Fall For Your Hair
It's here! The end of summer... The free and breezy attitude of summer is about to come to an abrupt halt. The first day of school is around the corner and days are beginning to grow shorter. Schedules and routines are reinforced. Soon the only reminder of summer will be a fading tan line and a head full of brassy hair in need of a touch-up. The end of summer sounds terribly depressing but it's not. Do you know why? Because it's the beginning of fall, when everyone is back and looking better than ever. This is the perfect time to do a mini-makeover, to have a fresh start for autumn.
Hair that was lightened by the summer sun is usually in need of repair by fall. Hair that looked sun-kissed in July just looks brassy in September. You usually notice this when you are looking in your car's rear view mirror or when you see your reflection as you are passing a store window. Brunettes tend to take on an orange tone, blonds turn crayon-yellow and redheads fade into oblivion. To make matters worse, your end of summer color completely washes you out, especially since your summer glow has started to fade. Sounds like it's time to cut your hair off or pile on the make-up, but you don't have to go to such extremes.
You just have to rethink and refresh your color.
Problem 1: Brown hair with an orange glow. This is a frightening hair color. It isn't pretty and shouts out, "I have grey hair so I color it". Don't panic! The solution is simple. You need to tone your hair down.
TIP - Use an ash-brown shade to tone down the brassy orange tones. Apply your usual color formula to roots only for the required time. Mix an ash-brown color for the rest of hair. Add a tablespoon of shampoo to ash-brown color. Work this mixture through the ends of your hair for five minutes. This will instantly tone down your brassy hair color and act as a glaze to make your hair color more vibrant.
Problem 2: Blond hair that turns yellow. Buttery blond is a beautiful hair color, but crayon-yellow blond is not a color found in nature. Hair this color looks like it's been burned by the sun. The solution is to add a neutral blond color through the ends of your hair to temper the excessively yellow tones.
TIP - Blond hair that has discolored from the sun is usually very porous. When toning down hair, never leave color on porous ends for more than 2-3 minutes.
WARNING! - Do not use ash tones to tone blond hair. Ash tones can make blond hair green.
Problem 3: Red hair fades to blah color. Red fades faster than any other color. Red hair is especially fugitive in the summer. The best way to keep red hair bright is to refresh the red with a semi-permanent color. This will keep your hair bright and healthy looking.
TIP - Always pick a golden or copper-red shade, they look the most natural.
This is the last week of summer. It's the last call to color your hair before September begins. Go ahead. Give yourself a mini-makeover and be ready to fall in love with your hair color again!
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Hi Louis! Love your column! I have a question about how to fix a wrong color dye job. I really thought I would be considered a Medium Brown and wanted to get rid of my 6 month old highlights and cover the gray that is sneaking in. Well, medium brown is a tad too dark! Ugh! It's semi-permanent color so when/how can I got to a lighter brown without looking like I lost a fight with the color wheel?
Thanks in advance!
DG
DG,
The easiest way to remove hair color is to deep condition your hair. Place your favorite deep conditioning treatment on your hair. Wrap your hair in a plastic bag. Leave conditioner on hair for 1 hour. If you have an at home bonnet dryer sit under it for 15 minutes at a time. This should take the edge off the dark hair color. Repeat procedure as often as necessary.
Good luck,
Louis
What great tips! I have an ash brown challenge. I had highlights on my colored, dark natural blonde hair and used a medium ash brown (my intion was to rid the brassiness and cover grey). What I ended up with is brown with a wierd almost blue/purple hue especially towards the ends. My past my shoulder hair is in otherwise really good condition. I don't have the money to go to a salon, so I was hoping you may be able to guide me in the right direction. I don't have a problem re-coloring, but I don't want to get a worse result. Thanks for any suggestion.
Thanks for the suggestions about red hair...my hairdresser wants to keep giving me a darker red-red colour - but the sun had lightened it to a lovely copper...I want to stay there even though copper is harder to keep...I'll remind her that copper colours are more natural and I want that!
Haircoloring is a complex process and the desired result is determined by many factors.....home coloring usually leads to an expensive salon correction...I say leave it to the professional!
I will be 75 on Sept. 11 and have always wanted to have a makeover at your salon to get a new style. I have been told that I look 10 to 15 yrs younger. I am 5'3", 117 lbs and go to the gym every morning and am in excellent health. I would love to give myself a birthday present of a makeover to start this next year. Is there any possibility that I could arrange an appt to have this wonderful experience.
