Breath of Fresh Hair : Remove Brassy/Yellow Tones In Blondes--Highlights

Rusk, a company I am always interested in . . . they still seem to continue to care about their products and their clients. . . have come up with this new line they call Sensories.

Here is what the company has to say about it::

Rusk Sensories™ represent a new era in haircare.

This unique collection provides not only the benefits of natural, botanical ingredients, but a totally new chemistry as well, CFT, or Compressed Formula Technology. Compressed during the formulation, Rusk Sensories™ expand with a little water and gentle manipulation, transforming their physical appearance while releasing their provocative botanical aromas for an irresistible sensory experience. And that's not all. With Compressed Formula Technology, you use 30% - 50% less product to get double the performance.

Now - that seems innovative to me and I love the "feel" of this spray - its particularly - 'yummy'.

I point this spray out because of its wonderful 'feel' and its smart technology in trying to solve a number of problems at once. It is not only the nicest feeling spray Serum I have felt in a long time, it also has elements in it that eliminate yellow and brassy tones on blondes-gray & highlights - how clever is that?!

Once I learned Cosmetic Chemistry . . .
which by the way - -
many of you can learn just enough to understand the basics
. . . by studying a couple of web sites.

Jenny has Lotioncrafter and is an absolute dream as far as her knowledge and her assistance she will give you in making some basic products yourself... yes, its chemistry and you do need to be committed to the process of learning it, but I got sick and it was the perfect thing to keep my mind OFF of the illness and ONTO something constructive. . . . "Learning".. so if that happens to be your situation - - or maybe if you have lost your job and need to learn something else to get you by - I would seriously consider it.

NEVER - Ever . . .give up.

That just is not an option.

I always feel you should push forward and push harder -

N O M A T T E R W H A T

Its fun, educational, handy and very eye opening to the world of everything you put on your body .

Here is Jenny's web site, tell her I sent you
www.Lotioncrafter.com
or use
Angie's ( who is a good friend of Jenny's btw!)

The Herbarie . . . basically one is on the west coast and the other is on the east coast . . for delivery charges would be the basic difference. The Herbarie is the staple for bringing Cosmetic Chemistry to the public, prior to that web site - we were not allowed to learn any of it . . . so the INTERNET has been just spectacular for the world of EDUCATION, in my opinion.
None of Killer Strands would be available to you if it were not for the Web.
I would use both for your education as well as the GROUP they have.
http://theherbarie.com/


Now back to the point of this post !

The Chamomile and Lavender Brightening Shine Spray

and 'yes' it does have a wonderful scent of chamomile and lavender . . so one more goal of one tiny product. . . and its not overpowering either.. but it ALSO
"makes the hair smell wonderful "

lots of advantages to this $12.95 wonder!!

> It claims to Awaken the senses and impart instant shine as it revitalizes and brightens dull, lifeless, blond, silver, gray or white hair.

> Bright Shine Spray adds shine and effectively erases yellow or brassy tones on highlighted or blonde-tinted hair.

> Contains sunscreen protection to help protect color fading.

> Specially formulated with Chamomile and Lavender.

Once again the advantages to these sensories products: All Sensories products feature Compressed Formula Technology. CFT enhances and expands the user's sensory experience. Use 30-50% less product and achieve twice the performance. Another excellent 'plus'.


Plus you can click here and make the purchase which will take you through PAY PAL

One click takes you to a $12.95 - 4.2 oz.bottle of RUSK Bright Shine spray PLUS Shipping of 8.95.... good for anywhere in the continental USA.
If you are outside of that, shoot me an email
Killerstrands@gmail.com
Love this stuff. . Killer Chemist

LET THERE BE LIGHT -- Peroxide -- Friend or Foe for frickin' sake

Questions - Calculations & 'mo

Now that I have helped befriend our dear darling Peroxide, the inquisition continues. I went looking through my old notebook for the calculations on how to make different Volumes of peroxide for your Color Room out of 130 Volume .I forgot to mention even worse than my writing? My math. Boy, I rarely mention my main faults so early in the game but they are necessary here. I will give you what it says and you all can take it from there. Tho - I'd like a volunteer to field questions about the calculations - please sign up in the Comments section below. (my kids are just like me its a disease math-i-tis I think they call it).





