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You have brown hair, but you are tired of having brown hair and want to go blonde. That sounds like an exciting thing to do. However, the truth is, going from brown to blonde is not always easy. It can be downright tricky most of the time. You know that anytime you dye your hair, you are increasing your chance of damaging it, which will require many treatments down the road. That is only one aspect of it. The other thing to realize is that when you dye your brown hair blonde, you will end up having a hair color that you never wanted to have. That color is orange. You wanted blonde hair, not orange hair. What gives?
That unsightly orange hair that you have after dying your hair blonde from a natural brown color is known as brassiness. Many other articles cover the topic of brassiness. In a nutshell, brassiness happens after your hair has exposure to chemicals, UV rays from the sun, heat from hair treatment or tools, and anything else unnatural that will cause your hair to change unsightly colors. That results in orange and yellow strands, which stand out and not in a good way.
One effective way to combat brassiness is by using colored shampoo, which would be of any specific color that neutralizes brassiness. Let’s talk about purple shampoo and how long to leave it in your hair if it starts turning orange.
How Long Should You Leave Purple Shampoo In Orange Hair?
The thing to know about these colored shampoos is that they will dry out your hair. That is why you do not want to leave them in your hair for a prolonged period. If you have naturally dry hair, that can be significantly problematic. Even if you have oily hair, it can damage it if you leave it in for too long.
Therefore, on average, you do not want to leave the purple shampoo in orange hair for longer than five minutes. However, if your hair is orange because of many red hues instead of too many yellow ones, you do not want to use purple shampoo. Instead, you will want to use blue shampoo.
If your hair is orange because you have more red hues than yellow, then you will find that if you keep using purple shampoo, it will not help at all. The same goes if you have more strands of hair that are orange than red or yellow; again, the purple shampoo will not be the right color shampoo.
Why Is Purple Shampoo Not Necessarily Effective For Orange Hair?
There is a simple reason that purple shampoo is not the ideal shampoo if you have orange hair with few yellow strands. That is because purple is not the color that will neutralize orange. The color that will balance orange is blue, and therefore, if you have primarily orange strands of brassy hair, then blue is the shampoo to use. The same idea applies to red strands of brassy hair, as you will need green shampoo to neutralize those.
That is because only the color on the opposite side of the color wheel is the color that can neutralize them correctly. That means purple neutralizes yellow, blue neutralizes orange, and green neutralizes red since those colors oppose one another. Therefore, if you have orange hair, there is a much better chance that blue shampoo will be the correct shampoo to neutralize those strands than purple. If you are unsure, you will need to visit your stylist, who can help make that determination. The last thing you want to do is play a guessing game on your own about what color shampoo to buy, and then you will find that it does not affect your hair other than drying it out.
Is It Possible That Purple Shampoo Will Tone Your Hair If You Leave It In Longer Than Five Minutes?
If you primarily have orange brassy hair strands, then purple shampoo will not be the one at all to cancel the orange out. As mentioned, blue will be the color to do that, and you will need to get a blue shampoo instead. Not only will purple shampoo not work too well on orange hair but leaving it in for too long will dry and damage it. The first part of the article covers that, and another problem you will have if you leave the purple shampoo in your orange hair too long will cause your hair to become purple. That is not likely what you want to happen.
The best thing once again is to get the correct shampoo for your brassy color hair strands and follow the instructions on the bottle. The objective is to remove yellow, red, or orange strands in your hair, and you can only do that by using the correct shampoo. You will do that without leaving it in too long in your hair.
Is There A Way To Prevent Brassiness?
Unfortunately, preventing brassiness from happening after dying your hair will not be possible. Sure, you can wear a hat all the time when you are outdoors so that you avoid the sun’s UV rays from affecting your hair. In addition, you can wear the hat to prevent other pollutants from coming into contact with your hair. However, you will become tired of wearing it all of the time unless you are out when the sun’s UV rays are at their peak.
When you wash your hair, even with filtered water, some minerals will seep through and cause changes to your hair which can make it brassy. Therefore, there is no way to avoid it. However, you can minimize it by spending less time outside when the UV rays are at their peak. You can wear a shower cap when you are washing your body but not your hair, and you can also wear a swimming cap if you take a swim. Even so, brassiness will be inevitable at some point. You can control the severity of it by being cautious, however.
Conclusion
You already know that when you are dying your hair from brown to blonde or any other color, you will end up with brassiness which you cannot avoid altogether; that is why you will want to use the correct color shampoo‘ to neutralize brassiness in your hair. Not only do you need to get the right shampoo color, but you want to ensure that you leave the shampoo in for the best time frame. You want to ensure it affects neutralizing the brassiness, but you do not want to leave it in for too long, which can dry out your hair and turn the color of the shampoo!