What toner to use for ash blonde hair?
“For maintaining ashy and icy blondes, it is best to choose toners in the violet or purple family. For maintaining vibrancy in warmer blonde shades, it is best to choose a toner in the yellow or gold family.”
Leaving toner in your hair can take as quick as a minute but should not exceed 45 minutes. There's no exact time because how long the toning process will take differs from person to person.
As it turns out, you can use a blonde hair dye to neutralize your orange hair — the secret is to look for a shade that's ashy. Ashy, cool undertones are the key to canceling out the warm, unflattering orange tones that currently adorn your strands.
If you are not looking to lighten you can use blue based ash blonde colors. Blue based colors and toners are good at killing yellow and they should be your first choice in such situations. Use Ugly Duckling's blue based ash blonde colors (anything ending in "1b"). Blue cancels out yellow on the color wheel.
In order to get an ashy blonde, your colorist must lift your hair past any orange/yellow tones, as much as possible. Ideally, lifting to at least pale yellow is best. Here, we get a beautiful platinum/ash look, with roots as bright as the rest of her color.
Yes, you can use purple shampoo for bleached hair. In fact, we recommend it for all bleached blondes, as it keeps brassiness at bay while you're waiting for your next color touch-up.
Your hair turns brassy/orange when you lighten it because the warm colour molecules are the last to be lifted during a lightening process. For a successful, balanced lighter colour outcome, you need to first lift out all the warm colour pigments.
When deciding how to tone yellow hair to ash, try using a violet shampoo first. As purple is the opposite of yellow on the colour spectrum, the shampoo's purple pigment draws out the yellow brassiness from your blonde, neutralises those unwanted tones, and makes your colour look cooler, healthier and more vibrant.
If your hair is orange, you'll need a blue toner. Try a blue shampoo to tone the brassiness and get rid of the orange. This color toner is commonly needed for darker hair.
Green and green-based ash cancel out red, magenta and orange. Blue and blue based colors and toners cancel out orange and yellow orange. Violet, purple and purple based toners cancel out yellow and pale yellow.
Why does ash blonde look darker?
KNOW THIS: Hair will always appear darker when it has an ash tonality, according to Constance. Explain to your client that warm tones reflect light and cool tones absorb it.
Ashy tones occur in hair color when there's too much of a cool or blue pigment in a dye or toner. Think of it as editing an image – if you cool down the coloring of a photo, it often turns very blue or green. The same happens with hair – if you have too much cool pigment, it saturates the hair with a blue/green tone.

Should I Apply Toner On Wet Or Dry Hair? Your hair has to be a little damp or towel dried while applying a toner. To be precise, you should always use a hair toner when your hair is 70% dry. You will achieve better results if you put toner on damp hair and not dripping wet or completely dry hair.
Yes, toner is damaging to hair. Any chemical you apply to your hair can be damaging, especially if it changes the hair structure.
Toner does not have to be used evenly on all of the hair, but it can be. Don't worry if you make a mistake and get it on the darker strands of your hair; the toner will not affect them. For example, you may want to tone down highlights or your roots. Always apply toner to damp hair so it distributes evenly.
Ash blonde is close to grey in colour. Your clothing and make-up should include bright colours to bring more vibrancy to your style so that the overall look does not appear too dull. Your make-up can be a little more intense or adventurous.
HAIRCOLOR SHADE | HAIRCOLOR LEVEL AND TONE |
---|---|
Medium ash blond | level 8 ash |
Ash blonde | level 7 ash |
Dark blonde | level 8 violet |
Reddish blonde | level 9 red |
Cool blonde hair colors like ash, sandy and platinum will compliment cool skin undertones by cutting down brassiness, while warm blonde hair colors like golden, strawberry and honey naturally suit warm skin undertones by adding warmth to your look.
Purple shampoo is the key to maintaining ash blonde hair. This is due to a little secret called color theory. Purple and yellow sit on opposite sides of the color wheel. This means violet hues counteract brassy tones.
- Try using a shower filter.
- Wash your hair less frequently.
- Avoid clarifying shampoos.
- Use purple shampoo correctly.
- Visit the salon regularly.
Does purple shampoo Make blonde more ashy?
Using this logic, you can start to understand how purple shampoo works its magic on yellow-blonde hair. When a little purple dye is combined with a lot of yellow hair, the saturation of the yellow is decreased, leaving a more desirable ashy hue as the final result.
The Wella 6A Dark Ash Blonde is the ultimate solution for anyone looking to create an ash brown with no brassy tones.
HAIRCOLOR SHADE | HAIRCOLOR LEVEL AND TONE |
---|---|
Medium ash blond | level 8 ash |
Ash blonde | level 7 ash |
Dark blonde | level 8 violet |
Reddish blonde | level 9 red |
It's no wonder that ash blonde is a major hair goal: It's literally cool—cool gray undertones, that is—and it looks just so, so cool. To try it for yourself, embrace your natural color and enhance it with platinum streaks like Ciara, or ombré your hair into a warm toffee like Elizabeth Olsen.
Wella T18 is packed with purple pigments, which will neutralise those yellow tones and leave you with an icy blonde result. The Wella T18 Toner is the only toner of the range that's purple based and it's the most powerful at combatting yellow tones.
Does ash blonde hair look grey? Ash blonde hair is a light blonde tint with deeper roots and a trace of gray that gives it an ashy tone. Because an ashy blonde hue is on the greyer side of the spectrum, it complements cool complexion tones and vivid eye colors.
(Think about the color of actual ashes!) Ash blonde hair can range from platinum white to dark blonde, but it always has those cool undertones. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you've got warmer tones, which is where hues such as honey and caramel blonde fall.
It's important to note that ash blonde hair is not a permanent color. Even the most diligent self-stylists will need a touch-up. Unlike brunette and auburn tones that may fade into your natural hue without the need for routine upkeep, maintaining ash blonde requires regular trips to your friendly, neighborhood stylist.
The colours do depend on the colour of your natural hair. Moreover, ash tints do look darker than other colours in a certain colour level. The 7.1 ash dark blonde will appear to be darker than the 7.0 dark blonde. If you don't want this, you could consider picking a lighter ash tint.
Going ashy.
The wrong ones, like ash, can instantly age you. “Warm tones reflect light, while ash tones absorb light. Go with warm tones, so your hair won't be dull and will instead shine, bounce, and look youthful,” says Mary Brambila of Brambila Salon.
What skin tone does ash hair suit?
What color is ash brown? Unlike dark chocolate or soft, warm brown, ash brown is a gray-leaning shade that will bring out the cool tones in your hair (which of course makes it best for women with cool or neutral skin tones).
2. Generally speaking, paler, pinky skin tones suit cool, delicate blondes; think ash, beige or baby-blonde. 3. Darker or more yellow / golden-toned skins suit golden or honey hues; think butter, golden, caramel tones.