Hey foxes!

We get so many questions about hair color so we’ve put together our first official #AFcolorclass to help those of you who are new to DIY color and might not have all the details down just yet! If there’s anything you’re wanting to know, you can always reach out to us at support@arcticfoxusa.com! Let’s get started!

1. I ordered the perfect blue shade and it turned out greenish on my hair… why?

Blues turning out closer to teal or green is relatively common since most blonde has yellow tones. Yellow tones in the hair are able to show through the blue - causing the color to appear more green on the hair. We have a trick for this one! If your hair is yellow-toned blonde and you want your Aquamarine to stay on the blue side, try adding a small amount of Purple Rain! This can help to neutralize yellow or orange tones and will get you a cobalt blue shade!  As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want to avoid putting straight blue over orange hair as it will end up muddy. Purple Rain covers just about everything! And warm tones like Sunset Orange and Wrath will cover orange tones just fine. 

2. How do I get green out of my hair?

A lot of blues fade green and stubbornly hold on to the hair cuticle, but there is an easy fix for this and her name is color correction! The easiest way to get green out is not to strip it, but to add Purple Rain over it! This method is easiest on your hair too! Purple will color correct the green so that it fades closer to a soft lilac or back to your original color. If you have the patience to try that, please do!  If you are wanting to go back to blonde, we recommend using a color remover meant specifically for semi-permanent direct dyes (see more on that in #5.).

3. I toned my hair to platinum before I colored and my new shade didn’t come out right. What happened?

It’s reasonable to add toner after bleaching to help combat yellow tones in the hair, but the truth is that while toner can lighten your hair - it can deceive you about what your base color actually is. If, once the toner is washed out, your hair is still a pale yellow blonde - your hair isn't quite a level 10. Toner is also depositing another color onto your hair. That color will then interact with any semi-permanent color that you’re applying, especially when it comes to lighter pastels like Sterling or Periwinkle. Your base color is integral to perfecting your end result. So keep this in mind when choosing your next shade or mix! A great hack for achieving your perfect pastel shade is to add a few drops of a slightly more pigmented color to punch up your pastel. 

4. Why do we use purple when toning?

On the color wheel, purple and yellow are direct opposites, so they work to cancel each other out. Adding a little bit of Purple Rain to your regular sulfate-free, silicone-free conditioner can help create a toning conditioner/hair mask that can work wonders to cancel out those yellow tones in your blonde or keep up your colored hair! We actually add Purple Rain to everything and we’re not sorry. Toners you buy at the beauty supply often come with low volume developer and we know you aren't always trying to re-lighten to tone that blonde! If your hair is already really light blonde, you can use Periwinkle and Girls Night as a toner too (most people slightly dilute these already pastel shades and then leave it on for 10-20 minutes as opposed to the normal 30). The Fox Fam do it all the time! We have videos to prove it and we share them on our Pinterest.  

5. I want to change my color to the opposite color. Can I do it without bleaching?

With a little bit of patience, you can get to an opposite color without removing the color you have now by following the color wheel! Applying green on top of red won’t work out but our favorite way to get to the opposite color is... Purple Rain. Going from red to green? Here is your mission: go purple and let it fade. Next, go blue and let it fade. Now you’re ready for green! Going to yellows and pastels will require some preliminary lightening- but in this case, you’ll want to use a color remover rather than bleach to remove any color still hanging on. Color remover that’s formulated for semi-permanent hair color is going to work better than anything else as it is gentler and is less likely to push pigment further into the hair shaft. 

6. I want to mix a custom shade that’s more toned down. How do I do that?

With mixing to get custom shades, referring to the color wheel is really going to help you out! If you want a slightly toned-down version of a color, you can achieve that by diluting with Arctic Mist or one of our less pigmented shades (ie. using Girls Night to make Purple Rain more pastel). One great example of toning down vivid shades is our recipe for Rose Gold: We start with an Arctic Mist base, add in a dollop of Virgin Pink and then add some Neon Moon until we get that light pink we love! Yellow gives pink that rose gold hue! For a color like Sunset Orange, using Cosmic Sunshine as a base for your mix will give you that more pumpkin orange feel. If you want a more smoked-out version, adding in a few drops of an opposite color will help you out. For a ginger-spice orange, you can take that same mix (Cosmic Sunshine & Sunset Orange) and add in a couple drops of Purple Rain! 

7. Help! I don’t like my hair color! 

Don’t panic! The easiest solution is to rinse it with warm water and clarifying shampoo to fade it out. But if you need a quicker solution we’ve got it! Since AF is so gentle on the hair, you can apply another color straight over the top to adjust the color without doing any damage to your hair! If you dyed your hair Sunset Orange, for example, and you want to tone it down, you can look for the opposite color (blue) and add a diluted blue over the top of Sunset Orange. Just be super careful, or you’ll end up with muddy brown! These are the scenarios where strand testing is necessary! If your hair didn’t quite show up well enough, or if it turned out unevenly, you probably need more pigmentation in your color. For example, Girls Night won’t show up well on hair that isn’t level 10 or higher for most people. If your hair is a more yellow-toned blonde, add in some Purple Rain to your Girls Night and then reapply! If you ever need help with fixing your hair color, just reach out to us! We got you.

Long story short, you don’t have to bleach your hair or use a color remover to get to a new color. As long as you’re patient, and with the help of the color wheel, you can achieve any color you desire! Arctic Fox dyes are super hydrating and conditioning, so each time you dye your hair, you’re conditioning it. That means you can apply AF shades as often as you like!

Color correcting can be tricky, so we hope you found this post helpful in figuring out exactly how to get the color that you want! Want more posts like this? Let us know what else you want to see! If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to us at support@arcticfoxusa.com. Thank you, Fox Fam!