text:
How to Use Wella Color and Developer for Ash Blonde Hair
Toner: A Bleached Blonde's Best Friend
Most of us know that to dye our hair blonde, we have to use bleach to lift out the color. Once you bleach your hair, though, there are a surprising number of possible results, and they may not all be what you want.
Have you tried to bleach your hair but ended up with hair that was too brassy or more orange than blonde? Personally, I prefer my hair to be a cool, silvery blonde. That's an almost impossible color to achieve with just bleach.
That's where toner comes in. If your hair is a masterpiece and bleach is your paintbrush, toners are the small brushes that allow you to add details and shading. In short, the right toner will let you achieve the exact shade of blonde you want for your hair. Keep in mind, however, that toner won't get your hair lighter if you're going from dark, only bleach will!
How to Remove Brassiness From Hair With Toner and Developer
This article will teach you how to use toner and developer to tone down the brassy, yellow, and orange tints in your bleached hair in order to get a more neutral blonde. There are several steps to this process.
- Bleach your hair (I am assuming you have done this). Your hair will need to be lifted to somewhere between orange and lemon in order for the toners I have listed below to work for you.
- Buy the right developer.
- Buy the right toner.
- Mix them.
- Apply them to your hair.
This article will walk you through this process using my personal experience experimenting with toners and advice from my hairstylist. Let's begin!
Where Can I Buy Toner and Developer?
Wella hair care products have become my go-to products for maintaining my blonde hair. You can readily purchase all the Wella Hair Care products from any large online retailers such as Amazon or eBay. You can also purchase them from specialty beauty supply stores like Sally's Beauty Supplies either in person or online. I went to Sally's to compare prices and they are around the same for both sites.
Pricing: The only price variation you will find if you search for "Wella toners" or developers is the lower the price, the higher the shipping charge. Select "free shipping" specifically if you're on eBay.
Which Developer Should I Use?
10 Volume
20 Volume
30 & 40 Volumes
Use this developer with a darker toner or to correct mild brassiness.
Use this developer with light toners and/or more orange-tinted hair.
Do not use these developers at home!
Use Only 10 or 20 Volume Developer
Developer can be purchased in either 10, 20, 30 or 40 volume. As I mentioned in my last post, I am not a professional stylist, but when my hairdresser warned me that I could fry my hair and end up with clumps of it in my hand if I used 30 or above, you can bet I was going to heed her advice!
- 10 volume: This developer is better if you plan to deposit a darker shade of toner into your hair. If you're adding an ash brown or dark blonde toner, I recommend this one. It also works well if you are using a light toner but are only trying to soften mild brassiness instead of combatting orange tints.
- 20 volume: This developer has its own lightening effect. If you have bleached and you are ready to tone with a very light beige, honey, or ash blonde toner, the 10 volume developer might not do the job. 20 volume developer is a little stronger, suitable for use with your lighter blonde toners.
I chose the Wella Color Charm Crème Developer in 20 Volume based on information from my favorite YouTube hairstylist. It was a 32oz bottle and cost $10. I grabbed the larger bottle because although I knew I wasn't going to need much, I wanted to keep this developer on hand for whenever I needed to touch up my color. It worked great!
Lighter Toners are Not Necessarily More Effective
I started my hair toning adventure using a very light toner, which was a mistake for me because going from very dark brown to blonde, I still had a lot of orange color in my hair so it was just plain ineffective. Actually, my hair was orange, so this will save you a load of time if you're currently orange. You can't avoid the orange if you're dark-haired. Dark hair bleaches in these stages: dark brown/black, red, orange, yellow, and finally lemon. Light toner will not cover very orange hair.
My Favorite Wella Hair Toners
Color Your Hair Should Be Before Using
White Lady (Toner)
Pale hair
For residual brassiness on already pale hair.
Lightest Beige Blonde (Toner)
On "lemon" bleached hair for a sandy blonde color.
Medium Smokey Ash (Color)
Yellow or orange
On yellow or orange hair for a dark, smoky blonde.
Medium Ash Blonde (Color)
Yellow or slightly orange
On yellow or slightly orange hair for a lighter ash blonde look.
How I Got the Perfect Hair Color
What Worked for Me
Color of My Hair
What Happened?
Wella Color Charm Toner T-18 "White Lady"
Very little effect in my hair
My hair wasn't light enough.
Wella Toner T-11 "Lightest Beige Blonde"
Not effective on my hair; just left it a different color of brass
My hair still wasn't light enough.
Medium Smokey Ash 7A/672 (Color)
Beautiful smokey blonde color
Still a little too dark for me
Dark Smokey Blonde
Medium Ash Blonde 7AA/632 (Color)
Same color as the Medium Smokey Ash, but a much lighter color
Getting closer to the right color
Slightly faded from the Medium Ash Blonde
Mix of T-18 and T-11
Perfect sandy blonde
My hair was already light, so this mix worked.
Details of Each Toner
What they're good for, and how I used them.
Wella T-18 White Lady
My first toner was the Wella Color Charm Toner T-18 "White Lady." Again, my hair was still orange so this toner didn't work well in my hair. If you're quite blonde already, this will work great. It's an ash color, so use this to remove any residual brassiness and to maintain a light shade of blonde.
Wella T-11 Lightest Beige Blonde
The next Wella Toner I used was T-11, which is a light beige blonde. It has a slightly gold finish—not too gold to make your hair brassy though. If your hair is already bleached to a lemon color and you want a sandy beach-blonde look, this should work wonderfully for you. Again, my hair was not lifted to the lemon color yet, so this was not effective on my hair and merely left it a different shade of brass.
This toner does not have the ashy effect, so it will not neutralize warmer yellow/gold tones. For a cooler tone and to neutralize the sandy effect, look for a toner with the word "Ash" or "Ashe" in the description.
Wella Medium Smokey Ash 7A/672
Next I opted for a slightly different route, and bought Medium Smokey Ash 7A/672 (color). This changed the color of my hair into a beautiful ashen color and, of course, smoky blonde. I loved this color because white blonde isn't my thing and not what I was ultimately aiming for. It was darker than I wanted though, so I dropped the "smokey" label and graduated to plain medium ash blonde.
Wella Medium Ash Blonde 7AA/632
This Medium Ash Blonde 7AA/632 color is also lovely. It's the same color as the medium smokey ash, only a much lighter shade. It has such a pretty finish: not stark white, not brown, but perfectly in between. I stayed with this color until the next time I needed a touch up, then I let it fade out with several washes and finally got to where I am now: ready to try a mix of T-18 and T-11 together. This will let me keep use the ash tones to keep the brassiness at bay, but give me a more summery look with the "sandy" finish of the lightest beige blonde.
If you have any doubts at all, I would suggest the Medium Ash Blonde 7AA/632. You can't go wrong here in my opinion because if it comes out a little darker than you wanted, it will fade after a few washes without allowing your hair to revert to the orange/yellow. If you work outside the home, you don't want to go to work with bright yellow hair! This will help you out until it fades a tad; then you can tone for that lighter blonde look!
The above photo shows exactly what color my hair is today. I do love it, and I hope my hair-color journey provided a useful guide for you.
By using the medium smokey ash and then the medium ash blonde colors first, I suppose I could claim victory at obtaining my desired blonde shade by sheer accident. However, the word accident is probably not a good choice to use when we are discussing bleaching and toning our hair. Suffice it to say my hair color now is perfect for me. It looks natural and not bleached at all, and I don't have to lighten my brows. I just love it!
Be Patient!
The process of getting your hair the desired color will take time! You can't bleach hair from very dark to pale lemon in one sitting. If you attempt to do this you will damage it beyond repair. It takes multiple bleaching sessions spaced out over time to lift enough color to get to this point.
Applying the Toner
With that said, here is a brief overview of the toner process. The video below offers an excellent step-by-step tutorial. There will also be detailed instructions on the box.
- Optional but recommended: do a strand test. Apply the toner to a small section of hair first, following the same instructions you would normally. Once you see how this turns out, you can decide if it's the right color for you and if you are letting it settle for the right amount of time.
- Wash your hair and make sure to thoroughly rinse out any shampoo or conditioner.
- Mix your developer with your toner. Use a ratio of 2:1 with your toner: two equal parts of developer to every one part of toner. I use a whole bottle of toner each time. If you're mixing the T-18 and T-11, you use a 1:1 ratio of those.
- Apply the toner to your hair in sections, making sure not to miss any desired area. Always start on the hair shaft, then apply to the bottom of the shaft, then apply to the roots last. The heat from your head and the extended time on your roots can make you look more gray instead of blonde. I seriously do not need any more gray!
- Once you've applied the toner thoroughly to your hair, let it settle for 30 minutes.
- Rinse it out! No need to shampoo, but you can condition.
I use toners about every 5-6 weeks to touch up my color.
How Can I Remove Gold and Red Tones from Only Some Pieces of My Hair
Purple shampoo just might be your best friend. In general, I use either purple shampoo or purple conditioner 2 times a week to keep brassiness at bay. It helps lengthen time between toning sessions.
However, if you're dealing with brassiness after getting some sort of effect and just have parts of your hair that are orange, purple shampoo should be your first try.
- Try using it a couple of times.
- Put it on damp, unwashed hair, rub it through evenly, leave it on 7-10 minutes (no longer), then wash it out and condition.
- Wait two or three days, and then use it again.
To use it for color maintenance, damp your hair once or twice per week, apply and leave it for 30 minutes or so, then rinse and condition.
If the reds or oranges still aren't gone after that, you might want to try something else.
I used 7AA (or Another Product) and It Came Out Way Too Dark. Is the Blonde Gone?
Usually the toners, and some colors like 7AA tend to fade after washing your hair a couple of times. If you're in a hurry, though, you can wash your hair a few times with dishwashing soap, or use my soap cap recipe for bleaching at home.
Here's my "no-bleach soap cap" recipe:
- 6 capfuls of 20 Volume Developer
- 2 capfuls of 3% peroxide
- 2 capfuls of baking soda
- 6 capfuls of shampoo
Some people have said this is technically bleach, but I still think it's gentler than commercial bleach. It works very fast, so check after 5-7 minutes and incrementally after that. Keep a swatch of unbleached, wet hair close so you can compare.
My Hair Is Already Blonde and I Want to Make My Highlights Stand Out More
There's a product called Chi—actually it will say ChiIonic on the box. It comes in a tube like a large toothpaste tube. It's highlift for hair that is already blonde, so if you click and shop for "Chi Highlift Color 11A", it'll be your magic wand for those highlights!
Use 20 volume developer, and squeeze out one part color to two parts developer. Leave it for 15 minutes, then rinse it off, shampoo, then condition.
