Quick Answer: Hair color often fades faster and turns brassy during menopause because hair tends to get drier and more porous, so color washes out sooner, while finer strands hold less pigment to begin with. As color fades, the cool tones go first and the warm undertones underneath start to show, which reads as orange, red, or yellow. A gloss or toner refresh between appointments, plus a few changes to how you wash and style, fixes most of it.
A common story in my chair goes like this: the color looks right when you leave, but within two or three weeks it’s warmer, duller, or a shade lighter than it should be, and that never used to happen. Brown that turns coppery, blonde that goes yellow, a rich shade that fades flat long before your next appointment. It’s frustrating, especially when nothing about your color routine has changed. What usually has changed is the hair itself.
Why Hair Color Fades Faster During Menopause
Many of my clients find their hair drier and more porous than it used to be. Porous hair takes color in quickly, but it also lets it go quickly, so each wash takes a little more with it. This is something colorists see consistently, though it hasn’t been studied much on its own. At the same time, Cleveland Clinic dermatologists note that hair may become thinner during menopause, and a finer strand simply holds less pigment, so the same shade can look lighter and fade sooner. Grey adds to it: on resistant grey, color tends to sit closer to the surface and washes out faster than it does on pigmented hair.
Why Hair Color Turns Brassy or Orange
Brassiness comes down to which tones leave first. Hair color is built from a mix of cool and warm pigments, and the cool ones tend to fade fastest. Underneath, darker hair naturally has warm red and orange undertones, and lightened hair is left with warm yellow and orange ones. As the cool tones wash out, those warm undertones come through. That’s why brown can drift toward copper and blonde toward gold or yellow. If your hair is drier and more porous than it used to be, that whole process speeds up.
Natural grey can turn yellow for a different reason. Sun, heat, and oxidation affect it over time, and I cover that in Why Grey Hair Resists Color.
How a Gloss or Toner Refresh Fixes Brassiness
You don’t need a full color appointment every time your shade drifts. A gloss or toner refresh puts the cool tones back, brings back shine, and resets the color in a much shorter visit. For many clients, a refresh every 8 to 12 weeks keeps color looking the way it did on day one, and it’s often the difference between color that lasts and color that looks tired halfway to the next appointment.
How to Make Hair Color Last Longer at Home
A few habits make a bigger difference once hair has become drier:
- Use a sulfate-free, color-safe shampoo and conditioner.
- Wash with cooler water, and stretch the time between washes where you can.
- Use a heat protectant every time you style, and turn hot tools down rather than up.
- Protect your hair from strong sun, and rinse after swimming in a pool or the ocean.
- If your color leans blonde or you’re blending grey, use a purple shampoo once or twice a week. For brunettes, a blue shampoo does the same job against orange.
- Add a hydrating mask on the mid-lengths and ends once a week to help with dryness.
Many of these overlap with How to Keep Your Balayage Looking Fresh Between Salon Visits, which goes into product choices in more detail.
What I Adjust at Your Color Appointment
If your color is fading or warming up faster than it used to, I look at the formula as well as your routine. That can mean choosing tones that hold up better against warmth, treating porous ends differently from your roots, building a gloss refresh into your plan, or reconsidering how often you come in. If coverage is the bigger issue, Grey Blending vs. Full Grey Coverage compares two very different maintenance rhythms, and Menopause and Hair Color explains the wider picture.
For timing between appointments, How Often Should You Really Touch Up Your Balayage? is worth a read. When you’re ready, book a one-on-one consultation at my private studio in Langley and we’ll work out why your color is fading and what will keep it where you want it.
