Showing posts with label Degrees of Lightening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Degrees of Lightening. Show all posts

Monday, April 6, 2009

About to turn into a Platinum Bombshell?

There are 2 excellent methods of application. Choose 1.

As Spring comes blossoming out of the sky, requests for gwen94 blonde's and blonding come floating in the email "in" box. Most of the country. . ruffling their feathers from hibernating all winter . .begin thinking of warmth and brightness and sun. Many let their base (roots)  grow out much longer than at any other time throughout the year, but know.... its time to make that change, ever thought of going Stefani blond.... let the platinum begin.

This technique is referred to as double process, which is deceiving and inappropriate in my book, but I suppose I cannot re-write History. The 1st process would be the bleaching, the 2nd the Toner.  . . .Toning is not a "process" its an application. But there you have anyway.

Going Platinum Blond is a statement and a mission . .  I have seen meager timid guys go from mice to men and shy submissive women turn out as dominating. Its amazing what a hair color can do to a personality.

When mixing Levitation Oil Bleach ... (found in Killer Color Clinic) http://groups.google.com/group/killerstrands .. it may not seem like it but it is crucial that you mix in the order described.  The powder and oil should connect first. . .  mix well  . .followed by the addition of the Developer. If I for some reason forget and  begin doing it the wrong way I will stop and start over. I have tried it before and the results were NOT the same - so please remember that. You want the bleach to apply in a nice silky manner so it does not drip . . . nor is too dry - - so the moisture needs to be perfect. Following directions to a T will give you that.

The usual method of application for a full bleach out is similar to the double application method for single process color. First apply 1 inch away from scalp, then, when the mid-shaft is nearly the desired stage of lightening, apply to the scalp area.

Now here is an alternative method  . . . which when going through my old notes from the Academy, I remembered. It was refreshing enough to read, and my next bleaching will be using this method.

First , apply the bleach. . .scalp to ends . . using the parting and sectioning I have pointed out in previous posts. When the scalp area is the desired stage of lightening . .rinse and shampoo. Dry the hair with a cool dryer. Now with this method you can see where exactly the hair needs its 2nd dose of bleach and you won't have any overlapping or over-bleaching of more vulnerable areas of the hair such as over-porous end or a fine hairline

There is no more meticulous application of product than that for on-the-scalp bleaching.  The rewards for precision are even bleaching, even toning, and hair that doesn't break. Begin the application in the darkest or coarsest area of the hair. Take fine sections with your TAIL COMB. ..thin enough to see through. With re-touches, you MUST be careful of overlapping - - and its easier to just lay a line of bleach at the scalp, the lay the next section against it, rather than smearing the bleach in with fingers.

If you are lifting past yellow be patient. . .GOLD IS ALWAYS the toughest pigment color to eliminate. It will probably take longer to go from yellow to pale yellow than it took to bring the natural base to yellow.10 degrees99

With double process is important. When you rinse the bleach - -  be gentle and very thorough.Lukewarm water most efficiently rinses the thick oil bleach . . .followed by a very gentle SLS-FREE Shampoo . .  another rinse and then the final smothering in Wella's "IN DEPTH". Which will completely stop any bleach from continuing to work, HOORAY!  Rinse well and towel dry the hair gently. Leaving in IN DEPTH for 30-45 minutes is always what I end up doing but it is totally optional.  In DEPTH is a porosity treatment and there is nothing better  for lightened hair than porosity treatment. I have found this glorious new on from Redken that I feel should be included in the Platinum process. If you feel you need it sooner than when I get it in the store, please email me Killerstrands@gmail.com  in the SUBJECT Header....put  " Platinum Porosity" . Thank you.

TONER TIME

Check your Toners Directions  most of them can be applied to damp hair or dry hair. Toners are many times an oxidative tint (need a developer) Many of the Professional hair color lines including Wella have enlisted specific colors on their chart to be made into Toners...although using a TONER made just for Toning, will have less ammonia, a lower pH, and in general will be gentler to both head and scalp. Toners only need a very low volume of developer. Purposes of toners are to conceal or beautify underlying warmth, depositing the desired hue and evening-out small defects in the bleach-out.