In addition, I'd like to fill in with what else I can about Hydrogen Peroxide to help you all warm up even more to the little bugger. There are many chemicals just like this little one, which is a terrific project that needs to be rescued by the big MFG. companies, I get my hopes up that big companies like P & G (whom actually I would love to work for > altho only on the "Green" side) might have researchers scoping the net trying to figure out the future of Hair, Hair Health and Hair Color - at which point they Zero in on my Web site and their prayers are answered. They call and ask me to advise them, develop a Killer Line of both Hair Color that involves teaching the public, the LEVEL System and shampoos and styling products that are actually moisturizing and healthy for the hair. Its easy, its possible and it can be done at reasonable prices. I swear to you I am just not too sure why it is not done now. What is better than a completely happy customer with Killer hair color. The way it is now the only reason people use those damn boxed color kits is because they are afraid to calculate the hair color themselves. I don't believe "fear-driven" success is near as prosperous as "confidant & successful" driven success





Killerstrands@gmail.com





There was an instance I bet when I mentioned "chemicals" that blew that fear of "Word Phobia" through your bones, am I right? Be honest - people hear "chemicals" and think; bad - horrible - get them away from me thoughts, when in fact so much of what we need, we require and what we actually want are chemicals in our daily life. Of course there are "bad ones" and "good ones" and there are bad 'amounts' of them and good 'amounts' - that is the fine line that must be maneuvered





Chemicals are all around us, always, and always have been. We are made of chemicals, indeed chemicals R Us. The plants we eat are also full of chemicals. But how does the body deal with these chemicals and what do they do to us?





The chemical industry has been able to make the stunning revelation that everything is made of chemicals! Chemicals are in fact perfectly natural substances and we really need to do more research before throwing them out . Apparently thousands of the so-called 'natural' products of the earth are laced with nasty toxic substances, of which, of course, we were all unaware until this startling discovery was made known to human kind chemicals are not only man made and not all of the chemicals made by man are dangerous and not all of the chemicals found naturally are safe. Some people will say that there must be a difference between things made by chemists in laboratories and things found in nature? It is true, there are differences, natural chemicals are often more complex and chemists find some very difficult to make! For example DNA and proteins are extremely complex. But surely man made chemicals must be more poisonous? Not necessarily true. We won't go into the entire discussion here. I just needed to point out - what I stumbled upon when I began my dive into Cosmetic Chemistry. Being a Vegan and a natural food buff for my entire life (yep californians are weird!) it was a very unusual revelation to come to terms with. So just know I watch out for every single healthy avenue for hair - I truly do, I doubt you will ever encounter a hair stylist more in tune with the "natural" "organic" and "healthy" avenues than me, except for maybe those that don't believe in hair color at all. I also live under the umbrella of " life cannot be all that serious" - we must have some fun, because life is short - play hard.











Again: H2 O is Water: a chemical- bad? I think not. Necessary? Very. When the Developer begins working with your hair color it starts out with 2 atoms of hydrogen and 2 of oxygen as soon as it is combined with the hair color 1 of the oxygen molecules is given off and the product is down to what? H2 O! Water. And that is bad? See how things get out of whack? Peroxide is your friend, it really is.





Hydrogen Peroxide is the OXIDIZER of permanent haircolor-ing, providing the Oxygen for

• lightening of natural pigment and for the


• development of artificial pigment.

Those 2 lines say it all, but those are 2 jam packed lines. Read them over a couple times as this will put your mind in the right frame to continue on.











The percentage of lift in any color is directly related to its ammonia content ( remember many stylists will quote "ammonia content" as a bad thing), in the Killerstrands world I: look for LIFT. Lift means lightening - plain and simple - if you don't want to lighten hair, do something else....most decent Colorists are looking to lighten hair...we want more ways to lighten hair....we want more conditioning ways of lightening hair. Don't people want to be blond?.... have blond ribbons, blond pirouettes, or blond under color blocks?? Lightening is the most common coloring technique in the biz... Every single time a new lightening product is developed it is greeted with a very warm reception by 10's of thousands of hair stylists so ammonia content is a very necessary product.





