Is Your Water Causing Orange Hair?

Updated December 12th, 2023

So, you wanted to lighten your hair to complement your eye color and skin tone. Or perhaps you hoped for a full transformation into the ultimate Super-Blonde King or Queen. Whatever the case, you purchased some hair-bleaching products at the nearest beauty store, thinking there’s no time for the salon, or that we’re in the middle of a pandemic and it’s safer at home.

But instead of getting that lovely shade of golden blonde, your hair came out with a hideous brassy orange color. Even your loved ones couldn’t help but gawk at your patchy, uneven blonde job. And just like that, your dream of going full-on platinum blonde has “dyed” – well, not exactly.

Sometimes this orange hair ordeal has nothing to do with the products you use or your new hair care routine. The real problem could be as simple as the water you use at home every day. Whether it’s your well water or a regular municipal system, some elements in water can wreak havoc on your hair, so much that you’d probably contemplate showering at a friend’s house or the gym or washing your hair with bottled water.

Water issues affecting hair can be very frustrating. As such, we’ve decided to share a few ways to “reverse the curse” of orange hair and achieve the color you truly want. We’ll also explain how water can lead to a bad bleach job.

Why does hair turn orange?

When you look at your hair in the mirror, the color you see is a combination of different pigments (aka, melanin) blended to create your natural hair color. Each of us has unique mixtures of melanin. However, there’s one thing that stays the same: Dark hair contains the highest amount of red and orange underlying pigments.

While these colors give black or brown hair more depth and dimension, they make it harder for hair bleaching products to “lift” the dark pigments from the hair strands. That means if the bleach isn’t left to process long enough, the deeper tones won’t fade completely, possibly causing your hair to develop an unappealing brassy orange color due to the amount of melanin present. Essentially, your hair won’t be lightened enough to reach the blonde color, likely because you removed the bleach too early.

Brassiness can also occur if you’ve been hanging out in salt water or a chlorinated pool. Besides, hard water containing high magnesium and calcium concentrations can have severe effects on your hair – but perhaps the most disastrous is too much iron in well water. Aside from potentially tinting your hair with a weird orange or greenish-blue color, iron can leave nasty rust stains in your hair and scalp, impact chemical processing in your hair, and make your hair appear dull, dry, and lifeless.

How to Fix and Prevent Orange Hair

If your DIY hair-bleaching job turns into an orange party, there are several ways to fix it and prevent it from happening again. The logic behind correcting orange hair is to neutralize the orange color. This is why most toning shampoos contain blue, purple, or green pigments to remove red, orange, and yellow tones.

1. Tone out the orange color

The first step to temporarily fix orange hair is to tone out the orange color. Toning neutralizes the unwanted brassy tones to reveal a cooler blonde or a light brown shade. But first, you must figure out which toner to use. If your hair has more yellow tones than orange ones, use a purple toning shampoo or toner. A purple toner can eliminate the yellow tones from your hair. But if your hair has more orange tones than yellow, you’ll need a blue-tinted toner since orange is opposite to blue on the color wheel. Use the purple or blue shampoo once or twice per week, but do not use it daily.

If you’re hoping to bring your dark orange hair to blonde, no amount of toning will achieve that. That’s because the overall amount of pigment is still too dark. Should you wish to tone your hair to correct the orange, you’ll end up with a light brown color instead.

While this method might not give you the blonde hair of your dreams, it can help you avoid further damage to your hair if it’s already at its limit. Depending on your hair’s condition and the amount of time you have to correct the problem, it’s best to tone your hair with a darker color.

2. Re-bleach your hair

bleaching hair

You’ve come this far to your desired bleach job, but don’t give up. There’s still hope. If your hair is orange, you probably removed the bleach too early. Luckily, you can resume this process by adding more bleach. However, this should be performed at least a week or two after you first bleached your hair. This recovery period helps restore your hair’s natural moisture balance.

3. Dye your orange hair darker

If your orange hair trauma has discouraged you from any further pursuit of blonde and you want to rinse your hair of the problem, the easiest way to achieve that is to dye your hair over with a darker color. You can choose to return to your previous hair color or a new color entirely. The only condition is that your hair dye needs to be darker than your orange hair to cover it. Use a neutral or slightly ashy tone for the best results.

4. Avoid the sun and the pool.

We know what you’re thinking: “How can I avoid the pool, especially in the hot summer months, and how can I say no to soaking up some rays?” Well, if you want your hair color to stay, it’s best to stay away – unless you cover up or use a hair sunscreen. The chlorine in swimming pools can strip your hair dry, leaving your hair dull and damage-prone. And when hair becomes damaged, you know what that means? The hair color will have a harder time staying in place, indicating a higher chance of brassy color showing up. Sun exposure can also damage your hair color by making it fade faster and making the brassiness more visible.

