Hair Too Ashy After Toner [The Best Solutions]

Are you concerned because your hair is too ashy after toner? Don’t worry! You are in the right place to know how to fix it.

When our hair gets too ashy, the truth is that we lose the brightness and luminance of our hair color. There are even cases in which after a highlight service we do not notice the highlights at all, because the toner looks dark and we lose the contrast.

If your hair is too ashy after toner, you can remove the excess ash pigment by deep cleansing your hair with a high sulfate shampoo, preparing a natural color remover, or applying a corrective toner. These solutions will help you to balance the toner of your hair by removing the excess of ashy pigmentation.

Having too ashy hair makes your hair look dark and dull. But don’t worry, excess toner is easy to remove. If none of this works, you can always consult a professional hairdresser to help you get your hair back to normal.

In this article you will discover the best solution for fixing hair too ashy after toner and will make your hair light and shiny again.

The best solutions for hair too ashy after toner

Ok, for some reason your hair is too ashy, and you need to fix it asap. When the hair is very ashy, it can look grayish-green, and the truth is that it is not very flattering. But everything has a solution, so keep reading:

To remove the ash pigment from the hair, the most important thing is that you remove that superficial layer of ash toner that is covering your hair.

Toners are semi-permanent dyes, so even if you have a lot of pigmentation you should not worry too much, since probably in a couple of washes the toner will begin to fade and you will return to normal.

However, if you want to recover the color of your hair quickly, I recommend that you put the solutions in this article into practice, since in my personal experience as a hairdresser they have helped me a lot to restore the blonde color to my clients who have had excess toner.

Why is my hair too ashy?

To begin with, you have to know that toners are semi-permanent colors to give hair a reflection. These dyes do not penetrate the cuticle of your hair as much as permanent dyes, what makes them easy to remove.

The most common reasons why your toner may look too ashy are:

• Your hair is very porous and absorbs pigment more than normal.
• You applied the toner into dry hair. Probably you left it process more than the recommended time (5 to 15 minutes).
• You bought a darker toner than you needed.
• Or maybe you chose an ash shade (blue pigment), and didn’t add an iridescent shade (purple pigment) to level it out.

Whatever the reason your hair is very ashy after toner, let’s see the easiest ways to solve it:

Solution # 1: Remove toner with shampoo

When you just dyed your hair, it’s easier to remove the ash pigment than if you wait a few days. This is because the toner can take up to 72 hours to completely seal in your hair. So if you just dyed it and the color is too ashy, wash your hair! The sooner you wash your hair the better.

But it is very important that you use hot water and a high cleansing shampoo.

And by cleansing I mean the stronger, the better!

If you want to remove the excess of ashy pigments from your hair, my best professional suggestion is that you use the Kerastase Divalent Shampoo. This shampoo will remove all the excess pigments from the surface of your hair to remove the toner at the same time that takes care of your hair integrity. This is the healthiest option to remove toner with shampoo safely.

Another option is to use a low quality shampoo to remove the toner. The poorer quality the shampoo is, the more aggressive the sodium laureth sulfate will be, and this will help you a lot to remove the excess of ashy toner. Wash your hair up to 3 times if necessary! Just keep in mind that this type of shampoos dry your hair a lot, so be prepared to apply a nice moisture mask afterwards.

If the toner is very sticked to your hair, and you want to add a more intense cleaning agent to the shampoo, just add a little of hand soap to it. Regular soap normally has a high concentration of sodium laureth sulfate, which is a powerful cleansing agent. It will cost you more to rinse your hair, but it is worth it to remove the excess of ashy toner from your hair!

Solution # 2: Prepare a natural color remover

Color removers are very useful when it comes to solving hair too ashy after toner because they usually remove the superficial layer of color that covers the hair.

There are a wide variety of professional color removers that will definitely remove the ash pigment from your hair. However, these products are usually quite aggressive and in my opinion it is not worth using them for a case like this. Instead, I recommend that you prepare a natural color remover.

Making a homemade color remover to eliminate the ashy toner is very simple:

1. In a bowl, add little water and dilute two aspirin tablets (if they are dispersible, better).
2. Next, add a dispersible vitamin C pill. Finally, add the cheapest shampoo you have on hand in equal parts.
3. Apply this paste all over your hair, rubbing it as if you were going to wash it, and leave it for 15 minutes.
4. Then wash your hair normally.

The acetylsalicylic acid in aspirin mixed with the sulfates in your shampoo are the perfect agent to exfoliate and remove color. And the acidity of vitamin C helps combat the alkalinity of the dye and level the pH of your hair.

This home remedy will help you clean the excess of ash toner from your hair in depth!

Solution # 3: Dye your hair again

If none of the above has worked to help you with the problem, you will have to use another dye. If you dye your hair again, you will open the cuticle of your hair to make way for the new color, and so you can clean the old one a bit.

However, before dying your hair again, I recommend that you first try the two solutions that I explained above to start removing excess toner from your hair and make the ashy shade more soft.

Then, you should buy again a toner as light as possible that has coppery and warm reflections (ideally like a 10.34 color). If you can’t find it, buy a toner with a natural reflection (example: 9 or 10.0 but no reflections on it), and buy a tube of dye that is pure orange reflection (they are called chromes). You can always mix different toners to create the perfect shade that you are looking for.

Also, buy a 10 volume peroxide. When preparing the toner, add a little of the orange reflection. By a bit, I mean only 1 linear cm of the chrome.

Literally a drop!

And of course, wet your hair and apply the toner but let it process very little (5 to 10 minutes), and check visually how it’s going, so you can rinse it when you like the reflection you see.

If you can’t find this combination of toners, another option is to use a blonde color that has a golden and violet reflection (.32). Since the violet color has a red undertone, combining it with the gold highlight helps to elevate the warmth of the hair color and eliminate the ashy reflection.

Solution # 4: Go to the hairdresser!

This is one of the best advice I can give you. If you feel insecure or are not very skilled at applying dyes, it is best to leave it to the professionals.

Make sure you find a colorist who knows what he is doing and gives you an easy solution. You will probably do a light color cleaning to remove excess ash from your hair. Go with someone you trust!

Sometimes it is better to invest a little more money to guarantee good results in your hair.

Let’s get better hair!

I hope this article has been helpful to you to control excess of toner in your hair.

And remember to be patient!

It may take a couple of washes to remove it completely, but it’s worth it.

In a couple of days you will see that the color will become more beautiful.

Until next time!