A lot of time people ask me, “Carina, how can I tone my bleached hair?” or “How can I correct a bleaching that turned orange?”
In this article, I’m going to tell you how.
I’m going to try to make it as concise as possible because I have to help my son with his math homework.
Let’s start with the most interesting part.
I have some good news for you, and some bad news.
The good news is that if your hair ended up orange after bleaching, there is a solution.
You can tone your hair and get it to the tone that you want.
It doesn’t matter if your hair is orange, very orange, or whatever color, there is a solution.
Toning hair that ended up orange is so easy to do that many people end up doing it wrong and with a color that’s more extravagant than what they had.
Yes, just as you heard it.
Many people in the pursuit to correct the result of a bleaching end up making their hair a horrible tone or a tone that has nothing to do with what they wanted.
A few days ago, a girl named Martina wrote me. She was desperate.
She had bleached her hair herself and it had ended up orange.
But this wasn’t even the worst part.
The worst part was when she wanted to fix her hair, it ended up an outrageous purple color.
What she was most worried about was that within a few weeks, her sister was getting married.
“I can’t show up with this hair color. It’s horrible.” She told me among other things.
It’s sad that something like this happened, especially because like I said before, correcting the tone of a bleaching is relatively easy to do if you take the necessary precautions and you choose the right products.
The objective of this article is to tell you how to tone the result of the bleaching so that you hair looks the color that you want and not that embarrassing color like what happened to Martina.
Let’s start at the beginning: why did your hair end up orange or that unwanted tone?
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Why your hair ended up orange after bleaching it
Ending up with orange hair after bleaching is absolutely normal. If it has happened to you, you shouldn’t worry nor get frustrated because it happens to everyone.
Why does this happen?
Why does hair turn that garish color after bleaching?
Every hair has a high tone and an undertone or base tone. For example, black hair has a red undertone.
That means that when you bleach black or dark brown hair, that hair ends up red.
Brunettes and dark blondes have an orange undertone.
So that you can understand the idea better, I have an image.
Even though bleaching lightens the hair, it doesn’t get rid of the natural pigment that gives color to your hair, meaning the undertone.
That would be the main reason why your hair has ended up the color that it did. We could get into more chemical explanations, but not even my mother would read that.
Also, you’re interested in fixing the problem, not becoming a scientist. Or at least I think so.
How to fix hair that has ended up orange
The general rule is the following:
You should choose a toner that is the color that can be found across from the color that your hair has ended up after bleaching.
So if your hair ended up orange and you want it to be ashy blonde or light blonde, first you need to bleach your hair again and then tone it.
For bleaching, it’s best to use a 20-volume developing cream with bleaching powder. The result should be yellow or yellowish hair.
Finally, yes, we are going to neutralize the yellow tones with a toner like Wella T28 or T18.
I insist on that idea.
One thing is toning the hair to get rid of the outrageous color and another thing is to lighten your hair. To tone it, you use a toner. To lighten it, it’s necessary to bleach it.
If your hair is naturally black, and after bleaching it, it ends up dark red, it won’t end up blonde just from using toner. If you want your hair to be blonde, you first have to bleach it again.
How to tone your hair with shampoo
Check purple shampoo on Amazon
One of the simples options to neutralize unwanted tones is to use a blue or violet shampoo.
A lot of times people ask me, “Carina, should I use a blue or violet shampoo?”
Well, I think with the previous explanation, that should be clear. But if there are still doubts, I clear those up.
If your hair ended up looking yellow, you should use a purple shampoo. If your hair ended up orange, you should use a blue shampoo.
Like I already explained a few times, these shampoos should be used cautiously, especially if you want to have control over the final color of your hair.
Many people commit the mistake of leaving the shampoo in their hair for a long time and their hair ends up a horrible color. More than once, people have written me that their hair ended up green or a red wine color after using one of these shampoos.
Unless you want your hair to end up one of these colors, you should use it with caution.
The first wash, don’t leave the shampoo in your hair for more than 5 minutes. Evaluate the results after drying your hair. If you still don’t have the color that you want, then you can use the shampoo again the following week.
Remember two fundamental things.
- Don’t expose your hair to shampoo for more than 5 minutes in each wash.
- Use the shampoo 1 or 2 times a week maximum.
Also, remember that any of these shampoos fills a role similar to toners in the sense that it doesn’t lighten your hair. It simply neutralizes or tints the hair.
If your intention is to lighten your hair, then you should bleach it again.
