Should I Bleach My Hair Again if it Turned Orange?

using purple toner on bleached yellow hair

To know if you should bleach your hair again if it turned orange, you need to check your bleach level and the color you want.
If your hair is dark or medium orange, and you want to go extra light blonde, you should bleach your hair again.
Alternatively, if your hair is light orange, and you want to get an extra light blonde, you don’t need to bleach your hair. Instead, you can remove the orange with a blue shampoo or toner.

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Of course, not everyone is looking to go extra light blonde.

That’s why you need to know your bleach level and your expected color.

Orange is one of the most persistent tones that result from bleaching your hair.

It’s an unwanted undertone that always appears when bleaching dark or medium-colored hair.

Let’s take an example.

If you want very light ashy blonde hair 9.1, and your hair is the color of a carrot, you’ll have to bleach again.

On the other hand, if your hair is very light orange, you’ll only need to apply toner to achieve the color you want.

So, you need to know what color you want to achieve.

If you want an extra light ash blonde 10.1, you’ll need to remove all the orange. It can only be achieved by bleaching the hair several times.

Now, if you don’t want to lift your hair so much, a toner will remove the orange and leave your mane ashy without another bleaching session.

So, today I’m going to show you the big secret we stylists have to know when to bleach orange hair again.

Do you want to know what the secret is?

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To know whether you should bleach orange hair again, you need to check your bleach level.

The bleach level is the key parameter to determine if you need to bleach again or not. You’ll check it on a scale of light or extra light colors.

The higher the bleach level, the lighter the hair will be.

How do you know if you need to bleach your hair again?

It depends on the difference of levels between your current orange hair and the color you want to achieve.

For example, if you want to achieve a platinum blonde 10, you can’t apply the dye on your dark orange hair because it won’t work. In this case, you’ll have to bleach again.
On the other hand, if you want to achieve a dark blonde 6, and your hair is dark orange, you can apply a blue toner to take your hair to an ashy tone that’s free of orange.

In order to guide you correctly I’ll use an example.

The goal is to achieve an extra light platinum blonde 10 by starting from different bleach levels.

If your hair is dark orange (light brown 5 or dark blonde 6), you should bleach it to remove the orange and achieve a platinum blonde 10 level.
If your hair is medium orange (blonde 7 or light blonde 8), you should bleach it to remove the orange and apply blonde 10 hair dye.

Whenever there’s a difference of two or more levels between the color you want to achieve and the color you have, you should bleach your hair.

Now, what if you don’t want to bleach your hair again, or you don’t know if it’ll resist another bleaching session? That’s what I’ll talk about next.

What are the alternatives to bleaching my hair orange?

toner, developer, bowl and brush

If you reached a bleach level that you like, and you want to remove the orange, you can apply toner or a blue shampoo to delete the brassy undertones.

Both solutions work perfectly, but one of them is more aggressive to the hair.

Can you guess which one?

The toner, exactly.

The toner can damage your bleached hair because it’s applied with a 20-vol developer.

The advantage is that its effect is immediate. So, once you rinse out the toner, there will be no orange residue left.

You can opt for Wella Color Charm, which is a toner for home use. Alternatively, if you want to neutralize the orange, you should apply Wella T14 or T18 toner.

If you don’t want to further damage your hair because it’s fragile after bleaching, you can use a blue toning shampoo.

toning unwanted orange tones

This type of shampoo creates a film of color that adheres to each strand of your hair to gradually fade the orange.

You only need to replace your usual shampoo with the blue shampoo twice a week. After each wash, you’ll notice how the orange undertones gradually disappear.

In which cases can you use toner or toning shampoo to avoid bleaching your orange hair again?

If your color is a dark orange and you want a light ashy brown 5.1.
If your color is medium orange and you want a dark ash blonde 6.1 or ash blonde 7.1.
If your color is light orange and you want a light ashy blonde 8.1 or very light ashy blonde 9.1.

In these cases, you shouldn’t bleach your hair because your bleach level is the correct one to eliminate the orange undertones and achieve the color you want.