What Is Neutralizer For Hair?
There are many variables that can affect the outcome of how your hair looks when doing a color treatment, especially if it includes using hair bleach.
One of the main concerns when coloring your hair is achieving the right tone that has an equal balance of warm and cool shades to create a shade that complements your skin tone.
It is easy for your hair to absorb specific tones when coloring, especially when lightening your strands, so a neutralizer will help restore the hair to balance.
Often, when lightening the hair, particularly brunette colors, the results can include tones that are too warm or brassy. To balance out the shades, a cool-toned neutralizer needs to be applied on top to counteract the orange, brassy tones.
The neutralizer also helps add depth to the color by introducing different tones to the lightened locks.
What is a neutralizer for your hair, and why is it important?
A hair neutralizer works to tone the different shades in your hair color, eliminating any unwanted tones. It can help to eliminate brassy tones while also providing depth and dimension to your hair color.
Below, we discuss what a hair neutralizer is, how often you can use it, and the best ways to use it to create the hair color you’ve always wanted!
What Is Neutralizer For Hair?
Hair neutralizer is essentially a hair toner. It will help balance the hair color during the color treatment process. The neutralizer helps remove any brassy, unwanted, or orange tones from the hair. Especially when lightening darker hair, it can pull out orange, yellow, or brassy tones.
Neutralizers, or toners, help eliminate unwanted shades to balance out the color. Neutralizers will also help add a cooler, ash tone to the hair color.
When To Use Hair Neutralizer
Hair neutralizer, also referred to as toner, is best used as part of the hair dyeing process. After applying the hair color and developer, let it sit on the hair for the required amount of time to lift and color properly.
Once the desired amount of time has been achieved, the hair dye is rinsed out, and hair toner is then applied.
Typically, a hair neutralizer does not need to sit on the hair for as long as the hair dye or bleach does. A hair neutralizer can remain on the hair for approximately 15 minutes before it needs to be rinsed out.
Once the required amount of time has passed, the toner can be washed away, and you can continue styling your hair as you normally would.
A hair neutralizer can also be used between hair color appointments to eliminate any unwanted tones that may appear as the color begins to fade.
Specifically with blonde shades, brassy or yellow tones can easily begin to appear between color treatments, and a toner will help to color-correct those unwanted shades.
How Often To Use Hair Neutralizer
There are many ways to use hair neutralizer, both during your color treatment appointment and afterwards.
The neutralizer can be used during your hair color appointment after the hair has been lifted to the desired level and the color has been applied for the required amount of time.
After the hair color is washed out, the toner is applied to eliminate any shades the hair may have picked up from the developer.
Toner is an easy-to-use at-home product that can be applied between salon appointments to refresh your hair color. Most toners are semi-permanent products, and do not always require the use of a developer.
The neutralizer can last in the hair anywhere between 4 and 8 weeks, making it a perfect touch-up product to keep your hair color looking fresh.
While neutralizers are often known to tint the hair color, they can also refresh the shine that can be lost over time in color-treated hair.
Benefits Of Hair Neutralizer
There are many benefits to using a neutralizer in your hair to help achieve the best hair color results yet.
Most notably, the neutralizer is formulated to eliminate any unwanted tones in the hair that can often occur when lightening or altering the existing color.
Often, the hydrogen peroxide in the developer can cause warmer tones, such as orange, yellow, and red, to become more prominent in the hair color as it is being lightened, especially in darker hair being bleached to blonde.
While these tones may already exist in the hair, often they are not the desired end result you are looking for in your hair color.
Neutralizer is going to be a tinted toner that contains a more cool-toned shade to counteract the orange, yellow, or red that becomes apparent in the color. The cooler tones will also add a more ashy tone to the hair, which is a popular color to achieve.
The neutralizer can also help to add dimension to your hair. Aside from neutralizing the brassy tones, it adds a tint of color, which can help create depth in the different levels of the hair color.
Especially if your hair color features multiple dimensions, such as highlights or lowlights, the toner can add an overall depth to the different shades, creating a more dynamic hair color.
With color-treated hair, it can lose its luster over time. Often, it can be revitalized with a fresh application of hair dye, but this process can be costly and damaging to the hair.
There are many toners available that can add just a gloss to your hair, without adding any color if you so desire. Using a neutralizer between salon color appointments is a perfect way to keep your hair color looking fresh and shiny.
Hair neutralizers are typically semi-permanent, meaning they will begin to fade over time without permanently altering the existing hair color.
It can be an ideal way to add a subtle tint of a particular color without the same level of commitment as a permanent hair color would require.
Additionally, because they are usually semi-permanent, they do not penetrate the hair shaft as deeply as permanent color, resulting in less overall damage to the hair strands.
Toners and neutralizers are also fairly simple to use at home, instead of scheduling a trip to the salon.
If you want to eliminate unwanted tones, add a renewed shine, or simply freshen up your color, an at-home toner application is a convenient solution.
Tips For Using Hair Neutralizer
While using a hair neutralizer at home is relatively easy, if you are still unsure, you can always opt for using a hair toning shampoo as an easier alternative.
Depending on the color of your hair and how you need to adjust the tones, there are many pigment-depositing shampoos and conditioners available on the market to do the job. The most common is a purple shampoo or conditioner for blonde hair, as it will reduce the appearance of brassy orange tones that can easily appear.
You can also find pigment-depositing products in a range of hair colors to suit your needs in between touch-ups, from natural to trendy hair colors.
These products will add a subtle tint of color and the tone you are looking for, becoming more apparent with each use.
If you are using a color-depositing, neutralizing shampoo, it is best to let the product sit on the hair and scalp for several minutes to fully absorb and cancel out the unwanted tones before rinsing it out.
When applying actual hair toner, it is best to work in smaller sections to ensure you target the areas with unwanted tones properly.
It is also valuable to have knowledge of the color wheel and the method behind color correction, to understand which tones need to be used to counteract unwanted shades.
The toner is applied to dry hair using a small hair color brush to thoroughly coat the hair for optimal results.
After letting the neutralizer sit on the hair for the required amount of time, it can be rinsed out with color-safe, color-protecting hair products.
To maintain the correct tone, consider using a color-depositing shampoo or conditioner once a week to prevent unwanted tones from appearing.
Conclusion
Using a hair neutralizer is an essential step in your hair color treatment, as it helps to perfect the overall color into the ideal, dimensional shade.
As many colors naturally exist within our hair strands, it is easy for unwanted tones to become more apparent when we color our hair to achieve a different look.
To prevent unwanted shades from detracting from our desired outcomes, using a hair toner will help keep your color-treated hair looking balanced, shiny, and healthy.
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