Having blonde hair is really cool! But making your hair stay the same way can be quite a task as your precious locks are vulnerable to getting warm, brassy tones that give them an unflattering look. Regardless of how good your haircare routine is, you cannot quite prevent environmental factors, such as sun exposure from tarnishing your gorgeous hair color. Hence, the best toners for blonde hair are products to swear by, regardless of whether you have naturally bright tresses or have gotten them colored. 

Toners are essentially color correctors for your hair, which cancel out those dreaded warm tones on your hair with cool shades such as purple, blue, bluish-gray, and silver. These hues neutralize the ones placed opposite to them on the color wheel, thereby giving a clean, refreshed look to your hair. In addition, toners are also useful in enhancing your hair color and making it appear more vibrant. 

You would be happy to know that DIY blonde toning products, be it purple shampoos, sprays, hair masks, or toning drops give shockingly similar results to that of salon treatments while saving you precious bucks. To save you the trouble of searching for them, we have curated a list of our favorite products, after hours of research, below. Keep scrolling to find products that suit your needs!

• 1
  Best Overall

  BOLD UNIQ Purple Shampoo

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With this toning shampoo by Bold Uniq, you don’t have to worry much about hair damage while brightening your beautiful blonde locks as it is enriched with nourishing botanical oils. The purple pigments infused in it neutralize the yellow tones and unwanted brassiness on your natural or pre-lightened hair. With 2-3 washes, this product will make your natural hair color cool and icy, thereby adding a beautiful shine to it. Another cool attribute of this product is that despite being a cleanser, its formula is sulfate-free. Hence, it is a great choice for hair that has already been through several chemical treatments as the product doesn’t dry it out further. 

Active ingredients: Vitamin E and B, marula seed oil, grapeseed oil, lavender oil, and chamomile flower oil

 

2

Best Nourishing Hair Mask

BOLD UNIQ Purple Hair Mask

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For really stubborn yellow tones, this icy blonde toner glaze by Bold Uniq is a better choice than the former, as it contains a higher concentration of purple pigments. The product contains the emollient properties of jojoba, marula, and coconut oil that tame unruly tresses and make them soft and silky. When you leave this product on for slightly longer than the recommended duration, you will get salon-like toning results. Plus, the nourishing formula of this glaze will make your hair luxuriously moisturized and healthy-

Active ingredients: Coconut oil, marula seed oil, jojoba seed oil, grapeseed oil, rosemary leaf oil, chamomile flower oil, and lavender herb oillooking. 

 

3

Best for a Vibrant Finish

PUNKY COLOR Semi-permanent Conditioning Hair Color

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By using this silver toner for blonde hair, your tresses will get a beautiful icy tone that will make you feel like Queen Elsa! The peroxide-free formula goes easy on your tresses unlike most other hair dyes and doesn’t strip them of their natural moisture. This toner is a safe product option to reduce orange tones as it doesn’t deposit unnatural color pigments on medium to dark-blonde hair. And, the formula is so effective and concentrated that the results will easily last for up to 35 shampoo washes. 

Active ingredients: Glycerin, glyceryl stearate, PEG-100 stearate, etc.

Quick Tip

Mix your toner with the developer in a 1:2 ratio, and begin applying the mixture on areas with unwanted undertones. Leave it for 45 minutes before rinsing with a moisturizing shampoo and deep conditioner.

4

Best Versatile Formula

MANIC PANIC N.Y.C. Semi-permanent Hair Color Cream

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The shade Virgin Snow of this ash toner for blonde hair has a gray base with a bluish tint — perfect to pastelize dark orange and brassy tones. It has the formula of a nourishing deep conditioner that makes your hair smooth and silky, thereby boosting the shine of your ash-blonde locks. Like other Manic Panic products, this blonde toner too, gives a vibrant finish to your hair color, in a way that it stands out of the lot without appearing too flashy! 

Active ingredients: Vegan-friendly and PPD-free

5

Best Toning Spray

JOHN FREIDA Violet Crush for Blondes Purple Shampoo

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For frequent, quick fixes for the yellow tones on your hair, this toning shampoo by John Freida is an excellent product choice. The shampoo not only gives a clean and brightened look to your hair but also cleanses your hair and scalp thoroughly. It makes your hair so soft and silky that you cannot stop touching it. To get the best out of this product, leave it in your hair and cover it with a shower cap for about 5 minutes before rinsing it off. 

