Did your balayage hair turn orange?
I’ll tell you how to change that color cheaply and easily.
I’ll even be generous and tell you three different ways to change it.
So, if your balayage looks brassy-orange, there’s no need to suffer anymore.
Stay where you are, because in less than 5 minutes, you’ll know how to fix your hair.
Let’s start with the most essential part.
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Why did your hair turn orange?
Using traditional shampoos
One of the main reasons why a perfect blonde balayage turns into an orange balayage is because of the use of traditional shampoo in your hair.
Traditional shampoos contain chemicals that are too aggressive for dyed hair, like sulfates, silicone, and parabens. So, the color change didn’t start yesterday, it started the first time you washed your hair after getting your balayage.
Contact with mineralized water
If you’ve been to a pool or you’ve gone to relax in thermal waters at your favorite spa, that just accelerated, even more, the color degradation. Natural mineralized water has substances like chlorine, sulfur, and salt react with the dye in your hair, making it fade or oxidizing it.
Your hair’s natural sensitiveness
Not all dyes react the same way to minerals and chemicals; the way they react depends a lot on the natural porosity of your hair, on its color, and the brand of the dye you use.
Blonde is the color that makes it the worst. When it oxidizes, it turns into a chicken-yellow or an orange as bright as a stoplight. That rusty blonde color is like plasticky doll hair or like the hair that comes on those cheap wigs that little girls play with. Getting rid of the orange is urgent! But… How? Toning is the solution.
How to fix your orange hair, so it looks like it did in the beginning
To cancel out those intense yellow shades (chicken yellow) or bright oranges, it is necessary to cancel them out with a color opposite to it, according to the color wheel. For intense yellows, that would be purple, and for orange, it’s blue.
According to the color theory, by combining a specific color with the opposite color, the two colors will cancel each other out. That practice allows you to cancel out the extreme colors, creating a balance of intermediate colors, which is what we’re looking for.
If your hair is very orange, you’ll need to cancel it out with a bluish-purple, and you’ll see how it goes back to normal.
These are the most common, recommended techniques.
1- Use shampoo to cancel the colors out
Our first recommendation is to use a toning shampoo, which will not just clean your hair, but it will also help you to neutralize that unwanted orange color.
Purple shampoo is ideal for neutralizing that yellow shade and go back to that blonde or ashy color that you had. If your hair is more orange or copper, we recommend a blue shampoo.
These shampoos will help to nature your hair and make it brighter. We recommend to use it frequently to protect your hair and its blonde color to sun exposure and from changing color because of an excess of chemicals.
Some of those shampoos don’t contain sulfates, one of the main causes of unwanted orange color. The frequency with which you use the toning shampoo will depend on the brand of the shampoo. There are a few that you can use daily and others you should only use once a week.
It’s a very affordable option and one that you can do yourself at home.
2- Cancel out the color with toning conditioner
Canceling out the color is another thing that you can do when your hair turns orange, since you may have porous and damaged hair.
To get that blonde color back, you can use a blue or purple conditioner. The toning conditioner will add a neutralizing shade to the unwanted color.
It will also hydrate it from the root to tip, helping to maintain the original color.
3- Use a dye to tone
Another way to fix a balayage turned orange is to cancel out the unwanted color with dye. Although the result might be very professional, you’ll need to have experience with dyeing hair. If it’s your first time, it’s a good idea to see a professional.
You’ll need to cancel it out with a blue color to hide the orange in your hair. I recommend a toner between T14 and T18, both of which will add the necessary blue to your hair to cancel out the unwanted copper or orange colors.
The other ingredient that you’ll need is a cream developer. 20 volume should be sufficient.
When it’s time to mix, combine two parts cream and one-part toner in a bowl.
Then apply the mix only on the parts of your hair that have the balayage. I recommend separating your hair with tin foil and asking someone else to help you, so it ends up even.
15-20 minutes should be enough for your hair to go back to blonde.
Lastly, rinse your hair without shampoo. Use conditioner to help retain the color better and give it a bright shine. You can wash your hair with shampoo the next day.
Which technique should you choose?
Which technique will work best for you depends on your patience and experience.
Toning shampoos and conditioners work well and don’t require a lot of experience, but they are slower in getting results. Toning dyes are effective and immediate but require more care and expertise.
Now you know what to do, get down to it, and go back to your perfect look!
