Changing your natural color is your God-given right. But when you opt to change your natural hair color, you need to know that there are side effects and downsides.
For example, brassy tones can happen when you are trying to turn your hair color to blonde. Using store-bought toners is one way to prevent and treat brassiness, but they can also damage your hair.
With that in mind, one question that is popping up the charts in the past few years is how to get rid of brassy hair with vinegar and hair coloring?
To answer that question, we have to understand what causes brassiness, and what are hair toners and how they help.
Chapter Overview
What is a hair toner?
A hair toner is something that will remove the orange and yellow tones from your hair. They are often used when you want to try out cool toned hair colors like platinum blonde, and something goes wrong.
You can use hair toners to achieve ash blonde hair without all the brassiness that comes with dying your hair.
How do toners remove unwanted warm tones like orange and yellow? Well, when you have dark hair, you have warm natural pigments. People with light hair, tend to pick up warm yellow tones with the regular use of shampoos.
Toners work by removing these pigments. They use cool tones on the opposite end of the color spectrum to neutralize the warm tones.
For example, if you have light blonde hair that is picking up yellow tones, you need a clarifying treatment that will remove product and mineral deposits from your hair and tone it up.
What causes brassiness?
Blonde hair turns brassy because it is porous. To put it simply, blonde hair can soak up everything. That includes minerals in your shower and the pollution in the air.
Even all of the products you put on your hair. Another big reason why your blonde hair is experiencing brassiness is that your toner wears off. But those are not the only two factors that play a role in hair brassiness.
Other factors include:
- Your natural hair color may have brassy undertones, for example, when your natural hair color is not blonde. Chances are, you will always have to combat brassiness, and it is just a given of how hair colors work
- Chlorine and sunlight can inflict damage on your blonde hair, and no matter the shade, chlorine, and sunlight can sabotage your precious strands. Over time, the exposure will weaken your hair shaft and leave it vulnerable to breakage, which leads to brassiness
- In some cases, mineral deposits are to blame for the brassiness. You have to worry about the water in your shower. Sadly, but that is true. If your water is particularly hard, which means high in mineral content, it can wreak havoc on your blonde hair
How can vinegar help?
With that in mind, one solution that helps with brassiness is vinegar. How does vinegar help? Well, for starters, vinegar can strengthen your hair, improve your luster, lower the pH value, keep scalp infections away, and prevent any microbes from damaging your hair.
But when you ask how to get rid of brassy hair with vinegar, the other ingredients are just as important. And it all comes down to the color spectrum. Now, people use different hair dyes for this method. But they have one common, and that is vinegar.
The basis for this remedy is the same. You mix food coloring and vinegar and rinse your hair with it.
The recipe we suggest here is the following:
- 2 cups of white vinegar
- 10 drops of blue food coloring
- 4 drops of red food coloring
You might find some bloggers and websites recommending neon purple food coloring. But the reality is that this is a try and experiment method. There is not one method that is set in stone.
How to do it?
- Mix the ingredients together in a measuring cup
- Take a shower, and apply shampoo and conditioner as you normally do
- Pour the entire toner mixture evenly over your hair. Be careful to tilt your hair back and avoid getting it in your mouth and eyes
- Let the solution sit for 10 to 15 seconds, and then rinse with lukewarm water
- Comb your hair, and let it air dry for about one hour
You can see alternatives like swapping out the vinegar for white conditioner. But we recommend you stick for this remedy. Your hair will get an extra boost of shine, and look much more natural after the vinegar rinse.
Precautions and side effects
While this treatment is generally considered safe, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. For example, apple cider vinegar or white vinegar, whichever you use, it is extremely acidic.
That means you should not use it more than 3 times per month. Otherwise, you risk drying out your hair.
With that in mind, adding food coloring to your shampoo or conditioner will not damage your hair. It is completely safe. You can use it on all hair types.
In terms of exact balance, and which food colors to use. This is more of a trial and error and tries and experiment method.
Therefore, for best results, we suggest you do a strand test before using on your whole head. The exact balance between blue, red green and purple food coloring depends on the darkness and intensity of the color you are going for.
How to tackle brassy hair?
In addition to the how to get rid of brassy hair with vinegar method, we want to give you some professional tips on how to tackle brassy hair.
The method above is very effective, and more importantly, safe for all hair types. But there are also some tips you can learn from professionals.
- If you need a quick fix, just find a violet or blue-base toner on your hair. Toners help you tackle brassiness much quicker. If you have a party to attend in a few hours, you cannot wait for a couple of treatments with vinegar to relieve brassiness
- Because brassiness is usually caused by iron and chlorine in the water you use for showering, it might be a good idea to invest in a showerhead filter that will deliver minerals-clean water for showering
