3 Quick Fixes for Over Toned Blonde Hair

Noticed something when glancing through the comments on a video about toning with purple shampoo.

The length of time you can safely leave the purple stuff on your hair varies wildly.

For some one minute is about it.

For others it’s five minutes.

While there are those who said much beyond 10 minutes and their hair will be like totally purple.

Yet some can leave the purple shampoo on their hair for an hour and still have no purple haze to deal with.

Others still have to leave it on overnight to see any toning effect.

Is it any wonder so many overtone their hair when the right amount of time varies so much? (We look at possible reasons why that is in the last section of this article.)

Is it any surprise the outcomes can be such a nightmare for some when minutes matter?

Now we took one look at how to fix over toned hair and you may want to check that out while you’re at it. It explores four solutions. Here you’ll find three more hacks to try at home for correcting overtoning.

Quick Section Navigation

• How To Remove Blue Toner From Hair Using Vitamin C
• VIDEO: How To Remove Grey Toner From Hair With Lemon Juice And Dandruff Shampoo
• VIDEO: Here’s How To Get Rid Of Blue Grey Hair From Toner With Lemon Juice
• What Affects The Success Of Any Color Fixer?

How To Remove Blue Toner From Hair Using Vitamin C

Vitamin C is more typically used to remove hair dye. But it can also be an effective hair lightener or unwanted overtoning color lifter.

Here’s a slight variation of a recipe found online.

• 50-60 1000mg Vitamin C pills reduced to a powder
• Enough shampoo so the mixture is a bit thinner rather than thicker for easier application
• Spray bottle to dampen your hair
• A plastic cap, plastic wrap or a plastic grocery bag to wrap your hair and hold in the heat to help the process do its thing

Now you can buy powered Vitamin C. But it’s not cheap. And you may not have any one hand when your hair emergency arises.

On the plus side this stuff is powdered ascorbic acid. No fillers. No preservatives. No added sugar. Nothing.

But to save money you may have to resort to grinding down the tablets you do have on hand to make your own powder.

GOOD IDEA: One way to make that grinding easier would be if you have a mini blender. Just dump in the tablets, pulse and let the blender blades reduce them to powder for you. Of course not everyone has one of those handy either.

Instructions

• Mix up your vitamin C and shampoo concoction
• Spritz your hair with water so it’s just damp
• Using a coloring brush apply to your hair line
• Then use your fingers to evenly massage into the rest of your hair going for total strands saturation
• Put on the plastic cap or whatever you’re using
• Leave it on for 45-60 minutes
• Wash out and deep condition

This works because Vitamin C is nothing more than ascorbic acid. And it’s the acidity which makes it a good lightening candidate to try when looking to get rid of the haze left behind by overzealous toning.

Scientifically speaking it’s also an antioxidant. As such it will impact any oxidized coating on your hair.

But likewise it can also be drying. Hence the deep conditioning afterwards. And why it may be better to see how it worked after 45 minutes rather than going for the full 60. You can always repeat the process.

One final tip: Some using this approach sat under a hooded dryer or used their blow dryer to heat things up. Not sure this is necessary. But it is another trick to keep in mind.

How To Remove Grey Toner From Hair With Lemon Juice And Dandruff Shampoo

Got blonde hair that over toned to ashy grey?

So you want to know how to get rid of ash tones in your hair, huh?

This next video shows you how.

Here’s the Before Shot so you can see how much difference there was after the lemon juice and dandruff shampoo application:

The Recipe:

• 3/4 cup lemon juice (strained if fresh squeezed from 6 or 7 lemons)
• 1/4 cup dandruff shampoo of your choice although Head and Shoulders is a fan fave

You may also want a shower cap, plastic wrap or grocery bag to cover your hair with to trap the heat to help the process along. Plus a coloring brush comes in handy too.

Instructions

• Mix the juice and shampoo together thoroughly
• Using a coloring brush apply a decent coating to your hair line
• Generously work into the rest of your hair.
• Leave on for no more than 30 minutes
• Wash out and deep condition

As with any of the DIY over toned hair processes time on hair varies. Could be as short as 10 minutes to as long as 30.

I’m hoping the flat ironing she did was to help see the results. Not so sure I’d be applying heat to hair that had just been saturated with drying lemon juice. Know what I mean?

But the final result definitely shows a return to a brighter shade of blonde and much less gray.

Again, like with Vitamin C the active ingredient is acidic. This time the citric acid in the lemon.

Another tip: Given this can be drying don’t rush the deep conditioning. Whether using a hair mask or some other treatment it will take time to replenish any moisture sucked out of your strands by the lemon juice/dandruff shampoo cocktail. For most 15 minutes is not too long to give it.

Here’s one more approach using lemon juice for getting out the purple after leaving purple shampoo on way too long.

Here’s How To Get Rid Of Blue Grey Hair From Toner With Lemon Juice

Has a toning job gone bad left you with hair that is blue or gray by mistake? If so keep reading.

Because here’s a natural approach that doesn’t rely on bleach. Here again the acid in lemon juice is the color removal agent.

Again for reference here’s how blue her hair was.

And yes this was from dying rather than purple shampoo overload. But the result is the same. A metallic blue gray daze.

The Recipe

Just two ingredients.

• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup conditioner

Instructions

• Combine the juice and conditioner until well mixed
• Apply to DRY hair and really SATURATE it
• Let sit for 1 1/2 to 3 hours
• Blow dry your hair
• Rinse out in the shower
• Shampoo and condition normally!

Good To Know: At this point you should know that the lemon juice being acidic can be drying. Hence the use of conditioner to mix it into. That’s also where the post treatment conditioner comes in.

A double dose of TLC helps to counteract that moisture sucking effect somewhat.

Now for more extreme cases you might want to follow up with an oil treatment.

Do take care to check for signs of progress. You obviously only want to leave this on your hair as long as it takes to remove the unwanted gray or blue tones.

Also the sooner you use this treatment the better and the more likely it is to work. Ideally within 24 hours after toning is probably best if you can.

As before, putting a plastic bag or plastic wrap on your head to capture some heat may give you faster results.

What Affects The Success Of Any Color Fixer?

Don’t know about you but I find it puzzling why some treatments work for some but are a disaster for others.

It may depend on how pigmented the shampoo used is for sure.

Or maybe it’s because the effectiveness of any color remover method depends on several other seldom mentioned factors. Like …

• Porosity of your hair
• The coarseness of your hair
• The freshness of the color – whether you’ll have the maximum pigment to remove or not
• Not toning but the quality of the hair color used – some just last longer than others

Just something to keep in mind when trying to get the blue or gray out. As it may explain why some have more success with a less drastic technique than others.

Or why some end up with straw like hair when others don’t using the exact same formula.

Truth is it somewhat depends on your hair and how much it can take.

It also could explain why there is no one size fits all surefire solution to this problem. And why you want to take what anyone says, including us, on how to fix the problem with a grain of salt as it applies to your mane.

Which I know isn’t exactly comforting when your hair is on fire. But a fact none the less when looking to remove purple shampoo residue.

Thanks for stopping by. If you found this helpful maybe you’d like to follow our Cute Hair Color Ideas Pinterest board. That way you won’t miss even one idea packed hair color related post of ours.