The lightest, most delicate toners call for a pale yellow stage of lightening. Lighten too little, leaving yellow still dominant in the hair, and the tone achieved will remain too yellowish. On the other hand, if the toner calls for a yellow stage of lightening and you over-lighten to pale yellow, there will not be enough underlying warmth in the hair to offset the artificial pigment and the hair will display too much of the toner's base color.

How the toner takes depends on the porosity of the hair . . . and guess what helps the porosity become even after all the up and downs of chemical services? ? ?  IN DEPTH . . .  that crazy inexpensive product that you may purchase in  KILLER  COLOR CLINIC  .

Killer Chemist

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Life's a Bleach .. the Lightening of Melanin

Off the Hair Health Horse... back on the Hair Color Horse

lif is a bleach5678
Sorry I couldn't figure out why I was sleepy every time I've been posting lately...besides the usual medical crap going on, I was just unusually tired and just couldn't get inspired...I NEED TO WRITE ABOUT HAIR COLOR, to keep me jazzed and alive. So I am just going to have to aaaaside bar6565 alternate the posts, for fear of falling asleep and never waking up. DO NOT GET ME WRONG, Hair Health is as important a subject as there is, I promise you. But, for me I have done all of that writing and reporting... it was completed over the past 6 years  - so its simply a matter of "re-writing" my notes - which I guess is what was pushing the snooze button for me.
I  NEED  SOMETHING  ABOUT  HAIR  COLOR  TO  MAKE ME HAVE TO WRITE  FROM SCRATCH - its what made me become involved - inspired and REJUVENATED once again....something I very much NEED. So back we go. I ordered a couple of new Doll heads . . . Molly & Dolly's cousin's are on their way from back east. If you don't know who Molly and Dolly are . . . SHAME on you -- see here >> http://killerstrands.blogspot.com/2007/12/ble-atched-hair-series-1.html.
They are showing ble-atched- super light blond's well into the Fall - and its the subject I simply get the most questions about... getting to LEVEL 12 successfully & beautifully. So today we are going over the process from a different POV, twisted technical.
Hang on.
Below the surface off the skin is the hair root: above it is the hair shaft.
skin146
The hair root is housed in a sheath, a pocket in the skin, called a follicle. At the bottom of the follicle ( deep in skin) is the hair bulb. Cells that become a strand of hair are produced in the hair bulb, the LIVING PART OF THE HAIR, from which the hair grows. At the base of the bulb, nourishing it, is the papilla, a tiny mound of tissue laced with capillaries.
  hair bulb2
The hair shaft is comprised primarily of cross linked, fibrous proteins called Keratin. Keratin accounts for 90-95% of the hair weight.
Structures in the hair bulb called melanocytes make melanin, or natural pigment. that gives the strand color.2-3% of total weight comes from melanin.
How is hair formed?
The papilla supplies AMINO ACIDS ( remember this - I feel amino acids are important for new hair growth) to the hair bulb; the hair bulb produces keratinous cells; melanocytes infuse melanin into these protein-based cells; then, finally, the cells dry out and harden to form the hair strand ( called keratinization) which emerges from the follicle.
There are 2 types of melanin
  • Eumelanins - the darker pigments from black to brown
  • Pheomelanins - lighter, ranging from red-brown to red-yellow to yellow
All hair no matter what color it is (except white- unpigmented) contains both in varying degrees. Very black Asian hair is heavily pigmented but may contain only eumelanin.
The color of a strand of hair depends on how much melanin it contains, the proportion of eumelanin TO pheomelanin  + the pattern of distribution of the melanin. There are additional descriptions of how these work but truly this all you need to know to understand 'basically' how the hair's VIRGIN color. . .  GOT there!
LIGHTENING OF MELANIN
From your POV, the most important thing to know about melanin is what happens to it in the presence of hair color.  The color result depends as much on the natural pigmentation of the hair as it does on the artificial pigment used; the same ash brown formula may look ORANGE-Y on one natural base, drab on another, and Neutral on a third....something I try my damndest to explain to everyone.
killercutscolors157
Recognizing what depth the hair is to start with and how it will change tonally when lightened allows you to anticipate the final result. So many of you are so surprised & shocked at your results, which I guess really can only subside with experience. 
