Tired of seeing the same dark warm brown hair colors as you scroll through your Instagram feed? We have something up our sleeve that may pull you out of that repeating funk. Try swapping out the typical brown for ash-brown hair instead. These 10 ash brown hair colors are perfect for keeping you up to date with the latest hair color trends and will leave you as confident as ever.
Before you ask, ash-brown hair is defined by having a brunette base with undertones that can consist of:
- Green
- Blue
- Violet
Ash brown appears smoky with a matte-like finish, giving your locks a sexy, smoldering appearance. This modern variant of brown hair is more grey-leaning. Don’t worry – if done correctly, it won’t look like you have grey hair unless you want it too. Ash brown hair, is a great way to achieve that aged look if you plan to celebrate the beauty of aging by accentuating or adding grey to your strands.
Ash Brown Hair Color Chart
Before deciding to go for an ash-brown hair color, there are a couple of things to keep in mind,
- If your hair is naturally dark, lighting up your hair using bleach is likely inevitable. Depending on the shade you start at and plan to end at, this may take a couple of dye sessions.
- One session will likely do the trick if you have naturally lighter hair.
- Decide what type of color style you want for your hair (check the chart below for options.)
- An ash brown balayage style is the most low maintenance.
Zohna Tip
We live in a society that fears the physical signs of aging. There's nothing wrong with aging, so embrace time's natural impact on the body and let that grey hair shine.
Another significant factor that should be considered when dying your hair a cool-toned color is your skin’s undertones. As the rule of thumb goes, cool-toned skin looks best with cool-toned hair. Now that’s not to say if your warm toned, don’t go for ashy hair color. However, it might compliment you less than if you had cool undertones. If you are unsure if you have cool-toned skin, here’s how to tell and what to look out for.
| How To Tell | Cool Tone Characteristics |
| Using Jewelry | If silver jewelry compliments you best, you are likely cool-toned. |
| Vein Test | If you have blue veins under your skin, you are cool-toned. (Best spot to look is your wrists) |
| Eye Color | If you have blue, green, grey, or pale brown, you are probably cool-toned. |
Hopefully, the light bulb has gone on over your head, and you’ve realized that getting an ash-brown hair color is the next best thing for you. If that’s the case, it’s time to figure out what color style would look best on your pretty little head. There are a few different options to choose from.
| Color Style | Description |
| Highlights | Small sections of strands scattered throughout the hair lightened, giving the appearance of dimension. |
| Ombre | A darker base color is gradually lightened along the hair, being darkest and the top and lightest at the bottom. |
| Balayage | Highlights are swept into the hair in random sections, starting midshaft and getting denser further down to the ends of the hair. |
| Dip-dye | A hair coloring style involves dipping the hair’s ends into the dye. |
Dark Ash Brow Hair
This ash brown hair shade is a darker brown that is cool-toned with hints of a silver tone embedded within it. This seamless color gives a creamy appearance that looks sleek and shiny without being too harsh. Dark brown ash hair is ideal for brunettes who want to change things up and go for a new and improved do.
Light Ash Brown Hair
Light ash brown hair is ideal for the blonde looking to cool down their hair for winter after a hot summer while staying loyal to the blonde. Adding cute face-framing highlights, also known as “money pieces,” as seen in this photo, are great for accentuating the face and adding dimension. For all the Switftys out there, you might like to know that your queen Taylor Swift has, in fact, sported a light ash brown hair color in her time.
Medium Ash Brown Hair
This medium ash brown hair color is a perfect middle ground for blondes to darken or darker brunettes to lighten without going blonde. Approaching a cool tone can be scary when you are used to the norm of warmth in your strands, but we promise it’s just as stunning, if not more when the hair is a bit cooler.
Aside from the brown coloring aspect, there are also different ash levels. Adding a lot of ash coloring to your hair will make it cool and silvery-toned. If you are still determining what level of ash you want to dye your hair going for a medium is a perfect middle ground, not too much or too little.
Smokey Ash Brown Hair Color
One of the most distinguishing characteristics of ash-brown hair is its smoky appearance. If that appeals to you the most, this smokey ash-brown hair color will speak to you. Going cool and grey with shiny hints of silver will give that glossy smoke appearance to the strands. Be careful because too much ash can make the hair look grey instead of ash colored.
