How To PROPERLY Tone Hair (5 Rules To Follow)
When learning to color and tone hair, you cannot just copy the color used by the person in the tutorial video. 9 times out of 10 your results WILL be different than theirs because your head of hair is different than theirs. If you are going to tone hair, you MUST learn how to properly formulate your toner to ensure you have good results. So that’s what I’m going to teach you here today!
In several of my hair coloring videos and blog posts, I’ve received comments asking me to use Sally’s hair color so that you all can duplicate my results. And the thing is, copying exactly what the tutorial is doing down to the ounce and brand used is NOT how you should be approaching hair color.
As hairstylists, when we see another stylist post their formula with a picture of the hair color, we don’t go buy whatever brand the stylist used. We make it in our current line.
I share my formulas with you so that you know that I used a level 6 with a blue violet base, based on what my canvas looked like. My goal is to teach you how to formulate, not for you to copy my formulas directly, because your canvas–your hair–is likely different from mine. So your results will be different as well.
What is a hair color toner?
Toners are demi-permanent hair colors used to add tone to the hair. A toner will ONLY deposit color, it will not lighten the hair any further. If further lightening is required, you likely need to use bleach.
Toners are typically used with a 1.5% peroxide developer. The name of the developer changes based on the brand used. I use Pravana color, and theirs is called “zero lift”, while other brands call it 6 volume, 7 volume, or even just “demi-permanent developer”.
To learn more about toners, see this post here.
Rule #1: Always tone down a level
When toning hair, you always want to tone the hair DOWN. This means a level DARKER than the level you lifted the hair to.
This is to ensure you are able to cancel out the unwanted tone and get adequate coverage. You can’t tone level 6 hair with a level 9 toner, nothing will happen to the color.
To learn more about the level system in hair color, see my post here.
Rule #2: Account for the underlining pigment in the hair
When lightening the hair, the underlining pigment is exposed. This is the warm color that you see when you begin to lighten hair.
Take a look at this chart below to see what the underlining pigment is for each natural level of hair color:
This underlining pigment needs to be taken into consideration anytime you’re lightening the hair. This could be when using permanent color to go lighter, as well as toning the hair after bleaching.
If you don’t want the underlining tone present, you’ll need to cancel it out. Which brings us to our next rule.
Rule #3: How to neutralize (cancel out) unwanted tones in the hair
You may only have underlining pigment that you need to correct, or you may be doing a corrective color service like going from red to blonde that will need specific formulating.
In a corrective color instance, let’s say we’re lightening red hair to blonde. You will likely be left with a level 8 that is bright pink/red. In this case, you’ll need to cancel red, rather than the yellow that is a typical level 8 underlining pigment.
To cancel out an unwanted tone, you’ll need to use the color opposite of the unwanted tone on the color wheel.
For level 6, since the underlining pigment is orange/yellow, you need to cancel it with blue/violet. This means you’ll need to use a color that has a blue/violet base.
In our corrective color example, since green is opposite of red, you would need to use a color with a green base.
Take a look at the color wheel below to see each colors neutralizing color:
Rule #4: When & how to pre-tone the hair
When correcting an unwanted tone, you can either do this in one step or two. You can add the correcting tone into your toner formula, or you can pre-tone the hair with the correcting shade, and then tone the hair with your final desired results.
If I am just looking to neutralize the unwanted tone (correcting the underlining pigment) then I usually do this in one step.
But if I am looking for a very specific shade or have a big color correction that I’m doing like in our example above, I will pre-tone the hair to cancel out the unwanted shade, then go back in and tone the hair with my desired shade.
When pre-toning, I like to use half a level darker for my pre-tone, and then another half a level darker for the final toner. This equals a full level darker than the pre-lightened level.
So if you’re going from red to blonde and are correcting the level 8 pink/red color, you’ll pre-tone the hair with a 7.5 ash/green color. To get this shade, you’ll mix together 7A(ash/green) with 8A(ash/green) which will give you a level 7.5A(ash green).
Then your final toner will be in a level 7 in your desired shade. Let’s say your desired shade is beige (blue/violet base) you would tone the hair with a 7BV.
Rule #5: If you have different colors throughout the strand, you need to use different formulas
Let’s say you’re lightening your hair and your roots and ends are lighter than the mid section because you had previous darker color on it.
In this instance, you NEED to use a different formula on the mid section than on the roots and ends. You cannot apply the same toner formula to the entire head of hair and expect it all to cover evenly. Because it won’t.
You’ll need to formulate differently for each section of hair that is a different color to get even results.
My favorite toning products
***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 is a link to Pravana colors on Amazon, which are my go-to favorite colors to use.
Conclusion
Learning how to properly formulate is crucial if you are going to attempt to dye or tone your hair yourself from home.
Hair toners are demi-permanent hair colors that will deposit tone to the hair. They are mixed with 6 volume developer.
The 5 main rules to toning are:
- Always tone down
- Account for underlining pigment
- Neutralize unwanted tone
- Pre-tone if necessary
- If you have different colors in the hair strand, you need to use different formula
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