While the color yellow is typically associated with good vibes, happiness, smiley faces and sunshine, it’s not so awesome when you find those tones throughout your hair. And unfortunately, silvery strands can easily take on yellow-ish tones depending on how they’re treated or what conditions they’ve been exposed to. 

Yes, seeing yellow can be super confusing when you’re at the beginning of your gray-hair journey and you begin noticing gray hair yellowing or a brassiness coming through. You’re definitely not alone. 

The good news is that your beautiful, natural silver hair doesn’t grow out of your head with any type of yellowing or brassiness despite how it might appear. That’s because new strands just growing in haven’t been exposed to UV rays, styling heat, harsh products or any of the other factors that typically cause this effect. Rather than at your roots, you’re more likely to find gray hair yellowing or brassiness mid-way down your lengths, where locks have been subjected to different treatments or situations, and therefore, damage.

1) Permanent hair dye

It’s quite common to find that shortly into your grow-out, dyed parts of your hair start to take on a more orangey tone, especially if you’re transitioning from a darker hair dye to gray. That’s because the dyed strands no longer get refreshed with new hair dye, so as they fade, they become brassier.

When hair is chemically altered by permanent hair dye, faded sections continue to appear brassy unless you tone them regularly with toning products like shampoos, conditioners or color-depositing conditioners. That said, toning products eventually fade as well, so they come with their own level of high-maintenance, toning upkeep to keep brassiness at bay until you cut those dyed areas out of your hair. More on that below.

2) Heat damage

This happens when your hair is fully grown out but you’re still exposing your locks to heat styling (think blow drying, curling irons and flat irons) or spending a lot of time in the sun.

Because gray hair is actually white hair that lacks melanin, its light color and thinner structure makes it more prone to showing heat damage whether from UV rays or your hair tools. (Think of it like a white T-shirt getting a heat stain from a hot iron.) To prevent heat damage from styling, try alternating your go-to methods with heatless curling rods, heatless hair dryers or air drying. Or, if you can’t part with your heat styling tools, try using them at a lower setting. Remember to always use heat-protectant products before styling to create a protective barrier between your follicle and hot styling tools. To guard against the sun’s rays, wear a hat and use UV hair protection products when outdoors.

Your heat and hair dye product fixes

Whether you’re dealing with after-effects from heat or permanent dye, the goal is to color-correct yellow, brassy or even orangey tones, which means starting with a toning product. Typically, the simplest, most readily available toning product are purple shampoos, highly pigmented formulas designed to counteract yellow-ish tones in your hair. They’re based on color theory where you choose the shade opposite to (or countering) the one you want to get rid of, e.g. purple sits opposite yellow on the color wheel. A quick shout-out to those blonde beauties who’ve been using purple shampoos for years to counteract brassiness and achieve that cooler platinum look. Smart Silverists soon realized that purple shampoos could also work for those of us lucky enough to sport nature’s platinum i.e. natural gray hair. 

If you’re seeing more orangey–brassy tones , which usually happens in deeper hair shades, a blue shampoo may help you get the perfect cool-toned gray. When using these shampoos, work them all the way down your strands, let them sit for up to 10 minutes, and rinse them out completely. Unfortunately, the downside is these formulas can be messy and drying. Unless you’re dealing with an extreme amount of brassiness, use them more infrequently, say, no more than once a week. Toning conditioners are an alternative to toning shampoos, but it’s generally not necessary to use both at the same time. You will, however, have to repeat the process because the damage to your hair is already done and the pigment in your toning products simply counteract the look but eventually fade.

If you’re looking for more lasting temporary color, look for “ tone depositing conditioners ” or “tone depositing treatments” that do what their name implies: deposit pigment into your hair. They come in a variety of color options, and unlike color-correctors, they’re not countering the brassiness, they’re giving you the shade you want to see in your hair. In other words, choose silver if you want silver tones. Treatments require you to leave them on your hair for about 15 minutes at a time.

3) Chlorinated water

If you swim regularly in a highly chlorinated pool, you may notice some greenish tones in your hair. And like we said, your gray hair is like a white T-shirt, so everything shows. Chlorine’s purpose in pools is to oxidize hard metals in water so it’s no surprise that too much exposure to this harsh chemical can give light hair a discolored cast over time.

Your chlorine fixes

To prevent discoloration before it starts, wear a swim cap. If that's not an option, coat locks with a light coat of conditioner or leave-in conditioner before you get in the pool to create a protective barrier around your strands. After getting out of the water, shampoo thoroughly with a good clarifying shampoo.

4) Build up

If you’ve been using a lot of styling products or if the water in your area is “hard” (i.e. a high mineral content), you’ll likely notice that build-up is giving your tresses a duller, flatter tone, which over time can look slightly yellowed.

Your build-up fixes

If hard water gives you a yellow-ish tone, you may get better results from using a clarifying shampoo versus a purple shampoo. If you believe build-up is coming from your products, try dialing down how much you use – remember less is more. Unlike your skin, which can benefit from a multi-product routine, too much hair product can weigh locks down, especially natural grays which tend to be less porous so they have difficulty holding in moisture. This makes them easily overwhelmed by heavy products and heavy oils.