Kayla Young
With lots of hair color trends these days, ash-blond hair is ultra on-trend. As the name suggests, it offers a blonde and gray appearance to create an ashy striking, bold, and cool-toned look. It is a perfect style for all occasions, and you’ll love it all year long.Â
What color does ash blonde fade to? And how do you manage it as it fades?
Maintaining ash blonde hair can be difficult. And many salons dye clients’ hair ash blonde without educating them on proper care.
This has left many people disappointed after noticing how faded their hair is a few weeks after the coloring, with those brassy tones becoming prominent.
We’ve put together this guide explaining what happens as ash blonde fades, and how to maintain it.
Contents
Does Ash Blonde Hair Fade?
Although ash blonde hair color gives your hair a natural blonde appearance, it is not permanent. Like all other hair colors, it can fade quickly if not properly maintained.
The longevity of ash blonde is highly dependent on your after-coloring care routine.Â
What Color Does Ash Blonde Fade To?
Your hair will appear unusually darker on the day of application. It will gradually fade into a lighter or even brighter blonde. Nothing, however, can be more disheartening than a brassy fade on your ash-blonde hair.
Your hair will appear unusually darker on the day of application. It will gradually fade into a lighter or even brighter blonde.
What Is Brassiness In Regards To Ash Blond Hair?
When it comes to hair, brassiness refers to the unwanted warm tones like red and orange on colored hair. Brassy colors, those metallic yellow tones, are common in ash-blond hair and are often a sign of fading.
While dyeing, hair color deposits artificial pigment on your hair strands, removing the artificial color.Â
Brassiness happens when your color oxidizes in the sun, through heat styling, and using non-color-safe products.
Oxidation is the gradual loss of color and molecules. Once you lose the color molecules, the underlying natural pigments on your hair will appear warm, yellow, golden, or red.
The general term for this appearance is brassy.Â
Brassiness happens when your color oxidizes in the sun, through heat styling, and using non-color-safe products.
Maintaining Ash-Blond HairÂ
Fading of ash-blond hair begins after six weeks. This makes maintenance time-consuming and expensive because it requires regular trips to the salon. You can notice fading at the roots and the ends of your hair strands.
Fading of ash-blond hair begins after six weeks. This makes maintenance time-consuming and expensive.
While you might hide the dull color tones by styling your hair appropriately, this might only be short-lived. With time, you will have to visit the salon for proper treatment. Here are easy salon-approved tips for maximizing the lifespan of your ash-blond hair.
Toning Shampoo
Toning shampoos are the best way to combat color fading at home. You can use full toners at home, but usually these are best used under the care of a salon professional. Toning shampoos, however, can be used at home.
To use a toning shampoo, you need to understand the color wheel.
Find the color of the tone you want to get rid of in your hair. In the case of ash blonde, it’s almost always those brassy yellow tones, but it could be orange tones as well. Once you know the tone you want to get rid of, you pick a color toning shampoo of the opposite color, which will neutralize that tone.
For brassy yellow, you choose purple shampoo. For orange tones, you choose blue shampoo.
If it’s in between, you can mix blue and purple.
For a fuller explanation of this, see Blue vs Purple Shampoo: Which One Do You Need?
1. Wash with a Purple (or Blue, potentially) Shampoo
As mentioned above, you’ll probably want to use a purple shampoo to keep that ashy tone. The purple will keep yellow tones from peeking out of your hair. However, if your hair has orange tones, you’ll want to go with blue.
2. Avoid too much heat
Too much heat from blow dryers, hot water, and other heat treatment methods can damage your hair, causing the dye to fade.
To prevent this, always regulate the amount of heat, and use heat protectants to retain your ash-blond color longer. Wash your hair only once to twice weekly with cold or lukewarm water.
3. Shield your color
Environmental factors can cause your ash-blond hair to fade quickly. Always use a water softener for your shower because hard water can strip color from lightly-toned ash-blond hair.
While it’s obvious that you cannot abandon showering, skipping a shampoo every now and then won’t hurt!
While it’s obvious that you cannot abandon showering, skipping a shampoo every now and then won’t hurt!
Use a shower cap to give your hair a few days off to make your hair last longer. When the color is still fresh, wait for a full 72 hours before washing your hair.
Another major contributor to hair discoloration is sun exposure. While it is important to avoid sunlight completely, you can invest in high-quality hair sunscreens to protect your hair.
Avoid extreme weather conditions, including wind, snow, and heavy rain. Also, avoid swimming as much as possible because chlorine can strip your hair of color and impact its texture.Â
4. Avoid harsh hair products.
You should always opt for safe hair products for your colored hair. Avoid shampoos and conditioners with sulfates. Harsh chemicals in hair products can mess up your color treatment, accelerating fading.
Invest in high-quality luxury hair color-preserving hair products. They help your hair retain color by strengthening weakened hair bonds. Hair bleaching is a chemical process that weakens hair bonds, and needs to be carefully treated.
5. Use a toner
Toners can offer a quick fix for your faded blond ash hair by restoring hair harmony. They create a color balance by giving your faded hair ashy color, restoring shine, especially to dull, dry locks. This treatment revitalizes your colored hair, giving it a soft and even tone hue.
However, toners can go wrong, and it’s generally best to use these under the guidance of a salon professional. If you don’t want to do that, stick to toning shampoos
6. Know your hair type
Colors react differently to different hair types. If you have natural blonde hair, the color is more likely to last than on previously colored hair. Previously colored hair is also more prone to damage from the bleaching process.Â
Always consult a pro-hair colorist who can safely work with the bleach on your hair type. Also, dying darker hair could require multiple bleaching sessions to achieve your desired hue.
8. Find the perfect ash-blond dye shade for your hair.
Ash blond color comes in different shades, from silver blonde to mushroom shade, to dark shade. This is partly because there are different hair dye manufacturers in the market.
While it could be difficult to determine the perfect shade for your hair, you can rely on colored hair photos on the internet. The photos will be a great guide not only to your hair color expert and to yourself if you’re planning to DIY.
While it could be difficult to determine the perfect shade for your hair, you can rely on colored hair photos on the internet.
Conclusion
If you are going for an ash blonde color, you must avoid unrealistic expectations of long-lasting effects.
Ash-blond hair fades just like any other color, and it has high maintenance associated with it.
While re-coloring seems the perfect solution to your faded ash-blond hair, don’t rush through the process. You should wait two to three weeks before another coloring session to avoid damaging your hair and scalp, and use the correct color-toning shampoo (probably purple) to maintain your ashy locks.
Good luck!
