Beauty spot: How to fix brassy blonde hair

If you have ever tried to bleach your hair at home, you may have battled with a brassy yellow stage. The evil yellow hue generally rears its head when parts of your bleached hair were originally darker than other parts - the bleach works well on the lighter bits but hasn't had enough time to work on the rest.
* If it's really yellow you may need to bleach it again. Wear a hat, give it a lot of strengthening treatments and then have another go. Dark hair has to pass through several colours - including red, orange and yellow, before it goes blonde. Yellow is the result of not allowing it to lift past yellow.
* Sometimes yellow is a sign that your hair is too dark for the product you have tried to use.
* If you can, get a hairdresser to put foils through you hair so you only bleach the bits that have gone yellow and don't put the rest through any more strain.
* Get a toner. Schwarzkopf Nordic Blonde has one (available from the Warehouse) that works in under five minutes in the shower. Just be careful to only get it on the bits that need toning, otherwise you may end up with equally unattractive purple streaks.
* Use a purple shampoo, such as L'Oreal professional series expert silver. Use it every other wash. Purple is at the opposite end of the colour spectrum from yellow, so it cancels out some colour.