How do you fix blonde hair that is too ashy?
Use a color-correcting cream
Add warmth. This can be done in a salon by adding a gloss or toner onto the hair. But if you're looking to solve your ashy issue at home, reach for a color-correcting treatment, like the Better Natured Color Refreshing Crème in Rose Gold.
You can use at-home remedies, like a clarifying shampoo or lemon juice, to adjust your toner. Or you can try adding a color remover or bleach wash to completely remove the ash tone from your hair.
Color-treated hair fades over time, and bleach blonde hair develops brassy tones as it oxidizes. Refresh your color with a toner every 6-8 weeks to keep that natural, healthy-looking blonde.
“For maintaining ashy and icy blondes, it is best to choose toners in the violet or purple family. For maintaining vibrancy in warmer blonde shades, it is best to choose a toner in the yellow or gold family.”
- Wash your hair with a clarifying/detoxifying shampoo. That's right. ...
- Condition with a deeply moisturizing product. ...
- Apply reds, golds, or oranges in the form of toner. ...
- Continue to care for your ash toned hair with clarifying and restorative products.
Ashy and platinum tones are timelessly cool, but they can wash out your complexion in the winter. To warm up your blonde, “your stylist can add richer caramel lowlights to give depth and dimension or simply finish your usual highlighting service with a warm-toned gloss of honey, sand or vanilla,” says Smith.
KNOW THIS: Hair will always appear darker when it has an ash tonality, according to Constance. Explain to your client that warm tones reflect light and cool tones absorb it.
When deciding how to tone yellow hair to ash, try using a violet shampoo first. As purple is the opposite of yellow on the colour spectrum, the shampoo's purple pigment draws out the yellow brassiness from your blonde, neutralises those unwanted tones, and makes your colour look cooler, healthier and more vibrant.
Over time, ash-blonde tends to fade into lighter blonde or even bright blonde. You can counteract this by getting regular hair treatments or using a purple shampoo to keep the color from turning brassy.
Hard water (or mineral-dense water) strips color, especially if it has lighter tones. Sun exposure is also a prime culprit when it comes to discoloration.
What skin tone does ash blonde suit?
Cool blonde hair colors like ash, sandy and platinum will compliment cool skin undertones by cutting down brassiness, while warm blonde hair colors like golden, strawberry and honey naturally suit warm skin undertones by adding warmth to your look.
If you leave the toner processing for too long, you might end up having damaged hair with unwanted purple or blue shades. Why does this happen? Toners have pigments in them to cancel out the yellow and orange tones in brassy hair.

Yes, you can use purple shampoo for bleached hair. In fact, we recommend it for all bleached blondes, as it keeps brassiness at bay while you're waiting for your next color touch-up.
Ash Toner Changes Color Quality
If you choose the right toner for brown hair, then the hair can turn pastel or neutral without making it blonde. You need to apply ash toner to neutralize all the warm undertones. Thus, you will get stylish ash-colored hair.
Depending on you hair type and hair condition, toner can last between 2-to-6 weeks. Hair that has been coloured previously can sometimes hold toners for less time than hair that has only been coloured once, so may need more regular toning.
The protein-enriched conditioning formula of this shampoo helps to tone down brassiness on your coloured hair while renewing faded highlights or ash-tones. Regular use will help refresh the hair and remove unwanted dull or brassy yellows in the hair.
Your lightened blonde pieces will have absorbed some of the base break colour. Highlighted hair is often porous and can take on ash tones heavily – the hair then appears greyish or sometimes even silver.
It's no wonder that ash blonde is a major hair goal: It's literally cool—cool gray undertones, that is—and it looks just so, so cool. To try it for yourself, embrace your natural color and enhance it with platinum streaks like Ciara, or ombré your hair into a warm toffee like Elizabeth Olsen.
Ash blonde hair is a cool-toned shade of blonde, in contrast to warmer, golden blonde shades. Ashy blonde comprises of different grey, silver and icy white hues and can incorporate root shadows, balayage and highlights to create darker or lighter looks.
Is cool blonde the same as ash blonde?
When it comes to cool tones, it's all about blue and violet hues. Cool blonde hair colour shades include light ash blonde, champagne and platinum. The blue/violet counteracts the yellow tones to produce a flattering and modern cool shade.
Ash blonde is close to grey in colour. Your clothing and make-up should include bright colours to bring more vibrancy to your style so that the overall look does not appear too dull. Your make-up can be a little more intense or adventurous.
(Think about the color of actual ashes!) Ash blonde hair can range from platinum white to dark blonde, but it always has those cool undertones. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you've got warmer tones, which is where hues such as honey and caramel blonde fall.
Your hair turns brassy/orange when you lighten it because the warm colour molecules are the last to be lifted during a lightening process. For a successful, balanced lighter colour outcome, you need to first lift out all the warm colour pigments.
