.png)
All About Hair...and So Much More.
Welcome to All About Hair—where education meets inspiration for stylists and hair lovers alike.
Whether you’re starting your career behind the chair or just obsessed with all things hair, this channel is your go-to spot for real tips, honest advice, and plenty of inspiration.
You’ll find pro techniques, career-building tools, and everyday hair hacks—plus the encouragement to grow with confidence and creativity.
Subscribe and join a community that’s passionate about great hair and even better vibes.
All About Hair...and So Much More.
EP 323: Brassy vs. Ashy: Finding Your Perfect Hair Color Balance
The age-old struggle between brassy and ashy hair tones affects everyone who's ever colored their hair. From that moment of panic when you catch your reflection and see orange instead of blonde, to the disappointment of flat, dull color when you wanted rich dimension—these color challenges can leave anyone reaching for a hat.
Brass isn't just an accident; it's actually warm tones like red, orange, and yellow that naturally exist in your hair and become visible during lightening. Those "hot roots" that glow a bit too warm? That's brass in action. But here's the revelation many don't understand: brass isn't inherently bad. Those golden, buttery, caramel tones are simply warmth by another name, and they can be absolutely stunning on the right complexion. The problem only arises when you're aiming for something cooler.
On the opposite side lives ash—those cool blue or violet tones that neutralize warmth. When used strategically, ash creates those sophisticated, muted, or even icy platinum looks that can be breathtaking. But pure ash can sometimes leave hair looking flat with that grayish cast nobody wants. The magic happens when you balance ash with warmth, creating multidimensional color that looks rich and natural.
The key to perfect hair color is understanding your skin tone, communicating clearly with your stylist using reference photos, and recognizing that dramatic color changes take time. Trying to go from brunette to blonde in one session almost always leads to that dreaded pumpkin outcome. Remember that proper home care—heat protection, color-safe products, and occasional toning treatments—will extend your color's life dramatically.
Whether you're drawn to warm golden hues or cool platinum tones, it's all about finding that sweet spot where the color enhances your natural features. So next time you're heading to the salon, think beyond just "brassy" or "ashy" and consider what combination of tones will create your perfect, personalized hair color. Have you experienced your own color disaster? Share your story and join our conversation about embracing the right tones for you!
Subscribe to my YouTube channel
Use my Gloss Genius link to start using today!
______
Train With Confidence. Lead With Impact.
Running a salon is hard enough—training new stylists shouldn’t feel like a second full-time job.
If you're constantly pulled in a dozen directions, struggling to teach while juggling clients, and wishing your new hires would just get it faster—you’re not alone. And more importantly, you don’t have to keep doing it the hard way.
Download The Ultimate In-Salon Training Toolkit today and start onboarding your stylists with clarity, confidence, and zero guesswork.
_______
Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel as well!
Visit my Amazon Store for all my favorite products!
Grab your Ultimate In-Salon Training Toolkit!
Website: www.danisekeilitz.com
Instagram: danisekeilitz
Shop my favorite Eufora Products.
Have you ever walked out of the salon expecting that perfect creamy blonde, only to catch a reflection and see something closer to a traffic cone orange? Or maybe you asked for rich chocolate brown and ended up with a flat grayish tone that made you want to throw on a hat? Yeah, brass and ash are total opposites in hair color, but here's the twist Neither one is automatically bad. In fact, they can both be beautiful when used on purpose and a total headache when they're not. So today, I'm going to break down what brassy and ashy really mean, how to know which one works for you and exactly what to do if your color crosses over into that uh-oh zone. Welcome to All About Hair, where we talk shop, share stories and spill the secrets behind great hair and a great career. I'm your host, denise Kylitz, a former salon owner, educator and a lifelong hair crusader. Whether you're a new stylist building your book or just someone who loves learning about all things hair, you're in the right place. Okay, let's start with brassy or brass In hair color.
