Used a tiny bit of blue in a balayage and it turned the whole thing muddy gray

I was doing a balayage on a client with level 7 hair and thought adding a drop of a blue additive to the toner would help with brassiness. I mean, it was just a drop in a whole bowl. But it grabbed like crazy on the lightened parts and gave this weird, dull gray cast instead of the bright ash blonde we wanted. Had to re-wash and tone it twice to fix it. Has anyone else had a toner grab way too strong on bleached hair?

3 comments

3 Comments

black.beth10d ago

Really just one drop did all that?

linda49110d ago

Wait, is it really that bad? A drop of blue in a whole bowl of toner on level 7 hair shouldn't cause a huge disaster. Maybe the lightened bits were more porous than you thought, or the toner base was already cool.

king.zara10d ago

Oh man, @linda491, a drop is absolutely enough to cause that! Blue pigment is SUPER strong on porous, lightened hair and can totally grab and go muddy. The toner base being cool would just make that gray cast worse, not better. Always do a test strand first with any direct dye additive.