Everything You Need to Know About Hair Toner

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Going blonde is a real commitment. Along with the frequent salon visits, maintaining healthy, non-brassy locks involves a litany of rituals, including shampooing with purple shampoos and strengthening strands with bonding treatments. You can’t forget about hair toner, either. Hair toner, well, tones your hair to keep it at the exact level of warmth or coolness you desire, whether you bleach your entire head of hair or go for highlights. If you’re still wondering how exactly hair toner works and are itching for more information before you put one into your shopping cart, we’ve got your back.

We interviewed a group of trusted colorists, including Jonathan Colombini, L’Oréal Paris style and color expert, IGK Miami colorist Savanna Palladino, Sharon Dorram, master colorist at Sharon Dorram Color at Sally Hershberger Salon, and Kristin Ess, celebrity hairstylist and founder of her eponymous hair care company, to explain all the ins and outs of hair toner. Read on to learn about the different types of toners, who can benefit from them, and the best options for at-home use.

Hair toners can be used to achieve two things. “It can be used to add pigment to hair color that has faded over time, and it can be used to counteract unwanted colors like yellow tones or brassiness. Toning and glossing also add a nice boost in shine to the hair,” Colombini says.

Ess describes toners as a “topcoat for your hair.” The hair treatment usually comes in a gel or gloss-like formula and works to emphasize or deemphasize certain tones in your hair and add shine. Palladino adds that toners aren’t one specific product, and you can’t go out and just buy a “toner.” Demi-permanent colors, glosses, tinted shampoos, and conditioners can all be considered toners because they all contain pigments that adjust the tone of your hair.

Demi-permanent colors, a.k.a. glosses, deposit color without lightening the hair. “Glosses typically last about six to eight weeks, and there is no grow-out process, they just fade out of the hair,” Palladino says. Glosses work for clients who switch up their hair color more often or want to try something new without the commitment of permanent color.

Like the commonly used purple shampoos and conditioners, purple and blue toning products work to eliminate brassiness. Purple toning products are perfect for blondes since the violet reduces yellow tones and eliminates brassiness to keep blonde hair looking fresh. In contrast, blue toning products are perfect for brunettes since the blue cancels out orange tones and increases luster in the hair.

“People need toning glosses for many reasons, but the most popular is to either maintain the tones in their hair that they love or to adjust warm or cool tones,” Ess says. Toners can also be used to add shine, increase the softness of hair, or reduce the appearance of split ends. Dorram adds that toners can restore life to brassy or dull hair and make the existing color more vibrant.

No matter your hair or curl type, whether it’s straight, wavy, curly, or coily, your color-treated strands can benefit from a hair toner. Because there are so many types of toners out there, you’ll definitely be able to find one that works for you—and many of them are pretty universal.

Toners are great multi-use products that have a variety of benefits. 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.

“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.

Colombini agrees that toners should be used carefully. Thanks to a bevy of user-friendly systems found in your favorite beauty stores, toning your hair at home has become more popular and more manageable. Colombini warns that toner should be applied to clean hair. “I prefer to apply to damp hair. This helps the product move evenly and easily through the hair,” he says.

Dorram advises adding a little shampoo to the toner to emulsify it throughout the hair and notes that toner is safe to use at home if you follow the instructions. Just conduct a little patch test with a small hidden chunk of hair at the nape of your neck.

Typically, the pigment delivered in toners can last about three to four weeks. However, depending on how frequently you wash your hair and your hair type, the effects of a hair toner can last up to eight weeks. Sometimes, previously dyed hair can hold onto the pigment less, which can mean more frequent need for touch-ups. If that’s the case for you, finding at-home hair toners can be a better choice.

Toners’ effects are temporary, so the worst thing that might happen is that the resulting color isn’t quite exactly what you wanted. Still, that can be quickly resolved in just a few washes, which fade the effects. However, if you have sensitive skin, you may want to be a little careful, as the chemicals in toners can irritate the scalp.

If you’re wondering what products can be used to tone your hair at home, Palladino recommends IGK’s Mixed Feelings Leave-In Blonde Toning Drops. The purple pigment drops can be mixed with any of your favorite hair care products, such as shampoos, conditioners, oils, creams, or stylers, to create a toner.

Ess recommends her Signature Glosses for at-home toning. Her glosses come in eight different shades, from clear to dark brown-black to help boost color-treated hair. She notes, “The Signature Glosses are safe to use at home because I have intentionally formulated them to be less powerful and less pigmented than what we use in the salon.”

“My hair is currently an ashy gray-silver-blonde (my natural color is black), so I use Overtone’s Extreme Silver Complete System to maintain it,” says editor Tatjana Freund. “I haven’t had my hair colored at a salon in six months, but my gray hair is still going strong, thanks to these products.” Overtone also has lines for several different color families—including blue, rose gold, purple, green, and more—in pastel, vibrant, and extreme ranges.

Colombini is a fan of L’Oréal Paris’ Le Color Gloss’. “It’s a one-step, no mixing, color conditioner that enhances your color while boosting shine. Offered in 13 shades, you’ll be sure to find a color that is best suited for you,” he says.