Speaker 1:Brass refers to warm tones like red, orange or yellow that are especially visible when you lighten your hair. You've probably heard the term hot roots. That's when your roots lift but don't get light enough, then that leaves them with a glowing and a little bit too warm. It's the same story a lot of us lived as teenagers. Do you remember this Bleaching your hair in the bathroom, dreaming of platinum because, you know, on the Miss Clairol commercial that's what it showed, but you ended up with bright orange hair instead? Or if you sprayed sun in in your hair when you were a kid, you know, thinking you're going to get these beautiful highlights in your hair and it just turned orange. And side note sun in is horrible for your hair. The truth is, lifting past those super warm layers means you need to push past your natural undertones and that's not always possible in one appointment. So brass can sneak up on you over time. And I've talked about this before sun exposure, heat styling and harsh shampoos. It causes oxidation and what that is. It's when the cuticle opens and then those color molecules escape out of your hair shaft and then you're left with those underlying warm pigments. And I think I did a whole YouTube episode on that. I will leave the link in the show notes, so don't worry. And it really does break down the oxidation process and why it happens and how you can alleviate that. It actually means using good products on your hair that lay the cuticle down, in case you were wondering.
Speaker 1:But now let's talk about is brassy bad? Not necessarily, if you love golden, buttery, caramel tones. Brass is just warmth by another name, because all of those have warmth in them, right? It only becomes a problem if you're aiming for a cooler look or an ashier look. Okay, how do you fix it if your color went too brassy? Well, if you're at home, you can use products with purple or blue pigments like a shampoo. Purple balances out yellow tones, and it's really used for more of the blondes, and blue pigmented shampoos actually counterbalance orange tones, which is more of the brunette family, balance orange tones, which is more of the brunette family. If you're in the salon, you can just apply a fresh application of color to redeposit more pigment. A colorist should know that, but if you don't, when we release the color theory 101 classes, I'll talk all about that. So that's our next YouTube series is all about color.
Speaker 1:So how do you prevent brassiness in the first place? Well, don't go too light, too fast. Keep up with your regular touch-ups and always use always use color safe products to protect your vibrancy and always let your colorist know what your preferences are. Okay, they might see something in their eyes and you might have some some other idea of what you want in your hair. Discuss this with them. If you want caramel highlights or if you want really warm color and your skin tone can't support that, that needs to be a conversation with your hairstylist. They can look at you in a non-biased way because you know we get used to seeing ourselves in the mirror every day and sometimes we forget oh yeah, I've got cool skin tone or warm eyes and we see a picture on Pinterest of hair that we just really like and we want it, but we don't realize that that probably won't look the best on us. So, discussing this with your hairstylist, they could tweak the formula just a little bit so it will look good on you. Okay, now let's talk about ashy.
Speaker 1:Ashy is kind of a yucky word, I think, but ash is just the total opposite of brass. It is like cool tones like blue or violet, and this is added to the hair to cancel out any warmth. So just the opposite. And if you think about it, it's that subtle grayish cast that makes color looks more muted and matte. On its own, ash can actually be really unflattering, but when you balance that with warm tones like beige or copper, it creates a gorgeous, natural looking blend.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love to take an ash tone and a beige tone. Put those together and you get the most beautiful shade on your hair. I do it to my hair all the time, but I also do it when I'm toning blondes. I'll take an ash in a level 10 and maybe a beige in a level nine or an eight, and it oh it's so beautiful. On platinum hair, ash can actually make it look silver or even icy, which is stunning if that's what you're going for. You've seen pictures of the platinum blondes that almost look purpley gray. That is ash.
Speaker 1:So how do you fix unwanted ash? This is actually way easier than fixing brass. Let me just tell you. You just add a little bit of warmth back in with your golden or your copper tones, or you could even do a temporary toner or rinse, and it will warm up the hair tone. It is a lot easier to add warmth than to take warmth out of the hair. So how do you prevent it? Well, steer clear of cool tone formulas and stick to neutral or golden shades and refresh your color when it starts to look dull.
Speaker 1:The color line that I use actually has an ash tone base color. It's like a blue green base color that actually makes it more neutral. So when you are lifting you don't get as much underlying warmth. It's kind of nice, because most colors don't have that in there. There's only one or two, maybe three, that I can think of that have a ashier tone in their neutral colors. If you have questions about that, just reach out. So here's the bottom line.
