

Other Mela-9 products

Also impressive are several ingredients found in Arey Grey's four other Mela-9 products. They all contain PA20, but we can only surmise whether other ingredients are fixtures of the Mela-9 complex or additions to certain products (Arey, understandably, keeps the Mela-9 formulation close to the vest).

Below, we briefly discuss the products and the ingredients that stand out.

Non-Mela-9 products

Outside of Not Today, Grey, Arey's catalog includes three products that don't feature Mela-9. Some of their ingredients overlap with Not Today's — fo-ti, for example, whose merits we've discussed — but they also have some unique ones that look pretty good on paper:

Arey Grey products should be generally safe for most people. All of them are produced in NSF-certified facilities, ensuring they "meet strict standards for public health protection,"53 and none of their doses exceed 20ppm of gluten (a safe threshold according to the National Celiac Association).54

Any safety concerns that are present concern specific ingredients, detailed in the sections below.

Fo-ti

The most concerning ingredient is fo-ti, a common component across the entire Arey catalog. The literature describes numerous cases of liver toxicity from ingesting the East Asian botanical. In fact, LiverTox reports it's the "most common cause of herbal product-related liver injury," with liver changes "typical of acute hepatitis" and symptoms that include:8

• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Abdominal pain
• Dark urine
• Jaundice

Although most cases aren't severe, up to 10% have been either fatal or required "urgent liver transplantation."8

What's even more alarming is that fo-ti-induced liver injury appears to be "idiosyncratic and non-dose dependent," per a 2014 review. Many of the patients described in the review had taken daily doses under the standard 3-12g dose, and not all subclinical dose cases could be attributed to allergies.55

What we can say on Arey Grey's behalf is that its fo-ti doses are probably nowhere near even the lowest toxic amounts described in the review. For reference, it's the last item listed in Not Today's 335mg proprietary blend (i.e., it's present in the lowest proportion by weight), so we're likely talking about a double-digit value.

Even so, you may want to exercise discretion, especially if you're pregnant or breastfeeding or if you have a preexisting liver condition.

Other ingredients

Other Arey Grey ingredients associated with health concerns include:

The list you see here is by no means exhaustive. We urge you to study a product's ingredient label to identify ingredients to which you may be sensitive. As always, speak with a healthcare professional before adding a supplement to your rotation.

Arey Grey is for most healthy adults who want to restore color to their gray hair. The company specifies that its products are most suitable for people with no more than 30% gray-hair coverage. If your coverage is greater or your hair is white, you're unlikely to see much, if any, repigmentation by using Arey Grey. At best, certain products can improve your hair's quality and appearance.

Also, if your gray hair is caused by a specific disease or genetic process, you, too, are unlikely to see the desired outcomes from the products we've discussed.

Even if you meet Arey Grey's parameters for reversing the graying process, you'll want to avoid its products if you are:

• Pregnant
• Breastfeeding
• Allergic or sensitive to any of the ingredients
• Concerned about fo-ti toxicity

Again, if you have concerns about your suitability for Arey Grey products, we recommend you speak with a healthcare professional to assess your risk factors.

The two primary products we discuss in this review have price points that fare well against the competition. The following table breaks down the costs for Not Today, Grey and To the Root:

Comparable products by Hair Mayraki and Vegamour start at higher prices.

You can purchase Not Today and To the Root together as a bundle called The System, but you'll see no cost advantage. As a one-time purchase, The System costs $100, or $0.01 more than separate purchases. A subscription is $75, which is the same as you'd pay if you subscribed to the items separately.

Other Arey Grey products have price points that aren't terribly dissimilar. Here’s another table laying it all out. We've excluded the per-day use cost since use frequency is bound to vary.

(There are bundles that group the above products into various configurations and quantities. Those bundles actually yield discounts. But we've elected not to display them here since the related pricing gets complex. We encourage you to browse the product line on the Arey Grey website.)

Should you opt for a subscription and later want to cancel, the process is as simple as accessing your user account and selecting the cancellation option. You can also delay your subscription from the account or email the company to initiate a cancellation.

Shipping

Arey Grey ships all U.S. orders for free. In comparison, competitors Vegamour and Hair Mayraki have free-shipping thresholds.

International shipping is available; the exact charge depends on location and taxes, but Arey Grey will put $5 toward the cost. Vegamour and Hair Mayraki are a little better on this front since they have free-shipping thresholds for overseas customers, too.

Returns and guarantee

Arey Grey's return policy is narrow and, frankly, displeasing. You have just 15 days from receiving your order to initiate a return, and the policy applies only to unopened/unused items. What's more, you have to pay a $5 handling fee.

