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Hair Color 101
To my surprise, I received a couple emails asking about hair chemicals/dyes, hair types, and color formulation. I thought these were questions worth posting since others might benefit from this information too.
I don’t even know how it got this far. I’m a science nerd, so one thing led to another…. and now I’m acting like a chemistry major lol.
A little background….
First, lets begin with hair structure. This is info that you would store in the filing cabinet of your brain. A “background” of what you’re doing, per se. If you’re a basketball player, for instance, it may not be necessary to know what a basketbal is made of, but that knowledge might give you an advantage when practicing the physics of it. Similarly, learning about what hair is made of might give you better results.
I’ll keep the scientific terminology to a minimum so this is easier to understand.
If you look at the hair shaft, there are 3 major structures of a mature hair:
1. Medulla. This contains melanin and is present only in really thick hair (such as a beard). Some people with fine or really blonde hair may lack a medulla altogether.
2. Cortex. A protein core with melanin, which begins the hair’s natural color and elasticity. This is the area where chemical processes affect the most as this is the major component.
3. Cuticle. The hair shaft’s health is dependant on the cuticle. It consists of flattened cells that when under magnification, it looks “scaley.” Healthy hair has cells that are flush with the hair, and a damaged hair will have cuticles that flare out and look a bit like the base at the top of a palm tree.Okay so why is this important? One of the reason is because these things affect the hair’s porosity, which is the ability for the hair to absorb fluid. Healthy hair resists, damaged hair does not. Why is that? Look back through the structures… because the cuticle is flared and is more vulnerable to recieve the fluid.
Here’s a cool trick to check your porosity:
take a strand of several hairs from the front hairline, the temple, the crown, and the nape of your head. Hold the strand firmly with one hand and slide your thumb and forefinger of the other hand from the end to the scalp. If the hair feels smooth and hard, it is considered resistant. If you feel a slight roughness, it is considered porus. If the hair feels rough, dry, or even breaks, it is considered overly porous.Another reason this is important is because the health of all of this determines your hair’s elasticity. This is the ability for the hair to stretch without breaking. It indicates the overall strength of the hair. Wet hair with normal elasticity will stretch up to 50% of the original length and return without breaking. Hair with normal elasticity also holds curl really well. Hair with low elasticity, as you can imagine, is brittle and breaks easily. Usually this is caused by over-processing.
So to check your elasticity:
Take an individual strand from those same four areas of your head as you did when checking the porosity, and grab that strand from the base of the hair, as well as the end of the hair. Try now to pull that strand “apart” by pulling in opposite directions. If the hair stretches and returns to its original shape without breaking, it has normal elasticity. If it breaks, then it has low eleasticity.Now please note that these have NOTHING to do with hair texture. Texture has to do with the diameter of the individual hair strand, not it’s health. Coarse hair has the largest diameter, then medium, then fine hair.
Also, and this is pretty important… the lighter your hair gets, the more pigment that is removed from it, and thus the more “unstable” your hair is. With that in mind… please engrave this in your memory chamber to prevent pre-mature “balding”… BE VERY CAREFUL TO NOT OVERLIGHTEN! I will talk about “how light is too light” a little later. However, the good news is that it’s possible to have blonde shiny healthy hair… but it takes a heck of a lot more maintenance than brown, and that’s not counting the root touch-ups.
So here’s an example as to how this all applies to color. If you have normal medium-textured hair with overprocessed blonde ends (for example) and virgin hair at your roots, and you’re coloring your hair to make it all even, you will want to apply the color to your roots first and THEN your ends. Why? Because the porosity is so much higher on your ends and thus will absorb color quicker. Got it? Good. Let’s move on to the fun stuff.
So now I’m going to cover the most popular chemicals in the hair world for general and coloring uses. I separated them by paragraph for easier readability.
General hair chemicals that are good to know.
