Grey (or white) hair often goes yellow over time through exposure to the sun (UV), heat, pollution, chlorine and other environmental factors but it doesn’t have to be permanent.
Using a violet shampoo will help counteract the yellow tone so that grey hair looks clean, bright and white for a stunning natural grey.
Violet products work to tone/neutralise gold/yellow/brassy/warm reflects and are often marketed for blondes for the exact same reason which is why they work on grey/white.
If you have hair that is yellow/orange/copper in appearance and you want it to look more natural, neutral or cool (cool tones are usually blue/green/violet) the ME&MY Blondes & All System is ideal for you.
The science behind toning/neutralising:
If you’ve ever mixed paint colours together this will give you a basic idea of how adding 1 colour to another alters the colour we see. So if you were to mix yellow and violet (which is a mix of red and blue) you will notice it goes a brownish grey shade depending on how much yellow and how much red/blue the violet is made up of. The same can be said for mixing the 3 primary colours Red, Blue, Yellow – when mixed they make brown/natural shades but the balance of the 3 shades determines if it’s a warm or cool brown. The colour wheel shows you what to look for when counteracting warm tones and our Blondes & All dots give you an idea of the basic concept (violet over yellow = neutral).
The colour wheel shown here tells us that to counteract the yellow/orange/red tones that we need to apply blues/greens/purples and what we most often see with hair tones is that yellow is the most common reflect needing toning/neutralising and so therefore a blue based violet is the best option.
However, it’s not that simple, too much blue over yellow can appear green and too much violet over pale yellow or white can appear blue. Which is why violet based shampoos and conditioners are maintenance products only and should be alternated with non-pigmented hair care.
For a slightly stronger tone Blondes & All Shampoo can be applied to dry hair which allows a greater deposit of the violet pigment and will achieve a stronger neutralised result on slightly darker yellow/gold bases.
And remember these products are temporary; the violet pigment simply sits over the top of the yellow pigment so that your eyes see a neutral tone. After 1 or 2 shampoos with a non-violet based shampoo any violet will have washed out and you will see yellow again so working out frequency of using a violet shampoo is key to long-term colour perfection.
Sara x