The company's satisfaction guarantee is separate from the return policy. To qualify for the guarantee, you must have fulfilled the following highly specific stipulations:

• Start with less than 30% gray-hair coverage.
• Purchase an Arey Grey product from the Arey Grey website.
• Take a before photo.
• Consistently use the product for four full months.
• Take an after photo from the same angle as the before photo, in a similar light, with your hair parted the same way.

If you've seen no results and furnish the evidence thereof, then Arey Grey will assess your claim. If it's found to be valid, the company will issue you a one-time refund for up to four months of purchases.

We used Arey Grey for a week and interacted with the company for about as long before writing this review. We can't speak to subjective results just yet, but we can describe the user and customer experiences.

Receiving our order

Our order arrived in seven business days via USPS, which isn't bad. The packaging was branded, but the branding wasn't terribly obvious. The word "arey" adorned the top side of an otherwise plain brown box. That's the only thing that could've possibly given away the contents; even the sender's line on the bottom-side packing label doesn't state the brand name.

Using Arey Grey

Not Today, Grey is a capsule supplement, and the capsules are pretty large. They measure 2.2cm long and 0.7cm wide at their broadest point. In imperial units, that's a hair longer than seven-eighths of an inch and a bit wider than one-quarter of an inch, respectively. Our testers normally don't have trouble swallowing capsules, but they were just a little uncomfortable here. Not to mention, it's a dual-capsule serving, so multiply the discomfort by two. If you tend to struggle at all, you'll probably have to say "not ever" to Not Today. Otherwise, be mindful of the bigger size.

To the Root was a much easier experience. It's administered via a treatment pump. You know the type: a nozzle that tapers to a narrow side point at the top, like a penguin's face angled up. The label recommends 6-8 pumps onto "areas of concern" once or twice per day, along with massaging the serum into the scalp, and our testers had no issues following the regimen. The serum reliably clings to the scalp and absorbs within minutes. No running, no drips; it left no odor, film, or residue. Testers said it felt rather cool and nice.

Customer support

We're happy to say that Arey Grey's support team has been highly responsive. We posed our first question after support hours and received a satisfactory response in about nine hours. After asking a follow-up question, we received a second response just an hour later.

The representative was quite pleasant, too. We'd actually misread their initial response and mistakenly believed they hadn't answered our question. After rereading, we wrote back an apology, and the rep took the time to reassure us:

“No worries at all - We're here to help! :)”

By no means is Arey Grey your only option for gray hair treatment. We've identified two contenders with similar potential that you may find more appealing.

Mayraki

California-based Mayraki offers two products specifically formulated to treat gray hair. One is a dyeing shampoo, which doesn't meet our conditions to qualify as an Arey Grey alternative.

The other product is called Anti-Grey Hair Color Restoring Treatment, a vegan topical available in a bottle or a soft tube, as well as two-piece sets thereof. A single-unit order costs $59, while a two-unit set is $98. It's overall just a bit pricier than Arey Grey's To the Root Serum, but the two-unit set is a few dollars less than The System. Subscriptions aren't available, it seems.

Its repigmenting power comes from six botanicals, though only a few have evidence to back any claims of repigmentation:

• Fo-ti: an ingredient we've discussed (included in all Arey Grey products)
• Ligustrum lucidum: a flowering plant that has antioxidant properties;58 recognized in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia for its ability to turn hair black59
• Castor oil: an ingredient determined to be a potent antioxidant in a 2012 study64

The product has potential, just maybe not as much as Arey Grey's To the Root Serum. It’s entirely botanical, however, so it's a worthy alternative for those who prefer all-natural ingredients.

Shipping is free only on orders above $75, but the threshold applies to international orders, too. Plus, every order comes with eight free samples of Mayraki products.

Vegamour

Vegamour is a pretty big name in the hair-care market, one that has two products aimed at delaying, slowing, or reversing gray hair:

As with Arey Grey, you can purchase your Vegamour capsule and serum as a bundle: the AGELESS Gray Control Duo. A one-time purchase is $140 ($16 less than separate purchases), and a subscription is $124 ($32 less). Either one is more expensive than Arey's System bundle.

All Vegamour subscriptions ship for free, but one-time orders must meet a threshold of $100 (U.S.) or $125 (international) to qualify for free shipping. Otherwise, the fee is a flat rate of $5.95 for domestic and $10-$40 for overseas.

Vegamour is clearly pricier than Arey Grey, but outside of the similar formulations, it has its own merits. The route of administration is one that shouldn’t be overlooked. If you have trouble swallowing capsules, then Vegamour's softgels should be easier to handle, and the serum's squeeze pipette may be preferable and more efficient to some users.