How light for a toner to work?

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If your hair is pale yellow on the top, you can use a purple toner/shampoo to tone the yellow down. You can also use  a toner to tone down the orange but it needs to be a blue toner. If your hair is in good condition and you havent used any bleach or products with peroxide in the last month, you can do a gentle bleach bath on the lengths.

Thanks for replying....I bleached yesterday, so will need to wait a while before more bleaching....but wanted to try toner if my hair is light enough in the meantime.

Woohoo....managed to re-size pic, lol...that is my hair now....this is what I started out with...after first bleaching and after second bleaching and colour B4.
Anyone have any advice on the Jerome Russell bleach, please?
And is my hair light enough for toner to work?

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Dont use any kind of peroxide based toner, its unnecessary damage. I would get a blue semi + violet semi + mix with conditioner for the orange, and use just the violet for the yellow. You can technically 'tone' pretty much any haircolor or level to neutralize unwanted undertones. For platinum thpugh, all of your hair needs to be pale yellow, like the inside if a banana peel. Also keep in mind that your midlengths-ends may be stained, which it does seem like considering all you have done to it. So you may need to adjust what you want it to look like + maybe go for an ombre instead. I would try another color remover application on the lengths before you lighten further, it may help take out some more dye

Okay, sorry to be a pain, but if I were to buy say Directions Atlantic Blue Semi and mix a dollop in with my conditioner, put that through the lengths and then do the same with Directions Violet on the roots, that would work????

My hair is a cool banana yellow on the top 3-4 inches, which is lovely, the lengths however are gingery with some paler areas and streaks.......I am a bit worried about ending up with 3-4 inches of purple and the rest ginger....I don't think I can get away with that look at my age, I'm supposed to be a sensible adult!! (However if it went purple all over, I would be delighted 😉 )

An ombre look is fine, that's what I have ended up with at the moment, but I wanted to get the ends as light as possible to blend more with the top.......I have another colour remover, so will try that first (I didn't realise I could use that more than once!)
Thanks 🙂

I'm 40, I don't care if I'm 'too old'! I'll be doing this for a lot longer to come too! Who says what's too old anyway 🙂

My hair is a cool banana yellow on the top 3-4 inches, which is lovely, the lengths however are gingery with some paler areas and streaks.......

I'm pretty sure that's what she's actually telling you to do 🙂

Lol.....if my hair was like yours, I'd be happy, however, if it ends up a manky blue tinged ginger with murky purpley grey roots (which would be just my luck) then I am too old.....I have three kids with a rare disability who are home-educated....I need to keep up my sensible adult appearance for their many hospital appointments! I already have problems with being treated like a dumb young mother, so need to either have a decent natural colour or a really good bright colour, not looking like I let the kids loose on me with their paints!!!!!

I wanted to ditch the dark purple (Live Colour Mystic or Cyber Purple) because it was making me look tired, well even more tired than I am! I was intending to get back to my natural colour (blonde) even if I had to upkeep my roots, and then maybe do a purple ombre on the ends (I'd love bright purple but don't think I could achieve that without regular bleaching?) or even a lavender all over would be great....guess what my favourite colour is!

Maybe I should just try a purple toning shampoo to be on the safe side...

Just make the toners really diluted, only add a teeny bit at a time. I usually put enough conditioner in a bowl to cover the whole area, then dip the end of a tint brush in the dye and stir it in really well. You can out that on and see how it tones, you can always add more!

You will still have am ombre going on, but it will look much more toned down and cooler after toning.

I know you want to get your lengths as light as possible, but I would definitely do another color remover (yes, you can do them up to 3 times, after that that's all they're really going to do) and when the time comes, another bleach bath if your hair is in good enough condition and see how it goes. If, after the color remover and the bleach bath your ends are still really close to what they are now, I would definitely say they are stained. I think you'll be able to get all of it a couple shades lighter, but from the looks of it I really think your ends are stained ginger. You can see in my timeline what my hair looked like after 2 color removers and a bleach bath, then what it looked like after 2 more bleach baths. The ends maybe lifted one shade 🙁

http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php?topic=12226.msg142093#msg142093

And I don't care what age a person is, unnatural colors always rock! I've dyed little old ladies hair before, the ones with the bubble do's, walk with a cane or in a wheel chair, I've dyed a couple ladies hair before, bright purple, pastel pink, and bright red! And they totally rocked it! So don't be self conscious about your age with your hair, I say if it's something you want, do it 🙂 You only live once! Then your kids or one day your grandkids can say "yeah, my great grandma makes me cookies AND she had purple hair!" "wow, your grandma is so cool!" lol

You could get a really nice purple/plum ombre on your hair as it is right now though. If you mixed a warm dark purple with a darker cool pink It would look awesome! You would get a vibrant pinky purple fading to a reddish/burgundy purple  Pink would go over it but would be more of a pink>reddish pink>pinky red ombre.

