Hair color Foundations
Welcome to the basics of Hair Coloring. Before you embark on coloring your hair at home, let’s go over what you need to know!
If you are ever unsure of what the best option for you is, please consider booking a consultation with a color specialist. Most consultations are free and you can talk through everything and come up with a plan without needing to have an appointment booked. This is a great way to pick a stylists brain about pricing, home hair care and what possibilities there are for your hair.
There is also a super handy online color consult option through Sally Beauty’s website. You can hop on virtually and they can help you pick out what you’re looking for and give you free guidance. Check it out here.
Your natural color is referring to the color that grows out of your scalp.
Virgin hair is hair that has not ever, at all, been treated with any hair color.
There are 10 naturally occurring “levels” of hair color. The “level’ refers to how dark or light your hair naturally is. Here is a visual representation. Much like when you get bleach on a pair of jeans, the darkness of the denim will determine the color of the bleached spot. A very dark black or navy denim will often turn orange and a lighter wash will turn yellow. This is also true for hair. If your hair is naturally darker (below a level 7) it will have orange undertones. If you are naturally closer to a dirty blonde, your hair will have yellow undertones. This is why it’s not realistic or achievable to go from naturally dark to very light hair in one session.
When it comes to coloring your hair there are 5 general categories of services:
-Semi Permanent: Tinted Conditioners, Manic Panic, etc. Deposits directly on to the hair, doesn’t need a developer. Lasts a few washes. Safe for home use
-Demi Permanent: Some coverage, but gently fades/softens. Picture a sheer stocking vs a legging. You can still see the natural dimension of light and dark. (Usually mixes with between a 6 and 13 volume developer) Also safe for home use
-Permanent: Matte, full coverage color. One tone without dimension. Does not fade. (20 to 30 volume developer) Dicey for home use without an established technique/advice from a stylist.
-Lightening with bleach: There is no reason, unless you want to see smoke coming off your hair, you should ever use more than a 20 volume developer with lightener at home. 40 volume= radioactive, stay away or you will look like this
-Lightening (with high lift hair color) Leave this one to the professionals, please! You will become 10 shades of * orange *
Other than using a semi permanent dye which just sits on top of the cuticle and eventually washes out, any of the listed coloring services above will chemically alter the hair. Just because you colored your hair at home 5 years ago and it faded does not mean the color is no longer in your hair. The color particles that penetrate the hair strand stay put until you physically cut those pieces out.
Hair grows on average 1/2 to 1/3 of an inch per month. So that means, depending on how long your hair is, the hair on the very ends may very well be 10 years old. If you colored your hair with a box 10 years ago, the very ends are still going to be holding that color.
Why is this important to know?
That old hair color is going to be extremely stubborn and will affect how even your hair is going to turn out, if you ever want to change it and color it in the future.
Now we’ll get into how the old box dye comes into play. Like an old curse come back to haunt you, that old color from 5 years ago will certainly make its presence known if you try to get bleach or permanent color involved.
If you apply bleach lightener over the hair with the old color, there’s a very strong possibility it will either not lighten at all or will only lighten to a deep rust/orange color no matter how many times you try to lighten it.
If you apply permanent color over the old hair color, it will layer on top and build up the pigment, causing it to look much darker than the wanted result.
Porosity
Each time a chemical service is introduced, it opens up the cuticle and makes the hair more porous. This is why If you’re bleaching or coloring all of your hair at once, the previously colored ends are going to soak up the color and your newer hair on the roots will be a different color. If you’re applying bleach all over, the very ends will soak up the toner to a nice cool tone and the roots will stay more of a yellow color. If you’re applying permanent color all over, the roots will end up lighter than the ends. Different porosity = different color results.
Test Strand
If you don’t know how a color is going to react with your hair, you can always do a test strand. This is a small (1/2 inch or so in diameter) section of hair somewhere hidden in an under section that isn’t highly visible. Mix a small amount of the color you’re going to use and paint it on to the section, wrapping it in aluminum foil to not transfer to the rest of the hair. This will give you an idea of how it will look on the rest of your head with low stakes.