- SLS (sodium lauryl sulfate) and ALS ( Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate). Dissodium is okay. But not either of these. These chemicals actually cause the follicle sizzle and curl up – almost disintegrate—not a good thing. SLS has been shown to deteriorate the hair follicle, it retards the growth cycle of hair and increases the amount of time needed to re-grow hair from a normal of 3 months to up to 24 months. .which is prolonging the “sleeping stage” of hair growth and giving you the appearance of hair loss.This could either be because of the high pH or too much detergent action on the hair, which causes too much sebum to be removed. These are also sulfo-succinates which are strong degreasers but leave the hair in poor condition. It is reported that these are also highly allergic and that contact dermatitis to this product in a shampoo also occurs quite frequently. (Source: “DISORDERS of HAIR GROWTH – Diagnosis and Treatment” by Elise Olsen, 2003)
Okay so you’re looking at the shampoo aisle and you see nearly EVERY shampoo having that ingredient. Including the expensive “naturally made” ones. Don’t fret, there’s options. My favorite one is called Organix, which you can buy at Target for a whopping $5. Only $5. What about conditioner? You don’t need it. Seriously. I use conditioner about once a week. The problem of using SLS or ALS is that they cause your hair to get dried out, and so you MUST use conditioner to prevent breakage. I don’t know if this was intended by shampoo companies or not, but in reality, it isn’t GOOD to use conditioner daily because of all the potential buildup. Buildup= clogged follicles = retarted hair growth. And take it from me, I have enough hair to clothe 40 canadians in the winter. And yet I don’t need conditioner because without SLS or ALS it just… isn’t… dry. Those who know me or have seen me can vouche for that.
- Silicone.. not just for boob jobs. If your hair is frizzy, dry, heat-damaged, or dull, this will be your lifeline. Silicone acts as a protecting agent by protecting the shaft with a wax agent (thus making it WONDERFUL as a heat guard before curling or blowdrying your hair), but it also works as a slicker to tone your frizzies without making it look oily. Look for this in the ingredient in shine serums, heat protectants, and slickers. Avoid anything with too much alcohol.
-Argan Oil and Jojoba oil. Liquid gold and do absolute wonders on your hair. Add a dash to your conditioner, or use either to smooth down dry strands after a blowdry. Argan’s about 3 times as expensive as jojoba and harder to find, just as an FYI. Jojoba can be picked up at any GNC or even walgreens. If either is a little out of budget (price can vary from $4-$100, depends on the quality) then olive oil can do the trick too. Just… not as noticable results :c) This is the only other hair product I use since it’s not sticky at all
Hair color chemicals that are good to know:
- Developer: aka… peroxide. This is the stuff that actually “develops” the color by being the oxidizer of permanent haircolor, providing the oxygen for lightening of natural pigment (aka.. lift) and for the development of artificial pigment. This is important: when coloring your hair, two processes take place… lift and deposit. THEY HAPPEN AT THE SAME TIME. So, the volume of peroxide does NOT determine how strong it is. Don’t let that freak you out. What the volume number means is “How Long It Will Continue to Lift.” A nice rule of thumb is: 1 volume of peroxide = 1 minute of time. So for example, If you’re looking to go lighter by several levels, a higher peroxide is needed. Here’s a chart to give you an idea:
40 Volume: lifts 3-4 levels, 40 minutes
30 Volume: lifts 2-3 levels, 30 minutes
20 Volume: lifts 1-2 levels, 20 minutes
10 Volume: no lift, deposits color only.
During the “lifting” process, that either being done with color + developer, or just straight bleach, you’ll get some funky yellow-orange color. So if you put it on and are starting to get clown hair, relax, it’s supposed to look that way. When your hair is stripped of it’s color, it’s going to have an orange/yellow/red brassy hue which will probably freak you out. Once you put the color on, all of that disappears… unless you didn’t leave it on long enough. But we’ll talk about color-correction later.
- Ammonia: the most misunderstood ingredient. When you color your hair, two things happen: Lifting pigment from your hair, and depositing new pigment in it. The “lift” occurs because of a combination of the ammonia in the tube of color and the hydrogen peroxide in the developer that creates the lift. Ammonia does three things: It causes the hair shaft to temporarily swell, it facilitates lightening (lifting) by releasing oxygen, and it creates the necessary alkalinity (all hair color is alkaline in pH) for the development of permanent color. Ammonia is an absolutely critical ingredient to produce the results you want. It’s like trying to make a homemade biscuit without flour. You can TRY to make one without flour, but it sure as heck won’t taste good. I think ammonia gets a bad rep when too much is used, as it can be extremely damaging to your hair. However, it’s needed, so if you’re looking for “ammonia-free” color… it just won’t happen… because without ammonia, deposit and lifting of the color would not occur.
