Minute four. The roots have not moved, the mid-lengths are just beginning to lose their cream, and the last two inches, bleached five times since spring, are purple and deepening while you watch. That is full-strength violet on a porous 10, and it is how most people find this page.
The card is the version that does not do it: half toner, half clear, ten volume or the processing solution that comes with the line, five to ten minutes, roots first, ends last and off first.
Why a 10 takes toner in minutes
A level 10 on the site chart is palest yellow, close to cream, on hair that has nearly always been bleached more than once. No orange is left, so the neutralizer is violet or pearl, diluted; a toner deposits without lifting, so the hair stays a 10 either way. Getting to the level in the first place is a lift, a 7 taken to a 9 on permanent, and then a round more. The toner selector picks the family once you have read the rinsed strand. The pigment left is faint, so a violet that takes fifteen minutes on a 9 is done on a 10 in five, and the ends grab it first and go purple before the roots have cooled; the colorists who tone 10s paint clear over the tips for that reason.
Half clear
Clear is the demi base with no pigment. Weigh 15 g of it into the bowl first, then 15 g of 10.2 (10V) or 10.21 (10P), then 60 g of 10 vol: half an ounce, half an ounce, two ounces. Diluting equal parts with clear halves the violet in every gram, so the hair reaches five minutes still blonde. On a fresh 10 from a single lift, two parts toner to one of clear is enough; on anything bleached three or more times, equal parts, and on the ends some go to one part toner to two of clear.
Shampoo, condition, towel-dry
The lightener comes out with shampoo, then conditioner, then a towel until the hair stops dripping. Damp hair evens out the porosity; dripping wet thins the toner unevenly, and bone-dry porous ends pull the violet straight in and stripe. Section into four and mix only once the hair is ready, because it starts working in the bowl. Then roots first, because on a 10 vol demi the root is the least porous hair on the head and takes longest. The whole head covered inside four or five minutes, or one side goes purple while the other is still cream. Ends last, from the same bowl diluted again if the test piece went purple, for the final two or three minutes.
The wipe, minute by minute
| Minute | Roots | Mid-lengths | Porous ends (on at 5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Cream, barely cooler | Cream, a little cooler | Still bare |
| 5 | Slightly cooler | Clean pale blonde | Just on |
| 8 | Done; rinse | Cool, at the edge | Done; rinse them first |
| 10 | Gray-violet past here | Gray-violet | Purple and flat |
Wipe a root piece at 3 and at 5, and pull it when the wiped piece reads clean, whatever the box says. It looks purple on the head the whole time, and darker wet, so nothing is judged until it is rinsed and dry. The eight-question porosity test tells you before you mix whether the ends belong in the last column.
Purple ends, and the way back
Over-toned, a 10 goes purple at the ends, then a flat cool gray that reads dirty. Fresh, it comes out: rinse at once and wash twice with a clarifying shampoo. If it will not budge, the pros reach for a bleach bath, lightener with shampoo and 10 vol, off the scalp, and that is a job for a colorist rather than a bathroom.
Two to four weeks, and the softer grow-out
Two to four weeks on this hair, against the four to eight colorists quote for a toner on hair lifted once. The violet leaves first and the cream comes back from the ends inward. Purple shampoo once a week from week two is upkeep; twice a week on a porous 10 is purple by another route. When regrowth shows against a 10, most salons now offer a root shadow: an 8N or a 9 demi an inch down, blurred into the diluted 10 through the lengths, on 10 vol, and it reads expensive.