Speaker 1:Neither brass nor ash is bad in itself. They're tools in the colorist's toolkit. When you understand how they work and what you want your end result to be, you can make them work for you instead of against you. So whether you're team warm or team cool, it's all about balance maintenance and communicating your vision with your stylist. Takes lots and lots of pictures to your stylist when you are communicating a new color. You can just put them on your phone or you can start a Pinterest page, but you want your stylist to see what it is that you want your hair to look like. Take all kinds of pictures. If it's a base color, so maybe you're going brown and you want some highlights in your hair put a picture of the base color you're kind of looking for, cover up the highlights, or, if there's highlights in the hair, cover up the face, because sometimes we just like the face, wouldn't you agree? We want the face of the model and the hair of the model, but I think if you just have good communication with your stylist, you'll be all right.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear your own brassy or ashy hair stories the good, the bad and the ones that made you grab a hat on the way out the door. So come find me on Instagram and share your pictures. All right, so let's jump into some listener questions. I love these because they're the things everyone's wondering but doesn't always ask out loud, and if you're like me, that happens a lot. Have you ever been sitting somewhere and you have a question but you're afraid to raise your hand? That's why I do these, and I've heard from a few of you that you really do like this question and answer segment at the end of the podcast. So thank you, thanks for reaching out and let me know that. So, question one have you ever had a brassy hair disaster? What happened and how did you fix it? Oh, yes, I think every colorist has a story.
Speaker 1:Early in my career I lightened a client from a deep brunette to a blonde in trying to do it in one session. Yeah, that's hard to do, and I didn't lift her far enough past that red orange stage and she left kind of looking like she had, I don't know, pumpkin hair. Yeah, because at the time I didn't know how to correct it and I didn't I guess I didn't have enough color theory in my back pocket because, you know, fresh out of school early in my career, I didn't know how to fix it. So what is the fix? I should have used a blue based toner to cancel out the orange Easy, easy fix Plus a deep conditioning treatment because I lifted her too much. Okay, and just the lesson that I took away from this is just don't rush it. What is that saying Under promise over deliver?
Speaker 1:I should have told her hey, I'll try to do that today, but it might take more than one session. Especially from a deep brunette to a blonde, that's really a lot. When you're taking somebody from that dark to that light. Sometimes the hair just can't take it. Most of the time the hair can't take it. Most of the time the hair can't take it.
Speaker 1:Always under promise, say I might not be able to do that. But if you do get her there, hey, great, wonderful. But if you don't get her there, she's not going to be disappointed. You can just say, hey, we might be doing this in one or two appointments, two or three appointments, and you know, maybe bring her up a couple of levels, tone her so she can live with it. Bring her back in in about three weeks, maybe do something again and send her home with the right product so her hair has plenty of protein and moisture and the lipids in there. Just remember healthy, beautiful, blonde. It does take time. Don't try to do it in one session. You'll end up with orange hair. I hate that.
Speaker 1:All right, here's another question. Do you prefer warmer golden tones or cooler ashier tones? Hmm, that's a good question. You know, because there are times in my life that I love the cooler, ashier shades. But you know I'm really all about balance. Warm tones give shine and vibrancy, while cool tones bring that elegance and they control the warmth. So on me personally, I love a warm beige with just a little bit of ash to it. It's shiny, but not too golden On my hair, cause I'm a natural level five, six. I have a lot of orange undertones in my hair. So if I don't put in some kind of ash in there, it will go orange really quickly. And I'm not really trying to be a redhead If I was, it'd be really easy to do, but I'm not. So I have to put in ash. But I don't want it all ashy, because if you look at my eyes, I have a lot of warmth in my eyes, even though my skin is on the cooler side. So you really have to look at the eyes. If you have like flecks of orange or flecks of yellow in there, you could probably use a little bit of warmth in your formulation. Just a little hint, all right. Here's another question. If you could change one thing about your last hair color, what would it be? Ooh, okay, I'd make the tone last longer by cutting back on high heat styling. Even the best color oxidizes faster if you're constantly using hot tools without protection. I say this all the time Always, always, always use heat protection on your hair, even if you don't color your hair.
Speaker 1:I had a client a couple of weeks ago who she just doesn't like to use product. I don't understand that myself. I think it's really. What happens is she hasn't found the right product for her hair type and no one's educated her on why she should be using something on her hair, even if it's not for control which it is, because Lord knows this summer has been high humidity where we are but even if it's just to control the frizz in her hair, but it's also to control, so her color doesn't oxidize and so she doesn't lose the color.
Speaker 1:So every time she comes to get her hair color, she wants me to pull that color through her ends. And I had to explain to her look, look, this is not doing your hair any favor. Actually, what's happening if you, every single color appointment, if you pull that color through the ends of her hair, because her last colorist used to do this, so she thought that's what you do. If you pull that color through the ends of your hair every single time, what are you doing? You're just making the cuticle come open every single time and it's going to get weaker and weaker, and so after a while you're just going to lose that ability for the cuticle to even lay back down and you're going to lose your color molecules faster and faster each time. So what I proposed to her was hey, let's just do your touch-up and then let's send you home with a color shampoo or a color treatment.
