These days there are so many hair coloring products available that it’s hard to know what you really need. People who dye their hair already know that it requires a lot of work but figuring out the right maintenance routine takes time.
Controlling brassiness is a big part of being a bottle blonde. Hair toner as a concept can sound a little strange at first, but we’re here to break it down for you.
What Is Hair Toner?
A hair toner is a product that adjusts the color of your dye. It’s like a topcoat that can emphasize certain tones in your strands and also add some shine. Glosses, tinted shampoos, and demi-permanent colors all technically count as toners too.
Toner is used on hair after it’s been bleached to get rid of brassy tones. It doesn’t lift the color out of your hair but rather adds a tone over it to change its appearance. This is sometimes the key to achieving platinum blonde or silver hair.
Who Needs Hair Toner?
If you’re someone who often applies bleach or other chemicals to your hair, you might want to consider toning it. This will help neutralize any unwanted undertones. Toner can help erase the orange, yellow, and red colors in hair and leave it ashier and natural-looking.
How Does Hair Toner Work?
Hair naturally contains orange and red pigments. Once your hair is lightened, bleach lifts these colors out of your hair. The amount of time that the bleach is left in your hair will determine how brassy the undertone is. However, leaving the bleach on your hair for too long can lead to a lot of damage and can change the color a lot, too.
Hair toner helps manipulate the shade of blonde that your hair is. It neutralizes unwanted warm tones in different levels of hair color. There are ten levels of hair color, one being the darkest and 10 being the lightest possible blonde. If a hairstylist lightens your hair to a 7, they’ll usually apply a toner to even out the brassy tones.
How Do You Apply Hair Toner?
Toner that is used during the hair coloring process is applied after a double process service is done. It can be applied to your hair using foils but can also be put on your entire head. It usually takes about five to thirty minutes to process fully. Your hairstylist will use a color wheel to figure out what tone you need to be applied to your hair to balance the color. If your hair is yellow, they will use purple; if it is orange, they will use blue.
When using hair toner at home, it’s crucial to follow the instructions on the bottle. Usually, these types of toners are classified as a purple shampoo that helps even color. For example, our Blond Shampoo should be applied to wet hair and left on for five minutes. Finish by rinsing it out thoroughly and follow up with your normal conditioner.
How Often To Use Hair Toner
In general, you can use hair toner about once a week for the best results. However, you can slightly adjust this number depending on your hair needs. If you ever have questions about toner, ask your hairstylist for advice. They will know the ins and outs of color theory and how to achieve the perfect shade of blonde.
Toner usually lasts for about four to eight weeks, depending on how often you wash your hair. In general, any hair washing will slightly fade color over time. Make sure that the regular shampoo that you are using is color-safe.
VoCe Purple Shampoo
If you’re looking for a way to tone at home, the VoCe Purple Shampoo is a great option. It provides a rich lather and just the right amount of violet pigment to get rid of brassiness. It also helps strengthen your hair and leaves it feeling soft. This shampoo is made with lavender and jasmine for a sweet and refreshing aroma.
When you aren’t using purple shampoo, you should make sure that you are providing enough moisture to your strands. Bleach and other chemicals often make hair feel drier than usual and straw-like. Our Hydrate Wash Moisturizing Shampoo targets moisture-lacking fibers and quenches them with organic ingredients.
It’s infused with floral, coconut, and peach for a tropical aroma that’s not too strong. This wash contains shea butter which provides a moisture barrier for your hair, and vanilla cactus and hibiscus to soothe and increase your hair’s luster. You can follow this shampoo up with VoCe’s Hydrate Rinse for the best results.
Other Ways To Care For Your Color
Besides using a toner, there are plenty of things you can do to make your color last longer. Here are a few tips.
- Stay away from heat styling tools. Curling your hair once in a while isn’t terrible, but using an extremely high-temperature tool on your hair every day could be ruining your beautiful blonde locks. If you are going to use a heat tool, apply a heat protectant spray before you start.
- When you go out in the sun, wear a hat or use SPF on your hair. The UV rays can fade color extremely fast and even cause sunburn on your scalp if you aren’t careful.
- Avoid chlorine and salt water as much as you can. The summertime is full of pool fun, but getting your hair wet with chemicals like chlorine can manipulate the color in a negative way.
- Stay away from sulfates and parabens in your shampoo and conditioner. These chemicals strip your hair of its natural oils and color. Look for labels that say sulfate-free and paraben-free.
- Wash your hair with lukewarm water. Hot water will open up the cuticle layer of your hair and leave it vulnerable to stripping and damage. Try to rinse your hair with cold water for about 30 seconds before getting out of the shower. We know it’s not the most pleasant feeling, but your hair will benefit greatly.
- Try not to wash your hair every day. Overwashing is one of the leading causes of color fade over time. If you can, wash your hair about 2-3 times a week. If you notice your hair is getting a little oily, use some dry shampoo to get you through no-wash days. Our Refresh Me Dry Shampoo uses a unique formula to soak up oil and remove build-up.
- Use a leave-in conditioner for extra moisture in your hair. This will help prevent damage and loss of nutrients while keeping your hair looking extra smooth. VoCe’s Leave-In Conditioner is lightweight and easy to use. It contains wheat protein which adds texture and richness to your hair improves its appearance.
Clean Beauty Toner
A lot of hair toners use toxic chemicals to achieve results for your hair. Things like toluene, lead acetate, resorcinol, and phenylenediamine are commonly found in hair dye and toners. This can lead to not only problems with your hair’s health, but the rest of your body too.
These ingredients have been shown to be linked to liver damage, kidney damage, and skin cancer. That’s why clean beauty is important to us. We want to provide the best possible ingredients for your hair and scalp so that you can feel and see the difference.
VoCe is part of the clean beauty industry movement. We have committed to a nontoxic ingredient list and transparent labels for your safety and the safety of the environment. There is a safe way to include fragrance in hair care products, as long as it follows a comprehensive list of regulations. VoCe follows the European regulations for fragrance, which is a lot stricter than those in the U.S.
Wrap Up
Hair toner can be a bit confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. Think back to art class and learning about complementary colors. Once you figure out which tones in your hair you want to eliminate, finding a toner that works for you should be easy. Purple shampoo works best for yellow, brassy-colored hair that is so common amongst platinum blondes.
If you’re looking for a clean, vegan, and cruelty-free brand of hair toner, VoCe is the way to go. All of our products contain globally harvested ingredients and certified organic extracts. We strive to create beauty products for your hair with results in mind. Try our Essential Haircare Moisture Hydrate Set for soft, healthy, resilient hair that shines.
Sources:
Hair Dyes: Safety, Choosing Colors, Dyeing Hair During Pregnancy, and More | WebMD