Lighten your hair further to remove all the warm pigments and recolour your hair,.If you have brassiness in your colour, you can either: How do I get rid of unwanted orange/brassiness? Your hair turns brassy/orange when you lighten it because the warm colour molecules are the last to be lifted during a lightening process.įor a successful, balanced lighter colour outcome, you need to first lift out all the warm colour pigments. NCP is one of the most important factors to consider to ensure a successful colour outcome. Understanding and accounting for NCP is critical in correct colour selection for colouring. The natural pigment left in the hair at the desired level is referred to as Natural Contributing Pigment (NCP).Īs all NCP is warm, typically the best option to manage unwanted warmth is to select a cool colour which will neutralise warmth. The brassy/reddish/yellow colours are the largest colour pigments, and the most difficult colour pigment to remove, which is why all colour always gets warmer when it is lightened. Natural contributing pigment is the varying degree of warmth exposed during the lightening process.Īs hair lightens, melanin is removed in order of the size of the molecule, which ranges from darkest to lightest, and as a result the underlying tones are exposed. There are more warmer (red and orange) molecules than cool colour molecules, and the warmer pigments are larger, so they are the last to be lifted out of hair. The cool toned colour pigments within your hair are the smallest and they are the first to be lifted out of your hair during the lightening process. When you lighten your colour you reveal pigments which usually are not visible in hair, and which are all predominantly red or orange. Black has a large quantity of dark red base pigment, brunettes have an orange base pigment. The darker your natural colour, the more pigment it contains.Īll hair has red within its base colour.
Hair colour is a combination of various colour pigments, including the visible colour and underlying colour. It happens often enough that there are more than 5 million results for the Google search ‘dyed hair blonde turned orange’. The most common colouring challenge colourists encounter is unwanted warmth.