- The best professional toners for brassy hair are Wella Color Charm Paints, Ion Permanent Brights, and Pravana Chromasilk Vivids. I recommend that you have some coloring experience to use them.
- If you don’t have experience neutralizing undesired tones, you should use toning shampoos and conditioners. The suggested ones are Keracolor Clenditioner, Matrix Total Results, and Redken Color Extend.
- Hair oxidation is inevitable when you expose your hair to the peroxide chemical reaction. It can be an aggressive process such as bleaching or a milder one such as highlighting.
- You’ll notice that your hair is brassy because it has undesired tones like orange, yellow, or red. In that case, you’ll need to apply a toner, either professional or homemade.
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Hair oxidation has two problems. Firstly, the appearance of undesired tones. Secondly, hair dehydration.
Why does oxidation occur?
It occurs as a reaction to a process where peroxide or developer are used on your hair. Indeed, you bleached or colored your hair.
Maybe you even just wanted to achieve some localized highlights using a 10-volume developer. We call it highlighting.
Regardless of the chemical process, your hair oxidizes. It’s part of the change that takes place inside the hair fiber when you use peroxide.
What are the visible signs of oxidation in your hair?
It’s the appearance of red, yellow, or orange tones.
What are the invisible facts?
Your hair will feel drier and duller.
The solution for undesired tones is to use a toner. Also, to avoid dehydration, you should apply moisturizing masks regularly.
Masks are very easy to apply, but toner can have its secrets. So, to make it easier for you, I’ve divided them into two main groups:
- Professional toners: for those who have coloring experience.
- Homemade toners: when you don’t know the color wheel at all. Don’t you know what the color wheel is? Then definitely, toning shampoos are your best choice.
Are you ready to put an end to your brassy hair?
Let’s get started!
3 professional toners to fight brassy hair: only for women with coloring experience
Let’s start at the beginning. Every color has an opposite color that cancels it. This process is called neutralization.
- If your hair is orange, you should apply blue toner.
- If your hair is yellow, you should apply violet toner.
- If your hair is red, you should apply green toner.
Having clarified that, let’s move on to the next thing.
Why do you need to be experienced in professional toners?
If you leave them on too long, you can end up with purple, blue, or green hair.
Also, because they are applied with a developer, which is the cause of your brassy hair. Therefore, you could cause further brassiness and breakage of the hair fiber.
Are you completely confident in your colorimetry expertise?
Good for you! Let’s take a look at the best professional toners.
Wella Color Charm Paints, ideal to get rid of yellowish tones in brassy hair
If you’ve bleached your hair to a blonde and some shades of ugly yellow appeared, I recommend this professional toner. You can neutralize that ugly yellowness by choosing from a wide variety of shades. They go from ashes to golds.
- If your hair is orange, use Wella Color Charm blue.
- If your hair is yellow, use Wella Color Charm purple.
Ion Permanent Brithgs, ideal for finishing rusty highlights
Did you have blonde highlights, and now you see orange or yellowish highlights? I recommend you to use this toner. Due to its creamy formula, it’s easy to apply. So, it’ll be easier for you to use it on specific brassy locks.
- If your hair is orange, choose the blue Permanent Brights.
- If your hair is yellow, choose the purple Permanent Brights
Pravana Chromasilk Vivids, for red brassy hair
When I perform a bleach, and some undesired red tones appear, I don’t hesitate to use that professional toner. It has two alternatives of green, bluish, or dark hair dye to customize the color.
Remember that you should apply any of these professional toners correctly and respect the application times.
Please don’t leave it on too long! Otherwise, your hair will turn the color of the toner.
A piece of advice?
Apply the toner starting with the back sections, always from roots to ends, and leave it on according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- If your hair is orange, use Pravana Chromasilk blue.
- If your hair is yellow, use Pravana Chromasil violet
Homemade products to fight brassy hair
All these products are easy to get and even easy to use. They’re actually shampoos and conditioners that contain pigments to neutralize brassy hair.
The variety of homemade products for toning oxidized hair is as large, or even larger than professional products.
All the major brands already have shampoo and conditioner lines to neutralize undesired tones in the hair. In the last few years, several new players have emerged. After starting offering only hair dyes, they have expanded their offerings to include products to maintain the colors achieved with those dyes.
A good example is the first product I want to show you.
Keracolor Clenditioner, ideal for brassy and damaged hair
If your hair is not only brassy but it also has a lot of frizz, it lacks hydration. Therefore, I recommend you use this two-in-one formula. It’ll eliminate undesired tones, while deeply moisturizing your hair.
You can use it in the shower for 3 to 5 minutes or directly on dry hair. Apply it once a week until you eliminate brassiness in your hair
- If your hair has orange tones that you don’t like, choose Clenditioner Blue.
- If your hair has yellow tones that you don’t like, choose Clenditioner Violet
Matrix Total Results, ideal for brassy blonde hair
It’s another internationally well-known brand. It offers the best option to neutralize undesired yellow or orange tones. You can use only the shampoo alone for 3 to 5 minutes.
- If you want to neutralize orange tones, choose Matrix Total Results Brass Off shampoo.
- And if you want to neutralize yellow tones, choose Matrix Total Results Color Obsessed shampoo
Redken Color Extend, for those looking for longer-lasting effects
If you want to extend the effects of neutralization, dark pigments are essential. That’s what this brand offers, long-lasting blue and violet pigments.
Also, you can use it on both wet and dry hair. As it’s for frequent use, you can apply it up to 3 times a week until your hair color is completely neutralized.
Once your hair is free of undesired color, you should stop using these products.
- If you want to neutralize orange tones, choose Redken Color Extend Brownlights shampoo.
- And if you want to neutralize yellow tones, choose Redken Color Extend Blondage shampoo.
Conclusions
Brassy hair makes you look dull. It also takes away shine and life from your color. However, you can use specific products to return the color your hair definitely deserves.
If you have experience in coloring, you can choose a professional toner. Otherwise, your best allies are toning shampoos.