Enhance your blonde and stretch out salon appointments.
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Blondes (may) have more fun, but as any blonde will tell you, it’s not particularly fun maintaining that shade. Everything from washing your strands to being out in the sun can fade your hair color and make it a far cry from the platinum shade you received from the salon.
That’s where toners come in. Professionals use a toner to brighten and balance your specific blonde hue, and you should too. Toners are particularly useful for counteracting brassiness—unwanted orangey, red, and yellow shades that can make your blonde look dingy—as well as adding mirror-like shine. Toners aren’t just about color-correcting though; they’re also a great opportunity to treat your bleached hair with nourishing ingredients.
While toners were once reserved mostly for the pros, there is now a wide selection of at-home options available. From easy-to-use shampoos to salon-worthy permanent colors, we narrowed down our favorite toners to make your blonde look better than ever.
Best Overall
IGK Leave-In Blonde Toning Drops
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Active Ingredients: Hydrogenated castor oil, prickly pear cactus extract | Type: Leave-in drops | Shades: 1 | Size: 1 oz | Cruelty-Free: Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
These drops are both convenient and customizable since the bottle comes with a dosing chart that helps you determine exactly how many drops you need based on your hair color and the level of toning desired. All you have to do is mix the violet drops in with any shampoo, conditioner, or cream styler. It also works well on all hair textures while softening and adding shine too. It does take a little trial and error to get the dosing and application right, so have an open mind if it doesn’t come out perfect the first time.
Best Budget
Garnier Nutrisse Anti-Brass Treatment
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Active Ingredients: Amodimethicone, black currant seed oil | Type:Wash-out conditioner | Shades: 1 | Size: 5.1 oz | Cruelty-Free:Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
Keeping up with beautiful blonde hair can be expensive, but leave it to a beloved drugstore brand like Garnier Nutrisse to spare your wallet. This weekly toner pairs perfectly with the brand’s boxed dye, though can also be used by anyone who wants to revive a cooler blond hue. Purple tones tamp down unwanted brassiness, while a blend of three oils makes this affordable option extremely rich and hydrating. The only downside? The process is messy, so you need to wear gloves when applying it.
Best Duo
John Frieda Tone-Correcting DUO set Shampoo + Conditioner
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Active Ingredients: Lavender | Type: Shampoo and conditioner | Shades: 1 | Size: 8.45 oz each | Cruelty-Free: No | Byrdie Clean: No
Why stop at just one toning product? This John Frieda duo, which includes a color-friendly shampoo and conditioner, freshens your hair in a few ways, including by neutralizing brassy and yellow tones. This two-in-one purchase is a total steal and is ideal for all shades of color-treated blondies. You’ll see bright, salon-like tones and feel softer, silky strands after just three washes. We don’t love that it’s not cruelty-free and doesn’t pass our Byrdie Clean standards though.
Best Shampoo
Amika Bust Your Brass Shampoo
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Active Ingredients: Seabuckthorn fruit seed oil, borage seed oil | Type: Shampoo | Shades: 1 | Size: 2, 8, 10, 33.8 oz | Cruelty-Free: Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
To make your colorist proud, use a toning shampoo regularly between salon visits. It’s one of the best and easiest ways to maintain your hard-earned shade of blonde. We’re especially partial to this purple shampoo, which is great for any blondes rocking cool, icy, or silver shades. You’ll get the toning benefits, as well as plenty of good-for-your-hair benefits, thanks to the addition of antioxidant-rich sea buckthorn berry, ultra-hydrating avocado oil, and disodium EDTA, an ingredient that claims to counteract the color-dulling effects of hard water. Best of all, you’ll see results immediately—after just one use!—which may make wash days your favorite. It’s pricey, but since it’s so potent, you can use this shampoo conservatively, so it should last a while.
Best Conditioner
Kristin Ess Purple Conditioner
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Active Ingredients: Panthenol, hydrolyzed keratin | Type: Wash-out conditioner | Shades: 1 | Size: 33.8 oz | Cruelty-Free: Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
So long, dry locks! This purple-tinted conditioner’s formula is gentle enough for most blondes to use daily, fending off brassiness and adding extra shine. Along with keeping your blonde the shade you want it to be, it’s also loaded with the brand’s proprietary “Zip-Up Technology” to help repair split ends while strengthening and protecting hair from future damage. It’s the best of both worlds: not only will your color look great, but your locks will look and feel healthy too. Good thing it comes in a big, affordable bottle, huh? Just keep an eye on your color; if your hair starts to turn ashy, you’re overusing it.
Best Mask
Verb Purple Hair Mask
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Active Ingredients: Açai extract, panthenol | Type: Mask | Shades: 1 | Size: 6.3 oz | Cruelty-Free: Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
No matter your hair type or texture, a mask is a must-have treatment to infuse hydration. This one, thanks to its violet pigments, also neutralizes brass and keeps cool blonde, gray, and silver shades bright and brilliant. It’s just as effective as a hydrating treatment, with a formula that contains nourishing ingredients such as acai extract and pro-vitamin B5. Bonus points for the addition of sunflower seed extract, which offers UV protection to ward off color fading.1 Its toning effects are subtle, but considering it’s a multipurpose product for various shades of blonde and silver, it’s a worthy add to your regular routine.
