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Hair Toner: Wave Goodbye to Brassy Tones

Young woman with pink blue green hair and glasses

Anyone who regularly bleaches or colors their locks a fantastic array of different shades will be familiar with what toning hair means. As the secret ingredient to any successful lightening treatment, this wonder product keeps the dreaded yellow and orange brassy tones at bay and instead paves the way for beautiful, shiny and smooth-looking color.

What is hair toner?

Woman with silver hair and purple strands

Hair toner helps you achieve amazing pastel color results

Hair toner is a product used on hair after it has been subject to strong chemical bleaching and lightening processes in order to get rid of brassy hair tones. The toner works most noticeably on light hair as it does not lift or permanently alter the color of hair, but rather adds a tone over it. This means that it can help you achieve true platinum blonde hair, silver hair, or any number of different pastel hair colors. As the key to achieving beautiful and vivid hair colors, it’s surprising that so few people know about toning hair.

Tone hair for color clarity

Want to get rid of brassy hair tones that are ruining your recently bleached look? Using hair toner is your go-to option, and will help you transform your hair in no time. There are, however, many different types of hair tone color variants out there for you to choose from. In order to find the right one, you will need to consult a color wheel to judge which shade will be able to neutralize your existing color best and bring out the tone you want.

Neutralizing brassy tones: If your foremost priority is to get rid of brassy hair, then you should head straight for the toners that contain light ashy tones. Depending upon how well your hair absorbs these cool hues, however, you might want to consider mixing in a small amount of a warmer, more golden blonde toner too.

Achieving lightest results: For the ambitious folks who dream of nothing more than having pure white or light blonde hair, then toning hair with an icy white product is a must. Follow it up with a purple shampoo to ramp up the ashy base and keep yellowing at bay.

Going pastel: Having baby hues of every color under the rainbow is a trend that is here to stay. To achieve the perfect pastel shade, you’ll need to take your hair to the palest blonde-white there is – we recommend göt2b® Color Lightened Heavenly Blonde – and use a color toner over it. Whether it’s gray, lavender or rose gold that you are after, using hair toner for no more than 20 minutes should give you the right balance.

How to use hair toner

While it’s generally recommended to always seek professional assistance when making any major color or style change to your hair, toning hair typically has relatively short-term results lasting between 4-6 weeks. Consequently, your time and finances might not stretch to receiving salon treatment every time, so here’s a simple guide to how to use hair toner at home for best results, after, for example, dyeing your hair with göt2b® Color Metallics M17 Metallic Silver.

  1. Wash hair thoroughly and then apply the toner to towel dried or completely dry hair.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
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