5. Invest in a whole house well water filter or salt-based water softener (a more permanent solution).

Whole House Well Water System for Iron
Whole House Well Water System for Iron

Hard water is problematic for all hair types. And you’re going to see the effects regardless of your natural hair texture. So, if you own your home and plan on living in it for the foreseeable future, it might be worth installing a whole-house iron filter or water softening system. These systems filter out hardness-causing minerals that can adversely affect your hair. After all, once you’ve achieved your perfect, lightened hair color, you’ll want to make sure it stays that way.

Washing your hair with water that leaves large amounts of mineral deposits, including chlorine, iron, calcium, and magnesium, is terrible news for colored hair. That’s because the buildup of these and other minerals could end up fading your hair color, creating new opportunities for brassy hair to reveal itself. Thankfully, iron filters and water softeners can help cut down the mineral deposits, so your hair color stays around for longer.

Why invest in a Whole-House Iron Filter?

Iron is one of the most common and most destructive contaminants in well water. Not only does it damage your hair or fade your hair color, but it can also affect your skin, leave rust stains on plumbing fixtures, and block pipes and faucets. So, if your water comes from a well, a whole-house iron filter, such as the Springwell WS1, is your best bet.

The WS1, in particular, is a high-performance iron filtration system that does an excellent job of removing contaminants that often lead to unpleasant smells, tastes, and staining from well water. These contaminants include – but are not limited to – iron, hydrogen sulfide (that cause rotten egg smell), and manganese.

What’s truly remarkable about this Springwell iron filter is its superior level of filtration performance and efficiency. It achieves this by maintaining an “air pocket” at the top of the tank. As the water passes through the air pocket, it oxidizes iron, sulfur, and manganese. It then traps the oxidized materials in the bed of green fusion before it back washes them out down a drain and resets the air pocket. Afterward, the system transports fresh, clean, iron-free water throughout your entire home.

With the WS1, you can enjoy softer, cleaner, and more radiant hair, and cleaner, better-smelling, and better-tasting water. There’s also the option of installing the Springwell UV system add-on to destroy iron bacteria, possibly in your water. UV technology is proven to control microbiological (bacteria & virus) water issues, including E. coli, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia lamblia. Our UV system kills 99.9% of harmful pathogens, viruses, and bacteria to protect your hair and home against contaminated water.

Why invest in a Salt-Based Water Softener?SpringWell Water Softener

As we mentioned earlier, hardness-causing minerals, like calcium and magnesium, can be hard on your hair. These minerals can make your hair dull, dry, itchy, flaky, brittle, and completely unattractive. But thanks to Springwell’s SS1 Water Softener, you can say bye to dry and frizzled hair and say hi to healthy, bouncy, and glowing hair.

As “salt-based” suggests, the SS1 uses salt to “soften” water through the ion exchange process. During this process, the unit exchanges the salt with calcium, magnesium, and other hardness-causing minerals.

This Springwell salt-based water softener has many unique features that combine to produce high-quality, great-tasting softened water. But that’s not all. It provides other benefits, such as:

  • Softer and cleaner hair and skin
  • Less spotting on hard surfaces
  • Softer and cleaner laundry with up to 40 percent less detergent
  • Better-tasting water, beverages, and food
  • Increased lifespan and efficiency of plumbing and water-dependent appliances
  • Fewer plumbing and appliance repairs and maintenance

The SS1 is one of the highest-rated salt-based softeners money can buy. It features a compact, modern, and unique design. But more importantly, it offers exceptional softening capacity and performance, and an impressively high flow rate for larger households. Plus, its innovative Bluetooth head allows you to use your mobile device to control the SS1’s system settings.

Shop Springwell for Unmatched Quality and Performance – Guaranteed

When you shop from Springwell’s unique lines of water filtration systems, you are guaranteed some of the highest-quality, most reliable, and most cost-effective units you can find on the market. Our filtering systems are manufactured and designed using premium parts and materials for increased durability. We also include innovative features and technologies for optimal performance.

Moreover, we provide free shipping, a lifetime warranty, and a six-month money-back guarantee on all our units. You also get up to 50 percent off in factory-direct savings when you buy directly from our factory. And if that’s not enough, we also offer financing on our systems with affordable monthly payments – no hidden fees and upfront costs.

Contact us today to learn more about our water filtration systems, or just about anything you want to know about our offerings and how we can help solve your water contamination problem(s).

Final Thoughts on Orange Hair

Dealing with orange hair is not a pleasant experience. It can get you frustrated and worried and lower your confidence. Worse, people might laugh and stare in wonder when they see you in public. Heck, even your family members at home might burst out laughing from time to time. But don’t panic. The various solutions we provided in this article will help fix your orange hair so that you can step out in style and confidence wherever you go. All the best!