Toner Formula: Level 9 to 9, Very Light Blonde Three Ways

Steps

Judge the level after the rinse, dry. In the foil the hair looked white, and that white was the lightener, and the rinse is yellower. Pale yellow root to tip with no orange is a 9. Clear, strong yellow is an 8, and this bowl on an 8 does little and reads muddy.

Shampoo the lightener out, condition, and towel-dry until it stops dripping. Patch test 48 hours ahead, behind the ear or inside the elbow, whenever the tube changes.

Weigh 30 g of 9.21 into 60 g of 10 vol, or the line's toning developer at its own ratio. Set some aside in a second cup and dilute it 1:1 with clear for ends that have been through lightener more than twice.

Roots first, then the lengths, ends last with the diluted share, the whole head on inside a few minutes. One timer when the last section is on.

Wipe a root strand at 5 and at 10. It goes purple on the head, and that is the toner working. Pull it between 10 and 15, when the wiped strand reads a cool blonde with no yellow and no violet sitting on top.

Rinse, condition, and dry it fully before you judge it. Wet, it reads a level darker. A hint of violet in the first dry leaves in a shampoo or two.

From the chair

Blue at 9 goes green. There is no orange left for it to cancel, so it sits on the pale yellow and drifts green-gray at the ends within the week. Keep the bowl violet-led.
A 9 toner on a 10 highlight drops it. On a head with paler pieces through it, some colorists add clear to the whole bowl so the brightest pieces stay bright.
Read the directions. The gel toners mix 1:1 with their own developer, the liquids 1:2, and the tube wins over this card.

In the foil it looked white. Every foil looks white with lightener on it and rinses yellower, so the level is judged after the rinse, on dry hair, and a pale yellow with no orange anywhere is a 9. Painted hair rinses the same way, which is why hand-painted lengths are read dry too. Between two numbers, call it the darker one, because a 9 bowl on an 8 does little and reads muddy. Five tubes can go on a real 9, all of them leave it a 9, since a toner deposits and cannot lift, and each sends the client home a different blonde.

Violet is the pigment for pale yellow

At 9 the orange is gone and what is left is pale yellow, the last of the warmth. Violet sits across from yellow on the wheel, so the shade is a .2, the V in US lines, and blue has nothing to do here: with no orange to cancel it sits on the yellow and makes a faint green that reads gray by the end of the week. That is why the card says 9.21, the 9P, violet with a little blue behind it, which is what pearl means on a tube, on a 10 vol or lower under it so it deposits and stops. Some lines sell a toning developer at 5 to 9 vol, and the gel toners mix 1:1 with theirs. What a level 9 looks like dry is on the level page.

Five tubes on one head

Code	US letter	What it does to the pale yellow	Reads as, dry
9.2	9V	Cancels it, no ash behind it	Cool blonde
9.21	9P	Cancels it with a little ash behind the violet	Cool pearl with a soft shimmer
9.1	9A	Cancels it and keeps going	Coolest, flat indoors, greenish at porous ends
9.13	9NB	Violet for the yellow, gold left in on purpose	Sand
9.3	9G	Leaves it and adds warmth	Honey

Two of these in one bowl make a neutral. Colorists pair a 9NB with a 9V, or two parts ash to one part gold, for the blonde that is neither icy nor yellow.

Thirty grams and a cup of clear

Thirty grams of 9.21, about an ounce, into 60 g of 10 vol, two ounces, or the line’s toning developer at the ratio in its directions, and 1:2 turned into grams for any bowl size covers a longer head. Some of the bowl goes into a second cup and gets the same weight of clear, for the ends. Clear halves the pigment. Ends that have been through lightener two or three times grab a full-strength violet in minutes and go purple before the roots have moved, and the diluted share is what keeps them level with the rest. Fresh bowl, mixed when the hair is ready and no earlier.

Shampoo, condition, towel-dry until it stops dripping. Roots first, since the root is the healthiest, least porous hair on the head and takes longest. Lengths next. The diluted share on the ends last, and the whole head on inside a few minutes, because one side purple and the other side yellow is what slow application gets you. Saturate. Start one timer when the last section is on.

It goes purple on the head.

Wipe a root strand at 5 and at 10 and read the strand, because the head under the cream reads darker and more violet than the result will. Between 10 and 15 the wiped strand shows a cool blonde with the yellow gone and no violet sitting on top, and that is the minute. Past 15 a pearl on a 9 goes purple at the ends first, then a flat gray through the rest, which is the over-tone a bleach bath off the scalp pulls back. Rinse, condition, dry it fully. Wet, it reads a level darker. A faint violet in the first dry leaves in a shampoo or two and is no reason to tone again, and a client warned about it at the bowl rarely rings the next morning.

Clear on the ends A 9 toner at full strength on ends lifted three times goes purple in minutes. Dilute their share 1:1 with clear, put it on last, and wipe an end at 5. Clear can go through a whole head of paler highlights for the same reason: a 9 toner drops a 10, and the clear keeps the brightest pieces bright.

Root tap, and the weeks after

On a head with regrowth the toner does not have to be one color. The root tap that colorists say makes a blonde look more expensive is a natural a few levels darker at the scalp, a 6N in the bowl, an inch down, with the 9P through the lengths and the two blurred where they meet. The whole head is toned at the bowl in the same fifteen minutes and the grow-out at six weeks reads as intended. Either way the cool leaves first. By week three the shimmer thins and the yellow shows at the ends, and by week six the head is a pale yellow 9 again. Purple shampoo once a week from a few washes in slows it, and it is upkeep, a little each wash, for hair that has already been toned. Silver from here is a different job: it needs a 10, and a silver bowl on a 9 reads beige. The sand version of this bowl is the page for the client who wanted it warmer, and the refresh at week five is this bowl again, watched.

Level 9 to 9 toner questions

Will a 9.21 toner lighten my level 9 hair?

No. A toner deposits and cannot lift, so the hair stays a 9 and only the tone moves. A 10 is another round of lightener, or the permanent shade on 20 vol that nudges a 9 toward 10, which lifts half a level on healthy hair and nothing on porous hair.

Pearl, violet, ash or gold: which one at level 9?

Pearl for a cool blonde that fades evenly. Violet on its own for the same cool with a little less gray in it. Ash sits coolest and reads flat indoors. Gold is honey from the first day and warmer by week four. Beige, the 9.13 or 9NB, is violet and gold in one tube and reads as sand. If nothing on that list sounds right, pearl is the middle and the code most colorists name first at this level.

Why did my level 9 toner go green?

Blue. A blue-based ash meets pale yellow with no orange left to cancel, and blue over yellow makes green, faintly, which reads gray by the end of the week. Violet is the pigment for yellow. Keep blue for level 7 and below, and if the line you use makes its ash gray-green rather than blue, run a test round on one piece first.

Can I get silver from a level 9?

Silver needs a 10. The more yellow left in the hair, the less gray the toner comes out, so a silver bowl on a 9 reads beige, and a T18-class liquid on a 9 does a little and no more. Lift to a 10 first, then tone.

How long does a 9.21 pearl toner last?

Four to six weeks on most hair, twelve to twenty shampoos, with the cool leaving first and the yellow coming back from the ends. Purple shampoo once a week from a few washes in stretches that, and it is upkeep, a little each wash. The demi itself leaves the hair shinier than the lightener did.