- Toner: Applying toner is like placing a nylon pantyhose on your hair. This is what gives your hair the hue you want. It doesn’t lift (or lighten) so it deposits color only. So, this should be used with 10 volume developer, maybe 20 at most. Be weary of “toners” that require more than that.
- The haircolor itself. Again, when coloring… you LIFT and then DEPOSIT color. Before coloring your hair, you need to mix a couple things together: color and developer. The minute these are mixed together, the clock starts ticking, so make sure you work FAST so that your color can develop evenly. There are three different types of haircolor ….semi (lasts 12 washes), demi (lasts 24 washes) or permanent (fades over time). Yes, permanent haircolor isn’t *fully* permanent. It just fades instead of washes out.
- Bleach. Also called “lightener,” “blonder,” and whatever other foofy words salons use, it’s all the same thing. When getting highlights done professionally, powder bleach is typically what is used. All-over bleaching is best done using oil bleach. Don’t think of this like your detergent bleach.. because IT IS NOT THE SAME THING. Bleach can accomplish what color and developer can not. Bleach will lift MORE, often to 5-6 levels. The downside… bleach is more damaging, so you can’t afford to “accidentally forget” about the time when processing. You just can’t. Because of the strength bleach has, it lifts at an extraordinary amount, and will often change your hair levels within 10 minutes. Get your hair too light… to the white stage…and that lack of pigment will cause your hair to be spongy and fall off. I’m dead serious. Bleach is not a force to be reckoned with.
There are factors involving how bleach will affect your hair: your scalp and hair’s health, your natural level, amount or degree of gray hair, your texture, your hair’s porosity, and the artificial pigment in your hair. The two main problems that people typically have with using bleach is either because of 1) end result is too yellow or brassy (aka… bleach not left on long enough) or 2) hair is brittle (aka… bleach applied too long or too often). Knowing how strong bleach is will help prevent these mistakes. After bleaching, keep in mind that your hair will be the color of the natural pigment. It will look a little unsightly and depending on how far you chose to lighten, you *may* not want to go out in public with your hair as-is. This is where toner comes in (see above description for toner) and it is usually applied right after the bleaching process. This is what “double processing” means… bleach and tone. Keep in mind that maintenance on “double processing” can be very high. For instance, if you decide to bleach your whole head, you are going to have roots to meddle with while avoiding your already-blonde strands. This can be tricky and VERY damaging if you don’t have the skill to do this!! As for highlights, often they don’t even need toning, and can be re-applied every few months since roots aren’t as visible. Just as a tip, since this will continuously make the hair lighter, you might need to do lowlights every 6 months or so to balance it out.. otherwise you’ll eventually be all-over platinum 
All of this is confusing. How am I supposed to figure out what to use? Can’t I just use one of those all-in-one boxed kits?
You could, but you might not get the results you want. Your hair might turn green, purple, or bright orange depending on your shade of hair and the chemicals they use in their color. If you’re okay with that, then go for it. Otherwise, I would suggest erring on the side of caution. It’s true that for some they do in fact work, but for others… it’s hazardous. The girl on the front cover often is not the end result it will bring you. This is because the kits are not designed for different levels of hair. A person with black hair and brown hair CANNOT get the same result with one kit. It’s chemically impossible… and you’ll see that when learning about the color wheel in a little while.
To find out what level of COLOR you need to use, you need to first figure out your natural level, which will sit between 1(black)-10(very blonde).Also you need to know what undertones (if any) your hair has. Does it look more ash (green) or more gold (red)? Or neither (neutral)? Check out hair swatches at your grocery store, or at Sally’s, and compare.