Blondes are very very popular, whether in 1 Color 'all-over-blond' or blond placed in very creative ribbons in a dynamic head of brown. If you can attain the lightening, then you can control it -- or tone it, is my theory. I want as much lift as they can give me, let "me" control the amount I use and where I use it. Maybe they don't because of all the mis-information going on around, but come on... that problem is easily solved. The biggest complaint category of hair color is

• "too brassy"


• "too orange"


• "too yellow"


• "too gold"

....have you all learned this one yet? What would be the reason for these 4 complaints?





Not enough lift - if you have those 4 problems then you have taken the bleach off TOO SOON





So having more lift, while remaining more conditioning & moisturizing has finally hit the manufacturers. There is a new "conditioning" Developer by Redken, they have teamed up with their new product Blond Icing. Like I said, more jazzy new lighteners the better - we love the new technology -- just like in any field. Bring in a new product that works 'higher' - 'faster' - 'longer' - of course we'll jump on it.





The developer has a few of the moisturizing alcohols - cetyl alcohol - stearyl alcohol and cetearyl alcohol which are lipid based moisturizers and marvelous for the structure of hair. I thought of that trick as soon as I discovered how these worked a couple years back, what takes these companies so long, when they are in the business of manufacturing hair color?





You know why?





Because its a whole slew of Lab Rats sitting in their Labs at Redken,Clairol, or Wella or what-ever-hair color manufacturers International that don't have the Technician <> to CLIENT connection. That's why there is a lag in the business, and I only discovered that when I went from the TECHNICIAN to the LAB RAT, a step that is rarely if EVER taken by anyone. When they take someone like a FREDERIC FEKAI ( which i refer to as the Technician/Stylist)....or a Jonathin Antin and ask them to put their name on a product.... they do not TEACH them HOW the products are made....which ingredients do 'what'....or ANY of that technical B/S I hate to say. I know, because I was there. If I hadn't gotten sick I would have never had the time nor inclination to study Chemistry for 3 years - because to truly understand which ingredients should be used and "why" is just not something that can be learned in a day or a week.





The 'way' that shampoos work, must be understood.........not simple





Remember me rambling on about SLS shampoos - I did for weeks on end...??? Remember? Sulfate-free shampoos....? ? ? ? Which by the way> every single company on the market has one in production. Well, the one and only reason I have the confidence to make that claim is because I do understand "how" the shampoo works ...how each surfactant works and "how" each ingredient works. I have watched and breathed SLS and seen the damage it can do to a strand of hair...but Technicians do not have that advantage. What they do have is a company telling them whats in each of the shampoos, etc, and hoepfully going on their advice. Its a wonderful library of information to have and I Love the fact that I was afforded the time to study all the chemicals and ingredients and know what they are and "why"!

...so I know what everything is now when I look at it...But> remember the FREDERIC Fekkai's of the world.... and their $250.00 Conditioner - are not worth it - THRIVEN will blow the socks off it - on 86% of the candidates.. So let's hope you are one of those chosen few where the stars meet the sky.





I am NOT putting them down for that fact...what I am trying to do is educate everyone so we all understand how the system works. The more we educate hopefully the more we can improve on the system in place. Any large company like that should have a board of advisors that use their products and are constantly giving them advice and direction as to where the company needs to go with new products - blows me away how UN-innovative the hair industry actually is.





This industry should be setting the trends not lagging on them.The way the industry is now, Hair Color products are antiquated - archaic almost, I've had ideas for them for years that I do not understand why they have not made or attempted to make. Hair color is a tremendously booming business - 2 $ billion a year is a very conservative estimate and the more tools the better for every Colorist: whether it be a Crib Colorist or Pro.