Please be aware that this is, as I said, only for use on hair that is already blonde, so if you were to put it on your brown hair, it will potentially create orange. Apply it carefully to your highlights, either wish a brush or freehand. Do not use this all over your head, unless your whole head color is blonde, with lighter lights.
How Do I Reduce Damage to My Bleached Hair?
Here's what I do:
- As far as conditioning, I don't spend a bomb on conditioner at all, and I often use a favorite inexpensive conditioner, but I find that massaging some through my hair and leaving it for an hour or two before I rinse, lightly shampooing, and then conditioning again really helps a lot.
- Use the cheaper brand for the deep conditioning and use your favorite for after shampooing. Also, make sure your hair is absolutely saturated before applying shampoo, or you can use way too much, and many brands of shampoo can be very drying if you use too much.
- You can also try good old mayo and leave on before washing. Coconut oil is also a good choice, which you can wrap or wear a cap and leave on overnight.
- Obviously you should avoid heat as much as possible with dryers or flat irons. Ironically, however, I've found that spritzing my very damp hair with some of that heat protector spray, or Argan oil, does good things for it, even though I'm not using heat.
- When you're in the shower and have conditioner on your hair, 'finger comb' your hair, and don't moosh it dry roughly with a towel when you get out. Just gently squeeze the excess water out with your towel, and again, comb with your fingers. You'd be amazed how much your hair will thank you for avoiding a brush. Some are terribly rough on hair, plus if you have waves, the perfect way to get them to stay in place is by finger combing and air drying!
I Toned My Hair and It Turned Green! How Do I Get Rid of It?
Sometimes hair can turn green if it's still too brown when an ash color is used. Try lightening a bit more, and then use a pale ash brown color, not toner. Use 20 volume developer.
You could also try Epsom salts if your hair is very damaged and you don't want to do anything too drastic.
- Try 2 tablespoons of Epsom salts, mix with the same amount of baking soda, and then add about a cup of shampoo, or enough to cover your whole head. Perhaps a half cup would be sufficient. Allow it to sit for 20 minutes, then check it.
- When I used this method years ago, I covered my head with plastic wrap to keep the warmth in, and eventually left it on for about 45 minutes. I had a pretty bad pink incident going on at that time (toner catastrophe o.O). In any case, it took out loads of color.
- Afterwards use a teeny bit of shampoo, rinse very thoroughly, and then condition afterwards.
Difference Between 10 Volume and 20 Volume Developers
The difference between the 10 volume and the 20 volume developers are like this:
- 10 volume will not light your hair shade or color anymore than it already is. If you're adding a darker color, like that brown you used, this will help it to deposit to your hair.
- 20 volume developer has 6% peroxide, and will lighten one to two shades, usually. Therefore, if you're adding highlights, it's best to use the 20 volume.
Have you ever dyed your own hair blonde and had a weird outcome?
Hi Kerry~
I have read off the the comments and your responses. You seem to have this all down to a science. I was in Sally's and the girl there told me about this process, so I came home and found you! =)
I want to see your take on my hair. I have Olaplex highlights under my current color (changed full head in October) that is L'oreal's Professional Color light brown bought from Sally's (not box brand). I want to lighten the brown up a bit. Over some of the coloring, I have done my entire head and not just the roots and it is a bit darker now. I have to color my hair every 3 weeks since I have that wonderful almost full grey gene. I am seeing what I call "skunking" grey stripe too easily because my hair grows so fast. I do have natural red tones even though my hair is pretty much grey and color grabs pretty quickly. Although my temples just don't seem to grab the color as solid as the rest of my hair.
Looking for your input to bring my hair color up a shade or two. Would it be best for my to use a 20 or 30? Should I mix with baking soda, developer and shampoo leaving out peroxide since I would not use the bleach? Also, I am coloring my roots today with Ion Dark Blonde and would think that I would not do my roots but the balance of my hair only. I just need to bring the darker part up a bit so there is not such a drastic dividing line. Should I wait till the weekend to do the cap giving my a break on the processing? The girl at Sally's says I could do it same day or the following with no issues so long I condition really good.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated... PS...I hope you recent health concerns are being treated well.
Okay, that was weird. Not sure why my whole question didn't post...Anyways, I was wondering if that since my roots were lightened by the developer, will the slight brassiness be toned down after washing it a few times? Or am I stuck with it?
So I just toned my hair with Wella t18. My highlights look great, but my roots, not so much...The developer definitely lightened them!
I don't know what my natural hair color should be, my mom permed my hair every year as a child and I started coloring at 14. Last year I had a baby and let the color go. It grew out a dark dirty blond with gold and red highlights. I recently went light champagne blond and it turned a yellow color. The Sally rep have me T15 toner and 10 volume..whatever that is. How will this work?
Thank you so much for this article, it is so clear and the exact information I was looking for.
**In regard to roots, please be aware that using 10 volume can indeed lighten the virgin hair. If you have lightened or colored hair and any substantial regrowth or roots, avoid the root area when toning. Toner with 10 volume lightened my level 6 light brown ash roots to a level 7 dark brassy orange brown. Not cute. The rest of my hair toned looked great.
If you can't avoid your regrowth it might be better to use a product like Redken Shades EQ to tone. You can get it on Amazon. It uses a processing solution instead of a developer and therefore will not lift any virgin root at all. It's a great option for people like myself who love the very grown out root look but still need to tone their blonde lengths.
Hello, I recently used color oops to remove all the hair dye which did amazingly good job it left a little bit of a red tone and I dyed my hair dark ash blonde I i love you too the color but what can i use to tone down red tint it still has without bleach
Hi I have a very dark brown natural hair . I just bleached with a 20 volume developer and turned like orange color then I bleached again and turned like yellow color. My question is what toner I have to used to get a smoke ash blonde?
I used a hi lift ash brown on hair that was already light with blonde and red tones. My hair now has platium/white coloring on the ends that were very blonde. How can I fix it to an ash brown?
I have a honey blonde ombré and it's brassy now,and it's slightly orange/reddish. There's the Wella toner T27 the color is Medium Beige Blonde,will that tone my hair and keep it honey blonde?
My hair was very golden but not too orangey but I just put wella t28 and it's just a different color of brass, how long do I have to wait to do another toner or can I do it immediately even if this toner is still in
After i color my hair at home with box color FERIA platinum blond , can i use wella toner T18 with 20volume?
I've always enjoyed golden wheat hair. My stylist made the mistake of putting purple shampoo on it (4 mos ago) and now I have two sections that turn a grayish green whenever my hair is dyed. What can I do to go back to the golden wheat and maintain that? 4 mos seems insane but I wuit going to her and it is still happening with new stylist
So I just did my dark roots and that is the only part of my hair that is orange now. Do you suggest just toning the roots with the 632/7AA toner?
I just bleached my hair from dark brown using wella blendor and it came out to a level 6 - light orange with very yellow roots. I then toned it using wella koleston medium ash blonde (7/1). It has come out very dark at the roots and is a dark smokey blonde with a weird greyish tinge almost. What can I do now as I wanted a lighter blonde? Thanks
Hi, Kerry
Thanks for replying so soon. I'm still ordering the permanent color, waiting for delivery. Maybe gonna do my hair two weeks later. Hope things turn out as expected. I'll let you know.
Just stay energetic, Kerry. You'll be fine
Have a nice day (:
Just put a T14 blue toner in my hair, just highlighted as well. Have done this before. This time my hair has a blue tinge. What should I do? Will it wash out?
Hi, Kerry. How's your health? Hope things are going well.
You've been mentioning in some previous answers that the last 2 products (7A and 7AA) in the table were colors. Does that mean you toned brassiness with permanent colors? Didn't they lift?
I have Asian hair. I'm having a plan to make my hair tip as light as possible (ombre), just for fun, maybe a bit blonde. But I got stuck to decide how I'll tone the blonde-bleached part. Since there's no semi nor demi permanent color sold in my country, is it okay to use permanent color as toner on bleached hair? If okay, what developer should I use? 10vol or 20vol?
When you went from the smoky ash blonde to the medium ash blonde did you have to bleach again? I followed your steps and I'm at the smoky ash and it's way to dark for me. I would like to lighten it up. I absolutely love your article! It has has helped me a lot.
I went to a salon and they left the bleach on way to long. I wanted a golden blonde and now I'm gray. I just finally stopped crying. Is there a toner for that? And do I need a developer when using a toner?
Great article. Very helpful. My hair came out exactly as I had hoped.. thank you!
Thank you! Tried the T50 with T14 and it made it a grey/silver - nice but a bit dark. Sticking with just T14 or T18 now..
Thank you! I had orange brassy hair after a few months of not dying, had about 2 inch new growth. I was dying my hair with box dye for a few years, medium ash brown, but apparently sometime the box dye really lightened my hair...leaving a golden brassy color after months of washing. So I used "Color Prep" by Color Oops last night, which took my hair to its natural state, which was a yellowish brassy dark blonde and it didn't look terrible but I don't like yellow blonde, so I read your blog and took your advice on using Wella Medium Ash Blonde with 20 Developer and it worked wonders on my hair! Thank you!
Hi Kerry, I just did a wella toner t18 on my hair. Love the color my hair came out except for my roots, they are still a little golden...what can I do?
Hi - I used 6AA with a 20% developer on my gray roots and they look brassy orange. What toner do u suggest? Thanks!
I used about 1/3 of the T11 with the full bottle of t18 because my hair is long and thick, mixed with 20 developer on my pale yellow lifted hair, and the outcomewas a gorgeous sandy pale blond BUT some tiny pieces still have traces of lilac.. I've read some threads saying it washes out but I've scrubbed it about 4 times in 2 days and no luck. Anyone else experience this or have any remedies?!
Hi there, and thanks for your previous answers. I'm curious - what will T50 do to bleached hair? I've scoured around for reviews on the product, but on sites where the Wella shades are sold the reviews are mixed all together and I can't ferret out the ones for T50. Thanks!
Thank you. .the 7AA saved me. My hair was so yellow after bleaching. I want to wait a month to bleach again but I was so embarrassed by the color. I used the 7AA and looked presentable again. I left it on about 10 minutes. I.had a slight green tinge but better than looking like a muppet. Thank you
Hi I boxed dyed my hair about three weeks ago to a blonde and It came out orange on the top and blonde on the bottom I started to read about these wella colors and I was wondering can I dye my hair with a wella color and then tone it or can I use a toner on box dyed hair ? Thanks in advance
I have been bleaching and toning my hair for years. For some reason this time the toner just isn't working! I bleached my roots as I normally do, and used T18 with 20 volume developer in a 1:2 ratio (1 part toner, 2 parts developer) ...only on my roots of course.