Here’s a little chart I drew up:
| Level | Underlying Pigment | Hair Color |
| 1 | Blue | Black |
| 2 | Blue-Violet | Darkest Brown |
| 3 | Violet | Dark Brown |
| 4 | Red-Violet | Medium Brown |
| 5 | Red | Light Brown |
| 6 | Red-Orange | Darkest Blonde |
| 7 | Orange | Dark Blonde |
| 8 | Yellow-Orange | Medium Blonde |
| 9 | Yellow | Light Blonde |
| 10 | Pale Yellow | Very light blonde |
| 11 | Palest Yellow | Lightest Blonde |
| 12 | White | White |
To find the right LEVEL of color (we’ll talk about shade a little later) we only need to pay attention to the numbers up above, and do a little simple addition. Let’s say you’re a level 5 and want to be a level 9. Pretty common, a lot of brunettes decide to all of sudden go platinum blonde. So how do we do this? First, subtract 9 from 5. We get… 4. Good job. Your 2nd grade math skills are coming in handy now. Next we add that onto 9 to get the hair color level that we need. 9 plus 4 is 13. Wait, are you saying that there’s no level 13 hair color? You’re a smart one. That is very true. So in this case, we can’t use hair color. We’re going to have to use bleach to get that lift. Bleach should only be used if color & developer do not lift enough. The reason is because bleach is stronger in its lift, and thus more damaging long-term on your hair. But that part is my opinion, a lot of people use bleach regardless because it’s fast.
Let’s try another example that won’t involve bleach. Say you’re level 7 and want to be level 9 (I swear everyone wants to be light blonde nowadays). 9-7=2 so 9+2=11. Get a level 11 blonde color tube. You’re done, right? WRONG. You forgot about the developer! Remember that color doesn’t lift color. That’s why we need a developer. So with that in mind, what volume should we use? Hmmm let’s see.. what lifts 2 levels… 30 volume! So you use a level 11 blonde color with 30 volume. Easy Peasy.
Don’t head off to Sally’s quite yet, we have to cover one other thing first. The color wheel. Yes, that dreadful wheel your art teacher made you do in 5th grade and insisted that this was somehow important in real life. Well, he was right. Or she.
The desired hue of your hair color is just as important as the level. As you can see from the chart I made, there’s underlying pigment tones in the hair when there isn’t any color deposited in it. They range from blue, to red, to orange, to yellow. Are the gears in your brain turning? Are you starting to understand how someone’s hair could turn green? Or orange?
No?
Let me explain further. Hair color, as I mention in an earlier blog, is not opaque. The color of your hair is the result of MANY factors: your underlying pigment, porosity, level, and shade and depth of deposited color. The two most important things you need to know about hair color and the color wheel is: What colors cancel out each other, and what colors make what. The colors opposite on the color wheel cancel out each other. As far as formulation of color, a lot of that would be practice and seeing it for yourself, but here’s some basics:
Blue + Yellow = Green
Red + Yellow = Orange
Blue + Red = Purple
The primaries are Red, Blue, and Yellow. Just note that every color derives from those.
So how does this apply to picking out our color again? Let’s go back to our first example. You’re going from level 5 to a level 9. We know that we need to bleach, so instead of “color” we will use toner, to tone the bleached hair. What color should we get? Look back at the chart. Level 5 is light brown with a Red base. This means that without any color deposited in your hair, your pigment is red. As you go blonder to a level 9, your pigment becomes orange, and then yellow as it reaches the desired level. Let’s say you want a nice soft platinum blonde color. How would you achieve that? If you just applied neutral platinum color, what would happen? The answer is that it would turn out a little yellow. The reason is because the pigment underneath is still there peeking through. Let’s think, how would we remove that… what cancels out yellow… look at the color wheel…. PURPLE! You will want to get a toner with a purple base. Sound weird? Yeah I know. deliberately applying purple color in your hair doesn’t initially seem to make sense. But as you will see, it cancels out quite beautifully and will give you that platinum blonde you were looking for.
This is the reason you see a lot of yellow-squash colored heads bobbing around here. They put on the bleach, see it’s turning yellow, rinse it off, and leave it. Had they applied a purple toner afterwards, it would actually look great. But people get all confused and scared about “unnatural” colors. Hopefully you’re not afraid anymore.
Extra Tips…
It’s always good to have on-hand a stock of red, gold, and violet color… just in case your end result turns out a little too brassy and you don’t want to damage your hair further. It can save you a lot of frustration. I have a stock of Manic Panic that I mix in with a dab of conditioner to tone my hair. It’s cheaper than purple shampoo and you can control how much it needs to be toned. The other plus is that it’s truly semi-permanent (true semi’s don’t require a developer) so it COMPLETELY washes out after a few times. This is nice if you accidentally apply too much and get purple hair.
