A girl's guide to toners
Hey girls, Alice here! So lately I’ve been getting bored sick of my hair. As I’ve literally had it in the same style and colour my whole life, I’ve finally decided to have a bit of fun with it and mess around by putting some different colours in.
For those of you who are feeling the same way, listen up! It’s been impossibly hard for someone who knew absolutely nothing about hair to find out how to bleach and tone myself, but with my help, hopefully any hair novices reading this will be able to too!
I’d wanted silver/grey hair since I was about 13, so I took to YouTube on an adventure to find out how to get there. About a million hours of videos later I finally felt ready to take the plunge. I began by scrolling through eBay to find the cheapest prices for some of the products YouTubers such as AshGhotCakessTV had recommended, and waited eagerly for them to arrive.
Below is a step-by-step guide with photos on what to do when dying your hair grey!
1. Bleach your hair. This step is especially important if you have dark hair. Bleach can be quite damaging to your hair, so if like me you’re not brave enough to do it yourself, visit your local salon. However, if you do want to attempt to lighten your hair yourself, after much research I’d recommend products such as the Wella Blondor Multi-Blonde range or Igora Vario. They may be a little bit more expensive than other bleaches, but with these products being used by professionals in salons, they’re definitely worth it.
Once your hair is at either an orange or a yellow colour, you’re ready to begin. The lighter you can get your hair the better, even if it means bleaching a couple times (if you do this make sure to give your hair a breather in between bleaching sessions – you have to remember to care for your hair as bleach is so damaging!)
2. Buy a mixing bowl and brush, hair colour and developer - all available for cheap on eBay. As I wanted to get my hair to be a darker grey, I chose to use Wella Color Charm Toner T14 Pale Ash Blonde mixed with Wella Color Charm Toner 050 Cooling Violet. The reason why I decided to mix these was because the T14 lightens, whilst the 050 violet tones oppose the yellow tones in my hair to create a cooler, greyer look. For the developer I chose a 20 volume, as any more than that can be really damaging for your hair.
3. Start by mixing your toner and developer to the ratio stated on the box. Mine was a 1:2 ratio, so I used the entire bottle of 050 and then filled the same bottle up twice with developer. I know the 050 is meant to be just an additive, but if you’re looking for a darker, cooler colour this seems to be the best way to go about it. I then mixed in half the bottle of the T14 with another bottle of developer (always remember the correct ratio!) to make sure my hair was also lightened at the same time. This is how it should look when it is mixed:
4. Separate your hair into small sections. You literally want to gather tiny bits of hair at a time to paint with the mixture, so you can make sure every part is evenly covered. Paint your hair in small sections until your head is completely covered.
5. Leave to set for 5-30 minutes, depending on the colour you want to achieve. I left the mixture on for 25 minutes, as I wanted the colour to be darker and more intense. This was the result:
As this was my first ever attempt at doing anything like this, I feel like I did a good job (minus the ruined t-shirt). I didn’t bleach before toning, as I want to be able to put my hair back to it’s normal shade within the next few months and only bleached my hair a month ago, but I know if I did the colour would be literally perfect.
Also, I feel it’s important to point out that as it’s a toner the colour will gradually fade out in two to six weeks depending on how often you wash your hair. To try and make it last a little bit longer whilst keeping the grey tones more prominent than any yellows, it’s a good idea to buy a purple shampoo. I use Joico Color Endure Sulphate-free Violet Shampoo as it has so many good reviews all over the Internet, and contains no sulphates, meaning it’s less damaging to coloured hair (and it smells so good!).
Happy colouring! :)