I did this twice and most of my hair is nice and platinum blonde but my roots are still slightly yellow/orange-ish! I even made sure to leave the toner on for 30 minutes the second time. I've tried purple shampoo as well. Any idea what might be wrong here? Thanks in advance!
I have triesd bottle blonde since 6th grade (I'm 28) and even bleaching every yr at least onice/yr. Long story short, you
Any chance a photo could help someone tell me what category my hair falls in so I can get the right toner? I still have a 20developer I didnt use for bleaching. It did take 2 bottles&pks on already dyed blonde revlon extra light natural blonde hair. My hair is otherwise near black. It's really light now tho, amazingly. Some strands i think are "pale' the rest possibly lemon.
Which parts are the shaft? I know the middle of my hair seemed to be dar
Naturally id say im a level 5. Last my hair was done I'm very unhappy about it wanted a suggestion on how to make it look more natural. Last time it was lifted and highlighted i dont know what with but I ended up with hair between a 10-11/12. Which could be nice except the problem is that the 10 is actually a bit brassy not horrible but not great so last time when we tried toning my hair with the white lady toner and 20 developer it turned the 11/12(highlights) purple and the other hair stayed yellow and I ended up looking silver all together but a ugly silver since the yellow was still there. I just kinda bared with it as I did not want to do more to my hair but now my roots have grown out and I have to do something. the problem is that I feel like my hair just looks very flat and dull all over but then by the root its looking more golden-y. I kinda wanted to lighten by natural 5 root growth to a maybe 7-6 but more ashy than warm. However, I don't know how to do this so that it doesn't go yelow-y on me-I just want more of a root grow-out look like a smudge root (but im not sure if I want to actually apply color, so wanted to just lift my root enough blend? is this possible or do I need to apply color?). But then also the rest of my hair just looks too flat and washed out and idk what to add to the hair to add a bit dimension and still match the roots? thank you!
Saved my hair from damage. I just bleached with wella twice to acheive an orangy gold yellow mix. I tried a single shade toner that did not seem to work. I decided to tone using wella 8a blonde gel. This really helped out but i felt i still had more gold than i wanted. I debated on eventually having to hi lift bleach or dye again and did not want to. So i found a response on here on mixing toners. So i mixed about half an oz of t11 with 1 oz t14 to 2.5 oz 20 dev. And left in for 30 minutes applying to roots last. Oh thank goodness it removed allllll the brass and gold tones without whiting or greying me out i looove the color!!! Thank youu
If I'm using color touch 9:16 well a how much developer 40 cream would I use to mix with it
Hi I have an ombre. (my natural hair brown on top, with blond, mid-session to end). I want a little ashy tone. but is turning brassy and a bit orange. how can I tone it without damaging my roots, and what color toner can you suggest. I was looking and want something like T18-T14 from wella. But like a said i don't want to bleach or turn my roots green. Please help.
I just got high lights last week but they wete too dark. Is it too soon to put toner in my hair?
This is a very well written,informative description of bleaching and toning blonde hair. Especially if you aren't a Cosmetologist. You go girl! Some people don't realize you cant go from black or even brown to platinum blonde in ONE STEP. There's different levels you go through to achieve the level of blonde desired. And I use 20v with wella T18 and it works extremely well. I also use purple shampoo in between touch ups. I recently found out about break the bass for in between coloring to lighten your roots. Have you used it?
Hi, I had an ombre from red to blonde a year ago and most of it grew out and faded out. 4 weeks ago I had the bottom portion of my hair bleached to get a dark brown(top my natural color), blonde effect(bleached at bottom). She didn't make it the blonde that I was going for (ash blonde). The bottom part is now turning a bit brassy. I use purple shampoo 2 times a week (both Shampoo and conditioner), even tried leaving it in for over 30 minutes. Nothing. Next, I tried to test a strip of my hair with wella toner(I believe T18 or T11 but will double check)/20 developer and still no effect. When I initially got my hair done 4 weeks ago, she didn't tone my hair at all which seemed odd, so I know the color I'm seeing is straight from the bleach. What should I do to not mess up the rest of my hair and tone the blonde part to ash? It's not 100% the same color throughout the bottom I would say it looks more like a lot of highlights (so some brown and mostly blonde). THANK you in advance!
I have REALLY hard to bleach/tone hair. Even my medium-light brown "virgin" roots are a nightmare and I've had all bad experiences having salons touch up my roots. I always end up with golden "bands" (which happens when you lighten, get roots, lighten roots, regrow.....and repeat those steps. Eventually you'll get some banding where each touch-up wasn't perfectly the same color. UGH. So my roots end up too gold no matter what I do. So I bleach my roots twice using 20 Developer and Schwarzkopf BlondME bleach.
I find that T18 is best used AFTER doing just your roots with mostly T14 mixed with some T10 and a capful of T050 (a liquid additive that is basically purple). It helps get the darker gold out of roots first (then I rinse completely, shampoo, and add a light detangler spray so that I can get a comb through my hair to apply the T18). You don't want to condition before using toner because it will make it less likely to stick to your hair.
Then I do T18 all over (starting at the roots and doing the shaft and ends last) and leave it on just under the standard time (usually about 20 to 25 minutes). I still end up with a silverish color overall for a few days, but then the "fade" is a bit more even. The darker silver toner on the roots keeps the gold away longer and the lighter T18 on shaft and tips keeps the rest platinum.
If you find that Wella Toners are too difficult to work with (because of all the rules about blue, purple, and neutral undertones)....you can also order the Redken Shades EQ line on Amazon or Ebay and use their version of the Platinum Toner. The difference is that it's much more neutral (no greys left) and the Developer you use with it has no/little peroxide. They have a "Pearl" as well as *what's supposed to be* a true "Chrome" (Silver). But I use the Chrome just to tone out gold and it works pretty well. The silver lasts barely a few days.
But keep in mind that the Redken Shades EQ Developer does NOT have lift. So if you have really brassy tones, it will only coat them....not lift any additional color away. So this is best if you got an even gold or lemon color all over and want to avoid damage and just get a standard "pearly" blonde. The Chrome I only recommend if you have stubborn roots like I do and don't mind being a cool silver for a few days.
I use both the Wella and Redken Shades EQ and they're all great for maintaining blondes. Basically you just have to be willing to mix and match toners to get a shade that works for your hair issue. Mine is hot roots and then dry ends so the darker/more purple in the roots and silver tone on the rest ends up making my color most even with the least damage. But you have to find what works on your hair. Everyone is different. But don't be afraid to tone. They come out easily. And once you've bleached, you truly have NOTHING to lose by trying a variety of Toner Colors and mixing them together (obviously only mix toners of the same brand if you're doing it in the same bottle or bowl, though).
I used a box of Loreal with bleaching to try and lighten and reduce brassiness on the a color that the salon put on my base ( I hated it!). It came out yellow orange :( Now I am scared as to what to put on it to make it look natural again. The rest of my hair is a light summery blonde. I usually use Majiblonde from the salon, but that's a whole other thread. Stupid hairstylist went crazy on grabbed the wrong color on me one time and then blamed me. Weirdo. So now I'm stuck with looking like a lemon head.
I LOVE ALL OF YOUR INFO! I am just about to rinse out my bleach and try wella T10
I used 14 once and it was ok....so now I'm trying this there was no 14..I have just started using toners....I certainly could have used it more than once in the last 30 years!!!
Hi Kerry!
I have very orange/red brassy hair. My natural hair color is very dark brown and I ended up with this. Will the 7a/672 get rid of this? Thanks!!
Hey Kerry!
I'm having a really difficult time with my hair. I used 9A- light ash blonde-on my medium brown hair (wish I would have read your blog first about that...) and it turned orange/yellow kind of like a strawberry blonde. Obviously this is not the ash color I wanted. I took your advice and went out and got T-18 toner the next day and mixed it with a 20 volume developer. It really didn't do much, so I might try dying again and using a mix of toners like you suggested.
I'm eager to get rid of this color, but don't want to damage my hair badly-- how long would you suggest waiting ?
Hi ,me and my mom just got our hair done about a month ago but the lady who did my hair didn't do it the way I wanted too so I waited about a month researching about the T18 hair toner , I wanted to go a little lighter. I went to Sally's yesterday and got it & put it on my hair but it turned out a little grey , can you please help me ? I want my highlights to stand out more and look more blonde.
Hi there. I had aterrible experience at a salon. My roots are now a level 8 n but my highights are a pale blond. My roots have spots of brassy orange in between the color. I would like to know how to fix the brassiness without damaging my highlights. The stylist started with a 7a that was darkn green. I freaked and asked him to put a 9n to give warmth back. The base color is really the problem because of the irange spots.
OK so question. Not comment. I normally go to salon and get hi and low lights my original roots color grows out dark brown, so I bleached my roots and side roots. It was yellow and orangish, so I was told by Sally's yo put in light ash blonde toner. So I did turned greenish, then I tried to put in lowlights with a DK brown so I had grey greenish. Yellow looking hair, Sally's told me to put in a permanent golden blonde color with 10 v. I did now my hair is thus mucky dull, orange, yellowish, grey green color. So then I put in color remover, now I have yellow orange hair with grey green lowlights. With yellow roots. How the hell do I even this color out. I just want a sandy blond color no ashy green or orange. Would tell t18 fix it? Help
I first bleached my hair blonde about a year and a half ago and it ended up really nice, I had balayage and highlights, my initial goal was platinum blonde balayage like the one from Elle Bangs, but the further the salonist could reach for me was golden blonde and I actually ended up liking it, I did retouchs every 4 or 5 months since there wasnt a straight line between my roots and the bleached part and it looked sorta ombre. I bleached my hair again about a month ago because my roots were already about 4 inches, my natural hair is medium brown, I wanted to reach a platinum blonde this time, she did highlights all over my hair since she said only with highlights i could reach a lighter color and not with balayage, I dont know which toner she used, but the highlights instead of blonde ended up grey but realized it until the next day because when I left the salon it was already dark and with the salon light i couldnt tell. I tried with the purple shampoo for about a week and a half but it ended up showing the grey even more so I stopped using it, and the grey has kind of faded away, but still for some reason the highlights on my roots show lighter than the mid to ends part. Now im left with an ashy blonde color with a mix of yellow, light brown and orange babylights, and also damaged hair. I dont know what to do to fix it, I was planning to balayage it since part of my roots are still dark because the lady only did highlights(sort of look like zebra highlinghts) to retouch. I wanna reach a platinum blonde and even out my hair color. Also, how long should I wait before i bleach/dye it again?
Ps. Do you have a facebook page so that I can actually show you what my hair looks like?
