Exact Answer: 2 to 3 Days
Many people prefer to changing their hair color. There are several ways to alter hair color but many go for bleaching their hair. Under the bleaching process, the natural color of the hair is taken down using chemicals. After bleaching, hair becomes much lighter in shade.
After bleaching hair turn to blonde, brown, reddish, depending on the natural color of one’s hair. However, the process of coloring hair does not end here. After bleaching, one is supposed to tone their hair using toner. Hair toner helps in giving a natural look to bleached hair.
How Long After Bleaching Can You Tone?
In the hair color altering process through bleach, the first bleaching is done on the hair. Bleaching is a process where the natural color of hair is removed or taken off using chemicals. The natural color of hair strands turns into a lighter shade. The new color that emerges could be something close to brown, red, blonde, depending on the person’s natural hair color.
After bleaching, toning is supposed to be done. In the process of toning, a toner chemical is used on hair to make them shinier and look better. It makes the bleached hair more natural, smoother, and shinier. In the process of bleaching when the natural color is removed, the hair gets weaken. So to use toner chemicals on hair after bleaching, many experts recommend that people should wait for a while.
There is no exact time to wait for using toner on hair after bleaching. However, it is recommended that on average people should wait for two to three days after bleaching their hair to use toner on their hair.
Some people also recommend that one can either wait for a few hours or immediately use a toner after bleaching hair. While some recommend waiting for up to a week as well.
No fixed time can be said as the ample time of waiting to use toner on one’s hair after bleaching. It mostly depends on the condition of hair that went through the process of bleaching.
| Damage | Waiting period |
| Minimal or no damage | 0 hours – 24 hours |
| Slight damage | 2-3 days |
| High damage | Up to a week |
Why Wait To Tone After Bleaching?
As mentioned before, after hair goes through the process of bleaching, it might become weak. In bleaching, the natural hair color is forcefully removed from the hair. The hair is oxidized to alter the hair color. It may damage the hair and weaken them substantially. That is why it is recommended to wait to tone after bleaching hair.
After bleaching, toning is done on hair to give hair a more natural look. After toning, hair looks much shiny and natural than they look after bleaching.
The time spent waiting for toning the hair post bleaching majorly depends on the condition of hair after bleaching. If a person bleaches their hair, and their hair looks just as fine, they can use hair toner on their hair immediately after bleaching. If they wish to, they can also wait for a couple of hours as the damage that bleaching causes to hair is not always clearly visible.
On the other hand, when there is slight damage that happens to hair after bleaching, it is recommended that the person waits for a few days to use toner. This gives some time to hair to recover from the damage caused by bleaching. It is very usual to see slight damage to hair after bleaching and commonly people wait for 2-3 days to tone their hair after bleaching.
Finally, if a lot of damage is caused to the hair by bleaching, it is recommended that the person waits for a week or so before using toner.
Conclusion
Lots of people like to alter the color of their hair through bleaching. Bleach removes the natural color from the hair and turns them into a lighter shade. After bleaching, hair may look very dull so hair toner is used for that.
However, in many cases, bleaching weakens the hair and causes damage to the hair. That is why it is recommended to wait for a while to use toner on hair after bleaching. Usually, it is recommended to wait for 2-3 days after bleaching to tone the hair. While, if no or very little harm is caused to hair, toning can be done right after the bleaching. On the other hand, some people have to wait for up to a week to tone hair if bleaching cause major damage to their hair.
References
- https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.520.713&rep=rep1&type=pdf
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1346-8138.2010.00916.x
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katarzyna_Pytkowska/publication/237328038_Herbal_raw_materials_for_grey_or_bleached_hair_toning/data/0c96051bb25d9d9040000000/hibiscus-sepawa.pdf