How long should you leave toner in your hair? (2024)

Thankfully, though, that's where hair toners come in.

Suzie McGill, Artistic Director at Rainbow Room International and Schwarzkopf Ambassador tells heat, "Toner is great for helping to adjust your colour and making it warmer or cooler in colour. It enhances the tone of your hair and creates a more natural looking colour.

"It’s important to acknowledge that toner does gradually fade and to ensure it lasts as long as possible, there are steps you can take such as not over-washing your hair to avoid stripping your hair of its colour and using heat protection prior to heated styling to help avoid colour fade."

How long do you need to leave toner in hair?

Toner comes in all sorts of strengths, shades and sizes, but the general advice is that you should NOT exceed 45 minutes as you don't want your hair to be excessively exposed to loads of products (especially if you're going the whole hog and dying and toning your hair at the same time).

Celebrity hairstylist Jason Collier, who has styled Grace Beverley and Victoria Beckham, told heat that it's all about the colour of your hair, "Ideally, the average toner is around 10 minutes. Factors such as how light your hair already is will play a part, as for lighter hair, less time for toning will be needed."

Just like hair dye, washing your hair straight after using toner will cause colours to fade, so it's recommended to just wash toner off with water or use shampoo and conditioner.

Jason recommends, "The best way to remove toner or wash the toner is to use shampoo and conditioner. I always want to give your hair two shampoo's, one to remove the toner and one to replace the moisture back into the hair. "

What developer do you use with toner?

If you're using a toner at home, experts recommend that you should use a 2:1 developer to toner ratio. In simpler terms, this means using two parts of the developer to one part of toner.

Of course, we would 100 per cent say you should get a professional to do it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"They are also ammonia-free, which is a fantastic thing to look for within a toner, as it means it is a lot gentler on the hair and it will also allow your hair to look and feel healthier, softer and smoother."

To remove toner from hair (unwanted toner) all you need to do is be patient and it will eventually fade. Washing hair will always help but be careful not to shampoo your hair too much as it needs as much moisture as possible.

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Is hair toner permanent?

Hair toner contains little or no ammonia and belongs to the group of 'demi-permanent' or 'semi-permanent' dyes. It can't permanently change your hair colour.

Can hair toner damage your hair?

In short, yes, but they are much better than bleach and hair dye. Jason says, "Toners are known as colour correctors and this is a good thing for your hair as they are designed to cancel out the unwanted colour, e.g. if there are too many yellow or brassy tones. Your bleached hair is nothing without it!

"Toning the hair can help add shine, moisture and even reduce split ends from the hair which has been freshly bleached.

"As with any colour process on your hair, using toner too often could weaken the hair strands. At home toners can be used a few times a week, whereas a salon toner would be every 6 weeks."