Speaker 1:Um, because Euphora has a color treatment that actually is not a shampoo, not a conditioner, but it actually helps to lay down that cuticle. It puts in some color molecules back into your hair. You do not need to apply color every single time you go to get your roots done. So there might be some people that don't agree with that, but that is my experience. That's not always the best, maybe every fourth, fifth time that you're getting your color done, but not every single time. It's just too much on your hair.
Speaker 1:Okay, here comes another question what's your go-to product for keeping color fresh between visits? Ooh, well, my go-to product would be the Sculpture and Illuminate by Euphora. Yes, the links in my show notes. These are my two favorite, favorite favorite products because it actually helps to keep your color in 30% longer and it's wonderful for protection for your cuticle, for your hair. It makes your hair shiny. It's enough styling product that you don't need anything else on your hair. If you don't want to put anything else on your hair, you can blow dry it. You love it. Okay, but if you're not using that, I would probably suggest a purple shampoo for the blondes maybe once or twice a week, and for brunettes a blue shampoo once or twice a week, maybe every third shampoo. If you don't shampoo every single day and always, always, always, use a color safe, sulfate free shampoo, then you put that leave in UV protection and your color will last, Guarantee it. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Here's another question have you ever gone too light too fast and how did the color react? Yes, and it led to uneven lift and way too much warmth showing through, and it took multiple sessions to even it out. That's why I tell my clients lightning is a journey, not a race. We protect your hair first and the color comes with it. Do not try to lighten the hair too fast, especially, especially if your clients have colored their hair darker in the past, because you don't know what's under there. So I would go slow and low, meaning low with peroxide, when you're using lightener.
Speaker 1:All right, somebody asked have you ever tried silver or icy ash tones, love it or regret it? Well, I've done it for clients and it could be absolutely stunning on the right skin tone, but it's really high maintenance and it can wash some people out. When it works, it works, but when it doesn't, you can look dead. What do I mean by this? Well, here's what happens is, you know, as we age, as we get older I'm in my 50s, so you know, as people get older, their skin actually changes colors too. So it used to be that maybe you had a lot of warmth in your skin, but as you get older, you lose a little bit of that vibrancy in your skin, so you almost have to make up for it in your skin. But as you get older, you lose a little bit of that vibrancy in your skin, so you almost have to make up for it in your hair.
Speaker 1:Think beige. It doesn't have to be gold, but think of beigey. You got to put a little bit of warmth in your hair to make your skin look alive. What happens is people are saying, hey, I want to grow out my gray, and so they're thinking this gray hair. Well, gray hair is actually very ashy, and so if you have ashy hair with ashy skin, it can wash you out. And I've seen that happen on a few people and they're like yeah, but I don't want the high maintenance of color all the time.
Speaker 1:That's fine, you can go in and ask for a gloss, but just have your stylist just put a hint of a beige color in the gloss, just a little bit. So say, I don't know, three quarters of the formula is just clear gloss, and then a quarter of the formula, or even less, is like a level eight beige. What that's going to do, it's going to be very translucent. It almost works like a translucent fingernail polish. You can still see the fingernails underneath, meaning you could still see the hair underneath. It just changes a little bit of the tone of the hair and it gives you enough warmth in your hair that you don't feel washed out. Okay, so love it or regret it, neither. You just have to know what works, I guess, all right.
Speaker 1:So what's the secret to making color last without going brassy or flat? We talk about this a lot, but it is a mix of good formulation from the start, and then you have to tone regularly, protect it from heat and sun and don't stretch your touch-ups too far apart. The longer you wait, the more your undertones start peeking through. So hey, great questions. And if you have your own brass or ash story, send me a DM or leave it on the comments on Instagram. I might share it in a future episode and remember when you know better, you do better. Thanks for tuning in to All About Hair. If you loved this episode, hit, subscribe, leave us a review and share it with a fellow stylist or hair-loving friend. You want more tips, tools and behind-the-scenes goodness? Follow me on YouTube or head to my website at denisekeilitzcom. Yes, I know it's hard to spell, so don't worry, the link is in the show notes. Until next time, keep learning, keep creating and keep loving what you do.
