To tone orange hair, the best color toner to use is typically a blue or blue-violet toner. This is because blue is directly opposite orange on the color wheel, which helps neutralize the unwanted warm tones in your hair. Here are some options:
Look for a toner with blue or purple undertones, as these colors can counteract the orange. You can either visit a salon or purchase a toner to use at home. If the orange is persistent, you might want to apply a demi-permanent hair color that is a shade cooler than your current color.
If your hair is on the yellowish-orange end of the spectrum, purple shampoo can help. Like blue shampoo, purple shampoo is another at-home option with color pigments formulated to counteract brassy yellow tones in color-treated hair.
The only way to cancel out the orange is to add an ashy tone. Ash tones tend to appear darker than warm tones. So even if you put an ash hair color over the orange hair and they are the same level, the new brown color will appear darker. If the orange hair is in good enough shape, it can be colored to a lighter brown.
Use blue shampoo regularly
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.
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.
You can also use toners to correct the color and balance out the warm tones. By looking at color theory and choosing the opposite color of your hair in the color wheel, such as purple or blue shades, you can neutralize the yellow and orange.
So, can you guess what the neutralizing color for orange is? 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.
Dyeing your hair with a darker shade can help neutralize and counteract the unevenness caused by bleaching. it's important to focus on the areas where the bleaching results are uneven. Apply the dye strategically to those sections, ensuring even coverage and seamless blending with the surrounding hair.
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.
To do this you want to use products with a blue base pigment that are dark enough to really cover and cancel out the orange. Above I recommended the Wella 7a or 8A with a mix of the Wella 050 Toner and that is definitely the way to make orange hair ash brown.
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).
If your bleached hair looks more yellow than orange, you'll need a purple toning shampoo to neutralise the yellow. If your hair's turned orange, you'll need a blue toning shampoo to tone the brassiness and get rid of 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.
Orange is opposite blue on the color wheel. This means blue cancels out orange. If you've got dark hair with balayage, ombré or conventional highlights, if you've lightened your dark hair completely, or if you have a combination of dark and light hair with highlights, blue shampoo is your solution for brassiness.
Directly opposite on the color wheel, blue tones are a natural fit for orange. These complementary colors look especially stunning when used in saturated shades, such as red-orange and indigo blue.
For the natural redheads who simply want a switch-up, brown dye is a straightforward solution.
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.
Baking soda for orange hair
Simply mix equal parts baking soda and shampoo, and apply it to your hair. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes, then rinse thoroughly. You may need to repeat the process several times to see results but the baking soda should lighten your hair gradually every time.
Dark ash blonde doesn't cover brassy hair, per se. Instead, using those cool-toned toners can help to neutralize any overly-warm red or orange hues by effectively 'cancelling them out'.
Q: For folks who don't want ashy hair color, is it hard to fix? A: It's super easy to fix. When formulating your shade, your colorist will likely use a copper or golden tone to counteract the ash.
Use Purple or Blue Shampoos
It's a simple matter of color theory, relying on the complementary colors of a color wheel to cancel out unwanted tones. 3 "Using a color-correcting purple shampoo will undoubtedly cancel out the overly warm, orange tones and keep that cooler, brighter blonde you desire," says Cunningham.