Hair help

I got balayage done on my hair to add in some blonde for summer. The problem is it's now gone a little brassy and I need to go to the hairdresser to put some toner in to freshen it up but I can't afford to. Is it possible to buy toner yourself and put it through or is that a disaster waiting to happen and best left to the professionals? :)

Have you been using purple shampoo?

Yeah but it doesn't seem to be helping much! I'm thinking maybe it's the chlorine as I've been swimming heaps and that's a pretty strong chemical!

Have you tried thoroughly wetting your hair with fresh water and perhaps a leave-in conditioner pre-pool so the chlorine doesn't penetrate?

I had a little search and found these pages that offer some advice
this one

and 

this one 

I hope they are of some help... Also maybe see if you can buy the toner from the salon as a single dose to do at home?

xx

Thanks ladies! This is the first time lightening my hair so I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to these things!

Before you put toner on you are better to rid the brassy tone first, you can do that by purple shampoo rinse, or leave in for 15 minutes as a hair mask or if that scares you and are near to a LUSH store grab a tub of Marilyn its a lightening hair mask that you pop in for 20 minutes and it really lifts the orange, ginger and brass blonde out of your hair, also helps a little with the green but chloride is a curse to blondes (see below) once you got the brass out and green if you are still needing to tone it you can then, otherwise unless the toner has a lightening agent in it to lift the colour it won't do very much to your hair.

When chloride is introduced to bleached hair it stains green on the lighten areas, even when I was younger, before my hair dying days and I had my natural blonde hair I used to be a keen swimmer and did lessons and competitions (shocking I know!! now a days I get tired from a lap, one of those things I wished I never gave up on really..but I digress) anyway I used to get attacked with the green tinge and my mum brought me voseline (not sure if that is available in NZ) or head and shoulder, anti dandruff shampoos are great to clarify hair!! sometimes better than the clarifying shampoos.  The only thing though is they are extermly stripping to your natural oils so you need a heavier duty conditioner or you'll end up with a frizz ball all dried up.  I've used it recently and even the cheaper versions of anti dandruff shampoo work.

PS...if your looking at my hair and thinking "yeah she knows what she is on about, look at her green tinged hair!!!!!!!" this is on purpose LOL =)

I'm not a hairdresser, just been dying hair and bleaching my own hair for years!! and these are my findings and what has worked for me personally

I would have to say purple shampoo as well.

For a long period of my life I had bleached blonde hair, I was really lucky though swimming never coloured my hair not sure why.
 
But there are definately some stronger purple shampoo's then others. 

I have been through many of them (l'Oreal Silver, Matrix So Silver, Steina Silver Brights) but by far the best one i've ever used was the Fudge Violet , it was ah-mazing ! so amazing it gave me a purple tinge to my hair (which I loved).

Leave that one on for 10-15 minutes and i'd be pretty confident it would get rid of the brassiness.

I know what you mean, sometimes purple shampoo just isn't enough.  You could always try putting an ash blonde colour through it, that's supposed to help tone brassiness down.  Based on what I'd read about Loreal Casting Creme Gloss shades I recently put the colour 1021: very light pearl blonde through my hair as I read that it will also help with brassy tones and it did!  It evened my blonde colour out heaps, actually the result is what's in my profile photo right now.  

This is why I love BR, thanks so much for the amazing suggestions! I feel a little less silly about being a blonde Virgin and now I get to learn all about it! I've been using a purple shampoo but maybe it's not a very good one so I might try the fudge one and see how I go! Although, any excuse to visit Lush....hehe

im az haidresser and we recomend purple shampoo or even trying a clarafing shampoo to help rid of chorline  you could also try sunlight dish wash to hlp with the build up buut by the sounds of it going brassy sounds like a toner is in need  we charge $15 for one have no idea of prioces whee you are tho good luck

100% agree with chikoboos fab comment. Have you tried leaving the purple shampoo in for longer? Just remember to follow with some sort of mask or deep conditioner as it is super drying. I use the Fudge brands and it's pretty amazing although I haven't compared to others xx