Toning Your Hair Buy a semi-permanent purple hair dye and mix it in a bowl with regular conditioner. By using 1 part purple dye and 2 parts conditioner, you should end up with a pastel purple once everything is mixed. The purple hair dye and conditioner will tone your hair, getting it to that ashy color.
When deciding how to tone yellow hair to ash, try using a violet shampoo first. As purple is the opposite of yellow on the colour spectrum, the shampoo's purple pigment draws out the yellow brassiness from your blonde, neutralises those unwanted tones, and makes your colour look cooler, healthier and more vibrant.
You can put ash color on bleached hair, but ash color can have greenish undertones, so you might want to try an ash toner to see if it works. Toner can cover without adding the undertones. However if you do use hair dye, be sure your hair ends are...
Purple and yellow are opposites on the color wheel, which means they can be used to counteract one another. Since blonde hair that's turned brassy looks yellow, a pigmented purple shampoo can actually neutralize the yellow hue and take you back to the ashy blonde color you wanted in the first place.
These gray tones can appear because of too much toner or an ashy dye. Whatever mishap got you to this place, don't stress. Fortunately, an ash attack is not hard to fix, even on your own.
SHRINE Tail Comb
Our new toner drops eliminate brassy blonde for a cool just-left-the-salon finish at home - no appointment necessary. Our toners provide a subtle tint of colour to a light base and remove any brassy tones. Ash Blonde cools down warm tones to create that salon fresh ash hue.
But there are a few things that can be done at home to counteract the grey. Simply washing your hair can help fade the grey tones, so can washing with a clarifying/cleansing shampoo. Cleansers remove colour and product buildup, but do go easy with these, as using them too much can cause the hair to dry out.
If you leave purple shampoo in your hair for 30 minutes, the risk of over-toning increases significantly. While purple shampoo is designed to neutralize brassy or yellow tones, leaving it on for an extended period can lead to overly cool or even purple-tinted hair, especially for those with light or porous hair.
Use Purple Shampoo and Conditioner
If you are seeking an at-home solution, start with purple shampoo and conditioner. "Purple shampoo is great for neutralizing yellow or brassy tones by balancing them with cool pigments," shares Korab.
Wella Colour Charm Toner T14 Pale Ash Blonde
This toner can also be mixed with the Wella 050 Cooling Violet Toner on more orange hair. Adding in the Wella 050 Toner will give you a boost of really strong Ash tones so the combination of both should help to turn that orange brassiness into an ashy tone.
You don't have to worry about toner changing the general color of your hair if you're blonde, and if you have brown, dark auburn, or black hair, toner is not an effective product to use in order to make your hair darker.
If you were a blonde to start with and you've ended up with orange hair after bleaching, it could be due to a build-up of chemicals or minerals in your hair. Brassiness can also happen if you've been in the sea or a chlorinated pool frequently.
If trying to attain ash grey color, the hair must be bleached until it is the lightest shade of blonde. 2 To protect the hair during bleaching, professional hairdressers apply a bond strengthening treatment at a hair coloring salon. Committing to the color prior to having your hair processed is critical.
Ash cancels the yellow. But make sure to only apply the ash product on the hair that you bleached that are yellow.
"For cooler blonde, I would do a heavy highlight all over with a cream bleach mixed with a low volume to get as much warmth out as possible. Then after the blonde processes (it needs to be as close to a level 10 or lighter as possible) I tone with a level 9 or 10 blue or violet based demi-permanent gloss."
After reaching pale yellow level 10, it's time to tone the hair to achieve that perfect level 10 ash blonde. For this we really need a purple or blue based toner. These are the pigments which most effectively neutralize yellow and produce the ultra cold ash blonde that we are looking for.
The fastest way to remove hair dye is typically by using a clarifying shampoo or anti-dandruff shampoo. These shampoos contain strong cleansing agents that can effectively strip color from the hair. It's important to follow up with a deep conditioning treatment, as these shampoos can be harsh and drying on the hair.
"You want to stop using it two weeks before any lightening service. The purple shampoo can cause build up making the hair look dull and darker if overused." This makes the lightening process more difficult to create a seamless blend.
Palladino adds that toners aren't one specific product, and you can't go out and just buy a “toner.” Demi-permanent colors, glosses, tinted shampoos, and conditioners can all be considered toners because they all contain pigments that adjust the tone of your hair.
This might be the case for some people, but there's also the risk of more porous, damaged sections of the hair (the ends) absorbing more pigment than the newer hair towards the root. So, to avoid a patchy purple effect, use the Blonde Assure Color Toning Purple Shampoo as advised: on wet hair.
Clarifying Shampoo
Most toners are not permanent, therefore eventually, after several washes, the 'cool' tones will fade. If you want that toner gone quicker, 2-3 washes with a clarifying shampoo will start to remove the blue, grey or purple stains.
Use A Clarifying Shampoo
They strip off the toner in your hair and reduce the ashy tones. With regular use of a clarifying shampoo, you will see a difference. Your hair will be much warmer and you will feel the ashy tones melt away.