Woman shares DIY hair tip to ‘neutralise yellow tones’ in greys (2024)

FAQs

How to remove yellow from gray hair with home remedies? ›

If your hair is blond, grey, or white, use an apple cider vinegar rinse or a baking soda-hydrogen peroxide paste. Once you get the yellow out, you can prevent it from returning with a few changes to your personal care routine.

Thankfully there is an alternative. Instead of combatting yellow hair with a messy blue dye that just masks the problem, you can use a pre-shampoo mineral remover, like Color Wow Dream Filter, to remove the minerals and metals from your hair, restoring your gorgeous shade of gray.

Apple Cider Vinegar: I make a diluted rinse using about 1 to 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar to 1 quart of water. An ACV helps remove the residue in the hair that can cause yellowing. Since gray hair tends to be dryer, this recipe is more dilute. A simple ACV rinse is easy to make.

This is why baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) has been incorporated into beauty routines due to its alkalinity with a high pH level. The substance works by lightening gray hair but should only ever be used cautiously as it also affects moisture retention capacity making it brittle.

Purple Shampoo

Purple shampoos are the best shampoos for gray hair turning yellow, as purple is the opposite of yellow on the color wheel. A great purple option is BTWCo's purple shampoo & conditioner. It's very gentle, has a light fragrance, and really makes silver hair shine.

Simply put, whichever colors sit opposite one another on this wheel can cancel each other out. For example, blue neutralizes orange, green balances red, and purple tones down yellow hues. That means, in order to target yellow, you need a touch of violet in your formula.

If you prefer a natural approach, an apple cider vinegar rinse could fix your problem. The other option is purple shampoo, which helps to correct and maintain yellow-free locks every time you lather up in the shower.

Hydrogen peroxide is a natural oxidant; we produce an enzyme called catalase that breaks down hydrogen peroxide turning it into water and oxygen. As catalase function decreases, the levels of hydrogen peroxide increase. High levels of hydrogen peroxide block the production of pigment, leading to gray hair.

When using apple cider vinegar on your hair, it is important to dilute it with water. Mix one part vinegar with two parts water and apply to your hair after shampooing. Let it sit for a few minutes before rinsing with water. You can use apple cider vinegar as a hair rinse once or twice a week.

Can I use white vinegar on my hair instead of apple cider vinegar? ›

You can also use white vinegar, and its smell dissipates more quickly than ACV, but neither lingers after rinsing and drying.

I recommend that you try using Purple shampoo or conditioner because using a purple based product will cancel out the unwanted yellow pigments. Use it once to twice a week, because these products can dry out your hair. I like to use the Fanola brand purple shampoo on my clients, i get great results.

If you have yellow, orange, or brassy tones after bleaching, cover them up with a toner or color corrector. You can also offset yellow tones with a purple shampoo or a little gentian violet. You can also brighten your hair naturally with lemon juice.

Purple shampoo can actually strip the hair of the toner, which will likely leave you with a mixture of yellow, ashy and grey tones throughout your hair. Learn more about using purple shampoo correctly in our previous blog, How To Maintain Blonde Hair here.

Gray or white hair, which contains little or no pigment, sometimes gets yellow because it picks up pigments from the environment; for example, if you use a yellowish shampoo or conditioner, rather than a clear one, a trace of the color might be deposited on your hair.

Water and Vinegar

Mixing white vinegar with equal parts water can also remove yellow stains. Combine the two ingredients into a spray bottle and spray it on the blemish. Let the garment sit for one to two hours before washing it in cold water. After washing the stained clothing, let it dry before assessing the results.

When deciding how to tone yellow hair to ash, try using a violet shampoo first. As purple is the opposite of yellow on the colour spectrum, the shampoo's purple pigment draws out the yellow brassiness from your blonde, neutralises those unwanted tones, and makes your colour look cooler, healthier and more vibrant.