And the purple shampoos are the same thing as adding a semi to shampoo or conditioner, just with making it your self you have more control over how light or strong you want it, and it's much more cost effective in the long run.

I think after another bleaching and color remover, your top half should be more of an even pale yellow, which you could tone with the violet and go lavender up there if you wanted. You could blend that down to a plum on the darker areas if you wanted! Using the dyes like the ones sold here at Beeunique, they are much, much better quality than the Live ones. My base was exactly like yours, maybe a shade or two lighter allover and I was terrified my hair was going to look like crap-ola. But it didn't! As long as you get a color that works with your base, these dyes cover extremely well!

You are never too old BTW, lots of us here are over 40. I am 43, and have long purple and lilac hair. It was blue all last year. Life is too short, have your hair however it makes you happiest.

I'm back! I am 36, so not really 'too old' for coloured hair, just need to keep up my 'responsible adult' look! I went dark because I looked young and was treated like a silly teenager!

Son has a very important appointment with the top specialist speech therapist in our county next month, to discuss his future treatment plan (he is 10, normal intelligence but has a severe speech disorder) so I would like to get my hair to a decent shade all over by then, and then maybe I will try a pale lavender!!

I've done another colour remover, which has definitely helped remove some more orange, but made my hair seriously dry whilst rinsing. It has also taken the ash blonde colour out from where I did my roots last (stupidly, it didn't occur to me that that would happen!) [pic 1]

So, I bought John Frieda Sheer Blonde Colour Renew Shampoo and Conditioner...I've used it twice and it is also definitely working! I now have a small amount of darkish roots, a little goldy blonde, 4 inches of pale yellow blonde, then the lengths which are mostly pale goldy ginger/strawberry blonde. [pic 2]

Apart from a patch on the top layer, of stubborn ginger, which I think is going to need a blue toner. [pic 3, pinned up to the side]

Unfortunately, I have developed a new allergy to latex? and currently am sporting a lovely red rash and blistered ears from using some ear plugs last weekend  😮 ........I'm going to have to leave any new hair stuff until that has completely subsided until I can do any more experimenting  ::)

So to recap, that is the result of two rounds of colour B4, three bleachings and 2 permanent ash blonde dyes? Or were the blonde dyes just toners/true semis? What strength peroxide did you use with the bleach?
I am concerned that the XXL dyes have permanently stained your hair, and getting blonde all over may be impossible for you.
I would try one more round of Colour B4, just on the orange parts. How is the condition of your hair now?

I was thinking the same thing about the lengths being stained. It kinda looks like it's stained considering all you have done to it so far. I agree, I would try one more color remover after you've restored some moisture back to your hair (a couple overnight coconut oil soaks can help a lot!). Then when it's been at least a month from your last bleach/dye, I would try a test strand with 20 vol bleach to see if it lightens any further.

Hi, thanks for replying.....the three bleachings I've done were one Nice and Easy baby blonde and two Superdrug lightest ash blonde. And one Colour B4 after the baby blonde, and then another Colour B4 after the second ash blonde. I don't know the strength of the peroxide as they were all box dyes.
My hair is a little drier than when I started, I have done several coconut oil treatments (it is fantastic stuff!) overnight and also used before to soak overnight before each of the two ash blondes. I have been trying not to wash my hair too often and have been using tons of silicon free serum.
The colour B4 made it feel awful during the last rinsing, but not too bad when I used the conditioner included.....it has put me off using it again!
The John Frieda S&C is the purple one, the shampoo is the strongest colour so I left it on to 'soak' for 5 minutes and then did the same with the conditioner.....that seems to have helped tone the colour down a lot!
How do I find out the strength of a bleach? I really don't have a clue which to try next....would the lightest ash box blonde be okay?

Sadly the colour b4 may have been revealing the true condition of your hair which was re-masked with conditioner they provide. It does roughen up your cuticles so it will have felt worse than normal, but it might be worth doing a shampoo with a clarifying shampoo, leaving out the conditioner and air drying to assess the condition if your hair.

You will get much better results with actual bleach powder than with box blondes. This is probably why you haven't had much lift yet. Getting your own bleach and peroxide will be cheaper as well.
Permanent dyes work by taking out some of your natural colour and replacing it with the artificial pigments. They don't take out other permanent dyes though, so you won't see a lot of lightening with repeated use, but each time you use one it is still damaging your hair and adding more layers of colour.
You can get bleach powder and peroxide very cheaply online or from Sally's (they do mail order if you don't have one locally) 20 vol peroxide should be fine.
Colour removers are drying, but they are the most effective way of getting old permanent colours out. Once the old dye is gone you will have much more success lightening your base.