Tips to make sure you aren’t turning your hair color closer to grey than to ash:
- Go for more blues and green tones as opposed to silver [ the silver coloring will follow the cool tones.]
- Make sure you use a toner that isn’t too cool.
- If you have really blonde hair, don’t add pure ash coloring; try to go for a darker brown color with cool undertones.
Zohna Tip
Invest in an excellent color-preserving shampoo to ensure the color lasts as long as possible.
Balayage Ash Brown Hair
If you’ve decided ash brown hair is what you want your next hair color to be, but you’re not sure how to incorporate it into your strands, balayage could be what you are searching for. Ash highlights are swept into your hair in miscellaneous sections, becoming denser the further down the ends of the hair you go.
What balayage can do for your hair:
- Add dimension
- Appearance of thickness
- Causes less damage than dying your full head
- Looks less noticeable when roots grow in
Ash Grey Highlights
If you want to celebrate aging or just like the look of grey hair, these ash-grey highlights could be a fun way to incorporate grey into your locks. It’s also a good option if you want to see what a cool-toned hair color will look like with your complexion without fully committing and dying your whole head of hair.
Grey hair is also a recurring trend, focusing on women taking empowerment over their bodies and appearance. Society has started to view beauty as transcending age. If you want to join this power move, go for the ash-grey highlights; you have nothing to lose.
Ash Blonde Highlights On Brown Hair
If you have brown hair and want to lighten it up and you have a cool-toned complexion, brown hair with blonde highlights will get your strands where you want them to be. You can go as blonde and ashy as you like; there is no wrong answer about what you think will look best.
The thickness of your highlights can be as wide or as thin as you want; there are no general rules for highlights or hair color rules. Highlights can either blend in seamlessly or stand out. Their width will make them more distinct; the more strands you bleach, the more the highlight will cover. Adding chunky highlights provides a unique contrast between your natural hair color and the ash grey highlights.
Light Smokey Ash Brown Hair Color
This seamless blend of colors creates an unreal smooth-looking blueish grey light smokey ash brown hair color. This creamy and dreamy shade is there for those who love the cool-toned look and want to try something much different from the usual. Adding a light touch of smokey ash to your brown hair will give it a lovely energy that will radiate off you, and who doesn’t like to radiate good energy?
Zohna Tip
Use a purple shampoo to help keep the silver tones vibrant and cut out all the potential brassy tones.
Cool Ash Brown Hair Color
Cool-tone hair and ash go hand in hand. They’re like the peanut butter and jelly of hair colors. We suggest choosing ash if you want to go with a cool toned hair color. If you want to go ash, we recommend making it cool-toned. This excellent cool ash-brown hair color has hints of super subtle hues of blue and green undertones giving it depth and character.
Most, if not all, ash-colored hair is cool-toned. However, if you want to make it extra cool, you can use purple shampoo. We recommend using it with cool highlighted hair to help keep out the brassy tones; however, using it as a hair mask can bring out those silvery tones.
Taupe Hair Color
Taupe hair color is like the mutt of all shades. It’s a mix between blonde, brunette, and ash. Mutts are always cute, as is this gorgeous color combination. This color is ideal for blondes looking to change their golden locks. It can be described as an expresso grey-looking color, a dark grey.
It’s not a color you see very often, so if you want to stand out from the crowd and turn some heads in a good way, then changing your strands to a taupe hair color might be the change you search for.
Ash Brown Hair Dip Dye
This ash-brown hair is achieved by the method of dip dyeing. It looks just as it sounds like; the hair has been dipped into the color. This creates a nice contrast between the roots and ends. Having the roots a darker color than the ends and untouched by the dip will give your hair a thicker appearance and add the look of volume. Typically the ends are two or three shades lighter than your base color. However, nothing is stopping you from going as light or as dark as you want.
Despite what you might think, you aren’t actually dipping your hair into any color, but it’s the technique of thick strokes along the hair shafts that make it appear as if it were submerged. It’s worth noting. However, that dip dye is a statement technique because there is less of a blend between the two colors, the base color, and the dip color. Other techniques like balayage and ombre as more subtle with their coloring, but if you are searching to add a wow factor and a pop of color, dip dye will do the trick. You can do this method with any hair color, but an ash brown hair color with the appearance of being dipped will give you a cool girl or boy look.
