How do you get ashy / cool high or lowlights

[Chewbecca]

As mentioned on other recent threads, ashy or cool toned seem to be a really elusive look for hairdresser to achieve.

I don't know if this is because it is hard, because there is a reason why they cannot do it, because they don't like it or because the description is wrong.

Funnily enough, the cool ashy, brown / blonde another poster showed her hairdresser is the same pic I showed. Mine is also a warmer outcome than I was hoping for.

Why is this? What do we need to ask for? Is it actually impossible to achieve? Any tips welcomed!

The right toner

I don't suit gold or honey colours at all (in the winter) and get high lift tint highlights and then an ashy toner on top.
Looks like this:

Owl - I wouldn't describe your hair as ashy cool blonde. I'd say it was light blonde with a bit of warmth round the parting.

It's so hard to achieve. You've got to get the right hairdresser, which is no mean feat and then keep up the purple shampoo regime.

Yup, toner is 100% the only way to achieve this. Done right, you shouldn't then need purple shampoo.

My hair is really warm naturally and doesn't suit me at all (thanks, nature).

With excellent highlights and toner, see pic.

If you have any red undertone in your natural colour then you should have ash blonde highlights rather than warm or golden blonde.
If you tell your hairdresser you specifically want ash tones as you are concerned about looking brassy or orange then they should be able to do it for you. I have ash highlights but have a couple of darker colours woven in to make make it look more natural.
I agree with above PP that your hair doesn't look ask blonde at the moment. It looks more of a golden/warm blonde.

Lucking - you're not ash either. It's more very light blonde, even platinum.

There's no such thing as ash blonde highlights. Your hairdresser just needs to bleach the fuck out of your hair and then the ash comes from the toner.

This pic shows the very clear difference

Maybe the pic does not show mine well, but it is definitively a cool, ash blonde.
Since I am naturally light blonde, the toner makes a huge difference in muting the hair for winter.

You can have ashy lowlights as well and then toner on top.

Trucking - I'm not sure though that the op is after the ash grey that you show in the rh picture, but 'ashy or cool toned'.

Maybe the pic doesn't show it very well but my naturally warm hair is much much cooler toned using a good toner, and that's what I am trying to illustrate.

Hmm, I don't actually even know what a toner is! Maybe it the the requirement to bleach the colour out first that is the problem and why I can't achieve the colour I have in mind.

And I think my problem is definitely worsened by not expressing myself correctly as I have even done it on this thread!

I have brown hair and want to stay brown but with some cool brown / blond bits added to help the grey blend.

This pic is what I have currently & I'll be going back in Jan. (Weird view I know but shows the colour!)

Don't what I shall ask for yet!

My experience of toner is that it’s a non-permanent colour that’s put on hair that’s bleached to the palest yellow/white, it’s sometimes referred to as a glaze or a gloss and you can refresh between bleaches.

OP I'm watching with interest, as I have EXACTLY the same problem and my hair looks just like yours.

Ignore my previous post, it’s based solely on my experience of lifting previous brown colour to silver to transition to my now grey hair.

I would recommend Joico colours as being good for counteracting unwanted red and yellow tones

to get ash the hair has to be bleached to almost white, level 9 or 10.

if your hair is darker than mousey/dark blonde this is very hard to do in one go and maintain

if darker the bleaching will only go to brassy orange and no amount of toning or purple shampoo will get that to cool down. that is where it will still look golden or reddish blonde.

most of the pictures on the internet are photoshopped which make expectations harder to reach. or impossible.

my hair is currently very ashy blonde. BUT it's very short, so the damage from bleaching is cut out within weeks. I do it myself, because I know it would cost approx £150 every 4 weeks in a hairdresser as toners do not stay on. (I also redo the toner every 10 days and wash with purple shampoo every time - very drying but my hair is max 2" and I use a very good conditioner).

My natural hair colour is about a level 5 mousey. if it was darker I could not be a light fashion colour without melting my hair.

fashion colours are like a hobby. expensive, time wasting and spending a lot of time praying it all turns out ok.

ducksareshead, which toner do use, i have mousey brown hair and have been highlighting my hair with a wella kit for twenty years or so, between salon vists of around two to three times a year, if i leave it on for 55 mins to 1 hour it will go very light, i put foil on top, but it is drying, i was thinking i could try a toner and then i could leave bleach on a little less time.

