Create this Colorists Cashmere Brown Hair Color . . . . .

or. . . . Hues Your Daddy?!

  This is a subject I have wanted to write about much in this past year, as I have watched/packed many Crib Colorist orders. With pretty much all hair color orders I can tell what you all are doing at home by the colors/toners you purchase. When I learned hair color and how to formulate, the first month I thought it was all Greek…and never thought I would ever be able to decipher the entire concept…so if you are one that is still a bit in the fog…remember that… With ‘time’ and ‘practice’ it WILL sink in, you just have to have faith and keep reading, repetition causes comprehension – I promise.  

Almost every single one of you order one tube of color to apply, and while that is more than fine. I have always known at some point I wanted to teach all you CRIB COLORISTs the basics of color formulation in the manner that Top Colorists use. Its an “art”, it truly is.. . I honestly have been rather stumped as to exactly “HOW” to teach it – its like teaching someone to “paint'” only much harder in my opinion. You can teach someone how to use the paint, how to mix colors, but the artistic ability is something that comes from “WITHIN”. Its a talent. A God given talent. Its nothing one can teach another I feel. I have one daughter who has been able to paint gorgeous pictures from a very young age . . . automatically. . .  her sister has none of that talent - -  absolutely none.  So that is when I learned what God given ‘talent’ is. 

Lets review a little. In order to come up with the most accurate end result  . . . I really hope all of you will remember to always consider the KillerQ8, when beginning to work out your color formula:

1. What level/tone is VIRGIN hair?
2. What level/tone is Hair PRESENTLY? What artificial color is on the hair? is the most defining question there is…
3. What Level/tone is DESIRED Hair?
4. Amount of Gray?
5. Hair’s Length?
6. Porosity?
7. Texture? (fine, medium, or coarse? + condition?)
8. What is DURP? Dominant Underlying Remaining Pigment ??

If your hair is fine, medium or coarse is an important part of the information each of you must determine. Texture refers to the general ‘feel’ of the hair which is a function of both DIAMETER and CONDITION. Sometimes the word Texture in relation to your hair goes even further to encompass “configuration” meaning Straight, Wavy or Curly as well.                                                 

For coloring Diameter matters the most. COARSE hair has a thick cortex, Color chemicals must penetrate more mass and lift more natural pigment, so it takes longer to penetrate and lighten COARSE hair. More processing time, a stronger developer and a more ash formula (to eliminate greater DURP)may be necessary when coloring very coarse hair. Coarse hair has more cortex & less cuticle. It has less surface area to its total weight so it takes LONGER for chemicals to absorb into it. COARSE hair is more stubborn and I always add a minimum of 10 minutes on development times {checking at all times though}, for coarse-y’s. 

Fine hair has a thinner cortex, and more surface area…therefore fine hair is penetrated more quickly . . . Less cortex means less melanin, so fine hair is also lightened more easily. Coloring is faster, although it also fades faster ( because it accepts less artificial pigment to begin with) – there is less room for the dye molecules in the thinner hair shaft.

Ethnicity affects texture to a certain extent, Caucasian hair tends to be finer. African-American, Asian, & Native American hair tend to be coarser. But to be perfectly honest the range of fine-to-coarse texture exists in every racial group – each and everyone one of you need to completely evaluate your own hair. Most of you have medium texture, not fine and not coarse. Most people perceive their hair to be finer or coarser than is really the case.

REMEMBER : a fine hairline should be the last area to be colored….many times it only needs color on it for 5-10 minutes at the end

After answering the KillerQ8 the First Follow-up question would be are you SUBTRACTING color or ADDING Color? or both?

If you are doing addition(+) only, the color formula is many times pretty simple provided it is going no more than 2-3 levels darker – more than 2-3 levels means you may have to apply a “FILLER” (re-pigmentize ) to achieve the exact ‘rich’ color you desire.

lets review the Developers again real quick…..

10 Vol<>Deposits hair color - does NOT “lift”

20 Vol<>Deposits hair color & Lifts 1/2 to 1 Level 

30 Vol<>Deposits Hair color & Lifts 2-3 Levels  

40 Vol<>Deposits Hair Color & Lifts 3-4 Levels 

What developer you use is very very important…..ALWAYS keep this in mind when attempting to solve your hair color formula. Most times I recommend using premium developer as it contains many lipids and conditioning ingredients that will condition & moisturize the hair while being tinted. The one exception? Our Renbow Color, within the Colorissimo line the conditioners other lines put in the developers Renbow puts in the tube of color. It is BEESWAX based and is a very super thick consistency - - therefore the developer is the clear type.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  -

Lets work 1 example:

lets say you are:

Level 7A (ash) +  you would like to be a Level 5 B {going darker ! ! } – which in normal everyday ‘terms’ means:     you have a light ash-brown color-less hair and you would like to be a gorgeous rich chocolate brown.

