How to Super Charge your toning shampoo!

Heya cats and kittens!

So, as promised, lets have a little deeper chat about toning shampoo. Did you miss our first conversation about lighteners and toners? Catch up and then come back!

So, you’re blonde, silver, or grey, and you want your lovely colour to be cooled down a little- get all those orange/gold/yellow/brassy tones out. You’ve picked up a purple toning shampoo from a professional source- a stylist, or a store that sells quality hair products. What now?

BEFORE: Brassy (and wearing a towel)               AFTER: Cool as can be!

                            

The instructions on the bottle will tell you to hop in the shower, and apply the shampoo to wet hair, wait, rinse, repeat… BUT THEY ARE WRONG! Or, at least, I’m going to tell you to do it differently!

Using gloved hands or a hair tint brush, apply your purple toning shampoo generously to your DRY hair! Massage it through the areas you need to tone – keep in mind, this dry application makes the toning MUCH STRONGER, so if you’re applying it to dry, lightened ends, those are going to REALLY grab it, and turn very silver/ashy/white.

Once you’ve got it all applied, cover your hair with your plastic wrap, tidy up any mess (purple shampoo can really stain countertops, cupboards, clothes etc- so be careful!), and then go watch Game of Thrones, or read a book, or whatever for a while! I like to leave mine on for about an hour, because my hair really pulls a lot of brass (there’s a reason I created a small ginger boy! haha!)- you’re going to want to play around with timing for yourself, because everyone’s hair is a little different.

When your time is up,  hop in the shower, shampoo that toner out, condition and voila! SUPER toned hair- same product, different application!

Good luck, cats and kittens!

Be awesome!

-M

Lighteners and Toners, defined!

Hello, cats and kittens!

Welcome to the newest (and perhaps most stable, at last?) incarnation of the Scissorkitty Rock N Roll Hair BLOG!!

Ah, blogging. A place for us to brain-dump all our thoughts and ideas out into the Interwebs  to share with friends and complete strangers. And what better thoughts to start with than thoughts about HAIR? For me, there’s NOTHING better!

Summer is here, humidity is knocking, and everyone is thinking about brightening and lightening to bring in the sunshine. To help you organize your own thoughts on the subject, lets have a chat about LIGHTENERS AND TONERS!

* Lighteners- also called “bleach”, although definitely NOT to be mixed up with that bottle of Javex under your laundry tub sink! haha! NO, while hair lightener DOES brighten and whiten, it does it in a VERY particular way. First, it opens the scaly outer layer of your hair, and then it gets to work breaking down and “eating” the pigment from out of the centre. If you’ve ever had our hair overprocessed, that “eating” analogy REALLY applies- too strong and too long can leave your locks looking chewed! Most lighteners use a combination of peroxides and ammonia to get that colour out- and this is what makes that nose-burning stink you may associate with getting blonder… the colour line i use in my little Hair Lair, Organic Colour Systems, has NO ammonia (or pthalates, parabens, ppds…)! SO- no eye-watering, nose-hair-singeing stink!

* Toners- do you remember the Colour Wheel from 9th grade art class? Colours have opposites that can neutralize or cancel them out, and also other colours that can enhance or brighten depending how you pair things together. A toner is really a thin, sheer veil of colour applied over previously lightened hair to give it the TONE (see what i did there?) or shade you’re looking for. Usually this refers to the tone of blonde or caramel highlights you’re wanting… but toners can also give you bright and vivid results, or subtle blends, depending on how they are used. The super popular “Granny Hair” grey trend? IMPOSSIBLE without good toning action.

If your hair starts to feel a little faded, brassy, yellow or discoloured, TONER and various toning products can really help out! I am NOT a big fan of people playing around with lightener at home- things can go really wrong really easily- but there are some awesome toning options you can bring home from your stylist, right into your shower! MY fave at the moment is the Sterling Silver series from AG Hair! AG is Canadian, ethical, VEGAN and totally affordable- and their silver toning series (which erases brassy orange and yellow tones) smells VERY nice, and isn’t irritating to sensitive skin.

WANT MORE INFO?

Just contact me and ask!

Love you, be awesome.

-Morgan