Why not put more tools in the hands of Home Hair Colorists? What's the big secret? There is plenty of hair color that needs to go around... why is there not a level of Pro Hair Color available for the women at home that don't live in LA or NY that desire the quality of hair seen on every magazine cover? There is plenty for the Salon Colorist, which is not available to CRIB COLORISTS - why not? There is so much room for growth - expansion and this subject needs to be talked about and discussed openly so that the women of America are able to achieve decent hair color in their own homes. For the many women that cannot afford or do not live near the high dollar hair salons...they are stuck using hair color products that are a much lower quality than the hair color if they go to Cosmetology School. Do you realize that there are lines of hair color that I may get in trouble for selling to the public - which I cannot figure out "why"?? Anyone care to address this subject with and for me...





How can it be against the law to sell 'certain' hair color?





To certain people?





Then all the hair color in Sally's need to be against the law to sell to the American people....which "brand" is OK? and which one isn't? more importantly - WHY???





Who sets those standards? There aren't any sort of laws.....or rules....or ???? Why can I not sell hair color that I have legally bought, to another person that would like to buy it ?? Because that person has not gone to Cosmetology School, what book is that a law in? That is the most bizarre restriction - ever . I looked in Sally's and the exact same thing is printed on a box of hair color in Sally's that is printed on a box of hair color from a professional company. BOTH of those companies are owned by the same larger company.....that larger company?





P & G. Proctor and Gamble. CLAIROL & WELLA

BOTH OWNED ULTIMATELY - - BY P & G





I'm not done reviewing : ammonia and peroxide so please put that subject in the "hold" category. I ran a whole new demo for Readers to show you what bleach with ammonia and bleach without ammonia did to Level 4 hair.....so stand by.

Blonde Icing Blitz - Off-The-Scalp-Bleach Test

New Professional Blonde Icing (Bleach) Test


Silver Jar - Ammonia w/ bleach Gold Jar -- No Ammonia
Goal: Observe strength of Bleach with & without Ammonia on Level 4 hair strips


1) Apply bleach to Level 4 strips in foil and set timers



















Test one strip with MAGMA Colored Bleach by WELLA : Bleach & Tone in 1 step

Best part? -- it works -

Limitations? Color selection

Koleston Perfect 55RV - Ego

Very difficult to see - I know - the darker the hair the less you see in photos - in person it looked great.
Same color as above notice 55 RVR - RUBY...only in demi permanent. I actually was surprized at how great this color took. For Demi-permanent it was pretty darn close to sister swatch



This test strip was one I really hoped you would be able to see better, a lot of readers have asked about lightening "Level 2 thru Level 5 hair".
This is Level 4 with 12 ASH + 40V = a very nice and warm - Level 7 Hair.




Here are the bleach swatches . . . Check out the Level 4 > lightened 60 minutes

swaches . . . . .




The rest of the swatches.
no toner has been used --
this was a childs hair,
I always believe a childs hair is when your hair will be the best...

What is very apparent here is this . . .

there seems to be absolutely no difference in the bleach "with" ammonia or the Bleach "without" ammonia
?? What does that tell me?? It tells me that "ammonia" is just the "word" of the moment....all the color that is labeled "without ammonia".....
Why?
What does everyone know about ammonia?
what I know - makes me want it -
When I want to lighten hair I want ammonia
so I can get the hair to the proper Level it needs to be, otherwise it will only get to the "orange-gold-yellow" stage, which is what happens when you don't use professional color.

Do you know that is the one big difference in the hair color that you can purchase at Sally's versus the professional color I make available to you ?
the ammonia content.
When you mix professional color the "light" colors pack a punch, when the product is poured into the bowl then the developer is added - the aroma is semi powerful...personally I love it. Some don't - its like that paint smell I guess.
I know something good is going to happen - so I enjoy it...
the sign of a true Hair Colorist!