Thank you for reading this message.
VBG
I enjoyed this column a lot. I've been colouring my hair at home for many years and do a good job. Even my hairdressers have said so. I colour my formerly-medium-brown-now-brown-and-grey hair red and have the usual fading problems. You suggest a semi-permanent colour to refresh the colour. Do you mean a semi-permanent between permanent-colour touchups? Or do you just mean for natural redheads to use a semi-permanent colour? If you mean for someone who uses a permanent colour to add semi-permanent over it, do you have a brand suggestion?
Is blond hair with brown streaks in for the fall?
Should hair always match the color of your eyebrows?
Hi, I need some professional advice on changing my hair color from medium red to light ash brown. (My real hair color is a very dark brown) Recently on a vacation the red lightened to red brown. (I usually buy professional strength red dye/ red intensifier to self dye) Is there something to use to neutralize the brassiness? Or would using a professional light ash brown color be enough to turn the hair into more of a cool brown versus a brassy orangey brown?
In the past I've had my hair dyed light brown , which would look nice in the first 2 wks but always end up orange toned. I think my hair has warm undertones versus cool.
Thanks for your recommendations!
Help, I had bleach blond hair and I wanted to go a darker blonde, so I was an idiot and put a light ash blonde hair color on it but it turned a dark gray. The next day i put a light blonde on and it just made it a light gray. Will the gray evently fade away or would a light brown or dark blonde cover the gray to be less noticiable?
I am 55, retired and look it! My hair is thinning and is very fine. When I was younger my hair was a very dark brown. Now I am graying and my hairstylist are trying out colors on me. I call myself the color of the month girl. I have blonde back to very dark. I don't know what color I should be and sometimes don't reconize myself. My haircut is short, but every hairstylist wants to dry it into styles I couldn't possibly duplicate. I want easy! Any suggestions short of shaving my head. Retirement is suppose to be fun, but now I have time on my hands, so I spend it on my hair.
HELP! I'm with KM above. I had nice blonde hair a few months ago...it had a bit of brass tones to it but is was tolerable. Last week I colored it again the same way I usually do but it ended up just way too brassy. So I put a Wella (Ivory Lady) toner on it and now I have less brassy roots with blue/gray ends!!! Muddy yucky blah blonde hair! What next. I really can't afford professional help...half the time they don't do much better than I do anyway. What should I do, but a gold toner on my ends? will that get rid of the blue. I'm about ready to give up and just go au-naturale. Thanks!
I am a natural brunette with cool undertones. I had been wearing my hair light with highlights and this week went to a salon for a rich brown haircolor to cover gray and it turned out too dark for my complexion. How soon can I return for a lighter color? Any other tips? Thank you!
I naturally have dark brown hair, and very fair skin. My hair dresser started to color my hair brown with red tones. It became redder and redder. I finally said that I just wanted to be brown again. For the last several months he has put dark brown, ash many different things to get the red out. When I leave the salon, I love the color, but believe it or not, within one week, it fades to a brassy red. Help, they dont know what to do and either do I. I just want to have brown hair.
Hi Louis -
My hairdresser colors my roots (my hair naturally is dark brown, but it the outer layer ALWAYS turns reddish/brassy and I hate it - I would like light brown highlights with NO RED/ORANGE! Is this possible? She will run color through my hair to tone it, but I have always been told color removes color and wondering if this is just a vicious cycle. What else can be done to avoid the orange? I can't afford to color it every two weeks!! Thanks for your help
Hi Louis,
My hair is dark brown and turning gray. I want to avoid having the roots show up quicly and noticibly and was thinking of using a lighter color brown, so the contrast wouldn't be so great. I don't want to pull red. What color can I use? professional or store bought. I think my color brown is between a 4 and 5. Thanks for you help
I have black hair naturally and I put red tips and now the colour is fading how can I refresh and with what?
Advise please
thanks
Hi! My hair color is a dark/light (a combination of both) brown. I was thinking about dying my hair a cool brown (sort of dark ash brn) will this workout? Or will my hair turn a brazzy-orange? I need to know before I regret dying my hair and turn out to be bozo the clown. Thanks. Hope to hear from you soon-or anybody who can help me ;)
Great forum !
Quick question. I'm just another brown haired woman
fighting the orange nightmare.
Is it possible to just apply toner to your hair???
Thanks
Pam