We are going back to beauty school with hair.com and I’m going to teach you everything about toning shampoos and conditioners.
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What is Hair Color Correction?
So today we’re bringing it back to the basics. I want to talk to you about the color wheel.
How many times do you feel that you get your hair lightened and it just turns brassy.
Sometimes when we think about brassy, we just think about yellow tones and that yellow, we need violet shampoo in order to cancel out those yellow tones, but yellow tones are really going to live in more of my brighter blondes.
What about my medium browns? Medium browns tend to go brassy but they’re really going to be seeing more orange tones. When we want to cancel out orange tones, we’re really going to want to use something that’s more blue based
Think about your darker brunettes, when they’re seeing more red tones, we’re gonna want to correct that with more of a green based shampoo.
I want to show you three of my favorite shampoos for every different brassy tone, whether it be yellow, orange or red.
Color Correct Orange Hair
Tell me what it is about your hair that you would like to change today?
Well I naturally have very dark hair and I have it highlighted I’ve been highlighting it for like the past six years and it turns brassy. I’ve tried everything, purple shampoo and it’s not doing anything for me.
So if you notice the darkness of your natural when you lighten it, it tends to go a little bit more on the brassy orange side. Would you agree? Yeah.
What violet shampoo does is it’s more meant for yellow tones, whereas what I’m gonna introduce you to is called brownlights and it’s the color extend from Redken and it has more blue tones that are going to correct more orange tones.
So when you’re shampooing your hair with toning shampoo, first you’re gonna put gloves on if we don’t put gloves on it’s gonna stain your hands.
Then you are going to take the shampoo and just put a little bit in your hand and then next you want to emulsify it.
Always emulsify beforehand, that way it spreads easier throughout your hair. Anytime we’re shampooing we’re going to focus on the scalp area first and just start to scrub.
Once we get it nice and emulsified at the scalp then we can start bringing it down to you’re blonder areas to make sure that that tone starts to correct those brassy tones you’re seeing.
You want to leave the toning shampoo on for about five to ten minutes, usually just wash your body, shave your legs and then you can rinse it out.
Next we’re gonna condition the ends.
Here’s what you’re gonna do.
You’re gonna put the conditioner in your hands, you’re gonna emulsify it, make sure that we focus on the ends of the hair, not on the scalp. If we start to work the conditioner directly on the scalp, it’s going to promote more oiliness at the scalp.
This conditioner is not only for toning but it’s also going to help repair and promote a lot of shine.
I would just leave it on for about five to ten minutes and then just rinse as normal.
You can tell that the brassiness, the orange tones that we were seeing earlier, were canceled out by all of the blue that was actually in that shampoo and conditioner.
Now the hair is nice and balanced and all the brassiness is gone.
Color Correct Yellow Hair
With Jessie’s hair she has a little bit of a lighter base, she’s experiencing a little bit more
yellow undertones, so what we’re going to use to correct those yellow undertones is more of a violet shampoo.
We’re gonna use Kerastase Blond Absolu for her.
Remember earlier when we were talking about the color wheel in how violet is going to correct yellow undertones.
It’s important for us to understand the color wheel and knowing that anything that’s opposite of one color, on the color wheel, is gonna be what you use in order to correct the undertone that you don’t want to see.
Violet is going to live directly across yellow on the color wheel.
Tell me about your hair and what it is that you are liking and not liking about it.
Well I get my hair colored about every two months or so, and I think around like the three or four week mark after my appointment, I start to see brass pulling through. I do pull brass really easily.
This shampoo is going to be something that you are going to be able to utilize at that 3-4 week mark in between your salon visits so that you can maintain that nice icy tones without having to actually physically go into the salon.
We’re gonna begin with putting on gloves, take some of the product and put it into our hands.
Then we’re going to emulsify and then we’re gonna start at the scalp and just start to massage it into the hair.
Once you get the scalp nice and emulsified then you can start working it into the mid length and the ends. Make sure you’re getting all the areas where it’s nice and blondes that it can tone out that yellow.
We’re gonna process this for about two to five minutes and then we’ll rinse and condition.
Now we’ve rinsed and now we’re going to apply conditioner all to the ends in the mid shaft.
You want to start on the ends and then work your way up. That way we don’t get any of the conditioner on the scalp, which could also make it a little bit more on the oily side.
After you’ve applied all of the conditioner through the ends in the mid-shaft, leave it on for about five to ten minutes and then rinse.
This is the after of the violet shampoo in the conditioner.
Do you notice how all of the yellow is now gone.
Yeah, I really like it I really like how ashy it looks, I feel like before it was getting a little bit yellow and I definitely noticed that it’s a very toned and bright and it also feels really soft.
Yeah, a lot of shine, a lot of smoothness. It’s perfect.
Color Correct Red Hair
This is Gabi and she is a perfect example of a darker base that can experience seeing some more of the red undertones.
Remember before when we were talking about red undertones, we will use green to help cancel out those.
So Gabi tell me a little bit about your hair.
I tend to lighten it every single summer, then when it comes to fall time I want to darken my hair, go back to my roots. A couple weeks after my typical salon visit, I noticed that when I’m out in the sun, it gets really red, but I actually really prefer when it looks a dark and a cooler tone. I don’t know how to prevent that in between my salon visits.
So the Matrix Dark Envy Total Results is going to be perfect because it is a green base shampoo and conditioner that will help tone out all of this red.
Put on your gloves, then we’re gonna use the Matrix Dark Envy and go ahead and start applying it closest to the scalp and just work it in. Make sure massaging the scalp. Once you start getting it thoroughly through the scalp area, then you can start working it through the mids and the ends.
Once the hair is fully saturated with the green shampoo, then go ahead and just leave it on for about two to five minutes.
Now that we’ve processed for two to five minutes with the shampoo, we have now rinsed and we’re going to apply the Dark Envy conditioner.
Make sure that it’s fully saturated and we condition those ends and then we can start moving up and applying to the top.
After you’re done applying, go ahead and rinse it all out.
All right, we’re all done.
You can tell how rich the hair is and how you didn’t lose any of your highlights but all of the brassiness is gone.
Next time you grab a toning shampoo and conditioner make sure you gravitate towards the green instead of the blue.
Because, what did I say? Green cancels out red. Green is going to be your best friend.
Thank you so much for spending the day with me talking about color correction and toning shampoos and conditioners.
Remember violet cancels out yellow, blue cancels out orange, and green cancels out red.
Samantha is a hairstylist with over 12 years of color and stylist experience. She enjoys using her knowledge to create what her clients really want when they sit down in her chair. Her passion is creating unique looks that her clients feel great in.