How to Tone Orange Hair Back to its Best (2024)

Techniques

Color

You might be wondering what causes those orange tones in your client’s hair in the first place. They can crop up for a number of reasons, but these are just some of the most common brassy hair culprits:

• Your client’s hair was colored a balanced red hue, but their radiant shade has faded.
• Their target shade was a warm dark blonde or brunette, but the warmth has become too prominent.
• Dark locks were lifted to a level 5, 6 or 7, and orange tones are just part of the process. Next step: toning!

Each color in the Wella portfolio is typically made up of two or three digits: the first (before the stroke) denotes the depth, the second symbolizes the major tone, and the third (when it’s present) represents the minor tone.

The major and minor tone could be anything from a 0 to a 9, and to balance orange hair, you will typically look for a 1 (ash) or 8 (pearl) in the formula. This 1 or 8 could be either the major or the minor tone, depending on how much orange toning is required through your client’s hair. If there’s a lot of warmth to knock out, try making 1 or 8 your major for a flattering shot of coolness.

But, the great thing about having a major and a minor is that you’re able to add other hues in there too. For example, if you want to correct orange tinges while creating a golden blonde hue, you could try adding Koleston Perfect 8/38 to your formula. Meanwhile, if you’re taking locks super-cool and icy for a frosted chestnut brown shade, something like Illumina Color 5/81 would give you all the blue infusions needed to neutralize warmth. You can even use these formulas to pre-tone hair in need of deep correction, before toning a second time with the color of your client’s dreams.

Image Credit: @byalexmk

To bring dirty blonde hair back from the orangey brink, Alex MK toned overly warm locks with Illumina Color 5/02 + 5/81 + 6/16 + 4% through the roots, and 8/38 + 8/1 + Silver Mauve + 1.9% on the lengths. The result? A cooler, crisper dark blonde with a seamless root shadow.

2. Toning Orange Hair to a Creamy Blonde

Image Credit: @ninanears

Now, this is a big transformation. From brassy balayage to creamy blonde highlights, Nina Nears’ client underwent a mane makeover that featured a surprisingly simple formula. First, orange tones were lifted out with root-to-tip strokes of BlondorPlex + 6%, and then Color Touch 6/0 + 1.9% was applied in between for soft, subtle lowlights.

3. Toning Orange Hair to a Dark Brown

Image Credit: @terricolours_bloominhair

Brassy balayage, be gone! Terri Harris took this client’s hair back to dark brown perfection by overlaying Color Touch 5/1 + 4/0 + 1.9%; a deep formula with ash blue tones to banish excess warmth. Simple yet oh-so effective, the quick color correction resulted in a silky espresso mane that transcends trends and seasons – it’s always in style.

4. Toning Orange Hair with a Shinefinity Glaze

Image Credit: @oz_beauties

A Shinefinity Glaze offers your client a subtle and translucent finish, but here’s proof that its shine-boosting powers can even extend to a color correction. To nix yellow/orange tones, the team at Oz Beauties pre-lightened locks, then applied two alternating Shinefinity formulas: 05/98 + 07/81 and 09/61 + 07/59, both using the bottle activator.

Will Purple Shampoo Help Orange Hair?

If your client’s hair is on the yellow end of the orange spectrum, a purple shampoo can help to correct and neutralize their brassy hair. This is because violet sits opposite yellow on the color wheel, allowing it to cancel out those unwanted tones and leave strands beautifully balanced. So, for those clients who do have hints of yellow, recommend they add INVIGO Blonde Recharge Cool Blonde Color Refreshing Shampoo to their kit. All they have to do is lather up, leave it to do its work for 2-5 minutes, then rinse thoroughly. Bye bye, brassy tones.