Best Leave-In
Bumble and Bumble Illuminated Blonde Tone Enhancing Leave-In
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Active Ingredients: Nymphaea caerulea flower extract, natural oils | Type: Leave-in spray | Shades: 1 | Size: 4.2 oz | Cruelty-Free: Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
The easiest way to score the benefits of a toner? Use a spray version like this one. After towel-drying, simply spritz it from your roots to ends, concentrating more on the ends, where dyed hair (and all hair, really) tends to need more love. It’s infused with anti-yellow, purple pigments that’ll keep any cool blonde or gray color super fresh. But the benefits don’t stop there. This spray is a true multitasker since it also acts as a leave-in conditioner, detangler, heat protectant, and frizz fighter too. Be careful of what you’re wearing when you spray it on, though; the purple pigments can leave little speckles on your clothing, so it’s best to wrap a dark towel around your shoulders.
Best Treatment
Oribe Bright Blonde Radiance Repair Treatment
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Active Ingredients: Watermelon, lychee, and edelweiss flower extracts; moringa, olive, and sunflower oils | Type: Wash-out conditioner | Shades: 1 | Size: 4.2 oz | Cruelty-Free: Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
Lightened blonde hair will take all the TLC it can get. That’s where this two-in-one toner and repair treatment from Oribe comes to the rescue. Not only will its brass-fighting violet pigments keep your hue crisp and vibrant, but it’s also a powerful treatment, helping to restore softness, elasticity, and hydration. It’s expensive—there’s no doubt about that—but if you’ve already spent serious money on your cut and color, it may be worth investing a little more to keep your locks in better condition longer. You won’t blow through this bottle too fast, either. It’s super effective, so you only need to use it once per week in place of a regular conditioner, leaving it on for one to three minutes before rinsing.
Best Styler
Color Wow Purple Toning + Styling Foam
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Active Ingredients: Hydrogenated castor oil, panthenol | Type: Leave-in foam | Shades: 2 | Size: 6.8 oz | Cruelty-Free: Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
For a simple, subtle way to keep your color refreshed, add this styler to your everyday hair routine. Not only does the slight lavender tint keep brassiness at bay, but it’s also a quality mousse on its own. Since it’s alcohol-free, it won’t dry out your hair, and it uses a unique and natural type of rubber-like substance to create fullness, grip, and va-va-voom volume—no crunchy feeling. (Though a few reviewers say it left their locks feeling sticky.) It also comes in a blue variant that’s amazing for counteracting brassiness in brown hair, so be sure to tell all your brunette friends about it.
Best for Shine
dpHue Gloss+
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Active Ingredients: Triethanolamine, dimethicone | Type: Gloss treatment | Shades: 11 | Size: 6.5 oz | Cruelty-Free: Yes | Byrdie Clean: No
Bleaching takes a serious toll on your tresses, often leaving them lackluster and desperately dry. That’s where this semi-permanent hair gloss comes in handy. It’s deeply conditioned and can be used as often as needed. Leave it on for anywhere from three to 20 minutes, depending on how much toning you desire, and you’ll be left with a refreshed color that’s extra shiny and touchable. It comes in 11 different shades, so you can easily narrow down the exact match for you too. Since it’s semi-permanent, it’s not for hair-dying novices, though.
Best Permanent Color
Wella Permanent Liquid Hair Toner
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Active Ingredients: Oleic acid, ammonium hydroxide, resorcinol | Type: Permanent toner | Shades: 8 | Size: 1.4 oz | Cruelty-Free: No | Byrdie Clean: No
If you’re been around the box dye block many times, add this permanent toner to your online cart. With special technology to improve penetration and saturation, it ensures your newly toned blonde won’t fade while beating any brassiness and fending off breakage. Also nice: It’s available in eight different shades of blonde (in three families—ash, beige, and silver), so you can find the one that’s just right for you. You can’t beat its oh-so-affordable price either. Not comfortably dying your own hair? Skip this one; it’s not beginner-friendly.
What to Look for in a Toner for Blonde Hair
- Purple Pigments: As celebrity hairstylist Lisa Laudat explains, the purple tones in the product correct yellow undertones by neutralizing them: Purple falls opposite to yellow on the color wheel, which means depositing these complimentary colored pigments will effectively cancel it out.
- Blue Pigments: Have more orange-tinged brassiness than yellow? To bring it back to the color wheel, toning products with blue pigments are the best option for combatting any icky orange cast plaguing your blonde.
- Hydrating Ingredients: If you’re not a natural blonde, all that lightening and bleaching takes a toll on your hair. Choosing toners that have conditioning and hydrating ingredients built in not only will help strengthen your hair but will also have the added benefit of upping the shine factor of your hair, too.
FAQ
What does toner do for blonde hair?
According to Laudat, toning products help correct the yellow and orange undertones that make blonde hair look dull and lackluster. By depositing subtle amounts of pigment in colors opposite to these tones on the color wheel (namely, purple and blue), they essentially neutralize any brassiness, refreshing and reviving your blonde.
How often should you use toner for blonde hair?
Laudat recommends using a toning product once a week to keep your blonde in check, though you can use them more frequently depending on what shade of blonde you desire. “You can use them every day, but watch that the color doesn’t become too flat or ashy looking,” she says.
How do you apply toner for blonde hair?
How you apply a toning product will depend on the formula, but considering that the bulk of the above products are shampoos, conditioners, and masks, Laudat recommends applying as such: “If you’ve got really yellow roots and whiter ends, I would suggest that you apply the toner immediately at the roots, rub it in, and then let the lather soak through to the ends so that the majority of the product is on the roots.” She explains that the lather on your ends will help to keep them in check, but the majority of the pigments will get to work where it’s needed the most.
However, if you’re experiencing brassiness all over, she suggests applying the product to dry hair where needed, leaving it on for as long as needed to set in, and then shampooing it out with water.