Another thing: after coloring, MAKE SURE you apply a pH balancing conditioner. This is SO VERY IMPORTANT. After you’re finished coloring your hair, your pH level still stays the SAME which is horrible for your hair!! Apply Wella In-Depth or similar treatment to balance that out. It also helps reconstruct proteins and lock in color and shine, which is definitely an added bonus.
Well that’s my shpeel. Hopefully this was beneficial. I’ll be coloring my hair again in December or January (since I haven’t been using SLS my hair’s been growing like a weed.. so we’ll see lol) and I’ll post a report on that around then. I think I’ll be going more of a strawberry blonde next time, which is really exciting. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask me. But please know that I am not a licensed professional, I’m just a geek. So if you decide to color your hair based off of what I say, please use caution, as I most likely didn’t cover everything in consideration of everyone’s unique circumstances. I think hair is just hair and that it will grow back. I don’t care if it looks weird, so there’s little risk for me in experimenting with color. If you feel that your hair is just as important as your arm, you might be better off going to a professional. Just my opinion.
17 Responses to “Hair Color 101”
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Hi,
This was so helpful! I’m currently in a color-nightmare. My hair was blonde once upon a time, then went brown as I got older, so I started bleaching it professionally. When it was originally bleached, it went strawberry blonde, so she had me come in the next day to put in more ash. For 8 years I had the same bleached blond hair which you can guess started to look fried and horrible. The same formula was not deviated from *at all* over those 8 years. So I had an idea to go red. Think Alice Hannigan red… yeah that almost worked. The roots that had grown out about 6″ were *PERFECT*, the rest of the hair was darker. The color fell out after about 1-2 weeks and it was a permanent color. She used semi-permanent the next time and it was noticeably more violet. I don’t want violet. I then did my one and only box job at home using Loreal and taking it carefully and not going up any levels. It lasted longer and also made it a bit more violet but honestly not much. I seem to return to this horrible brown color with burgundy tones that can be seen in the light after about 2 weeks like clock-work. I then went to a Redken salon and they used a semi-permanent on me with a “red kicker” and it did change the brown to red(more like dark auburn)…. unfortunately it had a lot of violet. How do I get rid of this violet and just go a nice red and stay that way? From the information above it looks like I’ll need a level 7 red with 30 volume developer (going from a 3 to a 5 leaning more to a 5/6). The part I’m a little lost on… is will I need to bleach? I have years of bleach built up under this color, so I’m afraid of that outcome. I don’t go over the 10 levels, so I shouldn’t have to… but how do I counter this horrible violet?
My hair curls very easily, when pulled it doesn’t break…. good elasticity? Check.
As far as texture, the color may be brown but it still feels like blonde hair and I still have a ton of it, it always kind of freaks out hair people because they expect different, thicker texture with not so many strands of hair.
Pulling my thumb and forefinger across the various areas of hair… the root end is smooth and hard and about 4″ out it’s porous (a little bit scratchy, but not much). Combination? Check
So…. there’s my life’s story, I got the 8 and the 30, but I’m a little stuck at how to get the yellow in there to kill off the violet.
P.S. the bottom inch of my hair is dyed black, which I like and won’t mind re-dying black.
What level blonde were you? and what level red did you get? It sounds like what might have happened to you is that your hair was either a) not properly filled (when you go darker, you must fill the hair with the pigment it lost through lightening) or b) it was applied sloppily by your colorist not picking the right color. The fact that the redken salon put a “red kicker” makes me think that the salon didn’t pick the right color for you. You don’t need more red– you have enough of it! You need GOLD.
Yellow counters violet. So what you need is warm shade of red, like with an RG prefix, to counter your burgundy. If you still desire a burgundy-ish shade, I would mix this RG color with your desired burgundy. Exactly how much to add is dependent on how much violet you have.Obviously the more violet you have, the more RG that is needed. I would do a strand test to see exactly how much– it’s hard to guess from my end!
That gold will knock that violet out of the park and you’ll have stunning red hair 
Make sure you pick professional color though. That will make all the difference in the world. Personally I would recommend going with Wella’s Koleston Perfect, they make the absolute best reds that hardly fade. Not too many salons offer it though. It’s mostly popular in Europe. But if you feel comfortable doing it yourself, that’s what I would suggest 
If you want to know where to find it, send me an email.