Yellow Blonde vs White Blonde(Platinum) - - Colour Wheel Solves Yellow-y Blonde Hair

Notice the 2
completely
different shades
(tones) of bleached
blonde hair of
these 2 men :
Brad Pitt & a

model that looks like him






YELLOW -YELLOW -YELLOW

Probably seems strange how a colour wheel can relate to hair colour
most brilliant ideas go back to "the basics",here is nothing more basic than the Colour Wheel

• it would be the tones of hair colours that are objectionable to many
• in blondes: the yellow tone of a blond is very unappealing
• redheads: a lot of red has washed out and ORANGE / GOLD will be the objectionable shades in a tinted redhead
• objectionable Brunettes would be too "GREEN" brunette (ash)

All of it,of course, is personal preference and how style and trends have changed.
There was a time when I really did not like ASH toned colors at all. Now I choose them often, it took 13 years for me to learn to like them but the trends had changed & I had to change. A client and a stylist can have completely different ideas so I do not like to make any definitive guidelines. What I want to do is show you how to counter whatever objectionable tone you may have in your hair colour, the rule applies to all colours & tones. The most common across the board- distaste for a hair colour would be a too-yellow blond - (you almost need sunglasses for) .
As you see above in Mr. Pitt.

Now with someone of that caliber you wonder why in the world would he have this horrid shade of yellow in his bleached blonde hair??
He's an actual - true (Virgin) Dark Blonde - Level 7- NA - Neutral/Ash.
He has all the money in the world to have the best Colorist on the planet, why would he go out in public with hair like that?

I can tell you why...
These shots are from 2005 - end of the year.
Guys do NOT understand hair color, I promise you. . . .very very few, get it. The Gays are pretty good with it, its a unique concept, as I am sure you are noticing.

( The fourth step of the 10,000HEADS Program is Hair Colour and the proper use of it. Instead of just reading you the riot act about finding a great colourist (not always possible for many reasons), I decided to start explaining some of the intricacies of hair colour you might have to take into your own hands. )
Look at Pitt he couldn't even get it right.
Although if you remember for the first few years of his career he did know how to dress, he finally hired a stylist...he's looked great ever since.
The reason?.......end of 2005 is when Pitt and Aniston broke up.....she uses some of the best hair people on the planet....he lost that when he left her.
Jolie knows nothing about hair colour, although he was in between the 2 at the time trying to make sense out of his life ( bet he regrets it all now!).
I heard Jennifer said, "Tell Brad: Billy Idol called and wants his hair back..."
Billy Idol would be horrified his hair was never yellow. EVER.

The method of fixing a too yellow blond is the best way to show you how the color wheel relates to hair colour.
In order to cancel the yellow tone in the blond one must head to the colour wheel (until you memorize it)
The opposite of yellow?
Purple/Violet or even a Blue-Violet BASED toner ...is the answer..
Here is an example and I know why it happened as well..
The purple being the opposite colour knocks out the yellow tones and returns the overall appearance to a neutral.
All Toners for Blondes have an underlying base to them, toners are a transparent colour... many times you cannot get the absolute perfect shade or tone that you desire with a one step (single process) colouring technique.
Which is why I differentiate between hair colour and "SHOW" Hair Colour.
When doing hair for Hair Shows the entire goal is to achieve the absolute most brilliant Tones / Shades & / Hues that are possible. Its a shame that not all hair is done that way.
It was one of my faults in my hair business, I would always do hair at that level which slows down the day. Time is of the essence in getting clients in and out of the Salon.


Applying a blue-violet or purple based Toner to the yellow blonde will kill the yellow and make the blond a very pleasant Platinum ( think Marilyn Monroe white-blonde) or like the gentleman model on the right at top of the page.
SEE THE DIFFERENCE THE PROPER TONER MAKES?. PItt has no toner on his bleached mess, the bleached model has a violet based Platinum Toner from Wella which was left on the hair for 25 minutes after the bleaching process.
Mixing toners produce wonderful results - having multiple dozens of brands and tones, there is nothing more fun than playing with hair colour toners on blondes, silly, huh?
I love it!
The same process works for every hair colour, they have toners in all shades and tones. The too-green (ASH) Browns...using a red brown (AUBURN) toner will warm that brown right up...and so on.
A toner has three possible names

1. Toner


2. Semi-Permanent color


3. Demi-Permanent color

They are very low volume peroxide colours ...so there is no lift (cannot go lighter). The colours end up being very transparent / washing out easily, it is especially important to use a sulfate-free shampoo.

Color Wheels for Reference

go across(opposite) for whatever colour you want to get rid of to neutralize