You looked in the mirror expecting a beautiful, cool blonde or a rich brunette, but instead, you were met with a surprising orange glow. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. This brassy tone is a common hiccup on the journey to many hair colors, especially when lightening dark hair. The good news is that you have several effective options to neutralize that unwanted warmth and get back to your ideal shade.
Why Your Hair Turns Orange in the First Place
Hair color contains underlying pigments. Darker hair has a lot of red and orange pigment. When you lighten it, these warm tones are revealed as the dark color is stripped away. If the lightening process isn’t thorough enough to lift past this stage, you’re left with orange brassiness. This can also happen over time as your color fades and those underlying pigments resurface.
Using a Toning Shampoo to Cancel Out Brass
One of the gentlest and most popular solutions is a blue or purple toning shampoo. Think of the color wheel: blue sits directly opposite orange. When you use a blue shampoo, its pigment deposits onto your hair, effectively canceling out the orange tones. Purple shampoo is better for neutralizing yellow tones, so for orange, a blue formula is your best bet. Use it once or twice a week in place of your regular shampoo, leave it on for a few minutes, and you’ll see a noticeable difference.
Considering a Professional Toner or Gloss
If a shampoo doesn’t feel strong enough, a professional toner is a powerful next step. Applied at a salon, a toner is a demi-permanent color that deposits corrective pigment. A stylist can mix a custom shade with the perfect blue-violet base to neutralize the orange perfectly. This gives you more controlled, all-over results that can last for several weeks. It’s a fantastic option for a more significant color correction.
Gentle At-Home Color Correcting
For a more direct approach at home, you can use a demi-permanent dye in an ash shade. Ash colors contain green and blue pigments that counteract red and orange. It’s crucial to choose a color that is only one level lighter or darker than your current orange base to avoid further issues. Always do a strand test first to ensure you love the result.
Navigating orange hair can be frustrating, but it’s almost always fixable. Whether you choose a quick toning shampoo or seek a salon treatment, you can successfully banish the brass and reveal the beautiful, cool color you were aiming for.