Ash Hair Color, Chart, Tones with Highlights + Pictures

What is ash hair color and how does it look like on chart? Who can use it? Will ash hair color offset orange brassy tones? What is its effect over red and how can it be used for warm skin tone? How do you fix ashy color  that has turned green? Read on learn more with pictures

Ash Hair Color Chart, Definition & Ideas

What it is Ashy Hair Color?

Ash Hair Color like it’s name suggests is an ash shade with strong cool gray undertones that resemble the natural color of ash. Ash hair color usually ranges from light brown to light ash blonde that almost looks like a white shade with a grayish tint.

There are also some crazy ash shades that may have green, purple, pink, or blue undertones as long as the color has a cool base.

Who can use Ash Hair Color Dye?

If you are wondering whether this shade will suit you the answer is YES if:

• You have pink to red skin undertones
• Your hair is not too dark to begin with
• You have blue or light green, or gray eyes
• You want to get a silvery effect to your hair

If you have pale yellow skin with dark eyes, ash colors may not be ideal for you as they will make you look shallow and worn out. Medium to Dark skin tones may try an ashy shade, as long as they follow the guidelines

Hair color chart for ash blonde shades:

Will Ash Hair Color offset Orange Brassy Tones

Brassy tones occur for a variety of reasons: dark hair badly bleached, multiple layers of blonde hair dye, sun, hair products and other factors can bring out brassy yellow-orange undertones to the hair.

To counteract these brassy tones, you’ll need to find products that tone down the brassiness with the introduction of cool shades like violet and blue.

In the market, you will find shampoos and toners that are specifically targeted for bringing out ashy tones and toning down brassiness. These should be used along with ashy hair color dyes to get the desired effect.

If you have dyed your hair recently a blonde shade and want to make it look ashier, here is how:

Step 1: Mix a toner like Wella T18 Lightest Ash Blonde with a 20 vol. developer in a ration 1:2 ratio. Apply the mixture fast to your hair as it starts to activate and work really quickly. Don’t be alarmed if your hair gets a purple hue, this a sign that the toner is working to tone down the brassiness. Leave it to your hair and wait for 10-15 minutes before rinsing it. Be careful no too leave it too much on your hair as you may end up with a purple hue that needs a few washed to remove.

1-2 times of following the above process is enough to remove brassiness for a few weeks to a month.

Ash Hair Color with Highlights

Ash hair color looks even greater with highlights in supplemental shades. Highlights in this case can be made on the upper part from the root to the tips or on the lower part of the hair—middle to tips.

The process is best done at a professional salon as it may be too risky to dye your hair at home, especially if you are starting with a dark hair color (natural or dyed).

If you still want to dye and add highlights to your hair at home, here is how to do it:

1. Step 1: Choose a professional grade shade to dye your hair to a medium to light ash blonde. If you want to add dark ash blonde hair color with highlights, you base color should be one shade darker to show through.Recommended shades: L’Oreal Majirell Porfessional Hair Color in shade 901/Lightest Natural Ash Blonde as a base color and shade 901S as your highlight color.If you dark brown hair to begin with, you will need to bleach your hair at least 2-3 times as brunette hair lightens in stages—first it gets reddish brown, then orange, the brassy blonde, and then ash blonde. Therefore, do not expect to go from dark brown to ash blonde in one single application, unless you are using a strong amount of bleach.If you have already bleached your hair once or twice and have gotten to a light brassy brown or dark blonde shade, use a 30 volume developer with your base color, and 40 vol. developer with your highlighting color to achieve a stronger lightening effect. Ratio: 1 part of base color: 1 part of developer. The exact amount depends on the length and volume of your hair—for short fine hair, one tube of each is enough—for medium to long length of hair that has more volume, you may need a bigger tube or almost two tubes of each.
2. Step 2: Following with the mixing, begin applying your base color to the parts that are not to be highlighted. It would be best at this stage to take out the highlight sections and wrap them individually in aluminum foil.For making things much easier, apply the base color to all of your hair for that day and add highlights a few days after that.
3. Step 3: Apply the highlighting color to the individual hair strands you have taken out with the help of a brush or even a toothbrush. Wrap ideally in aluminum foil to trap in the hair dye and get in better results.

You can also use cheap highlight caps to help take out individual hair sections for highlighting. They are sold on beauty supply stores, Ebay, and Amazon, for less than $5 each.

Wait around 45-50 minutes or even an hour before you rinse your hair and then wash and condition as usual. To counteract any brassy tones, follow with a ash blonde/silver or purple powered shampoo.

For ash blonde hair with highlights and lowlights: Repeat the same process as above, with the difference of adding the highlight color to the tips of your hair also, around 1-2 inches towards your hair ends. If you want to achieve a brighter effect, use an even lighter hair color to the tips.

In general, ash color highlights should belong in the same range as their base color as warm shades of copper or blonde don’t mesh together unless they are thin. As a general rule of thumb, use darker base color (if your hair is already ashy enough no need for that), and 1-2 shades lighter highlighting color.

Ash Hair Color over Red

If you have red hair, you may achieve a light blonde shade gradually. If you attempt to dye your hair directly a medium ash blonde starting from a dark shade, you will end up with a brassy dark coppery blonde instead. You will have to bleach your hair first to a light blonde and then correct the brassiness with the steps mentioned before in this article.

A toner or cool based shampoo is a must to counteract red undertones in your hair and keep them from popping up.

Ash Hair Color for Warm Skin Tone

Although generally ash colors suit best those with pink cool under tones, it’s possible to try out an ash blonde hair color and still look great follow these tips:

• Don’t color your hair roots. If your natural hair color is dark black or brown, it’s best to leave it as it as will look fresher and blend in with your natural dark eyes and warm skin tone better. This has also been a trend over the last few years, with may celebs dying their hair ashy shades or adding ash blonde highlights while keeping their roots darker.
• Dye your hair a darker ashy color first. This will give you an idea on how ashy hues will look on you and won’t cause too much hair damage as with bleaching your hair to a light blonde.
• Try adding highlights and low lights rather than going for full-blown color. Full-blown color on warm skin tones can make you look shallow, unless you use some brightening make-up to go with it.
• Adding Crazy color highlights isn’t a bad idea but make sure they have a cool of neutral yet contrasting color undertone to work best. Suggested colors: magenta, fuchsia pink, purple, blue, sea green.

Some suggested brands and shades that may suit warm skin tones, especially light to medium, or medium to dark  include:

• Chi Ionic Permanent Hair Color in shade UL12N. A very light ash shade with silver undertones.
• L’Oreal Majirel 9.1 in Light Ash Blonde. A medium ash blonde shade with cool greenish undertone.
• Wella Kolleston in shade 10/8. This is a medium blonde shade with strong silver undertones.

You can try out at-home kits, but these may not give you the same results as concentration of ingredients and pigments is lower than in professional grade hair dyes. Furthermore, most brassy blonde tones are a result of home hair dyes rather than professional grade hair dyes. The professional hair dyes will cost you more, but you won’t need to waste too much time and effort to correct any possible brassy shades. Make sure that the mixing ratio is correct and that you won’t end up with uneven or patchy-looking results.

Ash Hair Color Dye turned Green or Gray

Did ash dye turn your hair to green? Why does it happen and how do you fix it?

“what has happened here is you chose a brown with an ash base. Additionally if the ends turned green they are extremely damaged or porous, and have grabbed the base color from the hair tint you used.” Thriftyfun

Here is a video providing further detail and tips to fix it.