Hello, okay so here is my dilemma. I have lightened my hair and after two applications of bleach got my hair to a brassy golden/ orange color, i applied a 7A permanent color with 20 vol developer thinking it would tame the orange and it did help some of the orange color but I still would love to have the brassy orange gone. i dont need it darker or lighter, just want it toned with NO orange. what should I do? I used Ion color but am familiar with Wella and would like to try it again.
Ok update: I used T11 and 7AA with a 10 developer last night. Simply made my hair about 2 shades darker and didn't add any ash or take out any copper. Now it's dark golden brown. Still want this yellow/golden tone out. I might go back to trying T18 with a 20 developer after a couple of washes with purple shampoo/conditioner. Im just nervous that this will actually it brassiness back in because of the peroxide in the 20 developer. If I use a 10 developer with it though, it just won't work. Not even sure if my hair is light enough after this T11 and 7AA mix for T18 to work. Thoughts?
Hello there! I would love your opinion.. I have light brown hair that I dyed with garnier nutrisse champagne blonde and it looks great. However, I want my hair to have light ash colors... Should I try T18 and T11 or are there any other suggested combos? Will this look natural on me? I have blue/green eyes fair skin and blue veins if that helps.
Hi!! So my hair is naturally a beautiful bronze with ashy natural highlights. I tried making it all-over lighter and lightening the ash at the beach with the dreaded infamous Sun-In. Totally gold (too yellow/orange for me). So then I bought a dark ash blonde box color by Loreal which helped keep the gold down and made it more subtle for all of one day -_- I gave up for about a month and didn't touch it. Yesterday I did wells T18 with a 20 developer and it didn't make my hair ashier at all, it simply lightened it all over. I want to try again, I want a but darker, and much ashier. If it doesn't turn out as desired, I would rather be left with a gray color than a green. I'm trying to decide if I do T18 and T11 with a 10 developer, or a 7A with a T11 (if I can even mix those together?) with a 10 or 20 developer, or just 7A with either a 10 or 20? I have no idea what to do. My current color is a dark blonde (but too light for me) with all over gold/yellow/orangey/auburn. What do you suggest to simply darken a bit, and ashen a ton? Thanks!!!!!
Hello Kerry! i had natural very dark hair. i went to the salon and had an ombré done. she used bleach and a toner. my
whole hair turned out yellow, too yellow for me. i felt so weird because my whole life my hair was dark and i didn't like it at all. also it was so expensive! my hair is very long. i went back and asked her for a darker tone. she used a mixture of toners and i liked it but i think it faded from the first time i washed my hair!! i want like a medium ash blonde but i don't want it so seem too even or boring. it doesn't matter if it turns out too dark because i like it better darker than too blonde. what can i do?? should i use a toner? which one? ohh and also the purple shampoo doesn't work for me :( please help me!!? i don't want to keep damaging my hair but this isn't what i had in mind :(
I recently bleached my dark brown hair blonde and used a Wella T28 toner on it and I want to try the T18 toner
My question is....do I need to bleach my hair between toners?what if I want to change the toner shade? Or do I tone over the old toner? Thanks
Hey Kerry,
Wanted to say thank you! Used the T18 with Wella Developer and it worked out very well. I was very close to where I wanted to get so I only left it on for 5 minutes, but the effect was exactly what I was looking for. I may slowly go more towards silver and see how I like it. Fun stuff! Susan
Which gives a more lighter blonde appearance adding more sand blonde or light beige blonde when mixing these two colors
Hi, the other day I re bleached my roots and the toned it using wella t14. We left both of them on for the longest time it suggests but my hair is still light orange/ strawberry blonde. Do you have any suggestions? We just can't figure out how to get my hair light blonde like all the rest of it.
I've bleached my hair three weeks ago for the second time. It still has a Orange collor. Is it's possible to use the toner whitout bleaching it again? Or will it not work because the hair sculptures are not open?
Do you use the toner on wet of dry hair?
Thank you!
I have a client who has golden highlights and a base of 8.She wants to be an ash blonde ombre colour. I was going to put on loreal luocolour po1, all over. will this look right and make it all different tones?
Thank you
Love your article! I'm just about to do this - your suggestion to Cory... but with the medium ash blonde 7AA/632.... but I'm wondering if I paint this on with fine paints of T18? I'm not sure if I do this in the same sitting, or do base of the 632 as you suggest, see how it is and if I want lighter then add the T18 another time? I've got a ballyage that's too warm at my roots, then some soft light yellows on the strands and then some orangey yellows underneath... Tricky one! If you have any tips that'd be awesome! Thank you xxx
Hi there,
I currently have short dark blonde hair that I streak heavily with L'Oreal 9.5a, lightest ash blonde. I like the color, but it isn't quite as ashy as I would like. Purple shampoo also doesn't quite get me there. I like the effect from the first video with the T18, but it skipped the application. Was the 2:1 mixture applied to the whole head? Was the mixture changed to 1:1? Thank you!
I've had bleached hair for a few years now. I'm looking to break up the solid look of all over blonde. I bought Wella color charm 7A/672 medium Smokey ash blonde. After reading your article I found it is more of a toning formula. Nevertheless, will this color be permanent? Could you describe what it liked like on your hair?
Thank you so much for your article!
My hair is highlighted with the balayage effect. The hairdresser toned the blonde to make it less brassy and more ash. It washed out quickly and I have had it retoned. However, I would like to buy some toner to use at home when the brassiness reappears to save money. Please can you recommend the right toner and developer please?
Many thanks
hi thank you for this article!! i have a quick question. so i've been dying my hair for a while. my natural hair is a light brown with natural golden highlights. i've lightened it and then gone to dark brown. right now, i have been going to the salon for the past year to slowly lighten it with highlights and balayage. as of now, it is a warmish golden blonde on the very top layer of my hair but everything underneath that is a warm orangey golden color. and the ends of my hair are light like the top layer. my hair is in pretty good shape since i recently got 4 inches cut off but the ends are still slightly porous though. so my question is, how do i tone my hair to a nice dark sandy blonde without turning the light parts of my hair a murky greenish grey color? thank you!!
Hi so I just bleached my hair blonde and it came out nice after I toned with T18 Wella. My only problem is that my roots are very white and the color is uneven while I still have some yellowish orange in there. My roots had grown out since my last color. How do I fix the yellows ando white?
Hi, I recently dyed my hair black to a lighter brown/blonde. My hair has hints of orange and has its own highlights? Some parts dyed more than others creating highlights. I'm going to re dye it because it needs touch ups. My question is when I dye my hair do I apply the dye to my ends also or just apply toner to the ends? Which toner would you recommend, I'm going for more of an ash/ sandy color, not fully blonde though. My skin complexion is tan. Also would you recommend buying hair color from a box (like the loreal ones you can buy at Walmart) I'm not sure if that matters, haha I have only dyed my hair once so I'm not familiar with a lot. One more question, I like how my hair looks like there are highlights. I don't like when hair is one solid color, I think it makes it look fake. Any tips or tricks to keeping it like that? Thank you so much!
Hi! I used the 7AA on my bleached, gold hair, with some pale yellow bits. I was expecting it to be a lot darker, but not for it to be green? I already washed my hair out a couple times and Im worried that the green may never fade out of my hair. Is there any way to fix this? Or would a color remover like "color oops" work?
Hey quick question....I used the T18 toner with the 20 developer on my hair and don't love the color. It's more silver than I like, and Now I wish I still had my golden blonde hair cause it just looks better with my skin tone, etc. Because Wella is a permanent toner, will it still fade, and how long would that take? Also, is there any ways I can speed up the fading process to get my hair back to normal?? THank you!!
Kerry can you please help me?
I recently used 7A and my hair turned into a swampy green color. What can i do to fix this?
I'm a first timer at toning on my own. I have brown hair and get blond highlights (full head) every 6 weeks plus a toner. the toner fades and i've been wanting to tone myself in between dyes to save some money.
I purchased the developer in the 20 and the 7AA/632. I'm concerned though as I'm still confused whether this is a the right product as there is a warning not to purchase the "wella color charm liquid haircolor with liquifuse technology" and that's exactly what the back of the box claims that this product is.
I had my hair bleached by a stylist and it turned out more brassy orange blonde than the cool blonde I was hoping for, 4 days later I used two bottles of Wella T-18 and a 6 oz bottle of developer. I was wearing purple latex gloves and freaked out because I saw purple all over my head, long story short I only left the treatment on for about 5-10 minutes. I have less brass, but I'm still not at the desired color, how long should I wait before I try the T-18 toner and developer process again? You
Hey there! After I posted my initial question to you, I went ahead and decided to try a 10 Dev toner and the Wella 714 (pale ash blonde) with 1 capful of the violet 050...it helped tone out the reds/gold a bit, but I still have a fair amount of reddish goldish color I'm not loving. I think you're right and I probably need to lift my hair a bit more and then try for a lightest brown ash color (or "bronde"). Another question: actual hair dye (even the professional stuff) seems to be really harsh on my hair (I'm guessing due to the ammonia)...can I use a semi-perament color? I know Wella makes a demi-permanent line that's ammonia free. And no, I don't have any "green" tone to my hair...only reddish, goldish tones that aren't attractive ;) Ugh..I wish I lived in a bigger town with great hairdresser's to figure this out for me. But instead I'm trying to be my own colorist via Sally's Beauty ;) Let me know your thoughts on if I should do a semi-permanent color vs toning, after I do another bleach shampoo cap. And a HUGE thank you in advance for taking the time to provide your expertise/two cents...I really appreciate it!
Hey I need help! I have bleached my hair a while ago and now its starting to turn green? I haven't dyed it since and I have a very important event soon. Could you help me please?!
Opps, and I should have mentioned: I'm going for an ash-ish light brown color...at the moment, I have way too much golds and reds. I don't mind a little warmth, but it currently looks too gold and reddish/brassy. The T 050 violet seems to work, but darkens (and I don't want any darker)...and the T18 seemed to do nothing at all. So perhaps the t14 mixed with a couple of capfuls of the 050 violet? I'm wondering/hoping it will remove the yellow gold and orange brass tones!
Hi! I need your guru expertise! My hair was originally dark brown...and I've lightened it gradually via a bleach shampoo cap...I've experimented with various Wella toners (T 050 violet, T18 lightest ash blonde) and then recently did an actual full color (Argan Oil brand at Sally's that was supposed to be a "medium ash blonde", but it put a tone of yellow-ish "gold" tones in my hair, especially at my roots area). What Wella toners should I use to get rid of golds (and some reds)? Perhaps the T14 mixed w/ a capful or two of the Wella 050 cooling violet? Also, should I use a 10 Developer? I don't want to go any lighter ;) Thank you in advance!!!