Provided you have completely virgin hair ( the absolute best to work on - has the most successful results ) this is a fairly easy task. In this post we are not talking about “how” to apply, just “what formula” to apply – how to mix multiple colors to achieve dynamite results.

I would use Level 6 colors in Wella’s - Koleston Perfect line ( the line runs a solid full Level DARKER than any other line in existence) as a result of being developed in Germany years ago.

In painting the paint you squeeze out of the tube is the color it “IS”   . . .When you squeeze Caramel Brown out of a tube of acrylic paint….the appearance of it is a caramel-y brown. When using permanent Hair Color you squeeze Caramel Brown out of tube of Hair color, it is NOT caramel brown in color - AT ALL – it can be pink, blue, violet, gold, etc... The color change doesn’t take place until the developer is added and some time has gone by.  It is the chemical reaction of the tube of color with the hydrogen peroxide that changes the molecules to become an oxidative hair color and thus, the Caramel Brown, Baby blond or whatever color you are using to achieve the desired results. 

So as opposed to mixing colors as one would do with paints, with hair color you are mixing “blind” – which is why learning COLOR THEORY is so very important. You want to pick your colors according to all the Color Theory rules I have been throwing at you…  

I don’t think I have ever used 1 tube of color to color anyone’s hair. If I have it more than a decade ago. Why? I feel these companies give me “base” colors to use in order to create gorgeous colors. What I look at when I see a head of hair is the colors that it hangs on to most and then try to fight them. Hair Coloring is not using the color you want…..its fighting the DURP (dominant underlying remaining pigment) you have. If you fight the unwanted colors, the result will be your desired look. I think so many of you are so used to hair color disasters that you are scared of hair color… I hope to dispel those feelings, over time and with many of your testimonials. The way professional hair color works is to “counter” the problem colors in your hair.              

The formula I would come up with for this client would be this:

Wella Formula

6/0 N   + 5/75 BRV  + 6/7 B  + 20Volume

1/4 oz.        1/4oz.          1oz.

Renbow Formula

5/0N +  6NBG + RenColor 06/Velvet Brown

…..Now, the reason for each color……..As a Colorist I see most people’s hair as Colorless, until it has permanent hair color in it. Natural, God given hair color is very ‘flat’ to my eye as it is with all Colorists …it doesn’t have the depth , the shine, the body any of the marvelous qualities that a great pro color will give the hair. Therefore, if you have colorless Level 7 Ash hair first it needs to be filled in with a base color. . . .which is why we use a “neutral”. Any hair color that is faded or colorless needs a “neutral” to establish a base. Now to build on top of that for richness using a Level 5 - Brown/Red/Violet – colorless hair needs warmth – this shade has so little even using it straight it is extremely little. Making it 1/4 of the formula is just enough to give the hair the warmth it lacks – reds/oranges/golds all produce warmth and result in the richness this color needs - - yet you will see absolutely NO RED.

(As I am explaining this, I can see that this multiple color mixing is being brave and having experience with color.  I guess I will just have to keep giving various examples and eventually you all will start  experimenting, hopefully!)

Now, next is the 6/7B which is a straight BROWN color which completes the picture  - -  as a straight Brown and as much as WELLA might want us to believe that we can use this to achieve the color we are going towards – it simply will not do the same as my mixture of 3….Every Colorist I know – every article I have read written by Colorists mix multiple colors in the same exact manner as I demonstrated here.

When using multiple colors the color molecules all mix together when going inside the hair strand, which results in the combo you have used.

Remember all permanent hair colors today have a SELF-STOPPING coloring action, so you will get no build-up on the ends. None of that annoying “banding” I see and cannot stand happens when using the colors sold in the Killerstrands Store http://killerstrands.myshopify.com/ . Once the color has reached the color you have chosen and the color IT IS; it will NOT go any further. It will never go darker than the shade you have chosen. This also makes it possible to apply from roots to ends ( in many cases) when you require it, with no overlapping and no build-up of color on the ends.

I hope this gives you a little insight into the “mixing of hair colors” I will start giving out more of my favorite color formula’s periodically.  I hope everyone’s Holiday Season is going well.

WE have some new products in the store and the group has been extremely active. Oh btw . . .  I have announced the first $500 Challenge in the Group…if  you are interested to learn how you can win $500. in Killerstrands products . . .zip on over to the group and read up. . . the more that join the more fun it should be .