What Is Hair Toner? Best Hair Toners 2024

Table Of Content

• SheaMoisture Strength + Color Care Treatment Masque
• Hair Toner 101: Everything You Should Know About Toning Your Hair
• Best Toning Products for Blonde Hair
• Best toners for balayage
• What Does Hair Toner Do? Colorists Explain the Benefits of the Treatment
• Is Hair Toner Suitable for All Hair Types?
• Kérastase Chroma Absolu Soin Acide Chroma Gloss Hair Gloss
• Best Color Enhancing Toner

They, of course, refresh and enhance tone, but they also add dimension to hair color and eliminate discoloration. Toners also strengthen hair by creating a protective barrier around the strands and balancing the hair’s porosity by filling in the shaft. Lastly, toners add volume and shine to the hair by plumping the hair cuticle to make it fuller, while also sealing down the cuticle to create reflection and shine. This one’s for all of our babes with gray or silver hair—this treatment masque is perfect for intensely hydrating aging hair. Say hello to more shine and less brass thanks to arctic root extract, which helps restore texture and snow mushroom Extract for maintaining moisture.

SheaMoisture Strength + Color Care Treatment Masque

Since joining ELLE.com in 2017, she has interviewed countless haircare professionals and has personally tested the latest and greatest products across haircare, makeup, and skincare. For crash course on what to know about in-salon and at-home hair toner options, keep reading. Once the color has washed out following the four to six week period, you can go back to the salon or re-tone your hair at home again.

Hair Toner 101: Everything You Should Know About Toning Your Hair

However, it turns out that skipping hair toner is a very common mistake people with color-treated hair make. Even though stylists consider toner to be an essential, final step of a hair coloring appointment, it remains a mystery for so many — even those with color-treated hair. And with so many hair products and services available to us, it's easy to want to skip toner when you aren't sure what it does. Yup, this toning conditioner is made especially for redheads with warm undertones. Smooth a dollop through damp, freshly washed hair and the formula works to smooth and soften your hair while also adding shine and dimension throughout your color. "You're continuously adding pigments, so it will add up on top of each other and progress," says Ellsworth.

Best Toning Products for Blonde Hair

Ellsworth notes that even damaged hair can benefit from toners since they can condition and strengthen porosity. “It's just a matter of communicating with your stylists about what you feel like your hair may need,” adds Valdes. Ultimately, a hair color toner can help enhance your hair routine and ensure your custom color stays vibrant and brilliant between salon visits. However, "Pigments or dyes have the potential to cause skin sensitization and contact dermatitis," he notes, "Overuse of toners can cause hair to become dry or damaged." If you're looking to get your hair toned by a professional, you can expect to pay anywhere from $40 to $200 dollars.

For example, if you keep using an ashy brown toner, your hair will become slowly darker and cooler over time. "When doing a root touch-up, I'll apply alkaline permanent color to the regrowth (aka roots) and acidic Redken Shades EQ Gloss to the previously colored hair, to get the best results and minimize damage." Friedman prefers to use glosses over a traditional toner to blend color together to achieve harmony between hues and because glosses are effective "on universal hair types to give hair more body with a boost of protein."

What Does Hair Toner Do? Colorists Explain the Benefits of the Treatment

Prices vary by location and salon, so if you have questions about how much a hair toning service will set you back, ask your stylist. A fuss-free way to enhance natural highlights, Living Proof Color Care Whipped Glaze Light applies like a mousse, depositing small amounts of lilac pigment to stop highlighted hair from yellowing. It’s good for all-round hair manageability too, leaving it shiny, soft, and tangle-free. You might even want to go ‘overboard’ on purpose, by letting your purple conditioner leave blonde or gray hair with a cool lilac tinge. If you do think you’ve gone too far, don’t worry—it’ll be gone in a few regular shampoos.

Is Hair Toner Suitable for All Hair Types?

Not only does this gloss treatment strengthen color-treated hair (thank you, lactic acid)—it can work as a straight, wavy, coily, or curly hair product for all textures. After cleansing hair, run this product through your mid-lengths and ends until saturated, then leave on for one to two minutes. You’ll want to rinse this bb out thoroughly to see all of that hydration and shine.

17 Blonde-Hair Toners to Fight Brassiness In-Between Salon Appointments - Fashionista

17 Blonde-Hair Toners to Fight Brassiness In-Between Salon Appointments.

Posted: Fri, 14 May 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Kérastase Chroma Absolu Soin Acide Chroma Gloss Hair Gloss

When toning your hair at home, Valdes recommends doing a patch test with a small piece of hair to see how it looks when it dries before moving to the rest. “When it comes to at-home products, there's usually either an overload or underload of pigment since it's marketed to a variety of people—it can be very unpredictable for clients,” says Valdes. Additionally, the toner may work differently for people who have highlights. Toner typically takes five to 20 minutes to process, depending on the type and application method utilized. Your hairstylist will determine if a toner is necessary (it isn't always), which type to use, and how it should be applied. Particularly with bleaching services, if you're curious about what is going on with your hair, it's important to ask.

Best Color Enhancing Toner

How frequently you should get your hair toned in between washes depends on your hair color. “Redheads tend to fade the quickest, and they generally have to touch their color up more often,” Courtney Lee, a colorist at Kinloch Salon in New York, explains. That said, at-home toners aren’t right for everyone—and it’s important to pick a solid formula.

Glosses have a lifespan of six to eight shampoos, and Friedman recommends applying a gloss every eight weeks to revitalize hair color and strengthen strands for maximum volume. “If you need any major colorwork, you should always go to a pro,” says Ess. “You can really mess up your color by going out of your ‘hair color family’ with any color product at home.” However, she also notes that you can definitely take care of toning at home, as long as you’re careful.

“Hair toner is any semi- or demi-permanent hair color that helps enhance the tone of your hair,” says hairstylist Meri Kate O’Connor, colorist at Cooper West Hollywood. And if that sounds a little general, welp, that’s because it is—hair toner is basically an umbrella term forany pigment-spiked product that cools, tones, and enhances shine. However, a toning shampoo differs from an actual toner, but they work in relatively the same way. The term hair toner refers to any product designed to help neutralize unwanted undertones in color-treated hair. These products can come in many forms, such as toning shampoos, conditioners, treatments, and tinted hair glosses. Whether you’re going platinum, experimenting with a fantasy shade, or adding highlights to brighten your natural hue, coloring your hair is fun.

Toners cannot, and should not, replace the lightening process that hair goes through when it's bleached. Glosses and toners won’t actually be able to lighten your hair if you notice it fading—they should only be used to correct the tone of the color. Properly toned colors may appear brighter because they are cooler-toned, not necessarily because they are lighter in shade. While a salon appointment is your best bet for a true touch-up, there are over-the-counter toning shampoos or drops that promise a similar color-correcting fix.

Is your hair color in urgent need of a refresh and are you wondering if hair toner could be the answer? Here at woman&home HQ, our beauty team regularly relies on hair toners to keep our color at its best—especially in between salon appointments. To get technical, using an acidic demi-permanent toner is an essential part of a color appointment to strengthen the hair's cuticles and reduce damage.