Hi, when you say you mixed the two color tones together, did you mix both in the same bowl and apply all over? Or did you highlight some parts of your hair with one and then use the other for lowlights?
Hi, I need help!! on Wednesday I bleach my black hair for 3 times, first I used the Lorel feria for 30 minutes then I decided to bleach same day my hair with regular bleaching with 30 v developer for about 45 minutes, then I bleached again same day but this time I used olaplex, I had to cut my hair 5 cent because was damage and un even, my hair is a light orange I don't know what to do :( should I go to a professional or should i use the Wella medium smokey ash 7A/672?
Whoever wrote this was is incredible. Thank you so much! Finally a tutorial/blog that answered all of my questions. Thank you! Thank you!
Have you ever tried Wella's Demi-Permanent lightest ash blonde toner? I had my hair bleached at the salon and I'm going to bleach the new hair growth at home myself. I haven't found a stylist that I 100% trust. Even the best one uses too much heat on my hair and causes damage, so I'd rather bleach the hair myself to minimize damage. Anyway, I'm using Davine's purple conditioner to keep the brassiness at bay in the meantime, and I'm using olaplex (steps 1, 2, & 3) and coconut oil treatments to maintain the integrity of my hair.
I thought I'd try Wella's demi toner first since it will wash out eventually. Would the lightest ash blonde demi toner work after I bleach the re-growth to a very pale yellow? Or do you think the permanent toners mentioned in the article would work better?
thanks so much Kerry - really appreciate it and will start from this week :) notice some of my text had got lost - going forward should I also avoid the medium ash blonde and 20 developer, had I been doing anything wrong tia xx
Hi there! Yes I have the oribe purple shampoo and it didn't do much. It's still pretty golden brondish. the underside is nice and ash toned
Hi Kerry I have been following your advice and had been using the medium ash blonde with the 20 developer - sometimes only left on for ten minutes and really like the colour this gave me. I have hughlighted hair with a base of about six. Had used this 2-3 times in between visits to hairdressers and preferred this colour to what I got at the hairdresser. It was ideal also for taking down the yellow brassiness - the medium ash 7aa does state it's a colour not a toner though and got it from the Lin on here. Anyway I had an appointment at hairdressers last week as thought had better keep a hairdresser as backup. I had about an inch approx of regrowth but not very noticeable. She put on a bleach first to lift it - did say I didn't like it white etc and then agreed to tone. Sat with this in for around 45 minutes and then had toner on - my hair was still white in places and on drying started to fall out in clumps
Hi there, I went to a hair dresser to have balayage ombré on my natural brown hair that has a lot of red naturally, I asked her to make it a beige blonde and the under part of my hair came out nice and beige but the top part seems to be way more golden and even copper blonde. The highlights are all blended beautifully it's just the copper I wanted gone.She is super expensive so is there -anything I can do at home to get my desired color until I can go get my hair done again?
I have a question for your DIY soul :)
I have the blonde I want in all but 2.5 inchs from the root SO i attempted to bleach the roots and turned out with SOO bad lol!
Roots out i have the following stripes lol total of about 2.5 inches: stripe of light yellow, light orange, red-orange then my blonde down to the ends.
Should i just bleach the roots followed by toner all over or
Hi lift ?
I have product for both all Wella.
Any thoughts ?
are you suppose to wash your hair after toning or just rinse
Decided against the oil while toning. But, the back of my hair just will not budge! Still an extremely pale yellow even after toning for 30 minutes, did the top of my head for only 10 and it's a really nice violet grey (recall this was WHITE). So. I guess I have to change directions. I think I have to go darker just to get something that will cover this hair that won't take to ANYTHING.
Do you have any experience with Wella 050 cool violet? I'm thinking of mixing half a bottle of that with some t18, to hopefully get something kind of silvery.
Thhank you!
Torri :)
Hey Kerry!
Just an update :)
So, did the pink ombre thing. Ended up still noticing some blue/green up top so used a super diluted blood orange and died it all but the roots. Actually came out kind of cool so i let that fade. STILL had some blue on the under bits and around my temple region. So, I used one packet of effasol color remover mixed with water and shampoo and applied it where needed, left that on for about 10 min. Then hopped in the shower and doused the rest of my head with what was left in the bowl, waited about 5 min and rinsed/shampooed/conditioned. BAM no more blue/green. Phew. By this point my roots needed a bleach touch up, so I did those and mixed what was left over with shampoo and did a bleach bath to the rest of my hair that was a bit yellowy (recall i mentioned after toning the back didn't really take). Also, wanted to note both the effasol and bleach were used on hair that was highly oiled with coconut oil as to lessen damage. So, the top of my head is now WHITE (yay) and back/ends/underneath is a lighter yellow. I'm going to oil it up for the night and tone tomorrow. Question for you: Can I tone over hair with coconut oil in it? Or does that lessen the effect of the toner?
I'm hoping the yellow region will come out white, and the already white will be a purply silver, eventually all to fade to a more even white. Obviously I will leave the yellow regions toner on longer than the white bits.
Thank you!
Hi Kerry,
Thank you for all of your great advice. Is there a conditioning treatment you can recommend after all of this bleaching, dying and toning I've been doing? I finally got my hair to the color I want, but now it's very dry. I have a couple hair masques, but is there any that really worked well for you?
Hello! I'm hoping you can help ... I am a level 6 ash brown naturally with grays (eew!) and wanted to lighten up a bit and cover grays so I used a level 7 dark ash blonde all over. It turned out a orangey grayish color. It was not cute so thinking I'd go back to my natural color. I went back over it with a level 6 light ash brown. The only part that took was the gray and none of the natural light brown tones. I was thinking I may be able to use a toner to fix it but wasn't sure if any of the ones you mentioned would work?? Any thoughts?
My hair picks up to much ash even with the lightest ash and makes it look dull and muddy. What toner can I mix with T11 to give it a more "sandy" color? T28? I like a multi-tonal effect and my hair doesn't take color evenly anyway which works out well for that. I lightened it to much much so it's pretty yellow and white in places. Just want soft blonde but light. Ideas?
Thanks Kerry ! I'll try that!
What about the few highlights that stick out around the face when hair is up ! Kinda bothers me seeing them !! Ahhhh
EMERGENCY! Couldn't get into my salon so colored hair at home... I had a ombré dark blonde to pale silvery ash blonde. I wanted all over blonde. Used Loreal feria platinum blonde. Everything looks good except my YELLOW-ORANGE roots! Can I use a toner to help? Do I put it all over? Just on roots? Any input would be GREATLY appreciated! Need to do it today as I have a wedding tomorrow!
I have virgin black hair,planning for a balayage using loreal quick blue bleach and 30vol develeoper. But I m confused whether to use wella t18 toner or t15?My hair being too dark is not going to turn light blonde on first attempt. So which toner is going to work best for me?you must have the fair idea.please help.
Hi Kerry !
I recently had my hair done at a salon, told my stylist I don't like stripey near my face (I like a few inches left so my natural hair showing at top ) so blonde balayage highlights start 2-3 inches from root. Well he didn't listen and gave me a few blonde strand that are popping right out on my roots. I really want to get rid of these ( not many) should I use 7A/672 mixed with dev 10 just on my roots ? Will that change the natural color of my roots which is light brown ?
Also if I want tone down some of the pieces that seem a little brassy ( light brown mixed with sandy blonde) he said he was adding like sandy beige blonde but some seem too stripey and brassy throu out the rest of my hair.
Please help !!! Dunno if I should send a pic to see what I'm talking about ? Hope it makes sense.
Thanks much!!!
Hola, me ha gustado mucho tu artículo por lo detallado q lo explicase todo. Hoy fui a Sally a comprar un tinte y la vendedora me recomendó wella pero el T18, y al leer el artículo veo q el q necesito es el 7AA / 632, pq tengo el pelo amarillo llegando a naranja. Mañana lo voy a cambiar, y cuando lo utilice te cuento como me fue. Gracias, saludos Marien.
Hey Kerry,
So, I was bored and wanted to try SOMETHING. I ended up dying the blue/green bits with a blood orange (heavily diluted with conditioner). This helped tone out some of the greens to more of just a yellow one washed out. Afterwards i did you suggested epsom salt/baking soda/clarifying shampoo concoction and left that on for one hour (took a nap in the sunshine). This didn't get much of the stain off at all.
So, I just went for it. Put some T18 on, left it for 25 minutes. My bangs and top of my head look awesome, sort of a white silver. This is where my hair was basically white to begin with. But the back that was yellow blonde (think inside of a banana), it didn't actually do much of anything to. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't an application error as my head was soaked in it. The underside that was still more green is a little more of a blue green under a silver tinge now.
Since I don't want to have to wear my hair up all the time, the next day I went ahead and mixed the rest of my blood orange with conditioner and did a silver/white roots to pale pinkish/blood orange ombre since that pigment is on the other end of the color wheel it covers the green nicely. I'm going to let this all fade, then maybe try a color remover one more time. I think the blood orange will go away pretty quickly as it was heavily diluted and I didn't leave it in long.
I was just SO tired of seeing green.
Thanks so much for all the advice and quick responses!
I have really blonde hair and i had some low lights added. The low lights came out orange. What should i do
Hey Kerry,
No worries on the response time! :)
I'll try the Epsom Salt bit, for sure. I just don't know how much color there really is to take out. It seems to be more of the ever pale left over stain at this point. Maybe slightly slightly darker on my under side. But i'll give it a go. I would really like to get to a white/silvery blonde.
My question on going with a "shade of blonde" would be, what shade? Obviously a 9 or 10, as my hair is really very very light (white roots), but i think i'd still need a blonde with a reddish undertone, as that will do more to counter act the blue (from my understanding). I'm definitely at a stand still with the process, lol. All the blondes I find that are that light are ashy, which i'm not sure is the way to go...
I've also dabbled with the thought of just dying the whole mess silver/titanium, then letting it fade and lightening/toning from there... Thoughts on that?
Yes, it was bleached then died teal/silver with ion semi color brilliance. Now I am stuck with a lemony mint green as I've been going through the fading process. The back of my head is far more "yellow blonde" then the underneath or sides where most of the blue/green is.
To give you an idea, it's only been about 1 month. I've done 3 bleach baths, a couple vitamin c treatments to fade, lots of anti dandruff shampoo, and many, many deep conditioning treatments. My hair is not in the best condition, and I'd really like to not do any more damage, but do not want to die it darker. My roots and general top of my head are nearly white (ultimate end goal).
I realize it's going to be very difficult to get this evened out, but am wondering/hoping I can put a toner in and hopefully have something I can walk around woth for a month or so while my hair regroups and repairs itself before trying again.
