When you have dyed hair, you often need toners, among other products, to maintain your color. This is especially true for vivid colors far from your natural color.
Nearly everyone who frequently dyes their hair will have a moment when they leave their toner in for too long, resulting in a color that is different from what you were hoping for.
If this has ever happened to you, this article will cover many tips and tricks on fixing your over-toned hair and having it look fabulous once again.
What Does Over-Toned Hair Look Like?
You may not notice if your hair is over-toned, especially if the effect is subtle. But here are the most common ways to know if your hair is over-toned.
Color Left Behind on Clothes
The first sign of over-toned hair is that you’re leaving behind bits of color wherever you go. This could include anything from streaks of color left on your pillow to color left on the inside of your shirt collar.
Take note, however, that if you recently dyed your hair a bright color, such as red or purple, you may notice some transfer for a few days.
But if you have only toned your hair recently, depositing color as you go is a sign that you left the toner on for too long.
Increased Hair Damage
As toning is a chemical process, it can damage your hair if you overdo it. When looking for this damage, watch for an increase in split ends, flyaways, and an overall dull appearance.
Stiff Hair
You may not notice this right away, but this warning sign is easiest to see if you brush your hair in a way opposite to which it usually falls. When you do this, you’ll notice that your hair is stiff from the accumulated toner.
Strange Hues In Your Hair
The final sign, perhaps the easiest to see, is that your hair color contains hues that should not be there. When standing in natural light, hair that is over-toned will have blue, green, or purple tones.
Overly ashy hair is one form of excess cool pigment and may look dull or gray rather than visibly blue or purple.
This will be the case even if you don’t have hair in one of those colors. For example, platinum blonde toners often have purple to cancel out the warmth and brassiness that usually show up in blonde hair.
How to Fix Over-Toned Hair
The following few sections will go over different ways to fix over-toned hair.
Order matters more than a list can show. Emma Baxendale, senior stylist at The White Room in Guernsey and a HairstyleCamp Expert Panel member, starts every over-toned correction the same way: “First start with a cleansing shampoo for the next few washes, and always follow with a deep conditioner, as these are drying. Leave it on for 5 to 10 minutes for maximum removal of tone before rinsing.”
#1. Give Time
The most straightforward way to fix over-toned hair is to simply wait. The excess toner will fade eventually.
This may take anywhere from a few days to a week. If you go with this method, you’ll have less-than-perfect hair for a little while.
This is probably the best option if you only slightly over-toned your hair. Doing nothing will give your hair time to rest and return to a healthier state rather than adding more products.
Unfortunately, if you have very over-toned hair or need to be around many people, you may not want to wait for the toner to fix itself. The following options will actively help you fix your over-toned hair.
#2. Use Clarifying Shampoo
A clarifying shampoo is a particular type of shampoo that uses chelating agents and strong surfactants to help lift excess color and product from your hair. Most people use clarifying shampoo to remove excess products or oils in their hair.
To use this type of shampoo, start working on some wet hair, and leave it in only as long as the shampoo’s own label allows before rinsing.
This method may not work entirely on the first wash. It could take several washes before your hair tones down to your desired color. Spread those washes over days rather than forcing them into one session, and stop if your scalp gets irritated or your hair starts to feel brittle.
Follow up each clarifying wash with a leave-in or deep conditioner, as the process will dry your hair and scalp.
#3. Use Color Depositing Deep Conditioner
Some types of deep conditioners contain a small amount of hair dye to adjust the color of your hair.
When you overtone your hair, you’ll likely want to pick a color-depositing conditioner that adds warmth to your hair and cancels out the unwanted tones.
To use the deep conditioner, start with clean, damp hair. Towel-dried hair is fine for this. You may then apply a generous amount of deep conditioner over your hair.
Leave the conditioner in for a maximum of 20 minutes. After the time has elapsed, rinse out the conditioner.
If your hair isn’t the color you want, you can always try this method again.
#4. Hair Mask
Like the color-depositing conditioner, you can get color-correcting hair masks that fix the tone of your hair.
These masks will not only improve the color of your hair, but they will also help your hair feel more healthy.
For a hair mask, start by applying the mask to damp hair. To help make the mask more effective, cover your hair with an aluminum cap to seal in the heat from your scalp.
Keep the mask on your hair for at least 20 minutes before rinsing it out and checking your hair. You can apply the mask a second time if it’s not quite the tone you were looking for.
One method you may still see recommended elsewhere is lemon juice. Skip it: lemon does little against deposited toner, and citrus residue left on skin can react with sunlight and cause a blistering rash.
#5. Hair Bleach
You can turn to bleach if there’s no fixing your hair color. Use hair bleach with caution, and you should have someone with experience use bleach on your hair. Before applying, do a patch test 48 hours ahead and a strand test first, and if your hair is already compromised from toning or coloring, see a licensed stylist instead of bleaching at home.
Hair bleach can lighten hair, and you can follow up with dye to achieve another color. It’s worth noting that bleach is a permanent solution, and you will not be able to remove it from your hair; your hair must grow out to return to its natural state.
To apply bleach to your hair, use 10-vol hair bleach; that is enough to shift over-deposited toner pigment without lifting your base. Stronger 20-volume is more than this job needs and tends to create new problems. You’ll need to follow the instructions on your bleach kit to mix the bleach.
Emma’s version of this step is gentler still: “If the cleansing shampoo does not work, a gentle bleach cleanse can be applied at home: mix bleach powder, shampoo, and either water for a softer solution, or 5-volume developer, in a 1:1:1 ratio, which will effectively remove that top layer of toner on your hair. Be aware that it can cause dryness and shift any natural hair in between the blonde, so you may need to re-tone with a warmer, gold toner afterwards.
Do not do a bleach cleanse if your hair is gummy or damaged; seek professional help for advice on the next steps.”
Apply the bleach evenly to your hair with a brush and let it sit only as long as your kit’s label allows. For a gentle lift, this is often just a few minutes. Bleach can damage your hair, so never go past the label maximum.
After allowing the bleach to sit, rinse your hair and follow up with conditioner.
How to Fix Blue Tones in My Hair
You must consider the color wheel when fixing specific tones from over-toned hair. If you’re trying to fix the blue tone, you will need something from the opposite end of the color wheel, such as orange.
An orange or yellow color depositing conditioner would help to cancel out the blue tones in just a couple of washes.
Following the color wheel, you will likely need yellow to orange color to cancel purple and red to cancel green. Some products you can use include color-depositing shampoo, conditioner, and hair treatments.
Wrapping Up
Mistakes happen, and nearly everyone who dyes their hair probably overdoes it repeatedly. If you overtone your hair, we hope these tips and tricks will help you restore it to its previous glory without too much fuss.
And remember that if you need help deciding what to do, or if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself, you can always turn to a trained and reputable hair stylist to deal with these sorts of minor disasters.
