What is Brassy Hair?

Let’s face it, there is nothing more awe-inspiring than a gorgeous head of silvery locks; until they aren’t silver anymore. Whether you love the pale blond look or the frosty silver style, you have probably ran into that despairingly frustrating orange or yellow color that takes over your once beautiful hair statement. For those of you who have not yet experienced brassy hair or are thinking about getting your hair colored, you may be wondering what brassy hair is and how it exists. Well we are here to provide you with answers! Brassy hair is a little bit complicated to explain. The best way to think about it is that natural hair color has a certain degree of “warmth” to it. Whenever you get your hair dyed, whether it is to go completely blonde or even just to lift your dark brown hair to a lighter brown, your underlying gold and red tones will become visible. When you remove that natural warmth completely through canceling tones, your hair then becomes a “cool” color. Voila! You now have your desired icy silver or light blonde hair. However, those natural warm tones will come back eventually, just like roots continue to grow. So in order to cancel out those warm tones and keep them from taking over your now cool hair, you need to cancel out that color with a cool color. For example, on the color wheel, yellow is directly across from purple. Which leads us to why hair toners and shampoos tend to be a lovely shade of purple.