Ash Brown Hair Dye
Dying your hair can be hard on it, especially if you sometimes go from dark to light.
Here is a list of ash-brown hair colors that will be easiest to achieve for either natural blondes or brunettes.
| Best Ash Brown Hair For Blondes | Best Ash Brown Hair For Either | Best Ash Brown Hair For Brunette |
| Light Ash Brown Hair | Ash Grey Highlights | Dark Brown Ash Hair |
| Balayse Ash Brown Hair | Medium Ash Brown Hair | Ash Blonde Highlights On Brown Hair |
| Taupe Hair Color | Smokey Ash Brown Hair | Cool Ash Brown Hair |
Choosing to dye yourhair at home can be a risky game. If you can afford it both money and time-wise, going to the salon will save you a lot of stress when dying your hair ash brown, specifically with this color. Ash brown hair can be challenging to achieve from box dye because of all the undertones and coloring so close to grey.
If you set your mind to doing it at home, we have a few different box dye options for you to choose from.
L’Oreal Paris Superior Preference Fade-Defying + Shine Permanent Hair Color – 7A Dark Ash Blonde
This dark ash dirty blonde color is perfect for those looking for a lighter ash hair color. If you have medium brown hair, adding this will lighten it while bringing in some cool tones. If you already have blonde hair, it likely won’t lighten it, but it will definitely smoke it out a bit. This is a fade-defying formula that will stay for as long as possible. It will also add a dimension that is crucial to having luscious-looking locks.
Garnier Hair Color Nutrisse Nourishing Creme, 51 Medium Ash Brown
If a medium ash brown color sounds like music to your ears, this Garnier hair color creme is ideal for achieving your dream hair color. This product is inspired by nature and is jam-packed with natural oils that help nourish the hair while dying it, such as
- Avocado oil
- Olive oil
- Shea oil
- Grape seed oil
If you are worried about how your hair will react to dye, a product like this is great because it will help restore shine and keep it as moisturized as possible with those 4 fruit oils.
Clairol Nice’n Easy Permanent Hair Dye, 6A Light Ash Brown
Clairol is another trustworthy brand that has a wide range of hair shades to choose from. The light ash brown, however, is excellent for blondes looking to cool down their locks for the winter. If you aren’t about embracing the grey, this product guarantees 100% grey coverage and provides a nice blend of tones and highlights.
FAQ
What Color Is Ash Brown Hair?
Ash is considered a level 1 on the color spectrum. Therefore, an ash brown hair color would be regarded as 5.1 because brown is a level 5. Ash brown hair is a cool-toned brown color with blue or green undertones.
How To Make Ash Brown Hair Color?
You need to combine a level 1 hair dye and a level 5 hair dye to create a combination that will give you ash-brown hair. However, depending on the level of brown hair color you want to go and the level of ash color you want, it all may vary. If you want to be 100% certain that your going to get the color you set out for, its best to go to the salon. Your stylist will be the most reliable and have the best supplies to get your hair to the color you want.
Who Should Use Ash Brown Hair Color?
Anyone can use ash brown hair color. However, ash brown hair complements and looks best on people with cooler-toned skin. The rule of thumb says if your skin is cool-toned, so should your hair. However, we don’t want to discourage people who aren’t cool toned from going ash brown. Ash brown hair is a very nice color combination for the hair, and if it is something you want to try, don’t let your skin’s undertones stop you.
How To Maintain Ash Brown Hair Color?
There are three steps you can take to prolong your ash-brown hair color, such as
- Using purple shampoo
- Using color-preserving shampoo
- Washing your hair in cold water
Using those three methods should prolong the color of your hair. However, it’s inevitable that the color will fade over time with every wash. Ask your stylist for recommendations on other products and methods that they think are best suited for your hair type and shade to prolong your perfect new color.
Ash Ya Later!
Hopefully, if you have come this far, you’ve decided or are seriously contemplating going a bit cooling with your hair color. There are so many different options to choose from, but anyone is achievable if you put your mind to it.
For all the cool-toned people, ash-brown hair is calling your name, and it’s calling it loud.
