I’ve talked about keeping my blonde bright in this post and shared some purple or blue-based toning products on Instagram, but I thought it may be helpful to do a bit more of a deep dive into why, how, and who should (or shouldn’t) tone their hair.
Toning can be done with semi-permanent hair color, like Redken Shades EQ, to help add a certain level of warmth, coolness, or “tone” to the hair. With semi-permanent hair color, it’s impossible to lighten the hair so toning can only deposit color and change the warmth/coolness.
At home, there are toning products (from shampoo to deep conditioners) to apply to your hair as a way to correct the color a bit. These don’t often have a wide variety of colors, as they are essentially designed to help maintain the color you left the salon with (assuming it’s a color you love). Each product has different application and processing directions. Some require just a few minutes, others require a longer time. Make sure to follow the directions of any product you buy. Most often you’ll see toning products in the color purple. That is because blondes tend to be the most high maintenance about their toning needs. Bleached hair, or even virgin hair, is susceptible to dullness, brassiness, and absorbing things from water or pollution in the air, so the toning products are designed to counteract or correct undesired color changes.
Toning products that exist to deposit a bit of color, whether enhancin...