When deciding how to tone yellow hair to ash, try using a violet shampoo first. As purple is the opposite of yellow on the colour spectrum, the shampoo's purple pigment draws out the yellow brassiness from your blonde, neutralises those unwanted tones, and makes your colour look cooler, healthier and more vibrant.
Sun Exposure
"These tones can turn due to sunlight, washing with the wrong shampoo that doesn't protect colored hair, or a mistake made by a colorist, like not using a toner," says Rago. "The sun will dry out the hair by opening the cuticle on the scalp, which will lift the color out, causing the hair to look brassy."
Hot water can dull blonde as it causes the hair cuticles to open. I know washing with cool water is a pain especially when it's cold outside but even just switching from hot to cool when rinsing out your conditioner can help preserve the brightness of your blonde as this will close and seal the cuticles.
Highlighted hair is often porous and can take on ash tones heavily – the hair then appears greyish or sometimes even silver. When you say your blonde highlights look grey, it is often because they take on a grey-blue tone, sometimes all over and sometimes in patches.
Add warmth. This can be done in a salon by adding a gloss or toner onto the hair. But if you're looking to solve your ashy issue at home, reach for a color-correcting treatment, like the Better Natured Color Refreshing Crème in Rose Gold.
How to get ash gray hair? If you want to achieve the ashiest shade of gray, you'll first need to lift the hair to the lightest blonde underlying pigment on the depth of a 10/0 . Make sure to use a bond strengthening treatment like Wellaplex that will protect the hair strand during bleaching.
Use a Color-Correcting Purple Shampoo
Invest in a purple shampoo to help crush brassy tones for a cooler, brighter blonde. Brunette hair can also benefit from a toning shampoo. If brassy orange tones are coming through in brunette hair, you can use a blue shampoo.
One of the best ways to keep your color bright in between salon sessions is to use a hair lightening spray for blondes. Applied to damp hair after you use your blond hair shampoo or hair lightening shampoo, they gradually boost life back into your color, usually after just three to five uses.
SHRINE Tail Comb
Our new toner drops eliminate brassy blonde for a cool just-left-the-salon finish at home - no appointment necessary. Our toners provide a subtle tint of colour to a light base and remove any brassy tones. Ash Blonde cools down warm tones to create that salon fresh ash hue.
To keep your bleached hair healthy and shiny, minimize the use of heat styling tools such as curling irons, straighteners, or blow dryers. If you don't stay away from hot styling equipment, you should apply a heat-protectant spray with UV protection to your hair.
For blonde hair, use purple shampoo to neutralize brassy yellow and orange undertones. If you're a brunette, use blue shampoo to get rid of red hues. For ashy hair, try a clarifying shampoo that gets rid of cool tones.
For this we really need a purple or blue based toner. These are the pigments which most effectively neutralize yellow and produce the ultra cold ash blonde that we are looking for. In this tutorial we are using Pearl Blonde 10V. It's a purple based cream toner with some lifting properties as well.
To warm up your blonde, “your stylist can add richer caramel lowlights to give depth and dimension or simply finish your usual highlighting service with a warm-toned gloss of honey, sand or vanilla,” says Smith.
Understanding Ashy and Warm Tones
Ashy shades are often described as “smoky” or “platinum” and can range from icy blondes to soft browns or grays. Warm Hair Tones: Warm tones, on the other hand, have yellow, orange, or red undertones. They radiate a “sun-kissed” effect and often feel vibrant and rich.
The answer is that purple shampoo can have an almost endless amount of benefits for your hair color. Purple shampoo has been used for decades by hairdressers, mostly to help tone and neutralize blonde and gray hair, getting rid of brassy or yellow tones for an overall more cool-toned look.
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 A Clarifying Shampoo
They strip off the toner in your hair and reduce the ashy tones. With regular use of a clarifying shampoo, you will see a difference. Your hair will be much warmer and you will feel the ashy tones melt away.
Stay Away From Heat
Heat-based styling tools won't do anything good to your color, especially when you couple it with products. “Try to avoid using volumizers, mousse, hairsprays, and even gels with high heat for long periods of time. The hair is too vulnerable and easily damaged,” says Dorram.
Washing your hair more frequently than usual may help, but you'll want to be sure to follow up with a moisturizing conditioner and only increase your washing frequency for a week or so to prevent drying out your hair. You can also try a clarifying shampoo.