I've just got a mess! Thank you SO much for your help.
So super odd question... I currently have a light (like, level 1 light) blue/green with some yellow (fading out a teal, terrible process, waiting on some effasol color remover to come). I am curious what you think might happen if I toss some t18 toner on it... will it give me a general ashy color with pinkish (where blue currently is)? Or is this idea just crazy?...
Thank you!
Hi Kerry! Thanks for the previous response. I need a little more assistance. I had my hair professionally highlighted this past Monday. It was still very brassy/almost orange. I took matters into my own hands and put the T-14 toner on the next day. I did my whole head so it definitely lightened the highlights but almost my base brunette. I toned it again yesterday with a mix of T-11 and T-18. It did help with the brassiness of my base brunette but it is still sorta brassy. Can I use to 7AA to help with that or will it work at all? Thanks in advance!
Thanks for the information! A quick question - I usually use Wella T18 and T14 to tone my highlighted hair. My highlights got a little too light this time (but still need to be toned) and I wanted to tone them to an ashy blonde. I picked up the Wella color charm in Pale Ash Blonde. Since this is not technically a toner, can I apply it to my whole head? I don't want to lose my highlights and lighten my entire base (my natural color is a dark blonde/light brown). The box says to leave on for 30-45 minutes but I'm used to the suggested time for the toner. If you couldn't tell, I need help!
Grazie!!!! Buona giornata!
I'm confused. Is the 7A/672 and 7AA/632 are listed under "Color Charm" on the website but is it liquid hair color or toner?
Oh by the way: what does feathering mean? :-)
Thank you so much! You are brilliant! Will let you know how it goes. Ciao from Rome.
Hi, thank you for this very informative article.
I recently went to the hairdresser to balayage my hair. It turned out a very brassy level 6 at roots (my natural color) level 7 in middle and 8 towards the ends. I tried to tone it with Color touch O/81 with 1.9 developer and it slightly improved the brassiness but I'm still way too "orange". I was thinking of getting a Color Touch 9/1 using a 10 volume developer. Do you think this will take away the orange? I don't want to go darker and want to maintain level 8 at the ends and I know Wella colors run a little darker than other brands. What do you suggest? (I have no access to color charm in Italy.) thank ypu!
Hi Kerry. It not at the top of my highlight.. It's more just a orange tint in my brown color. I have a big bottle of the 10V and bought another one of my brown color to keep on hand just in case I messed up :) I also have this ash green color corrector I bought for red tones, but not really sure if that will work for me now that I have blonde pieces in my hair.
Hi Kerry,
I tried the T-14 with 20 V Developer and got a little orange tint in the brown part of my hair. It's not horrible, but if there is a way to get rid of it, I would love to try it. :)
Okay so,
I have "Ion Color Brilliance Amonia Free Powder Lightener" that is going to be mixed with 20 volume developer. I got toner which also says to use 20 volume developer. So I put developer in the toner as well? I'm confused. If I already used 20 developer do I use it again in the toner? Is that okay?
Hi! I was just curious if I needed to bleach my hair first if I already have blonde hair to begin with before using the toner?
Sorry, just one more question! When I use the T-14 with 20 Volume Developer to tone my hair, will it turn my brown part orange like it did before?
Ok, I will try this! Thanks!
I was asking about the developer volume because last time I tried to tone my brown hair to get rid of orange/red, it turned more orangey and lightened it, but I can't remember which toner it was that I used... maybe T-18. I just thought maybe the developer volume was too high that time...
Hi Kerry, Thank you so much so the advice!!
I dyed my hair the light ash brown color (there is still a bit of red in it, but much better than before!!) and now want to add some blonde balayage to it. after I do this, I will want to tone my hair ( I got a Wella T-14 toner). Will the toner affect my already brown hair? Should I use a 10 volume developer instead of 20? I used a toner on my brown hair in the past and it made it turn an orange ugly color. How can I avoid this?
Thanks again!!
Hi Kerry,
You suggested I try the 8/71 light blonde/brown ash or 4/71 med brown to get rid of unwanted red/orange in my brown hair. I went to Sally's and couldn't find either of these, but did find a color that looked good- Wella 5AA/336 light brown intense ash. Will this work in my hair? Should I go to a different store and try again? I did get the 10 volume developer as well.
Hi again,
If I wanted to brush on a few balayage lighter blonde pieces in my hair after I dye my hair with the 4/41 or 8/71 ash colors, what would be the best way to go about doing that?
Thank you so much for the great advice! I can't wait to try it.
I had my hair dyed a medium brown color. After several washes it has an orangey-redish tint and I want to get rid of it. Is there a toner you suggest to do this, or should I just have my hair dyed again?
thanks Kerry, they used loreal i think? it was 3/4 head foils (: ive had my hair done around 4 times before and its never been a problem, however this one faded quite badly after being toned, basically back to brown, i really want to get the blonde back, thanks for your help (:
Thanks for the very detailed reply Kerry! You are awesome :) I will try the soap cap, testing a strand first and if all goes well will do the rest. I know the 7AA will wash out eventually but I don't want to wait so long :D
i got my hair dyed blonde two weeks ago and loved the colour however it faded quite a bit after washing, i then went back to the salon to get it "fixed" and they put an ashy toner in it, it has now turned brown and basically back to my natural colour, is the blonde still in there and if so how do i get it to come back out? thank you (:
Hi Hun so my question is I have a light orange/yellow on my mid to end hair. What color of toner should I use to cancel it. I did t18 and it brought the very orange down to a strawberry orange or strawberry red. I want a ash blonde color. Should I use a toner or just dye my hair an ash blonde color?
Hi Kerry, I really need your help! The 7AA/632 made my hair way too dark and I don't know what to do now.
This is what happened: I'm naturally a level 4 and I had a level 7 blond with highlights done at the salon several months ago, which had lightened up too much to a very warm yellow/brassy 8 due to a recent couple of weeks in the caribbean. I also had like 2inches of roots showing.
So I came back from the trip and wanted to tone down that yellow and brass, so I used the 7AA/632 with 10 developer, half an hour as suggested on the box and it's made my hair too dark. It's now a medium ash brown, which I really wasn't expecting and do not like. It's only like 1 or 2 shades lighter than my own natural hair color, so I've now lost all the blond. :( Please let me know what I can do? I don't want to go to the salon because my hairstylist will throw a fit if he sees what I did, lol.
Thanks in advance! - Nat
Hii Kerry! Thank you so so much for this post! As many others, I'd love a bit of your input on what to do with toning my hair :)
I am a natural level 6-7, and recently at the salon I had asked for my hair to be dyed allover to my natural color, and then some lighter balayage on top. I loved it so much, until my roots grew in! It seems the colour is a TAD lighter than my natural hair, but I think what the issue really is is that the "new" colour has just gotten insanely brassy/orangey. So, the level of my roots isn't that different from my dyed hair, just the tone.
I tried the T18 with absolutely no result, and then I found your article! I wish I would have read this sooner! Do you think I should go for the 7AA/632? Im a little bit scared this will be too dark, but Since I have a brass problem and my hair isn't "blonde" enough to take the T18, I feel like its my only choice...
Let me know what you think, I appreciate it so so much! Have a wonderful day! x
Hi Kerry! Ive been using 7A then 9A for a while now but the weather here is so dry I'd like to try Wella demi-permanent hair color so my hair looks healthier...have you ever tried or heard about those? They don't have a lot of shades...thanks!
Hi Kerry thanks for all your help, wondered if you could provide a link to the advice on how to lighten before using the toners?
Thank you so much for your feed back Kerry, I'm going to follow up with what you said to do. I will post back in a couple weeks or longer:)
Hi there... I loved your post, it's amazing.
I have a question. I have highlights and I tried to lighten up my roots with a hair color that I got in the drugstore... as you mentioned, the results don't reflect the picture in the box... now that it's done I want to fix and use a toner to give my dark blond an ash tone to it. I just got confused because you mentioned that:
"One word of caution, be sure you are selecting Wella Color Charm Toner and not the Wella Color Charm Liquid Crème Hair Color."
But at the same time :
"Although these are all technically toners, the 7A/672 and 7AA/632 are listed under "Color Charm" on the website."
So I guess mu question is.. could I buy the "Color Charm Liquid Permanent Hair Color #672/7A Medium Smokey Ash Blonde" to use as a toner to my roots?
Thank you so much for sharing your findings.
I'll read your post to treat root for the next time so I don't mess things up.
Can you save the wella toner to use 6 weeks later if you only need half the bottle or does it lose its potency once opened?
I just thought I would let you know your amazing at all this info. I have a quick question for you. I had my hair dresser do a bodywave perm in January then dye it black two weeks later after the perm. Since then I've only dyed it three times. I'm a natural dark blonde. I had a couple blonde highlights in it before I permed it and dyed it black. I now want to go back to my natural blonde so I bleached it with a 20 developer yesterday first my ends and then my roots and my hair went different colour of blondes which is okay but my roots are big time yellow and orange a lot lighter then all my hair. My hair is pretty fried I used a 40 developer with a 10a and it did nothing for my roots. I am currently using a heavy conditioner to try and bring it back to life. I just need to know what to do with my roots to match the rest of my colour of blondes. I think I have about 4 different shades of blonde going on. Should I just go darker with all of my hair for now to get it all matched up? Or bleach my roots and re-dye them the same 10a? I should have realized like you stated many times it takes a couple time to change from black hair to blonde. Thanks so much:)
Hi I've been using the t-18 toner with no problem. My roots have grown out about three inches though, they're are a lightish brown and the sides of my brown hair have a reddish tint. I bought the t-14 toner to take the orange tones out of my blonde hair but Im wondering if I can also put in on my roots? or will it look like total crap if I do?
hi. Please help. I did use the 7aa/632 and my hair turned so dark. The highlights and the bottom of my hair are also gone. Prior to this, my hair is about at level 8 coz I bleached it before. I really want my hair to be lighter(not super blonde/white) but more of a tan blonde. Could you please help me what to do? Should I i color it again but with a light blonde instead or rebleached it? or just tone it? thank you so much in advance!
Thanks so much, Kerry. I will try that toner mix next time. I did not shampoo right after toning this time with t28, but even after 1 shampoo 2 days after, my hair is changing. The purple shampoo doesn't seem to make a difference, but I will give it another chance. I thought the toner was a "permanent" color and wohld last 4-6 weeks. Is that not true? Is there a better product choice all around than toner? I'm 85% grey in front and maybe 60% in the back on light brown natural base.
