Hair Toner: Everything You Need To Know

If you're looking to turn your hair from brassy to a beautiful ash, beige or silver shade - a toner is for you. This guide will help you understand the world of hair toners and decide which one is for you!

What is Hair Toner?

The best way to think of toners is this: toners are just products that will target a specific problem colour in your hair. A variety of products can be used to tone hair - but here we’re going to talk about products named Toner specifically.

Which Hair Toner Is Right For Me?

I’m confident that the best hair toner in Australia is the collection of Wella Colour Charm Toners. These are professional permanent toners that can be used at home and are designed to remove all types of brassy tones (yellow, gold and orange brassiness) and leave you with beautiful shades like ash, silver and beige. They are the number 1 permanent liquid toner in the US for a reason!

The Wella Colour Charm Toners are very powerful - which can sometimes be a little much for damaged hair, or for those looking for a more gentle approach. If this is you, you’ll love the Shimmer Lights Permanent Toners. These silky cream toners will give you delicate, shiny blonde results.

Looking to tone your hair but not ready to jump in to the world of permanent toners? Brilliant Silver White is your answer. These drops are kind of magic. They’re pure brass beating pigments, designed for you to use in the shower - and they work instantly.

Best Toners for Brassy Blonde Hair

Purple toners are the best for brassy blonde hair! As a blonde, if you’re seeing brass you’re likely seeing unwanted yellow - and purple counteracts this.

When you want to remove all traces of yellow brassiness from your hair and get a cool toned, bright, platinum ashy result - the Wella Colour Charm T18 Lightest Ash Blonde Toner is your answer. This is our best seller!

Your ideal blonde toner, with platinum ashy results that won't go purple. The Shimmer Lights Platinum Ice Toner is made for blondes looking to tone the yellow from their hair in a gentle, flattering way.

Best Toners for Brassy Gold Hair

When you’re seeing gold brassiness in your hair, it’s a mix of yellow and orange tones. So we need to use a toner with purple and blue pigments to get rid of it.

With super strong toning properties and clean silvery pigments the Wella Colour Charm T14 Pale Ash Blonde Toner will help you to not only remove yellow gold brassiness but will also create that ashy tone you've been dreaming of.

The Shimmer Lights Smoky Pearl Toner is designed with a silky cream formula to give gorgeous shiny results that will transform your hair into a still bright but cool smokey blonde - all without a trace of gold brassiness.

Best Toners for Brassy Orange Hair

Blue toners are the best for fixing orange hair!

For light orange, definitely give the Wella Colour Charm T14 Pale Ash Blonde Toner a try! This is designed to remove gold brassiness (which is a mix of yellow and orange) so will help reduce those orange tones.

If your orange tones are really strong, adding the Wella Colour Charm 050 Cooling Violet Toner to the Wella T14 will really help turn that orange brassiness to an ashy tone. The Wella Colour Charm 050 Cooling Violet Toner can also be used alone on super orange hair.

For more information on fixing brassy orange hair, check out this guide.

Best Toner for Natural Grey Hair

Naturally grey hair needs toning too! You may find your natural hair turning yellow due to environmental factors, or you might be sick of the highlights and ready to blend them in with your natural hair.

The best toners for blending your lengths in with your natural grey hair are the Wella Colour Charm T18 Lightest Ash Blonde and Wella Colour Charm T14 Pale Ash Blonde. A combination of both (half of each) will give the most natural shimmery silver grey results.

Which Toners Are Cool Toned?

The most cool toned hair toners for you to use at home in Australia are:
Wella Colour Charm T18 Lightest Ash Blonde
Wella Colour Charm T14 Pale Ash Blonde
Wella Colour Charm 050 Cooling Violet
Shimmer Lights Platinum Ice

Which Toners Will Create A Natural Blonde?

To create a natural looking blonde at home, try:
Wella Colour Charm T28 Natural Blonde
Wella Colour Charm T10 Pale Blonde
Shimmer Lights Smoky Pearl

Which Toners Are Beige Toned?

Looking to create a brass-free, beige blonde at home? Try:
Wella Colour Charm T11 Lightest Beige Blonde
Wella Colour Charm T15 Pale Beige Blonde
Wella Colour Charm T27 Medium Beige Blonde
Wella Colour Charm T35 Beige Blonde
Shimmer Lights Cool Beige

What To Add If Nothing Is Ever Cool Toned Enough

Struggling to get your hair really cool toned is now a thing of the past with the Wella Colour Charm 050 Cooling Violet Toner. This liquid hair toner will give you that super ashy shade you've been wishing for. If you can never get your hair cool toned enough, this product is for you!

Designed to be mixed with any of our liquid hair toners or colours, you'll fall in love with how easy it is to get a strong boost of cool tones in to your hair. Used alone, it gives a steely blue/grey result.

Which Developer To Use With Toner?

Almost all toners need to be mixed with developer. The only exception to this is the Brilliant Silver White Hair Toner, which is used on its own and is not mixed with developer.

Developer (sometimes also referred to as peroxide) is used to activate your hair toner. Without it the toner will do absolutely nothing! 

20 VOL: More powerful. 20 Vol Developer will lighten your hair slightly and will give permanent results. Keep in mind, as 20 Vol Developer lightens your hair slightly, it can cause brassiness at your roots - if they're darker than your lengths. If that's the case, use 10 Vol at the root and 20 Vol on your lengths.

10 VOL: More gentle. This is a good choice if your hair is damaged or you're looking to tone without lightening.