The Hair Color Wheel: How to Neutralize Brass, Orange and Red

Colors that sit directly across from each other on the color wheel cancel each other out. Every toner, gloss and corrective formula runs on that one rule. Learn which warm tone shows at which level, pair it with its opposite, and you can read any brand's tone codes and pick the right shade.

Primary, secondary and complementary colors

The wheel starts with three primary colors: yellow, red and blue. Nothing mixes to make them.

Mix two primaries and you get a secondary color:

• Yellow + red = orange
• Red + blue = violet
• Blue + yellow = green

Each secondary color lands directly across the wheel from the one primary it does not contain. Those opposite pairs are your complementary colors, and they are the only three you need to memorize:

• Violet neutralizes yellow
• Blue neutralizes orange
• Green neutralizes red

Wella's color chart guide adds the other half of the rule: side-by-side colors create a new hue. Put violet over red and you get red-violet, not less red. Neutralizing only works with the true opposite.

When complementary colors meet in equal strength, they cancel into a neutral, ashy brown. That is why too much of a cool tone backfires. Overload violet on pale yellow hair and the result reads lilac or gray instead of clean. Wella's Koleston Perfect booklet says it plainly for its pure Special Mix tones: the lighter the base shade, the less mix tone you need.

Underlying pigment: what shows at each level

Natural hair holds warm pigment under its visible color. When lightener or high lift color breaks down the darker pigment, that warmth shows in a predictable order, from red at the dark end to pale yellow at the light end. This is the underlying pigment.

Matrix's haircolor manual maps it level by level:

If levels still feel shaky, work through the hair color levels student guide first. The same chart explains why natural roots go brassy: lift a natural level 5 two levels and it lands at 7, right in orange.

"Brass" is not an official color. It is the word stylists use for unwanted warmth after lifting, usually the orange to dark yellow range at levels 6 to 8.

Neutralize the target level, not the starting level

Redken's Shades EQ toning guide puts the rule in one line: choose a shade with tonal value opposite to the undertone exposed at the target level. The key words are target level. You are not correcting what the hair started as. You are correcting what will show once the hair sits at the level the client wants.

Work it in three steps:

1. Find the target level.
2. Read the pigment exposed at that level from the chart above.
3. Pick the tone across the wheel from it.

A client lifted to level 9 shows yellow, so you reach for violet. A brunette lightened to level 7 shows orange, so you reach for blue. A level 4 that turns hot red on the ends needs green.

Matrix's manual also explains what happens when the tone in your formula meets that pigment. A warm tone on warm pigment reads warm. A neutral tone on warm pigment still reads warm. A cool tone on warm pigment reads neutral. So a plain natural shade on a lifted level 7 will look warmer than the swatch. To land a true natural, the formula needs cool in it.

A toner can only neutralize the warmth that is there. It cannot remove it. Shades EQ, for example, does not lift. If hair sits at a dark orange 6 and the goal is a pale 9, no amount of violet fixes it. Lift to the right level first, then tone.

The neutralizing chart

How three brands label cool tones

Every brand writes the level first and the tone second. The difference is whether the tone is a letter or a number. For the basics of the layout, see how to read a hair color chart.

Redken Shades EQ: letters after a leading zero

Redken prints Shades EQ levels with a leading zero (09, 07, 010) and then tone letters. The cool families on the chart:

• V, Violet: 09V Platinum Ice, 07V Crushed Amethyst. Redken calls 09V its best true violet toner.
• VV, Violet Violet: 010VV Lavender Ice, 09VV Lilac Ice for heavier yellow at the lightest levels.
• VB, Violet Blue: 08VB Violet Frost, 07VB Violet Star, 06VB Violet Lagoon for the yellow to orange zone.
• B, Blue: 09B Sterling.
• NA, Natural Ash: 010NA through 04NA, a natural base with ash added.
• GN, Green Natural: 08GN Ivy and 06GN Moss for red.

Shades EQ mixes 1:1 with Shades EQ Processing Solution and processes 20 minutes at room temperature. More on the whole line in Redken Shades EQ codes explained.

Wella Koleston Perfect: numbers after the slash

Wella puts depth before the slash and tone after it. The Koleston Perfect booklet gives the tone legend:

The first digit after the slash is the major tone and the second is the minor tone. 10/16 Lightest Blonde Ash Violet is mostly ash with some violet. 10/86 Lightest Blonde Pearl Violet leads with blue pearl. A zero right after the slash marks a natural base with a touch of tone, as in 9/01 Very Light Blonde Natural Ash.

The Special Mix shades are pure tones added to a formula to boost or correct: 0/88 Pearl, 0/66 Violet, 0/28 Matte Pearl and 0/11 Ash. The full system is in Wella Koleston Perfect codes explained.

Matrix SoColor and Tonal Control: letters backed by numbers

Matrix writes level plus letters, such as 8AV or 6AA, and each letter has a number behind it in the manual: .1 Ash, .2 Violet, .7 Jade, .8 Mocha, .9 Pearl. A doubled letter doubles the tone, so AA is .11, a stronger ash than A.

The manual names the SoColor tones that remove warmth most effectively: Ash Ash, Ash Violet, Ash, Pearl and Neutral Ash. On the chart that means codes like 8AA, 8AV, 10AV, 7A, 9P and 6NA. For red at the darker levels, the Neutral Jade shades 6NJ and 4NJ bring in the green side.

Tonal Control is the acidic gel toner, mixed 1:1 with 10 volume Cream Developer for 20 minutes. Its cool lineup includes 9V, 10VA, 9AA, 10PA and 11PV.

Choosing between ash, blue, violet and green

Once you know the level, the tone choice narrows fast:

• Violet for yellow, levels 9 and up.
• Blue-violet when yellow and orange mix at level 8.
• Blue, ash or pearl for orange at levels 6 and 7.
• Green or matte for red at levels 3 to 5.

Then match intensity to how much warmth is showing. Light warmth takes a soft cool shade or a natural ash. Strong warmth takes a double tone like AA or VV, or a pure additive like 0/88. Pick the brand you carry, find that tone family on its chart, and choose the code at the target level.

Formula Finder builds formulas from real shade codes in your brand, starting from the client's inspo pic.