If you’ve got blonde hair, brassiness is the bane of your existence. It’s the unavoidable truth after bleaching and colouring your hair blonde. You leave the salon with perfectly toned hair, then you notice the shade gradually fade, showing unwanted orange and yellow tones running through your strands. But what’s causing this brassiness and how do you keep it away?

Brassiness typically occurs when you bleach or lighten dark hair to achieve lighter hair colours such as blonde or platinum hair. During the bleaching process, the melanin (natural pigment) is diluted. Unless you bleach your hair white (which is not recommended unless you want to lose your hair….) you will be left with red to yellow pigments in your hair.

How To Banish Brassy Hair At Home

While the easiest solution is to go back to your salon every 2 weeks for a colour refresh, I don’t think our wallets would be too happy about that. There are plenty of at-home solutions to combat brassiness between salon visits.

1. Cleanse Your Hair with a Purple Shampoo & Colour Care Shampoo

The number one recommendation for all blondes is to invest in a purple shampoo, such as De Lorenzo's Illumin8 Blonde Toning Shampoo. Purple shampoo is formulated with violet pigments to neutralise warm tones and will keep your blonde hair refreshed in-between salon visits. Use purple shampoo once a week in your hair care routine (don’t overuse as it, as it can dry out hair and turn it purple). We recommend alternating your purple shampoo with a colour care shampoo, like Matrix Biolage Colorlast Shampoo. Colour care shampoos are formulated to gently cleanse chemically treated hair and doesn’t include sulphates, which can cause colour-fade and further damage.

Recommended Purple Shampoos

Recommended Colour Care Shampoos

2. Neutralise Brassiness with a Purple Hair Mask

If you need to maintain strong and bright blonde hair, introducing a pigmented purple hair mask, such as Juuce Blonde Mask to your haircare routine is a must. After going through a chemical treatment, you’ll need a nourishing hair mask to strengthen and nourish parched strands. A purple hair mask will do just that plus correct and neutralise those unwanted brassy tones. Purple hair masks should be used once a week in place of your regular hair treatment.

Recommended Blonde Hair Masks

3. Avoid Soaking Up the Sun

Chlorine & the Sun will do a number on your newly toned hair. If you want your hair colour to last, it’s best to avoid the sun and pools.

Excessive sun exposure does more damage than you would think. It will speed up colour fade. So, make sure you cover up those fresh locks if you want to keep brassiness at bay.

Chlorine is found in most pools, this chemical will strip your hair, leaving it dry, damaged and brassy. The more damaged hair gets, the harder it is for colour to stay in place. However, if you must go swimming, protect your hair with a swimming cap. If you don't have a swimming cap (or refuse to use one), opt-in for a protective treatment, such as Matrix Biolage HydraSource Leave-in Tonic to protect your hair from chlorinated water.

Recommended Protective Treatments