Hope that helps!! Let me know how you fare with your hair adventure or if you need more help
~illumisis
Well… hmm here’s a level timeline:
When I went in to get dyed originally, I was about a level 7 tending toward level 6 blonde. The first time she applied dye to my virgin hair I was brought to about an 8.5 blonde heavy on the strawberry. When I went in a few days later she put bleach on and brought me to a level 8 blonde. Over the years I ended up at a level 11 blonde or very close to it. I was bad about neglecting my roots, so I was a combination of a 10 and 11 at varying lengths because I hated the color of it.
This is when I went to a new colorist and she applied the permanent red. I think you’re right about both options A and B. She brought out the color book, had me point and never countered as to whether or not my hair could handle it with the current dye job, it was a single application and 45 minutes later (no heat) I was out of the chair. When I walked out of there I was a level 5 red with a hint of burgundy (I don’t want burgundy).
When I returned to her and she put on the semi-permanent I was a level 3 red with more than a hint of burgundy and now violet. It faded quickly and I went to a level 4 or 5 brown.
When I was at home, I used Loreal Feria Ruby Rush and went back to the level 4 red with the same burgundy/violet.
When I went to another new colorist (the Redken salon), she used the EQ line and brought me to about a level 4 red with the same burgundy/violet.
My hair was last dyed (with the Redken EQ + kicker) on October 24th, right now I’d say I’m a level 3 brown with the burgundy/violet coming through only in the sunlight.
So there’s the timeline
I’m so glad that it sounds like this can totally be fixed! I’ve heard nothing but good things about Wella and I’m more than happy to go forward in search of the perfect red. (You’ll notice I have a lot of variation between coppers and vibrant reds, I love them all and would be happy with any of them: http://viralminds.com/haircolor_options.gif ).
I think I’m going to need to be hand-held for the color picking… I went to their site to look at swatches ( http://www.wellausa.com/consumer/products_consumer/international_line_consumer/koleston_perfect/swatch_charts/reds.jsp ) and there isn’t anything there with an RG prefix.
Dang your hair’s been through a lot! Those swatches of red are beautiful. If you’re a level 3 brown, you might have to lift a bit to get it up to take more of the vibrant copper shades, meaning that you probably should use a combination of koleston perfect (to lift and deposit the color) and then tone with Wella Color Touch (which has a great selection of gold shades– it’s a demi-permanent and designed to work with koleston). but if you don’t mind a rich red (think dark auburn or dark copper) then you can just deposit color with Color Touch.
And yep, you’re right, koleston misses RG swatches. Color Touch is there for those. Check the swatches for Color Touch and you’ll see what I mean. Koleston and Color touch are the exact same colors– they work together WONDERFULLY. But note that they are a FULL SHADE darker than wella’s color charm line you can find at sally’s. So keep that in mind when you’re picking out color
What I would do is decide the exact shade and level you are looking for. If your goal is to just not have purple-red hair, then this is what i would do if it were me: I would pick up a tube of Wella Color Touch with an RG prefix and buy a bottle of 1.9% emulsion 6 volume (check ebay–I’ve found it to be the cheapest there, strangely enough), then do a strand test to see if that’s the desired color. It *should* look like a dark auburn. ( I say “should” because I’m guessing without seeing the actual color of your hair! ) But if it is the color you’re shooting for, I would just refresh your hair with color touch every 6 weeks or so, and you should be set.
If your current level is to dark for you– then that’s a whole other ballgame. Let me know if this is the case.
Ironically, I’m doing a post this weekend that you might find interesting… it’s similar to what you’re trying to do. I currently have level 7-10 blonde hair (highlighted in chunks) that I’m coloring dark auburn. I’m making a photo-tutorial on how to do it
It’s a very very difficult color to deposit onto blonde hair since it tends to either fade or wash out. The color molecules in red are huge and they often have trouble squeezing into the open unpigmented hair shaft, making a permament color red a demi permanent color. But, once it gets in, it’s really hard to get it. If that makes any sense. Think of it as trying to shove a giant grape into a soda bottle. It’s tough to get in, and even tougher to get out. Check back either on saturday night or sunday for that post if you’re interested. The process is similar to what you would do, and I’ll be using Koleston and Color Touch so you can see the reds in action.
