Hair Coloring and Lightening

Level, tone and the pigment underneath

Three separate properties describe any head of hair, and the exam tests whether you can keep them apart.

LEVEL is how light or dark the hair is, on a numbered scale where 1 is black and 10 is the lightest blonde. It says nothing about warmth.

TONE is the reflect — golden, ash, copper, violet. Two clients can both be a level 8 and read completely differently: one golden, one ash. That difference is tone, not level. In a color code such as 7N, the number is the level and the letter is the tone.

INTENSITY is the strength or saturation of that tone, which is a third thing again.

Natural color comes from melanin in the CORTEX, and there are two kinds. Eumelanin gives brown and black. Pheomelanin gives red and yellow. Every oxidative service works in the cortex, which is why the cuticle has to be swelled open by an alkaline agent before anything can reach it.

UNDERLYING PIGMENT — also called contributing pigment — is the warmth exposed as lightening removes melanin, and it appears in a fixed sequence that never varies:

level 1–3 red → red-orange → ORANGE at levels 5 and 6 → yellow-orange at 7 → yellow at 8 and 9 → PALE YELLOW at 10.

Stopping at level 6 leaves orange. Lifting all the way to 10 leaves pale yellow, and pale yellow is where you stop rather than white — some pigment always remains, because hair stripped of all pigment would have no structural integrity left. Violet never appears in that sequence; it is a tone used to cancel one.

The law of color: what cancels what

The color wheel is the whole of it, and three pairs are worth knowing cold.

PRIMARIES are red, yellow and blue. They cannot be produced by mixing, and every other color comes from them. SECONDARIES are orange, green and violet, each made from two primaries: red + yellow = orange, blue + yellow = green, red + blue = violet. A TERTIARY is a primary mixed with the secondary next to it on the wheel — blue-violet, yellow-orange.

COMPLEMENTARY colors sit directly opposite each other and neutralize one another:

• BLUE cancels ORANGE

• VIOLET cancels YELLOW

• GREEN cancels RED

That is the entire law of color, and it is the answer to most corrective questions on the paper. Blue-based and ash formulas kill brassy orange. Violet is the base in every ash or platinum toner and kills yellow. Green is the base in formulas labeled for canceling red or copper.

Mixing a color with its complement neutralizes toward BROWN, not toward a cleaner shade, because all three primaries end up present together. That is also why brown is not a secondary color.

Warm and cool matter for formulating: red, orange, gold and copper are the warm family; blue, green and violet are the cool family, sold commercially as ash, pearl and platinum. Neutral and natural describe shades balanced between the two rather than belonging to either.

The classic trap is reaching for violet out of habit because purple shampoo is familiar. Violet on brassy ORANGE leaves the orange uncorrected and adds a cast that was not there before.

The five product categories, and what a toner is

Categories are separated by two questions: does it use developer, and does it reach the cortex?

TEMPORARY color coats the CUTICLE without penetrating the cortex and washes out with one shampoo. No developer.

SEMI-PERMANENT is applied WITHOUT developer and fades gradually over several shampoos. It deposits only; it cannot lift.

DEMI-PERMANENT uses a low-volume developer, deposits without lifting the natural level, and is the right category when a client wants a small amount of gray blended and refuses any lift. A demi-permanent GLAZE refreshes faded ends and adds shine without changing the level.

PERMANENT color is oxidative: alkaline, above pH 7, mixed with developer, depositing pigment in the CORTEX. A HIGH-LIFT TINT is a permanent tint designed to lift several levels and deposit tone in one step — but it is still a tint, which matters later.

LIGHTENERS remove pigment rather than adding it. Powder lightener is the strongest form, dries as it works, and must never be used directly on the scalp; cream and oil lighteners carry conditioning agents that make on-scalp use acceptable.

A TONER is applied to hair that has already been PRE-LIGHTENED, to place a tone on the pale stage underneath. For a pale ash blonde toner, the hair is lifted to pale yellow first. A DOUBLE PROCESS is exactly those two steps: lighten, then tone.

One more product answers a specific problem. An oxidative COLOR REMOVER shrinks dye molecules so they rinse out — it removes artificial pigment, which no tint can do.

Developer volumes and oxidative chemistry

Four numbers, and they are worth memorizing rather than reasoning out under time pressure.

• 10 VOLUME — deposit only, no lift. Demi-permanent color and toning.

• 20 VOLUME — one to two levels. The standard for permanent color and for gray coverage.

• 30 VOLUME — two to three levels.

• 40 VOLUME — three to four levels.

The OXIDIZER is hydrogen peroxide, and the volume number reports its concentration. AMMONIA is a different agent doing a different job: it is the ALKALIZER that raises pH and swells the cuticle so the small dye precursors and the peroxide can reach the cortex. It is not the oxidizer, and it does not cancel warmth — tone does that.

What happens chemically is that peroxide meets the dye precursors and they oxidize and join into LARGER color molecules, too big to rinse back out of the cortex. That is what makes permanent color permanent, and it is also why hair feels drier afterwards: the alkaline formula raised the cuticle and left it more porous than it was.

Two arithmetic points get tested. Mixing equal parts of 20 and 40 volume gives 30 volume — mixing AVERAGES concentration, it does not add. The result can never be higher than the stronger component or lower than the weaker one. And heat SPEEDS the reaction and shortens processing, which is why the scalp area of a lightening application is left until last.

