How To Tone Hair: 3 Methods You Can’t Afford To Miss!
Did you dye your a lighter shade recently, only to find that the color is starting to fade away? Or worse, your hair’s showing an unnaturally yellow or orange tinge?
You may be having a common case of brassy hair. If you or anyone you know is in this situation, read on to find out one of the best solutions to bring back your hair’s natural looking glow.
How do you get rid of brassy hair? Go to any salon and professionals will usually suggest that you tone your hair.
But don’t worry, this isn’t another very intensive procedure. However, there are a lot of conditions that you need to keep in mind before proceeding. So the big question is, how to tone hair?
Before we get into the nitty gritty of the hair toning world, let us first try to understand what are toners and the different kinds you may encounter:
What Is A Toner?
Simply put, a toner is a bluish or purplish tinted low peroxide product that is made to neutralize yellow or orange shades of dyed hair.
Without a toner, your dyed blonde hair may actually turn out to be mango yellow rather than the natural look you were looking for.
Toners are best applied after bleaching one’s hair. This is because they aren’t meant to lift the shade of your hair color; it is actually used to change the hair’s undertones.
Instead of an intense yellow-orange shade, a toner gives your hair a more dusty platinum color.
With that said, toners will not work on darker shades of hair. In terms of application, toners can also be used on specific areas only.
Although you may use it all over your hair, it is not necessary. This just means you can manipulate the overall look of your hair as you like.
Apart from a more natural-looking hair, toners are also capable of putting the shine and glow on your hair! This makes it appear healthy and free from damage.
Can You Tone Your Hair At Home?
If you tend to wash your hair very frequently, this would also mean that you would have to tone your hair often as well.
Using shampoos and other hair chemical products are not only capable of stripping away your hair’s natural oils, they also fade away your dyed hair color.
This is one of the reasons why going blonde is one of the most high maintenance hair color changes you can make.
Regular trips to the salon can become quite expensive real fast. So can you tone your hair at home, you ask?
The answer is yes, there are a lot of home treatment options out there for toning your hair.
Although simply going to a salon and having it done by a professional seems to be an obvious and easy solution, a treatment at home might just be all it takes.
In fact, there are 3 types of toners that are out there on the market: purple shampoos, dyes and ammonia toners.
The 3 Types Of Toners
1. Purple Shampoo
A purple shampoo is probably the most commonly suggested and easily used product to tone your brassy hair.
Don’t be afraid of the intense purple-blue color, it will not turn you into a purple minion. Aside from cleaning out your hair from grime, it neutralizes your hair.
Purple shampoos deposits surface color to prevent undesired brassiness. What’s great about it is that you don’t need to learn extra tips on usage. If you know how to wash your own hair, you can definitely use this product with ease.
How To Use It:
- If this is your first time using a purple shampoo, do not use it every time you wash your hair. Alternate between your regular shampoo and your chosen purple shampoo.
- For people who have all-around blonde hair, you may want to spread the product all throughout - from the roots of your hair to the tips.
- But if you have highlights, or an uneven distribution of light and dark blonde tones, you may want to apply only on areas where you have brassiness.
- If you have an intense case of brassiness, leave the shampoo on your hair for about 5 minutes. But if you are just trying to prevent some brassiness, 2 minutes will do the trick.
For the more confident and experienced users out there, ammonia toners may be your best bet to get the results you want.
Just as the name mentions, ammonia toners contain ammonia and are semi-permanent.
Unless you are sure of what you’re doing, I would not recommended beginners to start using this product.
If you wish to use this product, please do be careful as ammonia toners are capable of altering the pigments of your hair shaft.
One small mistake could lead to one problem to the other. If your hair has gone through a lot of intense treatments or is damaged, avoid using this product.
How To Use It:
- Not all ammonia toners are the same. One rule of thumb is to always read the instructions that came with the product and follow instructions like your life depended on it - we are talking about your hair, so technically your life does depend on it.
- As mentioned before, toners work best after bleaching. Do make sure that you also follow standard procedures for bleaching. If you feel that your hair is not ready to undergo the toning treatment, wait for a few days.
- It is best not to shampoo your hair during the toning period as the shampoo may have counteracting effects to the hair toner.
- Do not attempt to come up with your own ratio between toner and volume developer. As always, follow the recommended measurements.
3. Hair Dyes
Dyeing your hair is almost like painting. For example, how do you make a green color? The obvious answer is to mix blue and yellow.
The same principle goes for toning your hair with hair dye - you need to know how much of blue or purple you need to neutralize your brassy hair.
This method is a little bit more unconventional compared to the other two above.
Using purple hair dye to tone down your hair may require you to estimate how much dye you need to use, depending on the intensity of your brassiness.
Such method might not work out for you if you are, like me, terrible at estimating.
How To Use It:
- Just like with everything else, always follow instructions listed with your hair dye product.
- A little product goes a long way. Only use a tiny bit of purple dye with a larger amount of white conditioner. If you need a little more color, feel free to build it up along the way.
Here’s a video that might help you:
Which Is The Best Method?
After learning about the 3 best ways you can do to tone your hair, how do you choose which one works for you?
That all depends on your hair and your skill level in dealing with these kinds of hair products. For beginners, I would have to say that the purple shampoo is your best bet.
But if you are still feeling uncomfortable about doing this all on your own, do not second guess yourself. Go ahead and visit your favorite salon to have it done for you.
Whether you are a hair professional or a complete newbie at toning hair, we want to hear from you! Share with us your tips or even ask us some questions by leaving a comment below.
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