Washing Hair After Bleaching and Toning, how to do it the right way?

hair wash before keratin

You should wait at least 72 hours to wash your hair after bleaching and toning it. Also, use a sulfate-free shampoo to protect the color.
You’ll also use shampoo to wash your hair after bleaching and before coloring it.
After bleaching your hair, shampoo removes all traces of the bleach. Then, after applying the toner, you should also shampoo your hair to remove excess.

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: 3 Types of Toners For Hair, which one should you choose?

You need to wash your hair the day you bleach and tone it. Bear in mind that a simple rinse won’t do. You must shampoo it.

Let’s analyze it as a timeline.

First, you bleach your hair. You already know that you’ll use a mixture of bleach powder and peroxide that is quite aggressive for the hair.

That mixture will remove both artificial and natural pigments from your hair.

After the exposure time, which shouldn’t be longer than necessary, you must remove the bleach.

If you don’t, the chemical reaction won’t stop, and your hair will be ruined.

Remember to fully remove the bleach. You can only do that by shampooing your hair.

Now your hair’s bleached. However, the color you achieved is certainly not the color of your dreams.

You’re probably faced with a horrible orange or yellowish color.

As your hair is already washed and free of bleach, you can apply the toner. It’ll neutralize those unwanted colors.

Again, you’ll have to wait for the toner to work its magic. It usually takes around 20 minutes depending on your base color, and the toner’s brand.

However, you can’t let the toner sit for too long because it’s also applied with peroxide.

So, you have to remove the excess toner. The only way to do that is, again, to shampoo your hair.

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: Does toner lighten or darken hair? The answer straight from a hair stylist

In this instance, your hair is beautiful and has the color you wanted.

So, from now on, a new countdown begins.

Countdown to what?

You need to wait at least 72 hours to shampoo your hair again. You should wait 72 hours to wash your hair after bleaching and toning it.

It’s because your hair needs three days to complete a wonderful process: waiting for the color to settle in.

It’s very important to wait three days to wash your hair after bleaching and toning.

That’s why we’ll take a closer look at each of the stages: bleaching, coloring, and allowing your hair to settle.

Tabla de Contenidos

Washing your hair after bleaching

with clarifying shampoo

Bleaching removes artificial or natural hair dye.

It’s done by applying a mixture of two powerful and corrosive chemicals to the hair, such as a developer or 30-volume peroxide and bleach powder which is ammonia.

This mixture penetrates into your hair to remove the color. So, after applying the bleach, unwanted colors such as yellow or orange appear.

YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN: How Long to Leave Toner on Brassy/Orange Hair?

After the exposure time of the bleach, you should rinse your hair.

It’s because you must completely remove the bleach mixture for the toner to neutralize those unwanted colors,

In that case, you’ll need to use your usual shampoo.

How to properly wash your hair after bleaching

Rinse your hair with plenty of cold water until it runs clean.
Remove excess water and shampoo your hair twice.
Don’t apply conditioner.
As the toner can be applied to wet or dry hair, you can choose to blow dry it.

Now, your hair is ready to move on to the second stage: toner application.

Don’t panic if you notice that hair is rough and stiff. We’re not done yet.

Washing your hair after applying toner

Toner is a coloring tool that neutralizes unwanted colors. As it’s also a permanent hair dye, it’s applied with a 20-volume developer. The processing time is indicated by the manufacturer, and it’s usually 20 minutes.

After bleaching your hair, toner application is almost compulsory. It eliminates strident yellowish or orange tones.

It’s like the icing on a cake. When you coat the cake with chocolate, all the imperfections disappear.

The toner will do the same on your bleached hair. But, the hair cannot absorb the full amount of toner.

Why? Because the hair only absorbs 70% of the product we apply.

The rest is excess. How do you remove the excess?

You can use your regular shampoo again because the toner closes the cuticles for your hair to retain the color.

Therefore, shampooing won’t affect the process.

In addition to washing your hair, you can also use a conditioner. In fact, I advise you to do so.

After bleaching and toning, the hair loses a lot of moisture.

Now it’s time for the key moment. After you remove the excess toner, you shouldn’t wash your hair. And that’s what I’m going to talk about next.

Don’t wash your hair after bleaching or toning it because the color needs to settle in

You shouldn’t wash your hair for the next three days.

Remember that your hair is absorbing the color from the toner. 24 hours later, it’ll start to expel the excess.

At this point, when you have already bleached and toned your hair, your cuticles are more permeable. Therefore, if you shampoo your hair, you’ll interrupt the color settling process.

That’s why you should wait at least 72 hours to wash your hair after bleaching and toning.

When you do, remember to use a sulfate-free shampoo. Sulfates are detergents that remove color from both hair dyes and toner.

Let me tell you one more secret.

Your scalp expels natural oils that protect your roots and hair. After two chemical processes, your hair needs to produce those oils again to strengthen and moisturize.

The scalp needs 48 hours to produce oil.

If you wash your hair before three days are over, the color will start to slip out, and you’ll remove the natural moisture from your hair. It’ll cause dryness, frizz, and even hair breakage.

Waiting for three days after toning is the most important process when you decide to change your hair color. If you respect these times, the toner will last longer.