Store peroxide cool, dark, capped, in its original container. Light, heat and air all degrade it, and a degraded developer will not deliver its labeled lift.

Application: virgin, retouch, foils and timing

Sequence is decided by heat and by porosity, and both point the same way.

On a VIRGIN LIGHTENING application, begin about half an inch AWAY from the scalp and leave the scalp area until last, because body heat makes that zone process faster than the rest. The ENDS are generally the most porous part of the hair, so they process fastest of all — which is why an even application can still give an uneven result.

On a RETOUCH, product goes on the NEW GROWTH ONLY. Overlapping lightener onto previously lightened hair subjects processed hair to a second chemical treatment, and produces breakage plus a visible LINE OF DEMARCATION where the overlap meets untreated hair.

The head is normally parted into FOUR sections before a color application, and subsections are taken thin enough that product reaches every strand. Timing is counted FROM WHEN THE LAST SECTION IS APPLIED, not from the first — which is the whole reason speed of application matters.

FOILS isolate the lightener from the surrounding hair. A WEAVE, taking alternating strands, gives the finest and most blended highlight; a slice gives a bolder band. BALAYAGE is freehand surface painting, from the French for sweeping. HIGHLIGHTING lightens selected strands and LOWLIGHTING darkens them. An OMBRÉ is dark at the roots and gradually lighter toward the ends.

Protect the client before you start: a towel under a waterproof cape, and a protective barrier cream around the hairline. If tint stains the skin anyway, a stain remover — or a little tint on a damp cloth — takes it off.

A mixed formula left on the counter for 45 minutes is discarded and mixed fresh. Oxidation began the moment it was mixed.

Corrective color, gray coverage and problem hair

Corrective questions are scenario items, and each one has a single identifiable cause.

BRASSY THREE WEEKS LATER, uniformly throughout: the TONER has faded, revealing the underlying pigment stage the lightener stopped at. Toners are deposit-only and wash out over a few weeks. Lightening stopped the moment it was rinsed, and natural pigment regenerates only in new growth at the scalp.

GREEN AFTER A SUMMER OF SWIMMING: copper and other MINERALS in the water binding to porous, pre-lightened hair. Chlorine's role is to keep those minerals in solution and to raise porosity, not to create the color. A CHELATING or clarifying treatment removes the deposit; a toner does not.

UNEVEN LIFT, light at the ends and dark at the mid-lengths: the ends are more porous and processed faster. A weak developer would under-lift everywhere rather than in one zone.

ENDS GRABBED TOO DARK when a level 6 went over previously lightened hair: pre-lightened ends are porous and missing primary pigment, so they absorb quickly and read darker and duller than the target. A FILLER evens porosity and replaces that pigment, and is applied before coloring damaged, porous hair several levels darker.

A SOAP CAP — shampoo, lightener and developer together — lifts a small amount of unwanted color gently and evenly.

GRAY COVERAGE fails because gray has NO MELANIN and therefore no underlying pigment to build on. RESISTANT hair has a tightly compacted cuticle and low porosity. A resistant hairline that has repeatedly failed to take color is PRE-SOFTENED first. At about 70% gray with full coverage wanted at level 6, add a NATURAL or NEUTRAL base to the formula.

Two histories change everything and must be asked about. METALLIC SALTS — a drugstore product that darkened the hair gradually over several weeks — react with peroxide. HENNA coats the strand and can react unpredictably with peroxide. Both mean a strand test before anything else.

Tests, safety and the record card

Two tests answer two different questions, and neither substitutes for the other.

The PREDISPOSITION TEST — also called a patch test — is performed 24 to 48 HOURS before an aniline derivative tint, applied BEHIND THE EAR or on the INNER ELBOW. If the site shows redness, swelling or itching, do NOT perform the service; refer the client to a physician. This is required even for a client who has never colored her hair and only wants to go one level darker.

The STRAND TEST determines the PROCESSING TIME and the result the formula will give. It is what you do when a client cannot remember what was used on her hair or when.

Before formulating anything, establish LEVEL, POROSITY and COLOR HISTORY. High porosity means the hair absorbs color faster and can process too dark. A client's photograph is used as a reference to discuss AGAINST HER OWN STARTING POINT, not as a promise.

Safety rules that end a service rather than adjust it:

• Lightener NEVER goes on a scalp with abrasions or open sores. Intact skin is a barrier; broken skin is not, and a strongly alkaline oxidizer on an open lesion causes chemical burning and can carry product into the tissue.

• BURNING ten minutes into an on-scalp lightening service — rinse the product out IMMEDIATELY.

• Inflamed, heavily flaking scalp noticed during consultation — POSTPONE and refer to a physician. Naming the condition would be diagnosing.

Routine safety: single-use gloves protect the cosmetologist's hands; a NON-METALLIC bowl, because metal reacts with peroxide and the alkaline components and changes both processing and result; leftover mixed color is discarded and the bowl cleaned and disinfected.

Afterwards, an acid-balanced shampoo and conditioner close the cuticle the alkaline formula opened. Home care: a sulfate-free color-safe shampoo and limited heat.

And keep the RECORD CARD — formula, timing and result. The next service depends on it.