As it turns out, you can use a blonde hair dye to neutralize your orange hair — the secret is to look for a shade that's ashy. Ashy, cool undertones are the key to canceling out the warm, unflattering orange tones that currently adorn your strands.
- Try using a shower filter.
- Wash your hair less frequently.
- Avoid clarifying shampoos.
- Use purple shampoo correctly.
- Visit the salon regularly.
If you've ever tried an ash hair color before, you know that they can turn brassy quickly—and ash brown is no exception. If you're opting for ash brown hair, be sure to include a blue shampoo and conditioner to your hair care routine to keep brassy, yellow undertones at bay.
Does ash blonde hair look grey? Ash blonde hair is a light blonde tint with deeper roots and a trace of gray that gives it an ashy tone. Because an ashy blonde hue is on the greyer side of the spectrum, it complements cool complexion tones and vivid eye colors.
Yes you can do that. But you need to make sure that you have bleached very well and that you have got rid of as much excess yellow as possible. The ideal bleached hair is minimal yellow, level 10. If you apply ash blonde color on top of that, you should get excellent results.
They come in Natural Ash Blonde and Natural Violet Blonde. They will cut out yellow without touching the base. For those wishing to tone down yellow hair (not go blonde, in other words), then instead of bleaching, just select the appropriate blue based or ash based colors from the following: 7.1b, 6.1b, 5.11.
Does purple shampoo Make blonde more ashy?
Using this logic, you can start to understand how purple shampoo works its magic on yellow-blonde hair. When a little purple dye is combined with a lot of yellow hair, the saturation of the yellow is decreased, leaving a more desirable ashy hue as the final result.
Going ashy.
The wrong ones, like ash, can instantly age you. “Warm tones reflect light, while ash tones absorb light. Go with warm tones, so your hair won't be dull and will instead shine, bounce, and look youthful,” says Mary Brambila of Brambila Salon.
There's a reason why more and more people are rocking this cool-toned hue in recent years — it's a great way to brighten up your look. However, ash blonde hair isn't necessarily easy to achieve.
Generally, these colours will make anyone appear older: black, cool dark brown, fiery red, yellow blonde, mousy blonde and dark grey. There's a common opinion that platinum blonde and silver hair dye age you, but we don't believe so.
2. Generally speaking, paler, pinky skin tones suit cool, delicate blondes; think ash, beige or baby-blonde. 3. Darker or more yellow / golden-toned skins suit golden or honey hues; think butter, golden, caramel tones.
Ash Blonde. While platinum is the lightest blonde shade, ash includes undertones of silver, purple, and blue in hair. Ash-blonde appears darker because it doesn't reflect light and absorbs it.
There's two reasons why your hair is still brassy after toning or colouring. Either the undertone of the toner/colour is wrong, or the product is too light for you.
Green and green-based ash cancel out red, magenta and orange. Blue and blue based colors and toners cancel out orange and yellow orange. Violet, purple and purple based toners cancel out yellow and pale yellow.
Wash that Ash Right out of Your Hair
Washing your hair more frequently than usual may help, but you'll want to be sure to follow up with a moisturizing conditioner and only increase your washing frequency for a week or so to prevent drying out your hair. You can also try a clarifying shampoo.
Q: I'm a brunette with an ashy ombre, can I brighten my ashy colored hair using purple shampoo, and will the purple shampoo make my darker hair appear purple? Purple shampoo only works on light-colored hair, so anything from an ashy blonde, to grey/white hair. It won't affect your darker hair at all!
How do you make ashy blonde more golden?
Use an artificial colour remover and scrub out the pigments with a chelating shampoo. If you don't, the ash will darken by counteracting with the yellow pigments. Used a 10 vol developer to see whether pigment is still inside the hair. Repeat if necessary.
If you've ever tried an ash hair color before, you know that they can turn brassy quickly—and ash brown is no exception. If you're opting for ash brown hair, be sure to include a blue shampoo and conditioner to your hair care routine to keep brassy, yellow undertones at bay.
KNOW THIS: Hair will always appear darker when it has an ash tonality, according to Constance. Explain to your client that warm tones reflect light and cool tones absorb it.
"A clarifying shampoo like Biolage Clean Reset Shampoo should do the trick to gently remove some of the ashy tone without stripping the natural oils. If this gentle approach doesn't work, then a warmer salon gloss or correction will be needed at the salon."
Ash blonde is close to grey in colour. Your clothing and make-up should include bright colours to bring more vibrancy to your style so that the overall look does not appear too dull. Your make-up can be a little more intense or adventurous.
How Often Should I Use Purple Shampoo? Keep in mind that purple shampoo does not replace your regular shampoo and should only be used once or twice a week.