Fight Brassiness!

The most difficult aspect of both professional and haircolor at home is counteracting brassiness-also referred to as "excessive warmth" Brassiness comes in the form of screaming orange to baby chicken yellow and occurs when hair is lightened to a level that conflicts with the undertones of your hair.

Why does brassiness occur?

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 stage with unbecoming undertones of red, golden red ( orange) gold or yellow.

What can I do?

If the thought of warmth in your hair really does frighten you, Minerva advises that solutions exist in different coloring techniques: Best results are achieved when the degree of lightening is kept to a minimum, or as close to your natural color as possible. ( Lo-ammonia haircolor is the perfect choice when staying within your own natural color range.)

Slightly darkening your haircolor is often an easy answer.

If that shade is too dark, adding hi-lites gives a multi-tonal effect thereby lessening the appearance of brassiness.

Lo-liting and hi-liting also achieve the same result.
Toning your hair to a more desirable color solves the dilemma of brassiness while maintaining your hair in good condition.

Choose haircolor with the descriptive terms "ash", "smokey "and "natural"

Mixing your haircolor allows you to "double-up" on the counteractive tones in haircolor. (Understanding the color wheel will help you to know how and why this works.)

If you're simply frustrated and ready to stop coloring your hair, a tint back will return your hair to it's natural color.

Each of these techniques is considered corrective color. Performing a strand test is highly advisable.