Active ingredients: Crushed violet pigments

 

6

OGX Blonde Enhance+ Purple Toning Drops

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For stubborn yellow tones on your hair, this blonde toner liquid by OGX Blonde works like a charm as it has a concentrated formula made with rich purple pigments. Leveraging the goodness of natural dyes such as purple fig and iris, the product marvelously neutralizes the brassiness of your hair color without being too harsh on it or causing damage. It also contains hydrolyzed keratin that replenishes the building blocks of your hair to make it strong and healthy. To use this, blend the solution with a conditioner or hair mask for the best results. 

Active ingredients: Glycerin, fig fruit extracts, and iris

 

7

MANIC PANIC N.Y.C. Semi-permanent Hair Color

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This cool blonde toner by Manic Panic has a more advanced formula than its hair mask — ideal for extremely brassy and unmaintained blonde hair. If you’re someone who has experimented with many hair dyes, then this product would be a refreshing change for you as it does not bleed like other drugstore toners. In addition, the moisturizing ingredients infused in it such as aloe vera and propylene glycol boost hydration in your precious locks. Also, the product would not deposit intense color pigments on your hair but simply neutralize the orange tones. 

Active ingredients: Vegan-friendly and PPD-free

 

Quick Tip

To eliminate orange or yellow undertones from your blonde hair, use a vegan-friendly toner every 6-8 weeks for effective results.

8

Best Cruelty-free

belliso Purple Hair Mask

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Formulated with rosemary leaf extracts, this hair mask by Belliso rejuvenates your hair and scalp, unlike any other hair toner. The product is plush with nourishing botanicals such as argan oil and rosemary leaf that intensively hydrate your hair and prevent the loss of its natural moisture content. By replenishing your hair shaft with keratin, the product strengthens your tresses so that the toning process doesn’t cause any damage. It is a great icy blonde toner for quick touch-ups.

Active ingredients: Argan oil and rosemary leaf

9

Most Cost-effective

L'ORÉAL PARIS Demi-permanent Power Toner Kit

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To achieve ultra-shiny Barbie-like hair, get your hands on this platinum blonde toner kit by L'oréal Paris. The kit comes with a demi-permanent toning formula and a developer creme, which need to be mixed together to work their magic on your hair in 10-15 minutes. Infused with built-in conditioning polymers, the toner makes your tresses silky and manageable, so that you don’t get unruly frizz after color-treating your hair. 

Active ingredients: Glycerin, toluene, sodium sulfite, etc.

 

10

Best Conditioning Mask

VITAMINS Keratin Purple & Blue Mask

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This toning conditioner by Vitamins has an invigorating herbal formula that not only neutralizes the yellow tones of your hair but also makes it glossy. What makes this product special is that it protects your precious locks from UV exposure, to prevent your hair color from fading. The mask works like a deep conditioner and restores your hair from dryness and damage. Despite its conditioning benefits, you can rest assured that your hair won’t weigh down or feel tacky after its application. 

Active ingredients: Moroccan argan and jojoba oil complex

 

11

Best for Sun Protection

Sun Bum Blonde Tone Enhancer

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What sets this product apart from other blonde hair toners in the market is that it comes in a leave-in spray formula, which makes it ten times more convenient to use than elaborate formulas. And, as you don’t rinse it off, the toner gets enough time to gradually reduce brassy tones on your hair. Made with violet extracts and blue spirulina, the product gives a shiny, cool tone to your hair that enhances your overall appearance. By using this, you can protect your hair by fortifying it with rich ingredients such as coconut oil and argan oil.

Active ingredients: Coconut oil, argan oil, Costa Rican pineapple, and Meyer lemon

 

12

BLONDE UNIQ Purple Toning Spray

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With this toning spray by Blonde Uniq, you can boost nourishment in your hair by providing it with the goodness of coconut oil, marula oil, jojoba oil, and other botanical extracts. Like the product above, this one too is a leave-in formula that works gradually to enhance the tone of your hair. When you dampen your hair before spraying this, it absorbs the pigments better and prevents knots or breakage, for best results overall. 

Active ingredients: Coconut oil, marula oil, jojoba oil, and other botanical extracts

Now that you’ve seen our product recommendations for the best toners for blonde hair, let us go through the following buying guide and steps to use so you can shop wisely and make the best of your product.

Here are a few factors to consider before investing in a toner for blonde hair. 

Formulation: Hair color toners are available in different kinds of formulations that vary based on methods of application, duration, lasting power, benefits, etc. If you are looking for a toner to simply touch up your hair and lightly improve shine, then a shampoo or leave-in spray can work adequately. However, to neutralize stubborn yellow or orange tones, you should get your hands on a highly pigmented hair mask or toning liquid to achieve the desired results.

