How To Correct Brassy Hair Color From Home

by Laura Collins14 July 2024Categories: Have A Good Hair Day 0 Comment

Not many people are fond of brassy, orange and yellow tones in their blonde hair. There are a number of reasons that your hair may have become brassy from color fadage, the lightening process, or box dye. And the reason why your hair is brassy will help you determine what to do to correct the issue.

In this blog post, I’m going to break down the 3 main reasons why your hair is brassy, and then talk about what you can do at home to fix it.

1. Your hair color has FADED to a brassy color

If your hair color or toner was perfect when you first got your hair done, but after some time it’s starting to look brassy, then your problem is that your color or toner has faded.

Typically when color fades out, the underlining warm pigment in the hair is exposed. If you take a look at the chart below, you can see what the underlining or contributing pigment is for each level of hair color. You can also see to the right what tone is needed to correct it. This is crucial when formulating for what color you’ll put back on the hair in order to correct the brassy tone.

We’ll talk later about how you can easily do this at home with minimal formulating and risk.

Check out my post here to learn 9 bad habits you may be doing that are fading your hair color and my post here for 7 ways to maximize your hair color longevity.

2. The process of lightening your hair will expose warmth

Anytime you are lightening your hair or “removing hair color”, warmth IS going to be exposed. There is no way around it, everyone’s hair on earth lifts warm. It’s just science. If you look at the chart above, the contributing pigment is what is exposed when you are lightening your hair.

As we mentioned in the last section, depending on what level (lightness/darkness) your hair is will determine what you need to do to correct this issue. If you aren’t sure what level your hair is, check out my post here.

Compare what level your hair is at, and see what you’ll need to tone the hair with to cancel out the unwanted color. If your hair is a level 7 yellow/orange, you’ll need a color with a blue/violet base to cancel that out. And if you’re at a level 9, you’ll need a violet base.

The color wheel is your best friend when determining how to eliminate the brassiness in your hair. You can’t just slap any toner on it and expect it to come out perfectly, you need to know what toner to apply and why. Take a look at the color wheel below, and notice that the colors opposite from each other are the corrective bases. Blue is across from orange, and is what base you need to correct brassy orange hair.

Keep in mind that you won’t be able to achieve certain tones (like platinum blonde or most cool toned shades) unless you lighten through the orange stages completely. Unfortunately it’s not always possible to achieve your desired results in one session. Remember that lightening hair is a long and tolling process, and it is never something that should be rushed.

3. Using box dye can result in brassy hair color

Box dye is typically unpredictable and can often result in an unpleasant and brassy color. Hair color is not a one-size-fits-all type of thing, which is why box color often ends in disaster. In order to get your color from point A to point B, you need to formulate specifically for your point A canvas.

You can’t expect to put one tube on a platinum blonde and also on jet black hair and expect the same results. Hair color just doesn’t work like that and it needs to be customized for each head of hair. In fact, I often mix multiple formulas on the same head of hair in order to get the color to an even canvas.

Box dye is also made with low-quality products and additives that will affect not only your end result, but the integrity of your hair as well. Because of this, you should never attempt to correct box dye at home with actual hair color (see the next section below for at home options).

I recommend having a consultation with your hairstylist where she can perform a test strand to see what your options are for removing it.If you don’t do a test strand prior to coloring over box dye, a chemical reaction may develop and your hair can be literally destroyed.

To learn more about box dye and why it’s so terrible for your hair, see my post here.

How to tone down brassy hair from home

To correct a brassy hair color issue, you either need to lighten past the unwanted warm stages, or go darker than where your hair is currently at so you’re covering up the problem. Just keep in mind that unless you completely lighten through the unwanted warm stages, the brassiness will reappear when the toner fades.

Since I don’t recommend bleaching your hair yourself at home, my number one recommendation is to use a coloring shampoo and/or conditioner. While it may not be the exact tone that your hair was when you first got it done, this can be a fabulous option to hold you over until your next salon visit.

***Since I’m sharing the products that I love to use with you guys, this page includes affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product through clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***

Color toning shampoos and conditioners

If you aren’t familiar with color toning shampoos and conditioners, they contain semi-permanent pigment in them that will tone your hair in the shower. These have been a game changer in the hair world when it comes to hair color that typically fades quickly. To learn more in-depth about these, check out my blog post here.

Celeb Luxury has a number of different options of these shampoos and conditioners no matter what color your hair is. I usually recommend going with the conditioner over the shampoo because I like to use it as a conditioning treatment as well as color toner.

You should let it sit on your hair for up to 30 minutes to get the best results, although a few minutes is fine as well. The longer it sits on and the more frequent you use them, the more intense the color will be.

There are different color options for shampoo vs. conditioners, so make sure you check out both to select the color that works best for you.

For brunettes, I recommend their Brown Tahitian Pearl to remove unwanted red tones from faded hair color.

For blondes, you have a number of different options depending on what tone you like for when your toner fades out. Just keep in mind that your hair NEEDS to be light enough in order for these to take. If it’s not, you won’t get much in terms of results.

If you aren’t lifted past a pale yellow stage then remember you always need to tone darker. Make sure that your hair is light enough for the color you select or else it will not do anything.

Purple/blue shampoo to fix brassy hair from home

THE-PERFECT-BLONDE-SHAMPOO-AND-CONDITIONER

Another option is to regularly use a strong purple or blue shampoo and conditioner. This will help your hair from fading to a yellow stage at all.

As we saw in the color charts, purple cancels out yellow and blue cancels out orange. So you’ll use the blue shampoo if you’re a brunette, and the purple shampoo if you’re a blonde.

It is EXTREMELY important to NOT use the blue shampoo if you are a blonde or have any blonde in your hair. Blue and yellow makes green. So if your hair is lifted past an orange color, it will turn your hair green!

My favorite purple and blue shampoos are:

Olaplex (bond building & strengthening line)

Olaplex 4P Shampoo
Olaplex 5P Conditioner

Joico (for brunettes only)

Pravana (includes purple moisture masque)

Conclusion

For most of us, brassy hair color is highly undesirable. But before you attempt to correct the issue, you need to understand the science behind WHY your hair color is brassy.

The three main reasons your hair color may be brassy are:

Your hair color has faded
You are lightening your hair (removing hair color)
You used box dye

And my main two solutions for fixing brassy hair color from home are:

Color depositing shampoos and conditioners
Purple and blue shampoo and conditioner

Leave me any questions or concerns that you have in the comments! And make sure you subscribe if you’d like to make everyday a good hair day!

Last updated 7/14/2024

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