Last week we talked about Brassy Hair and this week we are going to tackle Ash. So where brass is apart of the warmth family, an ash tone, is cool.
When it comes to hair color, what does “ash” mean?
Ash looks like a grayish-blue kind of tone. It’s just a little bit of an additive in your color made to cool down your hair—mostly your roots—like a hair toner. Typically you don’t want an ashy hair color throughout all of their strands, because the finish is more matte.
However, when it’s combined with a warm tone, like a beige or ash-cooper, we get this nice balance of warm and cool tones.
We use the Aveda color lines at Salon Bilancio and are able to customize your color with warm and/or cool tones to suit your complexion.
What are other words commonly used in the hair color world to describe ash?
We commonly refer to ash tones as cool or neutralizing.
Is ash a bad thing?
No, definitely not. Ash is one of those tones that can be extremely helpful when used the right way. On its own, it’s not the most flattering shade, but when formulated into or as part of a warmer base hair color, it can be beautiful—unless you have platinum blonde hair and want to go gray , which that trend was going strong for a long time in recent history.
For example-If you have dyed, platinum blonde hair and you add a pure ash color to it, it would almost look silver. Adding ash to platinum blonde shades cuts out all the warmth to give you a silver-vixen look—which can be gorgeous if that’s what you’re going for.
For folks who don’t want ashy hair color, is it hard to fix?
When formulating your shade, your colorist will likely use a copper or golden tone to counteract the ash. You can also use a pigmented rinse like our Tint Rinse to add warmth temporarily.
This process is essentially the exact opposite of the way you would treat brassiness and is probably easier to fix. Why? Because to fix ash, you’re simply depositing color to cover it up. A lot of the time with brassy shades, you need to lift a bit further, which can be difficult to achieve depending on the current level of your hair color. With ashy shades, you’re just adding warmth, and hair is typically more receptive to ash.
How do you avoid ashy hair?
If you don’t want ashy hair, try to stay away from cool tones like violet, blue, or matte shades like green. Try to stay in the neutral to golden spectrum which can also give you some sparkle in the sun. If you’re wanting to maintain a shade that doesn't fall flat, definitely using a second bottle of color to revive and revitalize your hair will keep it from looking too ashy.
Salon Bilancio
1414 Fourth Street
San Rafael, CA
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