Kayla Young
Going from dark hair to beautiful blonde is not possible without using a hair toner. Bleaching is just half of the process in achieving that gorgeous ashy or platinum color.
If you simply bleach your hair, you’d end up with orange or yellow hair instead of an ashy blonde. Using a hair toner is essential in the process.
Achieving the exact color you want isn’t simple. You have to know how to properly use a hair toner or else you’ll be exclaiming “Help! Toner made my hair too dark!” Sometimes the ashy target turns to soot, or the blonde turns to brown.
No one can blame you for trying to tone your hair on your own. Experience is the best teacher, after all. And it’s possible you went to a salon where they toned your hair a bit darker than what you wanted.
Nevertheless, should you find yourself having that problem, all you have to do is use a clarifying shampoo.
Simple as it may seem, that is the best thing you can do. But before you start searching for a clarifying shampoo in your stash of toiletries, let us discuss what happened so you can avoid the issue in the future.
Contents
Toner Made My Hair Too Dark: What Exactly Happened?
Hair toners are miracle products for those who have darker hair and wish to achieve a lighter tone. When used properly, toners can efficiently cancel out the unwanted brassiness of the hair due to the bleaching process.
This is what creates a lighter hair color that isn’t too gold, yellow, orange, or rusty in color.
However, improper use of toner could backfire on you. It could lead to darker or duller hair. Toners don’t really darken the hair because they do not add color to your hair. What really happens is that they cancel out too much of the unwanted tones.
Improper use of toner could backfire on you. It could lead to darker or duller hair. Toners don’t really darken the hair because they do not add color to your hair. What really happens is that they cancel out too much of the unwanted tones.
Remember that hair toners cancel out unwanted tones, which are usually the brighter ones — brassy reds, green tinges, etc. Although the excess of these bright brassy tones doesn’t look great, too little of them makes your hair look too ashy, dull, and dark.
Balance is the key to having beautifully toned hair.
There are a few ways you can over-tone your hair:
- You might have prolonged the exposure of the toner on the hair. Follow the instructions and rinse properly!
- You might have also messed up the developer and toner proportions.
- You might have used a dye as a toner.
- You might have used expired toner.
The next time you tone your hair, make sure you use the right kind of toner, prepare it properly, and regularly check if you’ve already achieved the tone you are aiming for.
The best choice for most non-professionals is to use a color depositing shampoo like purple shampoo or blue shampoo, and not a true toner.
Toners work like dyes and are much easier to screw up than color-depositing shampoos. Color depositing shampoos work like shampoo, and are much easier to tweak for those who didn’t go to cosmetology school.
Toners work like dyes and are much easier to screw up than color-depositing shampoos. Color depositing shampoos work like shampoo, and are much easier to tweak for those who didn’t go to cosmetology school.
Of course, some use a dye to cancel out the tones too. That can lead to a disaster, especially if you made a mistake in selecting the appropriate color of the dye to counter the undertones.
Toner Made Your Hair Too Dark And Ashy: What To Do
Now that you know what you might have done wrong, it is time to make things right. We’ve already mentioned the best strategy to go forward, and that is to use a clarifying shampoo.
Most toners sit on the surface of the hair. That is why they gradually fade as you wash your hair.
One of the things you should use to prolong the effect of toner is a color-friendly shampoo or those that are sulfate-free. These are gentler cleansers that will not strip off the toner as fast as other shampoos. When everything is going well, you can keep your hair toned for weeks using this method.
But when your hair is over-toned, you want to do the opposite. You need to remove the excess toner so you brighten the hair. That is why you should use a clarifying shampoo or an anti-dandruff shampoo.
You need to remove the excess toner so you brighten the hair. That is why you should use a clarifying shampoo or an anti-dandruff shampoo.
You can also choose to simply wait it out. Toners eventually fade and if it is what caused your hair to darken, it can also be corrected when it is washed off.
Depending on the toning procedure used, products like a hair color remover can also be used. However, this is only for those who toned their hair with a dye.
What You Shouldn’t Do When Your Hair Went Too Dark
In case you find your hair too dark due to the use of toner, one of the things you should never do is bleach your hair. Bleaching your hair will just damage it even further.
Bleaching removes the hair pigments in your hair. If your hair is already lightened through bleaching, you could risk hair breakage if you redo the bleaching process again.
Repetitive bleaching is harsh to the hair and you shouldn’t do it because there is a simpler and safer way to correct the over toned hair.
Repetitive bleaching is harsh to the hair and you shouldn’t do it because there is a simpler and safer way to correct the over toned hair.
Just be patient and use your clarifying shampoo.
In as little as a week of using the clarifying shampoo, you might see improvement. You could achieve the lighter color hair that you originally aimed for.
Conclusion
The main goal of using a toner is to cancel out the brassy tones from your bleached or colored hair. However, with improper use of the toner, you can end up having darker-looking hair (or too-light hair!).
Although your hair didn’t really darken in color because toners don’t add color. They simply cancel out the brighter tones, which could lead to duller or somewhat darker hair.
When that happens, you have to reverse the effects of the toner by shampooing with a clarifying shampoo. That will remove the toner that’s on the surface of the hair so it doesn’t look over toned and dark.
Using a clarifying or dandruff shampoo plus having patience is the best solution. No matter what, don’t attempt to bleach your hair once again just to dry to lighten it.
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