How To Fix Yellow Roots With A Hair Toner
My guess is if you’re reading this, you aren’t happy with your hair, and you’re in need of a solution! Your goal was a clean blonde color, weather it be ashy or neutral shade. But what you got instead was yellow roots! In this post I’m going to help you tackle those brassy roots and tone them down to a pleasant color.
In the video above, you can watch how I did this on myself! Since I’m allergic to bleach, I have to use hi-lift color to lighten my hair. In this instance I was testing out a new formula, and I’m not thrilled with how yellow my roots came out. But not to worry, because we can tone them down very easily!
To learn more about what a toner is, see this post here.
Will a toner fix yellow roots?
Yes! Toners will definitely fix brassy and yellow roots. But it’s important to know what a toner won’t do, as well as how to properly formulate your toner so that it works as it should. If you haven’t formulated properly, it won’t work properly.
When you’re dealing with yellow roots and the rest of your hair is a clean blonde shade, this usually means that your roots didn’t lighten enough. Likely, your roots are a level 8-9, and the rest of your hair is a level 10. To learn more about the level system, see my post here.
The most common misconception with toners is that they can make the hair match the level 10 ends. But the truth is that toners can not lighten hair. All they can do is tone down, which means darken. If you want to lighten the roots again to match the rest of the hair, you’ll need to use bleach.
Toners will deposit tone, which can cancel out the unwanted tone to get you to a neutral or cooler shade. And this brings us to the next section!
What color toner cancels out yellow?
To cancel out an unwanted tone, you need to look at the color wheel. The color that is opposite of a color is what will cancel it out.
So looking at the color wheel above, we can see that violet (or purple) will cancel out yellow. This means that we need to use a toner with a violet or purple base to cancel out the yellow roots.
As I mentioned earlier, formulating properly is crucial to ensuring good results. You need to make sure that you select the proper level in violet to ensure that the toner covers the yellow roots. If you select a level 10Violet but the roots are a level 8(yellow), nothing will happen and you’ll still have yellow roots.
Take a look at this chart below for a full explanation of the underlining pigment and their corrective tones.
How to get rid of yellow roots from home
When toning yellow roots, it’s important that you tone the roots only, not the rest of your hair. Since the roots and the rest of your hair are different colors, they would react differently to the toner formula.
If you applied the toner all over the hair, the roots will be less yellow, but the rest of the hair would likely be much ashier and possibly even a muddy, darker color.
Now you still can tone the rest of the hair, but you’d want to use a different formula with a lighter level and possibly a different base color than what you’re toning the roots with.
Typically when the roots are yellow, they’ll require a level 7 Blue Violet toner, and the ends would require a level 9 or 10 in your desired shade.
I highly recommend reading this post and watching the corresponding Youtube video to learn how to properly formulate a toner for your hair.
What to do if your hair is still yellow after toning?
If your roots are still yellow after toning, then you likely didn’t formulate the toner properly. The most common reason for this is that you didn’t tone down, meaning you mixed a toner that was too light of a color to cover the yellow roots.
So if you fit into this category, select another toner that is at least a level darker than the one you selected before, and try again!
Suggested products to use
***Since I’m sharing the products that I love to use with you guys, this page includes affiliate links to these products. If you take action and purchase a product through clicking one of my links, I’ll make some commission money from it at no extra cost to you. This enables me to be able to continue giving you awesome hair tips, so thanks! ***
Below I’ve linked a listing to multiple Pravana hair color shades. But remember that formulating properly is more important that using a specific brand. If Pravana doesn’t have the shade available on Amazon, it’s better to choose a different line in the proper shade than selecting what they have available.
Conclusion
If your roots are yellow and the rest of your hair is a clean blonde shade, then likely your roots didn’t lighten enough to get past the brassy stages.
You can fix brassy and yellow roots with a toner by toning down to a darker shade. Toners won’t lighten the hair, and if this is your goal then you will need to re-lighten the hair with bleach, not use a toner.
You’ll need to use the color wheel to determine what shade will cancel out your unwanted color. The color opposite on the color wheel is the neutralizing shade. So if your roots are yellow, you’ll need to use purple or violet to neutralize your yellow roots.
Make sure to formulate your toner properly by selecting the proper level and tone for your exact situation. Always tone down, meaning a level darker than the current yellow level.
If your roots are yellow and the rest of your hair is not, it’s important to apply the toner only to the roots of your hair, not all over. Otherwise, the rest of your hair can become dingy, dark, or muddy looking.
If your hair is still yellow after toning, then you likely didn’t formulate dark enough for the toner to cover. You’ll need to reformulate, dropping the toner another level or two to ensure it covers the yellow properly.
Leave me a comment if this was helpful for you, and check out my Personalized Hair Color Guides if you’d like me to help you with your formulations!
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