“Help my hair has a yellow tint.”

So you’ve decided to begin the grey blending process and now your hair has a yellow tint. Here are a some reasons why. Previous artificial hair color, the age or length of the hair. The extent of porosity. Hard water and mineral deposits. Sun and or heat can reveal underlying pigment. That pigment is always a warm color, think yellow, orange or red.

You’ve probably been coloring your hair for years and now you want to quit coloring it. Outside of cutting it off, you will need to strip it out using bleach and or a color remover. When this process is complete, yellow or warm tones are revealed. This happens to every one and every strand no matter how light or dark the hair. This doesn’t mean it was done poorly. It is the science behind hair color.

The lightening process ALWAYS reveals warmth. This is the reason toning is going to be the new color service that will be required over the next several months to achieve and more importantly maintain the cool, silvery, grey tone. A little side note here: when hair color is warm, it reflects light, when it is cool/ash or silver it absorbs light. That is why cooler tones can appear darker than warmer tones. Cool toned colors are smaller molecules meaning they will shampoo out or fade in the sun quicker than warm tones will fade. It is so important to seal in or protect this new color by using color safe shampoos, conditioners, adding purple shampoos, moisture masques, heat protectants and hats to your routine all in an effort to extend the life of your newly acquired grey blend.

Toners are meant to correct the tone (warmth or coolness of a color) and shampoos or any other semi permanent color products are used to maintain that toner. No, it’s not perfect, but that is “why” your hair color fades to yellow.

What products or lifestyle changes have worked for you to extend the life of your grey blending service?