Fight Brassiness!

The most difficult aspect of both professional and  home hair color is counteracting brassiness.  As hair lightens, it passes through a series of stages known as levels. Each level is categorized by undertones-or the natural nuances of that particular shade. Brassiness occurs when hair is lightened to a level that conflicts with the undertones of your hair. It comes in the form of screaming orange to a fire blazing red.

 Lay the foundation for non-brassy salon beautiful hair color with perfectly formulated hair color. Transforming your appearance with a much lighter color certainly gives a more dramatic change. But minimizing the degree of lightening is best, especially for a novice home colorist. The threat of brassiness  increases as the amount of lightening increases. Look at the examples below to understand how undertones can easily create havoc in your hair color.

Take dark brown hair to a medium brown color:

Level 5 (dark brown)     Formulate: 5+7=12  1/2 of 12=6

Desired color-level 6 (medium brown) The undertone of level 6 is orange.

Apply color-7.1 b L'oreal liquid creme (Remember, b is an abbreviation for "beige"which will counter medium brown's orange undertone). Unless your hair has an especially strong golden undertone, this should counter the orange. Always strand test. 

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 Dark brown to light brown

Level 5 (dark brown)      Formulate:  5+9=14.  1/2 of 14=7

Desired color- Level 7 (light brown). The undertone for level 7 is also orange, however since such a higher level is being applied to achieve the desired result, the undertone will play a more significant role-in other words, it will be stronger, a little harder to counter.

Apply color-L'oreal liquid creme 9.1ba. Extra light ash blonde. (Notice that this color has both a "b" and an "a" which means it contains extra counteracting tones. 

 Once again, be sure to strand test.

Brassiness-NOT! Stunning Dimension and Durability Instead

      Have you ever colored your hair beautifully, only to have it wash out in a few day to a brassy color? The durability of your hair color will outlast any other solution you've tried when you disregard the directions inside your hair color kit. Simply refrain from "refreshing" the ends of your hair each time you color your hair.

   Instead apply the color only to your roots. (Of course this applies to those coloring previously colored hair.) Then, rinse your hair thoroughly until the water runs clear-trying to keep the hair color off the ends of your hair as much as possible before finishing with shampoo. 

 Refresh the hair color on the ends of your hair with a product such as John Freida's Colour Refreshing Gloss,-a  gentle, non damaging way to add color and shine, therefore maintaining your previously colored hair ends. Color shampoos and color conditioners are great ways to maintain your hair color.

 Finally, luxurious L'oreal Color Care Shampoo excels at making your hair color look like it was just colored today -for an entire month!