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Removing an orange glow from your hair

Removing an orange glow from your hair

You wanted to dye your hair a beautiful blonde or brown colour, but it turned orange. Nice for King's Day, but we understand that this is not what you wanted.... what can you do aboutyellow or orange undertone hair it and how come hair can turn orange?

If you have a lot of warm pigments in your hair, these will be released when you lighten up your hair and you will get an orange glow. On light blonde hair, this glow is mostly yellow. Next time, pick an ash colour to fix this.

Yellow or orange base colour

People with dark blonde to medium blonde hair have an orange or yellow base colour in the hair. Dark haired people have lots of dark orange or red pigments in their base colour. If you dye your hair lighter, those base colour pigments will sometimes emerge: dark orange or red if the hair was dark and lighter orange or yellow if the hair was blonde.

The hair contains two types of pigments:

1. Eumelanin; this pigment is responsible for the natural tone of the hair. It determines how dark or light the hair is and contains the colours red, yellow and blue.

2. The second is feomelanin. This pigment determines the warmth of the hair; how much red pigments it contains. It contains the colours red and yellow and provides the basetone of the hair.

If these two colours are balanced, you won't see the basetone. When you dye the hair lighter, the process is slower with the basetone than with the natural tone of the hair. As a result, the basetone and natural tone are no longer in proportion and the undertone of the hair may shine through. The base tone then no longer contains enough blue pigment to neutralise the orange.

Undertones in lighting your hair

Bleaching (actually decolourising) or lightening hair with hair dye is done in steps. For example, black first becomes dark brown, then red, then orange, then yellow and finally light blonde. Dark blonde goes from copper to orange to dark yellow, yellow and finally light blonde. When bleaching, an orange glow can be prevented by using a lower percentage of hydrogen peroxide so the process of decolourisation is slower. 

How can you protect your hair from discolouration?

External influences can also leave an orange haze on hair. You can protect your hair from these influences. For example, wash your hair as little as possible and with a mild shampoo. Wear a hat or protective spray/cream against UV rays. Our Argan Silk is a good protective cream. Sea and chlorinated water can also give your hair an orange or green haze. Make sure not to get your hair wet in a pool or sea water. If you do want to go underwater, rinse your hair well every time after swimming. A protective cream will also keep your hair unaffected. 

What can you do about an unwanted orange glow?

 Do you have an orange hue in your hair after dyeing? Then choose an ash nuance (all colours with the digit '1' immediately after the dot in the colour number). Asnuances contain blue pigment and neutralise the orange colour. We have ashnuances in different colour levels and you can mix them, just like all other colours. So there is always a suitable colour for you. 

platinum blond hair without unwanted tones

Did you already dye with an ashnuance? Then you probably used a colour level that is too light for your hair. Choose a colour level darker.

Have you dyed with very light ash blonde (11.1) and find the colour too warm but don't want to go darker? Then it will also help to dye with the very light ash blonde (11.1) again, but with 6% activator (if you used a 9 or 12% before). Do you choose 6% now? Then the mixing ratio becomes 1:1 instead of 1:2 and so you only need one bottle of activator. You also have to let the hair dye take effect for 65 minutes instead of the 45 minutes stated in the instructions for use of very light ash blonde (11.1).

What can you do about an unwanted yellow hue?

Do you have a yellow hue in your hair after dyeing? Then use WECOLOUR hair colour again, but as a toner. You can use 3% activator for this; you can choose this when ordering. For example, if you use twenty grams of dye, add twenty grams of 3% activator. So you use the same mixing ratio as when dyeing your hair. You put the toner in just like you normally do with your hair dye and, after ten minutes, see if your yellow hair has the desired colour. If not, leave it on for another five or ten minutes. Need more information? Then read our blog on toners.

Another option is our WECOLOUR hair dye

What colours can you choose?
Find out in four steps with our free colour advice tool
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