Hope that helps!!
illumisis
i want my hair to be auburn with goldenblonde chunky hightlights. i am a 3 and i want to be a level 5. i have used the claroil color remover b/c i colored my hair form box and its looks a messss. i know i need a numbe0r with either 20 or 30 volume(i have relaxed hair and an ex cosmo student….lol) pro 30 sincxe i use motions mild relxaer, but im not sure what tone. i was thinking 7rg but i have porus hair. i understand the bleach completely so im fine on that end. but what i dont get is what to do if my hair is tooo brasssy which often happens. i know its will have goldish brassiness to it and i wnt to know what cancells out the gold and orange tones that my hair will pull..
A NUMBER 7 , AND I WANT IT TO BE A DEEP RICH AUBURN
I’m not sure if you’ll get this in time but you might want to reconsider the bleach for now if your hair has been through what you described. The fact that you have relaxed hair, that you’ve used box kits AND the clairol color remover, (double no-no’s) and that you also have porous hair are signs that you should really consider getting your hair healthier before doing any further dying. Aside from the condition, any color you put in (ESPECIALLY red being that the pigment is so large) it is going to wash out very quickly. For the sake of your hair, please consider waiting and doing deep conditioning with oil or specific treatments to restore health, waiting at least a month, before doing anything further. And when you do decide to dye your hair, you NEED to avoid those box kits that you used. They are the WORST products you could honestly use on your hair– you need to use professional products or at least semi-pro. For reds, I have found wella to be the absolute cream of the crop.
If you are dead-set on going red, what I would do is do a month of intense deep conditioning. No dying, minimal heat tools, etc. and let the hair recover. Then I would pick out a red within a level of your hair color. I would seriously avoid bleaching… look for a deposit-only color, more specifically ColorTouch or Koleston Perfect. Do a strand test to see how the color turns out and how your hair takes it. If it’s too elastic after the dye, deep condition some more for another month and see how things look. Depends how fried your hair is I guess.
Good luck & let me know if you have any other questions or if you need clarification….
~ illumisis
I’m not good at this hair color thing I think I am a level 8. Medium Blonde, I would like to have blonde hair. Right now I am using 8/01 ash blonde, but my hair stylists says my hair looks green. what color should I be using. I dont want gold in the blonde I would like to look like a natural blonde not a very light blonde. thanks any help is appreciated.
Hey Donna,
If you’re wanting to go lighter than a level 8 and it is currently too green, you will want to cancel that out as you’re bleaching lighter. Look at the color wheel.. what cancels out green… what is opposite from green… red! So, you’ll want to get a color with a red base. Now before you go buying hair color, you first will want to do what’s called the “shampoo train” (shampoo, take a break for 30 minutes, shampoo again, etc. etc) and get out as much of that color as possible before you color. Do this about 3 weeks before coloring so that your hair has time to rest. I know what you’re probably thinking… “it’s permanent color, there’s no way it would wash out.” Actually, that’s not true. All color can wash out. Unfortunately no one has created hair dye (yet) that is immune. That is why a “refresh” or re-dye is needed with almost all hair colors on a fairly regular basis unless the color dyed is the same color as your natural hair… but that would probably defeat the purpose of dying it.
Anyway, If you don’t want a light light blonde, and want more of a medium blonde (level 5-6) then you will have a bit of a task in toning. It’s possible to tone, but keep this in mind when selecting color. The underlying pigment in your hair will be shooting toward a yellow color, which is where you will want the bleach to stop. Don’t freak out when you see it. You will need a violet based toner to tame it, and a very strong one at that.
So, you will want to select a color that has a red base AND a violet base. You will probably then need a toner, but the color on that can very depending on how your hair took the bleach and red/violet based color. Make SURE you do a strand test too so that you’ll get predictable results!!
If I may put in my $0.02…. please do not use boxed kits at the grocery store. I’d recommend Redken Levitation Bleach and Koleston Perfect, with Color Touch as the toner. So much gentler on your hair and it’ll give it amazing shine
Good luck!
