How do you neutralize red and reddish-orange tones?
What do you do when a client comes in with very red hair which she wants you to get rid of?
And what do you do when she says she doesn't want to bleach it, she just wants you to "tone it away"? Or cover it?
In this blog, we are going to show you exactly why your hair produces reddish tones.
And we are going to show you 3 ways to deal with it.
Each of these ways is valid. It simply depends on what you want to do with the hair.
Why do you even get red and reddish-orange tones in the hair?
You may be wondering why you even get reddish tones in the hair in the first place.
The answer is that you get reddish tones in the hair because your hair has not been lightened enough.
Period. There is no other reason. It is just too dark.
Take a look at the chart below to understand how reflects in hair work.
The chart shows the undercoat (or reflect) that you get when you lift hair (usually with bleach or developer or some previous color application that has now faded).
As you can see, when hair is level 3 (dark brown), level 4 (brown), level 5 (light brown) and even level 6 (dark blonde) you will get red, reddish or red-orange reflects.
Hair colors - levels & undertones
1. How to get rid of red and take hair blonde
What are you looking to do with your client's red hair?
Are you trying to get rid of the red and take it blonde?
If so, what you need to do is apply bleach.
We would recommend you use Ugly Duckling's Brilliant Blondexx with Bond Protect.
It is a highly effective bleach at working with colors like orange and red and will lift and protect the hair at the same time.
Mix your bleach with either 20 Vol developer or 30 Vol developer depending on how dark it is.
Lift out the red and take it all the way to level 10 very pale yellow.
Then tone the hair with a blonde toner (Ugly Duckling has a wide range of blonding toners) and you're done.
Maybe she wants to stay at her current hair level and just get rid of the red and tone it over.
This is the simplest and most effective way of getting rid of red hair and taking the hair to a light blonde.
2. How to get rid of red and keep hair brown
Many women want to get rid of the red in their hair. But they want to keep the hair brown.
In that case we would recommend that you use ash additives and mix them with brown base shades.
These additives contain either green or blue-green, and used correctly they help you get rid of unpleasant red or orange reflects.
To understand better how exactly they work, let's take a look at the chart below:
Hair Color Neutralization Chart
Which Colors Contain Ash & Green?
As you can see in the chart above, to neutralize red and reddish orange tones, you need to use blue-green or green.
Which one you use depends on the exact level of your client's hair.
Ugly Duckling has 2 additives which you should use:
Ash Blue Additive Contains a mixture of blue-green and ash pigments.
This is the correct additive to use to get rid of yellowish orange and orange.
You should use it when your client's hair is from level 5 to level 7.
Ash Grey Additive Contains a mixture of green and ash pigments.
This is the correct additive to use to get rid of red.
you should use it when your client's hair is from level 3 to level 5.
How Should I Use These Additives?
These additives are very strong in terms of pigment combination.
That is why the best way to use these additives is to mix a little (about an inch) of them to the regular base color or toner that you are using.
You can combine Ash Blue Additive with any level 6 or level 7 color.
And you can combine Ash Grey Additive with any level 4 or level 5 color.
You will get excellent toning away of red and orange that way.
They're not complicated to use. They allow you to avoid using bleach.
Plus they get you a beautiful brown color result.
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Ash Blue Additive
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Ash Grey Additive
Case Study by Elona Taki: Neutralizing red and orange on dark hair.
In this case our client came in with a mess of red and orange hair on a dark base.
Before: A mess of Red and Orange Hair
Hair by Elona Taki
After: Beautifully toned hair on a dark base
Hair by Elona Taki
Here is what we did:
1. We did some bleaching on the red and orange hair to get rid of as much as we could. We put in some extra bleaching chunks for highlights that the client wanted us to put in.
2. Then we toned the base using 4A and Ash Grey Additive.
3. For the blonde highlights, we toned these parts with 8N Blonde.
3. How to get rid of red and reddish-orange when working on medium blonde hair.
When the hair is red bordering on orange rather than pure red, there is a third, very straighforward way.
Instead of adding in color additives, you can use a ready mixed ash toning product.
It's called Blondify Blue Ash Blonde 9B.
This toner is a toner which works at level 9.
It is very strongly pigmented with blue pigments.
It is literally a miracle worker on red-orange hair.
Just mix this toner with 20 Vol developer and apply onto your hair.
It is a liquid color, so very easy to mix and use.
Leave it ten to fifteen minutes and rinse.
You should find a vey significant toning result even on very red and orange hair.
Case Study by Kristin: Neutralizing red and orange using Blue Ash Blonde 9B
Before: orange and red tones in the client's hair
We put in some highlights using bleach to give some dimension to the hair:
Result after toning with Blondify Blue Ash Blonde 9B:
Hair by Kristin
WATCH VIDEO: GETTING RID OF ORANGE AND RED USING BLONDIFY BLUE ASH BLONDE 09B
Hair by Kristin
