TOMMY–TONER, EENIE – MEENIE—MYNEE – MONOR – This Is How You Have A Blonde With Honor and a Great TONER

With Spring and the new Blonde’s being settled I realized that I must begin getting my favorite class of colors in line for you. I feel if I get them in line and give away some of my secret formula’s I will get all the Blonde’s KS has as regulars playing around with their light locks. I mean how much fun is that, to have light enough hair to play around with new Toners every other week or so. It’s one of my favorite past times with my bleach ‘n’ tones ( I”m not afraid of bleach – in fact many times its the right tool for the job “please see my recent post in Group, in which I lost my cool on…!!!!”) as well as with my high-lifts.

Back at the ole corral ( Sassoon ) we would have days of boredom and come up with the craziest of experiments – may days were drawing color names out of a hat and having to go make that toner for a blond. I mean that may sound easy, but when someone writes, “ light turqoise blue” ( which we named “St. Barts”) it really is not that easy. Especially when its a contest, and you have 20-40 eager beaver Colorist’s chomping at the bit.

First of all one must have a stable ( notice todays “cowboy” theme!! ha ha – after that dear post in the Group) of “counter” toners. Your basic toner that will knock a lot or a teeny tiny bit of brass right out of that hair strand. We would Tone everything, I know many of you go by the rule, “ if there is ‘no yellow’ we need “no toner”… That is not really the professional way of doing things.

WE ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLWAYS TONE BLONDS. Why? Because that is the professional and TOP NUMBER 1 manner in which you should send someone out into the world that has either paid for one of 2 services:

1) Bleach and Tone. This does not say, only ‘tone’ if need be…it says BLEACH and when finished with that TONE the hair - - PERIOD.

or

2) HighLift blond and Tone: same here, we ALWAYS tone. Why? Because toning is professional. Toning is the Icing on the cake. Can you imagine getting a cake with NO ICING ? ? ? ? TO us, it is the SAME --- EXACT---- DIFFERENCE. In England they always tone and would ever send a blond out of the Salon without a toner, it just is not done at the level of hair / hair color that I teach – and perform so when you go blond in my chair, you leave with your hair pH balanced – TONED- Conditioned and AWESOME. For all you Stylists out there, if you want to bring in and keep every single client that sits their pretty little butt in your chair….follow my lead. I promise you, people appreciate your passion for your work.

Yes, I do understand money constraints, but after watching people for 15 years give me that excuse and then walk in with a $400 Handbag, or their face newly frozen from BOTOX, I truly do not have much sympathy for peoples’ excuses for hair and their finances….so please don’t waste them on me.

People who are truly poor are not coloring their hair AT ALL. I find it fascinating that so many of you think I was born yesterday and you are pulling the wool over my eyes. NOPE , I’m laughing on this side when an excuse is given to me – I want you to know that. If you are involved on this site and ordering from KS, you are not that poor. You know how I know? I’ve been there. YES, I’ve had wealth and riches…..but I have also had a dirt poor and impoverished life at an older age, as well.….having both teaches you a lot about life. I never seem to do anything small. . . .its always big. I was poor in a big way. I know what you think about when money is a issue……..and it is not YOUR HAIR.

So – back to Toners….and what they are all about ? ? …there is no easier color to put on in the world. IT DOES NOT STAIN the hands, so NO GLOVES….. They are a wonderful easy-to-apply consistency, so its a joy to put on. . . . and most of the times you will get 2 applications out of 1 tube. (Long (thick) hair needs a full tube). What’s not to like about them? Only 1 thing…

THEY DON’T LAST AS LONG AS WE WISH THEY DID!

But they are working on that ( SO AM I ! !) Watch for my tips….

Now in today’s Post, I will run 2 of my to 7 lines of Toners by you.Toners that will kill any remaining brass/yellow/gold and give your hair that amazing Beige-Blond of a Reece Witherspoon – Gwen Stefani blond.

I have used all of these since Academy. My mentor taught me to make the TONER, my best friend, and I did. It has paid off well, I promise.

I’m going to start with all the Color Touch Toners ( a LOT) and the MATRIX Toners, one that I named “marilyn” a very long time ago . . . as I feel on many people it gives you the blond of Monroe. Now remember with Toners, it depends on what you are putting it on. Toners are OPAQUE. Think of a NYLON you are putting on a leg, that is toned with beige color….you can still see the leg and its color, but it now has a beige ‘cast’ to it, doesn’t it ? ? Now if you were to take that exact same leg with the same tone and apply a Black toner…..it would appear Gray-ish,wouldn’t it ? ? ? Why? Because the Leg was Beige (virtually an off-white) mixed with Black equals Gray. That is how Toners work – they are transparent/opaque. They always use either a 5-6-10 or 15 Volume Developer.

