If you were unfortunate enough to end up with hair that is not only brassy but also has patches of orange or yellow, it's probably best to cut your losses and dye your mane dark again. Select a brunette hair dye that's either close to your natural color or dark enough to cover the orange, and breathe easy once again.
The key to fixing orange hair is usually to neutralise the orange with its opposite colour – blue.
Purple is one of the best colors to neutralize orange in your hair. Applying purple mask to orange hair is one of the best ways to get rid of unwanted brassy tones in your hair. However, there are many things to consider before deciding to fix orange hair with purple dye.
To cancel out brassy orange hair, you should use a blue toner or hair dye. In color theory, blue is opposite orange on the color wheel, which means it can neutralize the unwanted brassy tones.
You've got it: blue! Since red and yellow make orange, that means blue is the missing primary color. Blue and orange are complements on the color wheel, which means that blue will neutralize an orange hair color.
Blue toning formulas can help counteract orange tones in the hair. The reasoning goes back to basic color theory: Shades positioned opposite on the color wheel are complementary and effectively cancel each other out when combined.
Orange hair to light brown: Try using a medium ash blonde hair dye, as it can help neutralize the orange tone and achieve a cool light brown hue. Another option is to wait for the orange tones to fade and apply a light brown hair dye over it, making sure to choose a shade with ash undertones to neutralize the orange.
If you have any orange left in your hair, T14 is probably the best for your hair over T18. T18 is only effective if your hair is a level 10 or higher (purely yellow). Putting the wrong toner in your hair won't necessarily harm it, but it likely won't affect the color at all.
The Colour Wheel Shows You Which Hues Tone Orange Hair
It tells you which hues 'cancel' each other out for a balancing effect. In the case of orange hair, a touch of blue pigment will cool and calm too-warm locks, while a hint of violet is also helpful for yellow/orange strands on a level 7.
To combat orange tones you need blue to neutralize. On the color wheel, blue sits across from orange, which means it will balance out and neutralize unwanted warmth or brassiness in the hair. Purple shampoo works best for those with yellow tones, while blue shampoo is ideal for orange or even reddish hues.
To avoid it going ginger or red then you must check what shade you are using. For example if the colour says golden, chocolate, mahogany, red, warm brown etc, these will all look 'ginger'. To achieve a rich colour, a basic shade must be added to create the depth (how dark it is).
HAIR COLOR REMOVER: Color Oops Hair Color Remover safely removes brown, black, red, and orange permanent hair dye that was dyed with a developer. Does not remove direct-application dyes or bold shades, such as pinks, purples, blues, or greens.
For the natural redheads who simply want a switch-up, brown dye is a straightforward solution.
The Wella T14 Toner has a violet - blue base, meaning that it will target golden orange and yellow brassiness. I would recommend this toner if you have quite light hair that is more golden orange. It will give you a really cool toned result if your hair is light enough.
Skin Tone Match: Ginger or cinnamon hair color shades like Christina Hendricks look best on fair, cool skin tones. The trick to keeping this color believable is balancing copper and gold in the hair. Avoid any abrasive orange tones, especially if you're looking to do ginger hair on dark skin.
There's two reasons why your hair is still brassy after toning or colouring. Either the undertone of the toner/colour is wrong, or the product is too light for you.
The Wella Color Charm T28 Natural Blonde Hair Toner mimics a perfect sunkissed shade, looks completely natural and reduces brassy yellow and orange tones.
The toner was left on the hair for 15 minutes. You can leave it on longer depending on how porous and brassy your hair is. Do keep an eye on the hair and keep in mind that the longer you leave it, the more ashy it will turn out.
PRO TIP: If you want to get rid of these unwanted warm tones, and you want to stay in a budget, you can try apple cider vinegar. Remove orange and yellow tones simply by applying two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar mixed with water, using a cotton ball. After 30 minutes, wash your hair with cool water.
Even though ash blonde might seem like a light and delicate color, it will indeed cancel out brassy tones and orange hues commonly left behind by hair lightener and other hair color.
Yes, you can cover orange hair without further bleaching by using a dye with a blue or purple base to neutralize the orange tones. Ash blonde, ash brown, and certain darker shades can also effectively cover orange tones.
And because those UV rays are stronger in summer compared to other times of the year, some strands will turn a copper red colour due to the underlying warmer tones in your brunette hair being revealed as it's bleached by the light. Suffice it to say, until new hair grows through, the reddish tint will remain.
What Causes Hair to Turn Orange or Red? “There are two primary causes of your hair color turning out too red or orange,” says Papanikolas. “Either the color you chose was too light, or you picked a color with warm undertones.