~illumisis
Thanks for the much needed help.. Could you tell me what colors I should use. Like I said I am using Koleston perfect 8/01 ash blonde. I’m using 20 volume. Should I go to 30 volume. Do I go to a lighter color like 10/0 and mix in a red and violet color. Or should I stay with my present color and add in the red and violet. I was going to have my stylist color it for me next time but I can’t afford to go to him everytime I need a touch up. I really appreciate your help It is much appreciated. I’m glad this site is available. Thanks again for your help.
Donna
Well, here’s the problem. Someone with blonde hair with red undertones using 8/01 will get very different results from someone who is an ash blonde using 8/01. Your formulation would need to consider: your base hair color + the color it is currently dyed + the color you will be dying it = the end resulting color. Your base hair color would be your virgin hair, the color that’s at your roots. To see your level and tone, check out a koleston perfect color book and match. Or, check out Sallys Beauty supply and use one of their samples to match. The volume amount depends on the amount of lift you want. Determine the level and shade (such as golden, ash) you’re looking to obtain. If you’re looking at moving up 1-2 shades, then just 20 volume. If you’re looking for more, you can try 30 volume. But really, you should be using bleach if you’re looking at going 3 levels or lighter, otherwise your hair will turn out really brassy and you will need a pretty strong toner to combat that. No one wants clown hair.
I’m sorry I can’t give you more specifics, but I would need more details from you in order to give you more specific information. You need to determine what level AND tone you’re looking to achieve, what level AND shade your virgin roots are (if you have roots), and what level and shade your dyed hair is. Again, 8/01 will look very different on a redhead than it would a brunette. So that’s why this is very important.
Does that make any sense? Do you have any other questions?
~ illumisis
Hi again, Another question for you, my original hair color is a light brown, ive used KP for a while now Ive been using light ash blonde, With 20 volume developer. What I am actually looking to do is cover the grays. What if I strip the color thats in now what would you reccommend to cover the grays and still be a very light brown or almost blonde. Not sure If I am making sense to you. But once again thanks so much.
When you say “light brown,” what level and tone are you talking about? The term “light brown” could mean hundreds of colors and values, and if you’re not sure what level and tone your hair is, you MUST know this before coloring. You must. Otherwise, coloring will merely be guesswork and you’ll end up just crossing your fingers hoping for the best. I don’t say that to scare you– but like I said before, you must know your original hair color in order to know what color to cover it.
Think of it this way… let’s say you’re painting, and you have a blob of blue paint on your palette. You want the color purple. You don’t just dump a “purple” color onto blue… you’ll get a bright blue-purple. If you want true purple, you must mix red with it. Does that make any sense?
Check out Sallys, see the Wella line swatches, and see what level and tone your hair is. Tell me what that is, and then perhaps I could guide you further.
An example of a level/tone reading would be like this 7N (level 7 neutral), 7A (level 7 ash, which is a green tint), 7W (level 7 warm, which is a red-golden tint), 7G (level 7 gold, which is a gold tint), 7R (level 7 red, which is a red tint), etc. etc. etc… there can be hundreds of combinations. Mine personally is 6RBR. You see how “light brown” might be a little tough to pinpoint?
That’s where I think boxed kits strike… they even say on the boxes, if you have brown hair use this… and then people wonder why they get strange results!
Let me know!
~ illumisis
I am growing out a short cut. I have one inch of new growth, virgin base, that is level 5 neutral (I checked it against a Wella swatch). The outer three inches of hair is double processed salon highlights at about a level 9 gold, although they have faded a bit. It has been three monthes since it was last highlighted. What I would like to do is bring my two shades closer together; darkening my blonde and lightening my light brown so that the end result is medium blonde neutral. I am after a more natural look but level 5neutral on it’s own makes me look tired and washed out. I am one of those blonde-haired kids that got dish-washy as I grew into my late teens. My hair is medium to fine in texture and is in good condition. What sort of filler do I use on the highlights? My gut feeling is that I should just deposit only color the highlights close to the color of my virgin roots and let my hair go from there perhaps coloring the roots lighter later. Otherwise I am trying to lighten and darker at the same time. Very tricky. What do you think?
hi, i had red dyed hair, but because the colour all over was patchy i put a dark brown on it to even it out – it now looks black
any idea how i can get it up to a purpley-red colour, like a plum colour without excessively damaging it? any help would be appreciated thanks xox
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