Matrix has a line called COLOR SYNC. These are the same toners I have been using for 15 years - - they just gave them a new box – a new name but thank the Lord they left the formula alone, except for adding CERAMIDES, whenever you see CERAMIDES, just know its a VERY VERY GOOD ingredient for hair.

3 MATRIX -- COLOR SYNC TONERS -- SHEER PASTELS – Demi-Permanent Toners

• SPV..SHEER PASTEL VIOLET: my number 1, if you are confused just use this one you can’t go wrong. Its Sheer/ has violet to ‘counter’ any brass/ yellow/ gold …..leaves hair well balanced.
• SPN…SHEER PASTEL NEUTRAL : Excellent neutral looking for that blonde BEIGE…so popular now.
• SPA … SHEER PASTEL ASH : Another Ash to counter those DURP’s so many of you have..
• GWEN / MARILYN … is a mixture of SPV + SPN , the ratio ? 1:1 – which means 1 oz. of SPV + 1oz of SPN : MIX = Add 2 oz. of 10 or 13 Volume

ALL 3 of these I use constantly/daily… When you are a Top Colorist, information like this (which toners I used to produce such Killer BLONDS) were kept very TIGHT LIPPED – as everyone does….its just part of the game.

I never told anyone this info. I even confused my assistants on purpose, the last thing you want to do is give 4 brand new up and coming Hair Stylists all your secrets that have taken you years to gather. Lucky all of you . . . I don’t know one Stylist of my caliber that would do this. So please, treasure the information. I am an overachiever, a passionate artist who gives this information with the hope that many of you will use it to better your hair color - - better the hair color knowledge you use at your Salon.

One of my goals way back when …..I was in Academy . . . my girlfriend and I said ( naively – VERY naively) , “hey, lets cure all the bad color/ bad hair in the USA”……. we shook on it, we were very excited about that prospect…..I recall that moment all the time while writing this BLOG. Snicker at the thought of it.

Bleach/tone

I mean I used to try to cure all the bad hair I could I was much more lenient with so many of my tricks and education once I got into the Salon world than any other Stylist.

The Salon world and the Academy world are completely DIFFERENT WORLDS! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

But to think I could actually cure all the bad color/bad hair of America myself, was just so insanely naive. Who knew I would end up ill, that I would be forced into quitting the job I had plans of going to the top in.

But, the funny part is……………………………

I would never have reached as many people as I do through this Blog, our Group ( closing in on 2000 ) and the STORE . . .working any other way. !!! FUNNY HOW LIFE GOES………

This is the way I will reach the most people and hopefully do the most good. . . and who would’ have figured that one out ! !Level 9

Back to Toners and the importance of them…. many of you slough them off, I hope to inspire some to try them, I have never tinted a blond without using a toner. I would feel like I hadn’t finished the job…I was lucky and had assistants to help and they would all fight over who got to apply the toners (!!), so that end of the procedure was covered for me. I always applied the color to my clients ( yet the Assistants would mix to my spec’s - - and then comb through – add the plastic cap and rinse after I checked it,….. right when I was forced to quit… I had finally built a well-oiled machine, it was just such a shame to losLEVEL 8

The next Set of Toners I would suggest:

Color Touch has the most TONERS for 1 Single Line:

• 8/0 N ….….. Turns out a level 7 because of the Wella chart,being a full level darker than ours
• 9/0 N ….…...A Level 8 Neutral Toner
• 10/0N ….…. Equals Level 9 Neutral always use 6 Volume
• 9/01NA….… Natural Ash = an 8
• 10/01NA ….. Natural Ash = gorgeous level 9, now with the CT Toners many times I will mix 1/2 6Volume & 1/2 13Volume which gives you about a 10 – lasts longer SPECIFY if you want….1/2 & 1/2 Volume
• 10/1A…….. Lightest Blonde Ash
• 9/16AV…….ASH VIOLET - a level 8 excellent
• 10/81PA…..Pearl Ash – again equals a level 9
• 10/6 V……..Lightest Blond/Violet – Awesome level 9
• 10/73BG…..lightest blond/brown gold – watch that gold although this is as “gold” as I recommend
• RELIGHTS
• /86 PV……..Pearl Violet – another perfect color and is MADE to be a toner….

all the colors are visible on the Wella Color Touch Page in the Store, just click on this link

:Color Touch Line of Hair Color : Killer Strands Store

I apologize to those of you that are not blonds, but truthfully we sell blonds 20 to 1 in any other colors…..its funny BLACK is the number 1 hair color in the world but you would not know it by our numbers.!

Always – always consider using a toner, no matter what your color. . .I can’t wait to teach you some of the SECRET-SPY TONERS. . . . a LA KC

Level 9/16AV

Killer

Chemist