It doesn't completely alter your hair colour, but it helps you subtly manipulate the shade of brassy hair. Hair toners neutralise unwanted warm or brassy tones to help you achieve a shinier, healthier, more natural-looking shade.
The fastest method is to use another, darker hair dye to cover the unevenly bleached hair. If you bleached your hair to a medium blond, for example, you could cover it with a light brown. To fix uneven bleached hair you can either dye your hair in a darker color or bleach it again. Dye your Hair in a Darker Color.
You should apply a thin enough layer of toner so that can evenly coat your skin but it should still be able to dry quickly.
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.
One effective remedy is the use of clarifying shampoos or treatments to help remove excess toner and buildup from the hair. These products work by gently stripping away unwanted color deposits and restoring the hair's vibrancy.
This is because it can strip the toner out of the hair! Instead, wait until your toner has faded completely before fixing any brassy tones with a purple shampoo.
As you can imagine, this is not a popular look, and stylists use toners to soften the contrast and even out the color. Depending on your desired results, toner can be used in a couple different ways, softening or enhancing as needed.
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.
It's always a good idea to give your roots the most time to absorb color—say about a 20-minute head start from the rest of your hair. After that, you can gently comb the hair color down your hair, adding more color to your mid-lengths and then finally to the ends.
“Toners work by depositing color, so they will only enhance the current level or go darker, says Papanikolas. “Toners will not lighten hair, so if your desire is to make your highlights brighter, then a toner is the wrong approach.”
The problem with toners
Conventional toners are typically brimming with harsh chemicals, carcinogens, phthalates, irritants, parabens, and drying additives such as alcohol and salicylic acid, thus reading to a red, flaky, and irritated complexion.
Tresch also suggests using a gloss or toner like John Frieda Colour Refreshing Gloss or dpHUE Color Boosting GLOSS+ Deep Conditioning Treatment to easily camouflage sparse gray hairs.
Toner gets rid of warm tones, so it's incredibly helpful for orange, red, or yellow splotches. It's also a less damaging process than bleaching your hair a second time, which is great.
Use Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a powerful ingredient that can help brighten uneven skin and reduce the appearance of dark spots. It works by inhibiting tyrosinase, the enzyme responsible for melanin production, making it an excellent remedy for hyperpigmentation.
If your hair is uneven, you can even it out. Use hair-cutting scissors to trim the longer pieces. Be careful and cut small amounts at a time. Check in the mirror as you cut to make the lengths match.
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.
You should wait to shampoo your hair again after applying toner for about 24 hours. This will allow the toner to set and not wash out of your hair.
If you have never toned your hair before, it's best to do a strand test first as the results of the treatment will vary depending on your hair's porosity. Leave the toner in for between 5-20 minutes: you can rinse a small section to see when the color has fixed to your liking.
Choose a toner with the opposite color on the color wheel to cancel out the undertone. For example, if you have yellow tones, use a purple toner. Apply the toner according to the instructions provided and let it sit for the recommended amount of time. Rinse thoroughly and enjoy the improved color balance.
Hairdressers use in-salon toners as part of your colouring service to enhance your shade with warmth or coolness, while correcting unwanted undertones. These can be used for a variety of colour services including post-lightening, highlights and balayage and don't just come in natural colours.
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.
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.
Bleach Wash: This option is ideal for all-over blondes that are a bit over-toned: “I mix powder lightener, developer and shampoo and apply to damp hair. I watch it and rinse after about five to 15 minutes.”
In most situations, you're going to need to wait two weeks before you can book an appointment to re-dye your hair. This is because overprocessing your hair can cause irreparable damage and can even change your hair texture.