Hair Too Ashy After Toner – What To Do
We have all experienced a colour treating our hair only to end up with results we were not expecting.
Whether it is salon-treated or done at home, you might have one idea in mind, and it could turn out to be something completely different.
With the growing popularity of ash-toned locks, the chance for over-toning hair is higher.
Toner is used during the colour treatment process, often as the final step, to balance the appearance of different hues present in the desired colour.
Toner is meant to neutralise unwanted brassiness or warm tones that can often be hard to counteract.
Ash toner in particular provides a cool-toned appearance, but sometimes the hair becomes too ashy as a result.
So, what should you do if your hair is too ashy after toner?
Thankfully, too, ashy hair can be fixed easily, and sometimes without having to go back to the salon. A few easy methods include washing your hair frequently, using a clarifying shampoo, trying a hair-depositing mask or conditioner, and more.
Unless you were going for those trendy, grey-toned locks, if you find that your hair has gone too ashy from toner.
You can fade the colour quickly without damaging your hair through a few different techniques we are going to explore below.
What Does Ashy Mean?
Ash, when used in reference to hair colour, is a calm tone typically meant to neutralise unwanted brassy tones.
The calm tone is usually a greyish-blue shade, although it can also have undertones of green or violet, depending on the hair shade.
Ash tones can be seen in a wide array of tones and can be used with many different hair colours.
There are no warm tones apparent in ash colours, meaning no reds or oranges are present.
Often, ash toners are used to neutralise or eliminate brassiness, which is also a frequent issue with colour-treated hair, especially hair that has been bleached.
Ash tones deposit a cool, grey undertone over warm, brassy hair colours to achieve a neutral balance between the two shades.
When depositing a cooler tone over a warmer shade, the colours cancel each other out, and that is where neutralisation occurs.
Ash tones are present in many hair colours.
And the calm tone has become a widespread trend in the hair colour world, too much ash can have the opposite effect, resulting in hair that appears too grey/green, or is dull and dark.
Why Can Hair Turn Out Too Ashy?
There can be several reasons why your hair may appear too ashy after a colour treatment. One common cause is that the hair is too porous.
When the colour is deposited onto the hair, if your hair has high porosity, the colour gets absorbed too quickly into the hair.
The ash toner gets absorbed into the hair at a faster rate than usual, resulting in a colour that has too much of the calm tone.
Another common mistake is that the toner can be too dark or not the right ash tone for your hair.
If the toner was applied to dry hair, it could also contribute to the result being too ashy.
Hair toner does not necessarily darken hair colour; however, it does remove unwanted tones.
If the shade is not correct for the desired outcome, it can leave hair looking dull.
If the toner is left on the hair for too long, that can also cause the hair to appear too ashy.
Toner is used after colour-treating hair to neutralise any unwanted tones, especially when treating hair with bleach.
Lightening the hair with bleach will often leave behind brassy tones such as orange or yellow.
Toner is used to neutralise these shades, and with ash toners in particular, is meant to give a more platinum, cool-toned finish.
If the toner is left on for too long, the result can be a grey/green hue due to prolonged processing on the hair.
What Hair Colour Can Cause Ashiness the Most?
Ash is a tone that can appear in a wide range of different hair colours.
It is most commonly seen in blonde or platinum hair colours.
However, there has been a trend in recent years of ash-toned brunette shades that have become increasingly popular, like the popular “mushroom brown” or ash brown.
There has also been a massive trend of uber-platinum to silver or grey, cool-toned hair.
To achieve a silver or grey shade of blonde, an ash toner can be used on properly lightened and colour-treated hair.
The shade can also be maintained with an ash toner to prevent any eventual brassiness from occurring.
Can Colour Ashiness Be Fixed?
Too much ash in a hair colour is a relatively easy fix.
Instead of trying to fix brassiness, which requires the colour to be “lifted,” or using additional colour processing, too much ash in your hair can be corrected by depositing colour to adjust the tone.
Ash tones are meant to neutralise and balance, so if there is an instance where hair is over-toned with a cooler shade, adding more warmth easily reinstates the balance of different shades.
Hair is generally more receptive to warmer shades than cooler tones, as warm tones can already be present in hair.
Correcting and adding a warmer colour to ashy hair is an easy solution.
You can try a colour-depositing hair mask, like this one from Four Reasons, in your referred warm shade to colour-correct your hair.
However, use it in small amounts for short bursts to avoid over-correcting.
Best Methods to Fix Ashy Hair
If you want to try to fix hair that is too ashy before returning to the salon, one solution is to try frequent washes with warm to hot water.
Washing your hair frequently, especially right after the colour treatment has been applied, can cause the toner to fade quickly.
However, with frequent washes, it’s essential to follow up with moisture-rich products, such as a conditioner or hydrating mask, to prevent your hair from drying out excessively.
A clarifying shampoo can also help strip the unwanted tones.
Clarifying shampoo, like this one from Redken.
It is a product formulated to provide a deeper clean for your hair, targeting product buildup, excess oils, and is generally stronger than your regular shampoo.
As it cleans the hair so thoroughly, colour treatments can often be affected when clarifying shampoos are used, and they can quickly strip the over-toned hair of its ashy appearance.
It is excellent to include a clarifying shampoo in your hair care routine, but be cautious not to use it too frequently, as it can strip your hair of its natural oils and hydration.
A clarifying shampoo will remove any product buildup, excess oil, and hair pollutants that your regular shampoo might miss.
However, if you are looking to fade your hair toner or colour, make sure to use a clarifying shampoo that does not claim to protect colour treatment.