Hi hairdresser here!

Dark hair when bleached will first go to a red then orange then yellow. If you want an ash blonde you need to bleach to a very pale yellow then tone with an ash (think of it like the bleach lifts then the toner gives you the shade you want. Sometimes it will take more than one visit to the salon to get where you want to be without compromising the condition of your hair. You can absolutely go an ashy brown too by neutralising the red/orange tones in your hair and doing ash blonde highlights in between to add dimension. Ask your hairdresser for a tint and highlights to do this.

I thinking going grey is probably my best option you know!
I'm not looking for something that requires lots of work and maintenance and is potentially damaging.
Looks like my vision of just a few cool brown and blonde stripes to blend in my grey isn't realistic!

I'm blonde now but I used to get highlights plus a semi-permanent on the remaining hair.

Lasagne is that what you meant by highlights plus tint?

But how does cool/ashy brown not equal mousey?

lindyloo57 I buy joico vero k-pak color toner off Amazon I use a mix of 10a (1/2) TSB (1/4) and INS (1/4)

mixed in a 1:1 ratio with either 20 vol developer if my bleach job is still a bit too yellow or with joico veroglaze no lift creme developer, which is a no (or very low) peroxide formula so doesn't damage as much if it's just a toner refresh.

it was about £50 to buy all this at once but it does me about a year. I do replace more dye than developers or bleach, maybe every 4 months at £15? But I dye my hair a lot and sometimes friends too

I also just use the cheap provoke purple shampoo, but the intensive one you're meant to use once a week. I also try to wash my hair about every 3 days if possible.

I've now got ashy blonde hair but I had to change hairdresser to get it. Asked for it twice at hairdresser A, both times got light blonde highlights but not ashy.
I found hairdresser B on Instagram- looking at local salon accounts. I saw the colour I wanted in her pics, and knew it was a genuine as you could see it has been taken at the salon and there was also a video.
I don't know what she did differently to hairdresser A as they both claimed to do the same thing (foils + toner) but obviously one worked and the other didn't. 🤷🏼‍♀️

It's true - ashe blonde is the most dificult colour to achieve.

As a cool-toned person I find that ashy tones really suit me, but even many of the colours which claim to be 'ash' often turn out to be just generic 'blonde' which is disappointing.

One exception to that is the L'Oreal Paris Excellence Light Ash Blonde (9.1). It works really well. It gives an almost greenish tone to the hair, which sounds odd, but this is actually what ash blonde is meant to look like. Their Preference ash blonde shade - they call it "Viking" - is also good, but I keep coming back to the one mentioned above.

OP if your looking to help blend the few grey you have then a few highlights with an ash toner will be fine! A think pp got distracted with the ash/silver blonde.

I have heard of putting Mainc Panic purple (wash out hair dye) in your usual conditioner to keep the ash tone vibes.

I'm naturally ashy and get paranoid my hair has a green tone...it's truely green in some lighting it's bizarre! I look awful in warm tones.

OP, you have ash brown hair with ash blonde highlights. The problem is your hair hasn't lifted past a level 7, which is dark blonde. Your hairdresser can only tone with the level you lifted to and to most people dark ash blonde looks brown.

www.bing.com/images/search?q=wella+7%2f18&FORM=HDRSC2

If your hair won't lift past a 7 and you want ash you are not going to get any blonder than that. A warmer toner would look more blonde.

level 7 golden blonde

Purple shampoo or manic panic purple toner will do sweet FA to your hair. Purple toners are for you yellow hair. Yellow hair is at levels 8/9/10. 7 is orange. You'd need blue shampoo to counteract orange but it won't give you white blonde ashy hair.

What's your natural hair colour? If it was is in the picture you should be able to lift up to a level 9 easily.

4.bp.blogspot.com/-wJhhG76QxKY/UMhNXc3sbTI/AAAAAAAAH_Y/M2skXgGbpTg/s1600/Level+system.jpg

Thanks hazard, that is what I am looking for & I do have a few highlights but have to choose them or tell hairdresser what I would like and find that they tend to turn out warmer than I would like. Perhaps because it isn't possible to make them cool as hair would need to be stripped first perhaps? I'm still not sure what a toner is!
I don't actually