Can I Remove Toner from My Hair?

When buying hair extensions online, there’s always the chance that you get the wrong shade of hair. There can also be times when the color of your extensions has gone dull or brassy after constant use and will need to be revived. If you have ashy or white-blonde hair, toning will help match the color of the extensions you bought to your natural hair color. 

Purple shampoo is the most often used product when it comes to tone the hair. Unfortunately, some first-time users may mistake applying the toner directly to the extensions or leaving the toner on longer than necessary.

Dealing with Over-toned Hair   

If you accidentally applied too much toning product in your extensions, don’t press the panic button just yet. You’ll be relieved to know that most toners are not permanent, and those cool tones will eventually fade away after several washes. 

Just be patient since the toner will naturally wash out without you having to change your haircare routine. So if the over-toned color isn’t bothering you too much, it’s probably best to let nature run its course. 

However, if you do not have the luxury of time and want the tone to fade right away, there are many products you can use to correct the tone of your hair. 

Clarifying Shampoo

The most popular process of removing toner from your hair is to wash it multiple times with a clarifying shampoo. This shampoo will remove the artificial color of your hair. Unlike other toning removal products, it does not contain ammonia or peroxide ingredients, which could permanently damage the real human hair tape-in extensions.  

Wet your hair, then apply clarifying shampoo along the length of your strands. Leave it on for 10 to 20 minutes, then fully rinse it out. If there are remnants of the toning color, repeat the process until there’s left. Unfortunately, clarifying shampoo is also very strong and will dry out the hair, so you’ll need to apply a deep conditioning treatment afterward.

Dandruff Shampoo 

Most dandruff shampoos contain sulfate, which creates the foaming effect in cleaning products. The anionic surfactant in the shampoo will make the color fade away quite easily.  

Shampoo your hair just like you would normally. If, after the first wash, you still have toner in your hair, keep using the dandruff shampoo until the toned color recedes. Since sulfates can also make your hair dry, you should follow it up with a deep conditioning treatment as well.

Dish Soap

Put a small amount of dishwashing liquid and lather it up into your hair, just like you would your regular shampoo. Leave it on your hair for a couple of minutes before rinsing. 

Since dishwashing liquid is very clarifying and stripping, you’ll need to follow it up with a deep conditioning treatment to bring back the moisture into your hair.

Vitamin C Tablets 

According to several best tape-in hair extensions reviews published online, ascorbic acid helps to reduce the oxidized dye, which is why this vitamin has been used to correct over-toned hair.

Crush about 15 to 30 vitamin C tablets and mix them with your regular shampoo. Apply the solution to your hair in downward motions, concentrating on the roots and ends. Put on a shower cap, leave it on for the next couple of hours, then rinse it off with lukewarm water. 

Just like with the earlier methods, you’ll also need to apply a deep conditioning treatment to ensure that any lost nourishment is added back into the hair. 

Toning

If you used a purple shampoo to tone your hair, you could also tone it using the opposite of purple on the color wheel to cancel out the new color and bring back the old one. You can apply a color somewhere in the range of yellow to orange to neutralize the purple.

Baking Soda

After shampooing your hair, take 1 to 2 tablespoons of baking soda and massage it on your hair. Leave it on for a couple of minutes and rinse it off. For a quicker method, you can also mix baking soda with your shampoo.

Bleaching 

If all the things mentioned above don’t work, then your last resort is bleaching. Note that this is a powerful and aggressive agent that could damage the extensions. If you plan to pursue this method, get it done in a professional salon instead of DIY to avoid irreversible damage to your extensions.