Colour Wheel - Neutralizers - Toners

Ok so once again there's a pattern emerging in the questions popping up in the forum. Mostly people are asking how, what, why toners work etc.

What's a hair toner? Well, despite what some people think, toners do not lighten your hair. They are basically a solution of a very pale colour - usually lilac or pale purple. This colour will cancel out yellow tones in your freshly bleached hair to make a pale base for your next colour experiment.

How does it work? Well each colour belongs to part of a colour "family" which is part of the three primary colours - blue, yellow, red. What the heck is a primary colour? Well it's a colour that can't be made using another colour. You can't mix any colours to make blue, red or yellow. they are what they are. However you can use these three colours to make other colours such as purple  (red + blue) for example. Purple, orange and green are secondary colours - they come second to primary colours. Then we get into the tertiary colours, these bridge the gap between the purple and the blue or the purple and the red for instance.

Confused? Lookie here:

If you look at the section of yellow you will see that directly opposite is purple. These two colours cancel each other out because they are opposites. If you mix paint in these colours you'll get brown. Try mixing paint of any two opposite colours on the colour wheel, you'll get brown. Brown is considered a neutral colour.

Well that's all very arty but what's that got to do with hair?

You just dyed your hair a colour which looked fab at the time but you don't like the way it fades and you fancy a change. You've tried bleach and got yellow left in your hair? You tried bleach and it just made the colour turn a pale version of what it was? You want to try a new colour but you're worried it'll just blend with the colour you had before and you don't want a mix? You already dyed it over the top and now it's all gone peculiar?

Well then the colour wheel is your friend. Whatever colour you have that needs to be changed may need to be neutralised before you try another colour. Whatever colour you have can easily be neutralised by using the opposite colour on the wheel. Clever huh?

Most toners are lilac coloured but if you're trying to get rid of a purple you don't want to add more purple to it. So you need a yellow colour. If you can't get a yellow toner then dilute a yellow dye and make it very pale. Add that to your hair and voila! Neutral colour hair ready for your next experiment, or maybe for that brown colour you need for the job interview. If it doesn't neatralise it maybe the amount of dye wasn't strong enough. Just do it again and add more dye, just a little. Don't go adding a whole heap more otherwise you could add further to the problems that you already have.

So take it easy with your hair and good luck!