In addition to toning pigments, look for products with nourishing ingredients coconut oil, argan oil, aloe extracts, glycerin, sweet almond oil, panthenol, etc. to boost hydration in your hair. 

Also, always ensure that the product you’re using is free from harmful contents such as phthalates, mineral oil, formaldehyde, ammonia, hydroquinone, and toluene as they can cause hair damage and hormonal problems. While this is difficult to find in many demi-permanent hair toners, a formula free from hydrogen peroxide makes it safer for your precious tresses. 

Color Intensity of Your Hair: While all blonde toners consist of cool-toned colors to neutralize the brassiness of your hair, the precise color you need varies depending on your hair color. If your natural or pre-lightened hair has a very light and pale blonde color, then a purple or silver toner would be ideal for reducing the yellow tones on it. However, if your hair is medium, dark, or dirty blonde, then a blue or silver-blue toner would be perfect to neutralize the rusty, orange tones on it. The key is in selecting a pigment that is placed opposite to your hair color on the color wheel. 

Hair Type: While most toners work well on all hair types, some formulations work only for certain hair types such as low porosity, curly, etc. Hence, always check whether the product packaging explicitly mentions so. 

Lasting Power: The effects of an over-the-counter color toner usually last from 4 to 8 weeks, depending on the formulation used. So, understand what kind of results you are looking for and how often you would actually be able to use the product before making a purchase. 

In addition to the above-mentioned factors, ensure that your toner does not bleed or deposit stubborn pigments on your hair. 

The methods to use a toner vary depending on the formula you use. Here are the ways to use a few common toner formulations:

Creme + Developer: This is by far the most elaborate and long-lasting toner formula that needs to be applied through meticulous steps. To begin with, mix the color creme and developer in a 50:50 ratio. Then, depending on the viscosity of the toner, you can either use a dye brush to apply the product or pour the mixture directly on your hair. Ensure you wear rubber gloves when performing this task as the concentrated products can cause your fingers to stain. Cover your hair with a shower cap after application and rinse off after the instructed duration. 

Hair Mask/Glaze: The second most long-lasting and concentrated formula in the list, a hair mask or glaze simply skips one step from the former method, as there is nothing to mix. And when you put on secure gloves on your hands, you don’t even have to use a dye brush to apply the product. Take a generous amount of the product in batches in your hands and apply it directly on the roots and lengths of your hair. Be careful at this step, as such products easily stain the walls and the floor. Let the product settle in your hair for 30-40 minutes or as instructed in the product manual. Then, rinse it off. 

Toning Liquid: A toning liquid is the most versatile toner formulation as you can use it in multiple ways — directly or by mixing it with your shampoo or deep conditioner. However, the specifics of its usage vary based on the product, so ensure to read the instructions manual thoroughly. 

Toning Shampoo: If the shampoo you’re using is sulfate-free and rich in emollients, then it would be a good idea to let the product settle for 5-15 minutes after lathering it on wet hair. For soap-based shampoos, avoid keeping them longer than 2-3 minutes as the sulfates can strip your hair and scalp of its natural moisture. Rinse off the product after use. 

Leave-in Spray: Leave-in sprays are the easiest to use from the list. All you need to do is spritz a generous amount of the product after shampooing and towel-drying your hair. You don’t need to rinse them off and the formula gets plenty of time to gradually enhance your hair color. 

Talking about the usage of a toner, our contributor Gwenda Harmon, says, “You may use a toner around four to eight weeks for damaged hair. This is advisable to achieve your desired shade or neutralizing fragmented tones. A regular permanent toner can be used for four to six weeks between two toning operations for regular permanent toning. After this, your hair will experience regrowth.”

Here are the benefits of using toner for blonde hair - 

- Neutralizes brassy or yellow tones

- Enhances the brightness and vibrancy of blonde hair

- Eliminates discoloration

- Strengthens hair by creating a protective barrier around the tresses 

- Adds volume and shine to blonde hair

So there you have it. The above-mentioned products are some of the best toners for blonde hair out there. These products consist of different formulations, such as sprays, shampoos, hair masks, liquids, etc. to suit your individual needs. And, many products in the list, including the BOLD UNIQ Purple Shampoo are made with rich moisturizing ingredients to nourish your hair. However, a toning product that may be suitable for someone else may not be the best choice for your requirements and hair type. Hence, ensure you go through our buying guide and the steps to use before making a purchase. Happy shopping!

Contributor: Gwenda Harmon, Expert Hair Dresser & Curly Hair Specialist - Click for blog