There are also many colour-depositing hair masks, like the one we mentioned previously. from Four Reasons.
And treatments available on the market that can be used to deposit a different tone to the too-ashy locks.
Colour-depositing treatments are semi-permanent and should be incorporated into your regular hair washing routine.
The more often and consistently they are used, the more the colour is maintained, and can be a solution to adding more warmth to hair that has gone too ashy.
Ultimately, if the colour is not as you desired, going to your salon for your subsequent colour treatment and having your stylist incorporate more warm tones will give you the most long-lasting fix.
Balancing the ash tones with shades that are warmer and more golden will help to blend and neutralise strands that are too cool-toned or grey/green.
Best Toners To Prevent Ashiness
Aside from depositing and neutralising hair colour, toners can also provide extra shine, which is sometimes needed when going for ashy tones.
Permanent toners are salon-level and should only be used by a professional hair stylist during your appointment.
There are at-home products you can add to your hair care routine to refresh and tone your hair in between your trips to the salon!
First, based on your hair colour, deciding what type of toner is right for you will guide you in selecting the correct product.
Toners cannot lighten hair, but they can add gloss, shine, and vibrancy back to your colour-treated hair.
If you are looking to maintain the ash tones in cooler hair colours, consider products that contain blue or violet pigments to refresh the colour.
Depending on your hair colour, a product like this colour-depositing deep conditioner from dpHUE comes in a variety of shades to suit your needs.
It is a semi-permanent treatment that boosts and maintains the vibrancy of your hair colour, delivering immediate high shine to your processed tresses.
However, even if your hair is natural and not colour-treated.
This product will help enhance your hair colour while providing moisture and a glossy finish, leaving your hair looking and feeling healthy.
If you have ash blonde hair, a toning product like this one from TRUSS, which is an in-shower, 10-minute treatment, will help to neutralise and correct any brass shades.
When used as a treatment after shampooing your hair, the violet pigments work to counteract any yellow or orange tones in your hair.
Follow up with a moisturising conditioner, and your ash-toned blonde will stay protected and the correct tone in between salon visits.
If you don’t want to add any semi-permanent colour but still want the shine afforded by a toner.
A clear glossing treatment like this one from dpHUE will provide you with high shine and soft locks.
The clear, deep conditioning treatment will not affect your existing hair colour but will add extra shine that can be lost over time.
Especially with cool-toned ash shades, hair can sometimes appear dull in between sessions.
Ash tones tend to absorb light, while warmer tones tend to reflect it, resulting in a brighter appearance.
A semi-permanent, clear glossing treatment, like the one mentioned above, will not only counteract any dullness apparent in ash-toned hair.
But it also gives you the appearance of freshly applied hair colour.
If you want to avoid any user error when it comes to toning your hair, take a look at this great video from hairdresser Sam Vay on YouTube explaining how to use toner properly.
Best Products For Colour Maintenance
After colour-treating our hair, we want to ensure the results last as long as possible.
Depending on our daily hair care routine, colour can sometimes fade sooner than we planned.
Aside from very pale blonde, most natural hair colours already have warm tones, so when going for an ash-toned shade.
Unwanted brassiness can start to show through earlier than expected, resulting in the need for more toner to neutralise it.
Making sure we take care of our hair is a must, especially if we want to preserve our colour, such as cool-toned shades.
Starting with the shampoo and conditioner you use, look out for products that claim to protect colour-treated hair.
Like this duo from Nexxus, it will help extend your colour between washes.
Shampoo and conditioner are used so frequently in our hair care routine, looking for colour-protecting formulas that are sulfate-free is also recommended.
Sulfate-free formulas are more gentle on colour-treated hair, as they won’t strip the colour as harshly, and will prevent hair from losing any needed hydration.
To incorporate into your regular shampoo and conditioner routine, using a purple pigment-depositing shampoo every few washes will help extend and maintain your ash-toned locks.
As warm tones are naturally occurring in most natural hair colours, and ash-tones can fade out of hair quickly.
Purple pigment shampoos, such as this one from Redken or this one from Joico, help maintain those cool tones.
The rich purple shade of the shampoo neutralises and banishes warm orange, yellow, or red tones to maintain the appearance of grey, silver, or cool-toned shades, while providing extra hydration and colour protection as well.
After colour-treating your hair, especially with bleach, the locks can feel dry or require additional moisture.
Adding a colour-protecting hair mask to your hair care routine not only extends the life of your colour treatment but also provides added hydration to your over-processed strands.
A hydrating mask like this one from Pureology uses essential nutrients to protect hair colour while also incorporating much-needed moisture to protect and preserve your hair’s health.
Similar to purple pigment-depositing shampoo, neutralising hair masks such as this one from Redken cancel out errant brassy tones to extend the look of your cool-toned strands.
Conclusion
Switching up our hair colour can be a relatively easy change to our appearance, but we are often hesitant to make the jump because we are unsure of the results.
Knowing what the steps are in your colour treatment routine is a helpful guide in achieving the correct results.
Mistakes with hair colour can happen, but also knowing how to prevent those mishaps should alleviate any stress that can be caused by not receiving the correct shade.
Being able to fix those mishaps at home, without having to go back to the salon, is an ideal solution.
Thankfully, excessively ashy hair, a result of being overly toned, is one of those easy fixes.
The ash-toned hair colour trend does not appear to be stopping anytime soon and is even making its way from predominantly blonde locks to cool-toned brunette tresses.
Over-toning hair to be too ashy can happen, leaving the hair too dark, grey, or dull.
However, the solutions to fixing hair that has gone too ashy listed above are relatively easy and won’t cause any additional damage to your already colour-treated locks.
