A salon toning service allows the hairdresser to personalise your colour. How? By making it warmer or cooler in tone, and correcting unwanted shades. It is also possible to add a bright pop of fashion colour, without actually lifting the shade.
Add warmth. This can be done in a salon by adding a gloss or toner onto the hair. But if you're looking to solve your ashy issue at home, reach for a color-correcting treatment, like the Better Natured Color Refreshing Crème in Rose Gold.
Think of hair toner as a colour corrector for your hair. If you're blonde and find your hair goes too yellow, it can cool down those brassy tones. If you're a brunette that wants to add some caramel warmth, a toner can do that too.
Ask Your Stylist to Use a Toner
A toner will literally "tone down the hair" to hide the warm undertones. When you don't do this, your highlights may look too blonde if you're a brunette," she says. "Also, the toner helps blend the colors together and can be used to achieve your desired look."
Natural blondes and bleach-blondes with bright yellow or golden undertones can often tone out unwanted warm shades with a simple purple shampoo. For brunettes, try blue shampoo to work with the darker shades of brassiness.
If you feel like skipping the salon appointment or want a more temporary way to add warmth, he suggests washing your hair with a tinted deep conditioner, such as the Evo Hair Fabuloso Color Boosting Treatment in Caramel or Light Beige.
You want the hair cuticle to be open for toning. Towel-dry hair to about 65 - 75% dry then start toning. Usually color & bleach is on dry hair, even toners and colors that do not require developer; however toner that uses developer is recommended on towel dried hair.
At-home toners help to maintain your hair colour between salon visits and come in shampoos, conditioners and hair masks that contain purple, silver or blue pigments. The difference between these and in-salon toners is that at-home toners contain less pigments, meaning they won't last quite as long.
If your hair is brown, you may need to bleach it more than once before you apply the grey dye. It's important you get your hair as light as possible before you attempt to turn it grey – this will help ensure a more even tone and vibrant, all-over colour.
Enhance your colour with red highlights
Just like sun-kissed highlights, red tones liven up your base colour. So this is one of the best options for adding contrast and depth to your brown locks. Copper, mahogany and auburn highlights are all suitable for brunettes of various shades!
Hair toners work on red, brunette and even darker shades to slightly alter their hue or eliminate unwanted brassiness. You can also apply a toner for hair to virgin strands to enhance your natural color and boost shine.
Is purple shampoo a toner? Any product that dispenses pigment to adjust hair tone can be considered a toner, and that includes purple shampoo. Its pigments work to neutralize brass.
The rule is simple – warm skin tones look best in warm colors while cool tones look best in cool colors. The goal is to pick a shade that best accentuates your natural features. Plus, knowing your skin tone helps you find your perfect makeup palette and outfit colors.
Over toning occurs when the hair is exposed to an excessive amount of toner, resulting in an undesirable and unnatural color. It can leave the hair looking dull, flat, and lacking vibrancy. Correcting over-toned hair requires specific techniques and products to restore a more balanced and harmonious tone.
Can the sun change your hair colour? Yes, the sun can change your hair colour. The UV rays bleach the pigment in your hair, leading to lighter and sometimes uneven tones, especially if your hair is already colour-treated.
Glosses and toners won't actually be able to lighten your hair. In fact, they can only keep hair at the same level or make it darker by depositing additional pigment, explains Papanikolis. Properly toned colors may appear brighter because they are cooler-toned, not necessarily because they are lighter in shade.
Try a blue or purple toning shampoo
Blue and green fall directly opposite from red and orange, meaning the cooler blue and green tones of a blue shampoo will neutralise and counteract the warmer tones found in hair. A shampoo such as Redken's Color Extend Brownlights is the perfect blue shampoo for brunettes.
To avoid it going ginger or red then you must check what shade you are using. For example if the colour says golden, chocolate, mahogany, red, warm brown etc, these will all look 'ginger'. To achieve a rich colour, a basic shade must be added to create the depth (how dark it is).
Q: For folks who don't want ashy hair color, is it hard to fix? A: It's super easy to fix. When formulating your shade, your colorist will likely use a copper or golden tone to counteract the ash.
A: You will get a more intense result if applied to dry hair, or if your hair is extremely porous. I'm a big fan of T18 (White Lady) and have found that if I need to tone out very brassy hair, I will use 10 volume as opposed to 20. If you're wanting an extreme ashy look, try mixing with 10 & applying to dry hair.
Apply the toner first to areas that require the most color correction or simply apply to the central part of the strands before working up to the roots and down to the tips.
One of the main reasons why it's important to wash your hair before getting a toning treatment is because your stylist needs to be able to see your natural hair color. This is especially important if you're looking to achieve a specific tone or shade.