I bleached my hair to a light orangey yellow stage with some pure white around my face. I have tried three time to use a toner, T-18, T-14, and T-28. Color-wise, the T-28 is what I want, but it washes out of my hair in a couple of days! I am using a 20 developer which is recommended. What could I be doing wrong?
I was wondering, I had previously bleached my hair to a level 8 or so blonde, and my natural hair color is dark brown. The last salon appointment I wanted to have a more rooty look but with demi they painted in too dark of roots, so it doesn't blend as well. I didn't want to damage it so I just waited and now its faded to more of a red/orange medium brown. Do you think theres anything I can put on it to get more of a light brown/darker blonde instead? Or products you'd recommend to take out the red/orange hues and lighten it?
Hi! So this is going to be a novel but I really need help! I have naturally dirty blonde hair, and basically I want my end result to be my natural hair with maybe some light blonde highlights/ombre. However I have been dying my hair a dark brown color (Demi-permanent although it never fades) for a couple years now. I used a color remover to lighten it a little bit knowing it would get brassy. So I put a light cool blonde dye on it so that I could tone down the brassiness without darkening it, and I was left with light brown but very orange roots and the rest of my hair is medium brown/orange. I'm wondering if I could use the smokey ash blonde toner with 10 volume developer (because I don't want to lift my roots even more) to tone down my entire head? Would it work on my light roots as well as my darker ends as well? Thanks!
Hi Kerry, I need your advice please!! My natural hair colour is light brown (with slight warm tones), I've been having blonde highlights for years but recently decided to try baylage. I wanted light ash brown roots and ash blonde ends. After colouring the ends are lovely and light ash blonde, but my roots were a bit warm. I used T14 and T18 with 10% developer as I didn't want to lighten them just tone them ash, but it seems to have lifted my roots and now they're even warmer!! How can I tone down my brown roots to an ash colour without darkening the blonde bits too much? Would the smokey ash blonde work? If so should I use it with 10% or 20% (I don't really want to lighten it any more as I'm happy with the level, just not the tone). Thanks!
I need your help please! I have bleached my hair and it is a white blonde but the problem Im having is when I use toner on my hair it ends up turning a purple tone. I use it as quickly as possible sometimes I can't even finish getting it on all my hair before the first area I put it on starts to turn purple. What can I do to stop this.
My hairdresser has been taking my medium brown hair (which is 97% gray) to a blonde using the baleage technique. My most recent visit left me with too much brassiness so I used the smoky ash toner all over. It is darker that I wanted and I fear has a slight greenish tone. What now?
Hi again Kerry!!
How are You? Thanks for your reply!
I write you because I already tried the mix of T11+ T18.
On the roots and ends of my hair I got a nice color.. But in the middle I still have a kind of "red" color due to Henna... I would like to ask if you can recommend me something to get a uniform color. I tried a lot of things but it seems that nothing can change the reddish hue.. I would like a uniform Blond and maybe then I can make some highlights.. But I need to change or quit the middle color before do that. Can you help me? Thank you so much!!!
Hi Kerry,
Thanks so much for responding!!
My hair is actually not ash right now. I got it bleached from a bit over my ears to the tips and had an ash toner over it but the toner washed out and am left with coppery/brassy/orange hair. My roots are untouched so I just want to have the bleached parts toned again with an ash brown/blonde, but I mainly am desperate to just get rid of the orange tone! Would the T-14 work on orange toned hair? Would that make it too light at all?
Do you have any other suggestions without going TOO light? How would the medium ash blonde look? And you said that this one is named as a hair color and not a toner but will still work like a toner? Will this not affect my natural hair color either?
Look forward to hearing from you!
Thanks again I really appreciate it!!
how are you?
I just make this mail account just for talk to you!
First of all, thank you very much for this post!
And.. If you don't have problem I would like to ask you some questions:
I have my hair yellow, but seems like "orange"..
the color looks a little fake ..
and I really want the same color that you got!!
So... I don't know if I need to take the mix of T11 + T18 giving the fact that I already got light hair..
Or, get the Ash color.. but I'm afraid that I could get a darkest tone..
I'm not fan of platinum hair, I just want a soft blonde... really natural..
My real color is dark blonde.. like the roots of the picture here:
I would like to get the same color than the longest part of the hair on that picture... because I think that when my roots grow I can get a nice result.
Here I leave pictures of my current hair with natural and indoor light, and perhaps could recommend me the best way! 1 year ago I had dyed my hair as redhair... so I have my roots more lightest than the rest:
I will follow your advice and sure than the result it will be the best!
Hi there! Thanks so much for this post. It's actually given me confidence to do it myself and the info I needed! Just a quick question though - I have Asian hair so have naturally dark and thick hair and recently got a balayage done. It was toned to an ash tone but now has washed out and is turning brassy/orange. I was thinking of toning it with either the smokey ash blonde or the medium ash blonde. If I want it to tone down to an ash blonde but not too dark or too light, what color would you recommend? You said medium ash blonde would be the safest if you weren't sure ... What about on Asian hair type? Will this turn my hair too blonde? Also what does this do to my unbleached hair? Will it turn color? For example, do i apply this to my roots as well where I don't have any color (just natural hair color)? And if so, do I apply all at the same time from root to tip?
Sorry for so much questions but hope you can share some more insight! Thanks so much!!
I used a toner wella t14 i believe. My hair turned beautiful blonde violet. But washed out quickly like within 3 days. Normally everything sticks to my hair. Is there a way to make this last. ? I asked the girls at sallys. They dont know.
Hi, I am a medium brown rite now. I want to use Wella 7 A-672 and want my hair to actually turn out that color. I usually tend to get red/ brassy tones when I color. What steps should I take to ensure my hair turns out like 7- A-672. Also should I use a toner in addition to the color, if so is it used before or after coloring? Should I bleach my brown hair, then tone, and finish with the Wella color? Please any help is so appreciated!! Just unsure how to get my hair ending up with the rite color.
I wanted to thank you, totally saved me from awful yellow, brassy hair! I mixed the T11 and T14 toners with 20 developer and it looks amazing:)
I am interested in your article on bleaching, but cannot find it, do you have a link?
So decided to do a screen strand test last night with the medium ash blonde and it didn't even take first I left it on for 30 minutes then I left it on for 45 minutes using the 20 volume developer and absolutely nothing happened. Now what I guess I'm back to the drawing board I think I'm just going to try to T 14 I did a lot of research last night and if you people were saying that this was the only thing that's home their hair without having it to be that really light yellow. Or should I do the medium ash again but with a 10 developer just to distribute the color and I'm even starting to think could my developer have been expired I've had it for over 6 months. I don't know so if you have any suggestions I would really appreciate it thank Kerry!
Hey Kerry thanks for the response but im confused I bougth both the mediumm ash 7aa and smokey ash that you talked about. I was just about to do the 7aa but now im scared what if I did the smokey ash instead. Or what if I didd the 7aa and if it looks bad then use the smokey ash 7a to fix it. I need to do this tonight im going to give you my email maybe I can send you a pic of my color its def yellow with bits of orange. Here its is email@example.com
Hi my ombred hair is between orange and yellow im going for the natural ashy blonde like kylie jenner what should i do i dont want to be a very light blonde more if a natural should i use the 7aa or the t11 mixed with t18. I really need to fix this bt tom since new years is thurs pls help. Thank u
Just wanted to stop by and say how useful this was. After thinking I was going to have to deal with the leftovers from dying my hair bright orange, this really helped! I used the 7a/672 last night and it turned out close to my natural. I will definitely be bleaching my own hair at home from now on... as I live in NYC and a simple touch up costs $200!!!!
thank you for taking the time to post!
Thanks for this post! So I have virgin light brown hair right now, and I'm wanting to do an ombre/balayage type thing myself. I guess like this:http://unusual-hairstyles.com/hair-colors/subtle-b... So this is my first time buying products, and I've heard the Loreal Quick Blue is good as the powder bleach, and then I was thinking of getting the Wella Color Charm Cream 20 vol developer. And then...I'm not sure what toner to get and if that will be all I will need? Can you walk me through it? Also, developer will be used with BOTH the bleach and the toner right? Thank you so much for your help!
hi im bleached my hair a few times now, the rooths are orange,i tryed 12 ash colour but did nothing, i would like to get it as natural as i can , and get rid of the orange thint, can u help me as i hav only knowen wat colour cream is now thanks :) x
Hello. Originally my hair is dark brown. After a few weeks of bleaching I got to the level I wanted however still had a little yellow and some light orange. After trying a couple different toners someone suggested mixing the t18 and t14 with 10 developer since it was already pretty light. I also added a color corrector for brassiness since I've had such a hard time getting rid of it even with many used of purple shampoo. I think I let it sit too long because my hair looks a little grey and darker. What do I do now?
Do you think this would do anything for natural blondes? Sometimes my hair does look more yellow than blonde (in some lights) so maybe lightening it up a little would help.
I had my hair balayaged and after my first wash it became super brassy. I wanna tone it but I really wanna keep my dark roots as they are. If I tone my hair with 20vol developer, will I mess up my dark roots? Should I apply in a balayage motion or all over my hair? *so confused!*
I just dyed my hair last night I had dark brown hair with light ashy highlights. However, I want an all around light ash brown throughout all of my hair. So I bought two boxes of Revlon Medium Ash Brown. My hair looks like a dark brown all around instead. Please advise on what toner to buy at Sallys or hair correcting conditioner. Thank you, hope to hear from you soon.!
Thank you so much for your article it helped me a lot after trying the toners T14 and 18 without any nice results because my hair was too dark (medium blonde). My brassiness is now gone with the 7 A 672!!! Do you apply this color on wet hair like a toner?
Hi! I have bleached ombre that fades to an orangey tone (my natural hair is black) and your results using 7AA is pretty close to my ideal! :) My salon tones it to that color (maybe slightly ashier and darker) but I'd like to start toning it myself. My question is, since it's technically a permanent color, is it ok to use it often? I currently have to tone my hair about once a month or month and a half.
Thank you so much Kerry, I can order the products from Amazon, fingers crossed :) but thank you for your guidance.
