If an effort to color your hair has gone wrong don’t take stress instead focus on using a DIY toner to get rid of that brassiness in your hair. Unlike commercial toners homemade toners are far more gentle on your hair so in order to get rid of those orange and yellow colored hues read on how to make a DIY toner at home.
What is Hair Toner
Hair Toners are hair treatments that work as color correctors to fix the shades or undertones of your hair after a hair coloring. You can use them to fix the brassiness in your hair or the orange hues in your hair, make your hair shine or pop or just to make your hair look natural after coloring. Hair Toners are used when you are either bleaching your hair or highlighting your color in order for you to achieve your desired shade. For more see How to Choose the Right Hair Toner.
How to Make a DIY Hair Toner at Home
You can make DIY Hair toner at home using these natural recipes and using the ingredients readily available in the kitchen. Before we start a word of precaution please do a patch test on a small part of your skin before to make sure that you don’t feel any kind of itchiness or irritation on applying a hair toner. If you feel irritation or itchiness it is a sign of allergy and you should consult your doctor.
Making Homemade Toner For Hair Using Baking Soda & Food Color
The first and the most common recipe is using baking soda and food color this works in countering the warm tones in your hair and also helps in removing the product build-up. A Note of caution there is no scientific research to back the use of baking soda but there is research that says the usage of products like baking soda that have high pH can lead to hair frizz and breakage so don’t overuse baking soda.
Step by Step Recipe Using Baking Soda & Food Color
- Take 2 drops of purple food dye and 1 drop of blue food dye, 1 tablespoon of baking soda, and a shampoo that is sulfate free.
- Combine the shampoo, baking soda, and food colors in a container into a mixture.
- First use water to rinse your hair and then apply the shampoo mixture you have made onto your hair
- Leave this mixture on top of your head for 5 to 10 minutes and then rinse your hair again
- Add 1 drop of blue food color and 2 drops of purple food color to your conditioner for some more toning. Use the mixture of conditioner and food dye on to your hair to condition your hair along with toning.
- You can only use baking soda mixed shampoo on your hair once a week if you use it anymore you will end up drying your hair badly. You can however use the purple and blue food colors with a normal shampoo that is sulfate free on the other days.
Making DIY Toner For Hair Using Apple Cider Vinegar
The next recipe for DIY hair toner involves using Apple Cider Vinegar and is an option for not using food color. Apple Cider Vinegar is acidic and thus can be applied on hair that is dull and has a higher pH to help reduce the pH and thus improve the color tones and remove the buildup of product but again there is no scientific research to back this up.
Step-by-Step Recipe Using Apple Cider Vinegar
- First Dilute Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) with water in a 2:1 ratio meaning take 4 tablespoons ACV with 2 tablespoons of water and mix them in a container.
- Apply this diluted vinegar mixture onto your hair and leave it on your hair for at least 15 minutes
- Rinse this mixture with water that is cool or at best lukewarm don’t use hot water.
- Another option can be to add chamomile tea to Apple Cider Vinegar to help smoothen out the hair
- You should take care not to use apple cider vinegar on your hair more than 2 to 4 times a month as it can lead to extreme dryness.
Making DIY Toner For Hair Using Lemon Juice & Honey
You can make a DIY hair toner using lemon juice and honey this is also used in bleaching the hair while honey can help with conditioning your hair This is also an option for hair toner without using food color.
Step-by-Step Recipe Using Lemon Juice & Honey
- Freshly Squeeze the lemons to create lemon juice then dilute it with water in a ratio of 1: 3 meaning take 3/4 cup of water with 1/4 cup of lemon juice.
- Take the diluted lemon juice in a spray bottle and add a couple of tablespoons of honey to it
- Apply the honey and lemon juice mixture onto your hair using the spray bottle
- Leave the mixture on your hair for 2 hours such that you spend 30 minutes of these 2 hours in direct sunlight.
- Rinse your hair to remove the mixture with a shampoo that is sulfate free and also apply conditioner to your hair.
- You should take care not to use lemon juice and honey on your hair more than 2 to 4 times a month as it can lead to extreme dryness.
Making Hollyhock Herbal Toner For Hair at Home
- Make a mixture of 2 tablespoons of hollyhock herb with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and a cup of water.
- First Boil this mixture until it becomes thick then let the mixture cool and then apply it to your hair.
- Leave the mixture on top of your hair for 10 minutes and then rinse your hair
- You can even choose to add essential oil to this mixture.
- It is not recommended to use Hollyhock herb toner on your hair more than once a week.
Making Homemade Toner For Hair Using Green Tea
You can use green tea or even black or oblong tea for this purpose
- Make a mixture of 3 green tea bags with 2 tablespoons of water then wait for a while to see it come to a light green color shade.
- After that apply to your hair and wait for 30 minutes after which you can wash and rinse your hair.
DIY Hair Toner using Hair Dye Boxes with Food Dye
Food coloring can be used on lighter hairs as hair toners and it stays for around 2 to 4 shampoo washes.
Why Make Homemade Hair Toner Solutions
Making Homemade hair toner solutions at home has the advantage that they will not be as harsh on your hair and will be much cheaper than chemical treatment in a salon can be which is why you should make homemade toner solutions. The Negative with making homemade toner solutions is that these solutions will work only on lighter hair undertones mostly yellow and will not work on the stronger orange hair undertones.
How Does Hair Toner Fix Brassiness or Orange Hair
In every kind of hair, there are natural pigments that get deposited onto hair over a long period of time use of shampoos, build-up from hair styling products, and sometimes just mineral deposits from water. People having Light hair have warm yellow tones due to these buildup while dark hair people have deposits of natural pigments. Hair Toner works in removing these tones by depositing color pigments countering them from the opposite end of the color spectrum thus fixing the brassiness or orange hair and making the hair look more natural. Usually, the color selection works in such a way that hair that is brassy and orange would need a blue toner while hair that is brassy and yellow would need a purple toner.
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