Rant: That one Tuesday where every single toner pulled total orange

I had this day last month where I did three blonde touch-ups in a row and every single one came out brassy no matter what I used. First client was at 9 AM and I thought maybe my purple shampoo got watered down, but by the third one I knew something was off. Turns out my assistant had been mixing the toner batches with week-old developer and I didn't catch it until lunch. Has anyone else had a run of bad luck like that where you just want to throw your brushes in the trash?

3 comments

3 Comments

garcia.wren3d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, I totally get being frustrated in the moment! But I do want to gently push back on one thing real quick. Week old developer doesn't really go bad that fast. It's mostly just that it's been sitting out and loses its potency over time, but it's not like expired milk or anything. The real issue with old developer is that it won't lift or deposit color as strong, so you'd probably get a weaker, more uneven tone rather than straight up orange. Orange usually comes from the hair's natural warmth fighting the toner, not from stale developer. So your assistant might not have been the whole problem there, maybe the hair itself needed a different toner formula too.

the_laura3d ago

idk, i mean maybe it's just me but i kind of feel like blaming the assistant is a bit much here. you're the stylist, you're the one who should be checking what's going into the toner before you mix it up. like yeah, it sucks your assistant grabbed old developer, but that's something you can catch in 30 seconds if you're paying attention. i've had my own bad days where everything goes orange, and looking back it's almost always something i overlooked myself. it's easy to get mad at the helper but at the end of the day the color on that head is your responsibility not theirs. maybe this is a good reminder to keep a closer eye on product freshness instead of waiting for a bad result to find the problem.

kelly_rivera3d ago

Wait, has anyone actually tested how long developer lasts after it's opened? I feel like that's the real question nobody's asking here. @garcia.wren you mentioned it loses potency but i swear i've had bottles that were sitting around for like 6 months and they still worked fine for me. maybe i just got lucky or maybe my salon is just dry enough to keep it fresh. honestly i've had more issues with toner going bad than developer, especially those purple ones that always seem to separate after a week.