How do you cancel orange in hair?
Dealing with unwanted orange tones in hair can be a real challenge.
But in this tutorial we've got two straightforward solutions to help you get rid of that orange hair.
Read on...
First Way: Bleach and then tone.
This way is actually the best way for anyone looking to go blonde.
Because the reason that the orange hair is orange in the first place is that it was not lightened enough in the first place.
That orange hair is level 6-7 instead of level 9-10 which is what it should be.
So, what we do is we re-apply bleach to all parts of the hair that are orange.
Saturate it really well using a good quality bleach.
We would recommend Brilliant Blondexx. It contains Bond Protect and it is very powerful and effective.
You can use it with 20 Vol on orange hair and you will be able to get it to go to very pale yellow easily.
Brilliant Blondexx Bleach with Bond Protect.
Bleach the hair all the way to level 10 very pale yellow.
This is what your hair should look like after bleaching
Apply a good quality bleach, saturating the hair really really well and lift up the hair to level 10.
The reason stylists sometimes fail to get enough lift is that they are using a poor quality bleach.
We would really suggest that you use Ugly Duckling's Brilliant Blondexx Bond Protect Bleach.
It has Bond Protect built in and will protect the hair. It also has excellent lifting properties and is guaranteed to lift out the orange.
20 Vol developer would be enough to lift out orange using Brilliant Blondexx.
So you won't compromise your client's hair as you lift.
When it has reached level 10, it will be very very light yellow - see the picture above and the chart below.
Now you are ready to tone.
As you lift hair lighter with bleach, you get rid of all the orange.
Now, tone
Once you have bleached really well, you are now in a position to tone.
Hopefully, the hair is now at or approaching level 10. Meaning that the undercoat is now yellow, not orange.
So at this stage you can use a violet (purple) or blue based toner depending on your exact preference of final color result.
Purple based will tend to give you a pearly, platinum blonde result.
Blue based will give you a silver white blonde result.
We have selected some toners that will work well for your hair at this stage.
All of them will take the hair to white blonde. The exact nuance of the white blonde will depend on which toner you use.
Cream Based Permanent Toners
Here are some cream-based permanent toners we would suggest:
Intense Pearl Blonde 100V - violet based
Intense Silver Blonde 100B - blue based
No-lift Pearl Blonde 10V - violet based
No-lift Silver Blonde 10B - blue based
Blue Based Extra Cold Ash Blonde 10.1b - blue based
Extra light Cool Blonde 10.2 - intense violet based
Liquid Based Demi-Permanent Toners
Blondify Natural Ash Blonde 010A
Blondify Natural Violet Blonde 010V
Ugly Duckling's toners and blonding colors are very intensely pigmented and you need to watch as the color is processing.
Be ready to rinse once done.
Generally speaking, around 20 minutes of processing time is enough.
Lift Out Orange Hair & Take it to Pearl Blonde - Watch Video:
Note: If the result is too purple for you, you can just skip the Purple Grey and use only the Pearl Blonde toner instead
Hair by Ashley Betancourt
Products Used:
Purple Grey and Pearl Blonde Toner 10V
Brilliant Blondexx Shampoo & Mask for after.
How to lift out Orange with Bleach and Tone - Watch Video:
Hair by Ashley Betancourt
Second Way: Cover orange hair using blue based dyes.
Blue is the opposite to orange on the color wheel.
The second way is for people who don't want to bleach the hair any more but who want to tone down (or cover over) the orange hair.
So what happens if you simply don't want to bleach?
You just want to cover and tone down the orange hair in front of you.
Well, the good news is you can do that!
But there is one caveat: you won't be able to get hair white blonde in this way.
But you will be able to get rid of the orange!
Refer to the color wheel above.
As you can see from the color wheel, the color opposite to orange it on the color wheel is blue, as well as blue-green.
So the way to neutralize the orange would therefore be to use blue-based colors.
Also, for very orange hair, you can add in some blue ash (some extra blue, essentially).
This way you will be able neutralize your orange.
But, as we said before, you will not get to white blonde.
You would need to settle for a medium blonde color instead.
Blue based toners which cover orange
Ugly Duckling has an extensive range of blue based dyes you can use.
We would recommend that you use the following, depending on whether you are looking to use permanent toners or demi liquid toners.
6.1b, a blue based dark ash blonde
And when the orange is really really strong, remember what we said about ash, AKA blue-green?
You would need to reinforce your blue based blonde colors with some ash blue additive.
Around an inch squeezed out of the ash blue additive added to a tube of the 6.1b and 7.1b will do this.
This will help you cover the orange.
You will get a nice dark ash or medium blonde this way.
 7.1b Light Cold Ash Blonde |
 6.1b Cold Dark Ash Blonde |
 Ash Blue Additive |
Liquid Based Demi-Permanent Toners
You can also use the following demis. They have both been formulated to counteract orange.
Tone Down & Cover Orange Hair using Blue Based Ash Blonde Dyes - Watch Video:
Video by Elona Taki
Products Used:
Ugly Duckling Brilliant Blondexx to lighten & lift
Ugly Duckling 4AA for the shadow root
Ugly Duckling Cold (Blue Based) Ash Blonde 7.1b
Blue Based Ash Blonde Dyes are only made by Ugly Duckling.
How to use blue based blonde color to tone down and cover orange - Video:
Hair by Elona Taki
Products Used:
