Toning bleached hair

July 16, 2014 12:05 PM

DIY-hair-filter: I bleached my hair 2.5 weeks ago. Can I use toner on it now or is that a bad idea?

I bleached my hair to blonde (from brown) two and a half weeks ago (not professionally. in my bathroom, with the help of a friend). I didn't have any toner at the time so I left it slightly yellowish. (I want to go for a whiter/lighter blonde.) I finally Amazon Prime-ed some toner and it got to my house today.

Would anything go terribly wrong if I used it now?

Also, my roots are starting to show. If I use toner now and then re-bleach all of this again in like 3 weeks, will that go ok? After I bleach it again do I use toner again?

If relevant: I have short hair (recent photo). I plan to use Wella T18 toner and Wella cream developer.

posted by aaanastasia to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (5 answers total)

Best answer: Yeah, there's no magic time window after bleaching. Toner is like hair dye. Nothing will go wrong that wouldn't go wrong if you had bleached and toned immediately. I wouldn't focus too hard on your roots, because I can't imagine it would lighten them much, if at all. But it shouldn't hurt anything either, any more than the damage you know you're already doing by bleaching/coloring your hair. (No judging, I am always screwing with my hair).

Yes, bleach and tone every time. It's a bitch to keep platinum up (at least where I live with my water) so I also use things like purple shampoos for grey haired people and something like Manic Panic virgin snow semi-perm toner. If you mess with these too much you may get a little lavender residue, but it washes out again.

Cute cut!!
posted by Lardmitten at 1:24 PM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

Also, the lighter you bleach, the better toner seems to work. But there's that chemical damange line, and snap! Hair damage. Good luck! So fun.
posted by Lardmitten at 1:26 PM on July 16, 2014

I have done this in much less time and it was fine. I was a big fan of toner shampoo (the purple stuff) as well when I was blonde.
posted by futureisunwritten at 5:03 PM on July 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

They make toner shampoo for white horses called blueing shampoo and it works like a fucking charm. It's also cheap. Pretty sure it's the same ingredients but check first it's not harmful to humans obvs. And spot test to make sure you don't die your head blue since you home bleached.
posted by fshgrl at 9:37 PM on July 16, 2014

If I were you, I'd re-bleach now and then tone. With that pre-color, it's not going to get that white with toner. I've done that, gotten frustrated with the yellow color, and then bleached and toned all over again. The first time is the hardest to achieve the lightness you want, as you have to lighten everything. From here on out, just do it every 4-6 weeks and you'll only have to bleach once, as only the roots may be a tad on the yellow side. Best of luck!
posted by amileighs at 9:14 AM on July 18, 2014