This is the correct one isn't it Wella ColorCharm Liquid #632/7AA Medium Ash Blonde Haircolor
Will let you know how I get on. xx
Thanks Kerry - just to clarify I will mix the developer with the 7AA/632 and then put it on my roots - should it be on for about 15 minutes, or did you mean just use the developer and then do the toner after? Sorry am a novice to this. I can buy the color charm on amazon but just wondered if I was to buy this in Sallys in the UK what would it convert to in the colour touch? Thank you so much and have a wonderful day
Hi Kerry I am in the UK ad have highlighted medium blonde hair. About six weeks ago I used nic n easy light ash blonde - all worked ok but roots were slightly orange. I managed to tone these down with touch of silver. My roots are now showing dark - was told at Sally's that my base is about a six - medium ash brown. I love the colour of the picture with the hair up withe the roses on and this is what I am aiming for, based in the UK went in with my list of your recommendations but was told that Color charm is American and wella Color touch is the same. What I wanted to know is should I just do the roots or all of my hair and which one do I need to achieve the similar colour as the picture with the hair up the smoky ash or the medium intense blonde ash? Thank you so much for your help x
This article totally saved my hair. I opted for the 7AA and am very happy with the results!
your article is a go to for me every time I highlight! thanks so much
Help! I toned my hair with T14 and must have left it on too long and its like a pale blue gray! I can't go to work like this Monday. What should I do?
Hi Kerry!
I recently lightened my dark brown hair using a permanent hair color which lifted it quite a bit, however its this weird orange hue all over. Instead of continuing to lighten it more, I was thinking of now just going for a very ashy brown/blonde color to get rid of the orange and give my hair a very cool tone look. Do you think that the wella medium smokey ash blonde will help me achieve the look I am going for? Thank you so much in advance :)
Also I do have olaplex to use. I am trying to go blonde.
Hi! Hope you can help me ..My hair was dark brown I have bleach my hair twice in the last 2 months and now it has a lot of orange in it... they told me at sallys to get at T18 it didnt hep any!!!!!! then added some color and have been trying to give it a break. Please help what do I do next. I want this orange gone. Thanks for your help!!
Hi. About 2 months ago my hair was dark brown. I wanted highlights. I used a highlight kit and then followed with white lady toner and I think 30 volume developer.my hair was big time orange but after I toned it. It turned out beautiful. Well my roots have grown out Alittle over an inch. Time to high light again. So I bought all the same stuff as before. But as I've been reading I think I should of bought a different kid of toner and developer because my hair isn't dark anymore. I love my hair color. Wanting to get it a little lighter this time but not much. I figure just doing more highlight will make it look lighter anyway. My question is what toner and developer should I get. Thanks
So I have a quick question I did highlights on my mother in laws hair from her natural medium brown hair ,the highlights turned out yellow -orange but since it was my first time using the brand wella I used the 10n/1001 in permanent hair color with 20 vol. And put it all over ,I realized that was a big mistake because it ended up lifting her natural hair color so we took it off quickly cuz it was lifting up her hair color to a light brown color but the highlights didn't turn any color they stayed the same it just turned her natural color to a light brown and my question is what toner can I use to tone the highlights because she wants light highlight but not white or gray or orange looking . and I'll be using permanent color to get hair natural hair color back I just want to fix those ugly tones of highlight can you please help me
Thank you SO much for this post. I have dark brown curly (mixed) hair and I had gotten to orange-y blonde hair using Wella 12AA but couldn't, for the life of me, despite trying various toners, get the red out. Your point about it being still too dark for the toners to work is BRILLIANT. I just used 7AA and FINALLY the red is MOSTLY gone. I'm thrilled. That said, my question is: How do I get the red-now-dark-blonde hair to go LIGHTER in a few weeks without bleach and still keeping the red out? Thank you so much!!!
Hey Kerry,
Your advice and posts have been very helpful as the top layer of my hair is a brassy shade of orange and the bottom my natural medium golden brown hair. I tried "glam lights" for medium/light brown to touch up my highlights and roots but the results were awful. I immediately ran to Sally's & was recommended the T18. Did it the same day as the highlights but didn't work (reading your post I see why now!). Tried again a couple of days later to no avail. Like your previous writer Alexa, I don't necessarily want to go blonde but would like to make the orange turn into a pretty light ash brown. You recommend such all over color to her but mentioned the 7AA/632 which sounds beautiful! Is that color for pale/brown ashy or pale blonde ashy? I just want to get rid of the brass and somehow end up with a pretty all over color which will blend and correct what I've done. Thanks so much!
My hair right now is about a medium-dark blonde, but has a definite orange hue. I tried the T-10 toner last night and it helped a little, but not much. I assume it's too dark for the toner?
Hi Kerry!
Thanks again for reply. Should have read before toning. In any case, I applied t-14 with a 10 volume developer, in hopes that it would help diminish the reddish hue of the high lights - and get closer to an ash blond - or at least - make them more blond than red- . I applied twice - it barely did anything . Should I've used a 20v developer with the toner? Or used a different toner all together ? Thanks again ! This time I'll wait for your reply!! Xx
Hi Kerry!
Thank you for your reply ! I'm just starting the wella products & love them. Would you a wella pale ash brown permanent color? I'm familiar with the toners not so much with their permanent. If so , what volume developer do you think might be a good try. I'm aware that's not an exact science . But your experience and feedback is more that welcome! Thanks again !!
My hair is naturally brown - I added a few high lights - some of the stands lifted to yellow- a few days after - I colored with medium ash brown. Now the highlights are very brassy, and the rest of the hair is brown brassy.
Which toner would you recommend / ideally I would like the highlights to have a muted golden honey. And no brass in the rest. What would you recommend to get even close to that? Thanks!
Hi Kerry:)
I had dark blonde hair (origionally its dark chestnut brown) I bleached w a 9n and it's a lemon/peach color. I've used t-10 in the past but think it wouldn't come out the pale yellow it did b4. Last year I used t18 & my hair turned silver...so what toner should I use now if I wanted a pearl blonde? Thanks in advance ssl :)
Hi, i bleached my hair to a high ombre about two months ago and the stylist used an ash blonde. Its starting to turn orange/blonde. Will the wella lightest ash blonde just cancel out the brassyness or will it tone my hair really light? Ive never done my own hair so im kinda nervous haha.
Thanks for the great information. I have medium to light ash brown hair naturally, about 50% gray now. I've colored it for years, and I recently switched to Wella from a discontinued private label product. I've tried the 7N/711, went lighter to 811, but my roots are orange. I'd like it a bit lighter yet, so I bought the 811, but I haven't used it yet. I'm afraid of the ash because of a bad experience years ago with the green tones. Can you make any suggestions as to how I can tone down the orange a bit? I'm open to trying different colors or mixing. Thanks.
Can you help me please? I used colour b4 colour remover on my black/dark brown hair and it turnt my hair a little lighter brown with very subtle ginger highlights. I then bleached my hair with a 30 developer on the top and started to run out so I needed to use 40 halfway through but I rinsed out and conditioned, my hair is now very VERY light almost white at the very roots, neon Orange in the middle and a few streaks of blonde, will wella colour charm toner in pale ash blonde t14 help me, please help this is urgent!!! Thankyou x
This article (and all the comments) were VERY helpful. Thank you so much! I have a light brown hair naturally, dyed it medium ash blonde (not Wella, Clairol Nice N Easy) and it turned out orange, yes it was disgusting. I went to Sally's and they said use a Wella T-18 toner + 20 volume developer. I did, left it on 30 mins, it did practically nothing. So I went back to Sally's and I said T-18 did nothing, should I try T-14? They said no do the T-18 and leave it on longer, so I did (45 mins), and still nothing. I still have orange hair. I love the darker blonde color you have in the first picture, exactly what I am trying to achieve, what I would call a darker ash blonde. So, do you think I should try T-14 or the Medium Smokey Ash 7A/672? Also, I have dyed/toned my hair these 3 times in 3 weeks. It looks fine & healthy, a healthy orange, so any idea how much time I should wait to dye/tone it again? Also, just to verify, if I tone it or dye it I should use only a 20 developer? Thank you so much. :)
Hi Kerry, thank you for this post!
I'm reading so much about coloring that i'm getting a bit overwhelmed.
At the moment my hair is dyed light brown, but over time it's more a flat, brassy orangy-red brown color. Not good, not good at all. My own haircolor is basic dark blonde, showing at the roots.
What I would like to do is color my hair light ashbrown with some ash blonde 'balayage'. Could you help me out what you think I could do best? Should I first tone my hair (and with what) for the brassiness? Or first color my hair and then tone? Thank you for your help!
ps: my foreign language is Dutch, if I made any mistakes in my post that's the reason ;)
Thank you for responding so quickly. I actually tried the Blonde Brilliance platinum toner line, also available at sally's. It worked pretty good and doesn't smell strong at all. They also make toning shampoos (purple shampoo)
You are very helpful and nice.
Take care
Hi I also have a few highlights in my hair that actually look fine without a toner however, I'd like to bring it to a more ashy blonde look. I don't however want to change my natural hair color which is a medium ash brown. Can I use a volume 10 developer toner and which color toner would you recommend? I was thinking to get Wella T18? Thanks for your help.
Hi . I have highlights and I was wondering what can I do to Lighten my hair that isn't bleached ? (I have dark brown hair with overly brighten highlights) If I put a blonde ash toner will it brighten my U bleached hair but keep my vleached hair the same color? What do u recommend to make the colors look more natural ?
Hi, I just found your post. So today I got my orders, I ordered the Wella Colorcharm 7aa and the Wella toner T14. I dyed my hair, and it turned orange, so I bleached it again and the roots stayed light orange. So I used the T14 toner only, and It worked well, mainly on the rest of my hair. However, my roots are still orange somewhat, so now my roots are medium orange/ash light brown while my highlights (all over my hair) is blonde/ashy (which I like, maybe a bit too blond but it blends with the medium orange/ash light brown hair).
My hair was so damaged after bleaching twice, had conditioner on, including olive oil and honey etc. A few days ago I bought organic coconut oil (this worked so well, I had it in for 3 hours, my hair is soft now, soft enough for all that I've put it through), I also stopped ironing my hair or even doing anything to it, I keep it in a ponytail for 3 weeks.
So to my question, what kind of color do you think will come out of mixing the well 7aa color charm permanent+ well t14? Im ok, to going dark ash blond at this point. I just don't want to bleach it anymore, and get rid of the medium orange color on my roots.
Thank you :)
Hello, can you tell me how long you leave the toner on?
Hi so I bleached my medium brown hair almost a month and a half ago and right now it is a dark blonde with yellow and orange hues in it. I bought the Wella T14 toner, was that I good choice or should I purchase another toner?
this really helped me decide color toner. Going to try mixing T-11 and T-18. Im a pale yellow right now. Just bleached it to that stage last night.
Good to know! I think I have decided to go with a light ash brown due to the fact that my hair is still very much in the brown stage with red undertones. Thanks again! Happy Coloring! :)
Thank you for your quick response...will this even work on medium/dark brown hair that has been lightened to a brassy color? Thank you again!
Thank you for your advice! I have one question though. I recently bleached my hair and there are some orange/red tones near my roots. Will the wella medium ash blonde help cancel these out?