Through the years, all the various color manufacturers have come up with ways of getting this process across to hair colorists {and now ME to you }  . . . . but the point of any theory of lightening is to drive home the idea that the color result depends on MORE THAN WHAT YOU put in the BOWL - -  it also depends on the color contribution of YOUR hair on your head.  So no matter how many rules we come up with and no matter how many different ways we try to teach lightening of the hair, going from Level 6 Brown Hair to that rocking Level 12 that you have always wanted to be. . . .  it also depends on the color contribution of that hair on your head right now.
Natural color contribution depends on:
  1. the original virgin color &
  2. how much you lighten it
The natural base level and the lightening capability of your formula, determine the color contribution of your hair.
The color contribution of the hair AND
the artificial pigment used...determine the color result.
Natural color
+ lightening capability of the formula
= the color contribution of the hair
AND
The color contribution of the hair
+  the artificial pigment
= the Color result
hellforhair020
Are you getting this...??  Color contributions of the hair is referred to any one of different ways: undertones, underlying pigment, natural  underlying pigmentation, pigment bases, residual pigment contribution, natural contribution of the hair, lightened natural pigment and remaining natural color.
Any of these term can be substituted in that last equation (above).
hellforhair021
SEVEN STAGES OF LIGHTENING
This concept concerns the color changes that happen when hair is exposed to a product capable of lightening it.
One of the best lessons in hair coloring is how the FINAL Result depends as much on the natural contribution ( remember what YOUR hair has IN it naturally - as it was when you were born) of the hair a s it does on the artificial dyes, and the seven stages of lightening is a way to tell that story.
The 7 stages of lightening are the colors that hair attains as it is lightened with either permanent hair coloring or bleach.
If hair bleaching could be viewed in super SLOW MOTION, these are the tonal stages that would be seen during the progression from dark to light.
The 7 stages of lightening are:
  1. BLACK
  2. BROWN
  3. RED
  4. RED-GOLD
  5. GOLD
  6. YELLOW
  7. PALE YELLOW
  When hair is exposed to a lightener agent, its black and brown pigments are first to begin to break down or oxidize ( the eumelanin lightens first). Then the red & gold pigments gradually oxidize  - then yellow and pale yellow stages are simply lighter and lighter version of gold.
hellforhair019
Notice 5 of the 7 stages have to do with red and gold, this is due to the tenacity of these colors in the hair. In other words, they are IMPOSSIBLE to get out of the hair! It takes longer to eliminate Red and forever to eliminate GOLD. I am hoping you will all relate this to your experience of being stuck in the "gold" stage as though it seemed like FOREVER 
The most sought after goal when going Gwen Stefani BLOND . .Pale Yellow, I refer to it as frozen butter. Pale yellow is the lightest hair can become without destroying the hair. Pale Yellow can be toned to be almost any color on the planet...including white.
I am hoping with this series in the long run I will see less banana-heads on the street, realizing fully what a grand wish that is, I am still hopeful - they make me shiver.gwen99
There are 3 parts to this  Post. . . I will finish it in the next 8 days. . . . so stay tuned!                                                               
Killer Chemist

Friday, March 7, 2008

The Bleach Boys: 8 Hair Swatches Lightened for Learning

Photographed Lab experiment on Hair swatches: in attempt to de-mystify the lightening process for those at home - contemplating the process.



In an attempt to de-mystify bleach and lighteners in general, I decided to take on a little project.



Projects similar to what I used to run 15-16 years ago when trying to decipher this mess myself. I had a helluva time understanding this, I swear. It was like a foreign language to me I can see after recently cracking open my notebook and reviewing some of my old notes. At least once a month from now on we will have one of these demonstrations, I am shooting for 2. I have a list already of what to tackle.



One of my goals to make the site better for you, the readers, is to save up to have a more user-friendly site made & designed. With the amount of photos I'd like to use, Blogger does not work with that in mind, so please remember that when viewing this. This site is made for "WORDS" not pics.



I will attempt to lay captions so you can understand the process and goal.



Goal:

  • To show Killerstranders how bleach works on a LEVEL 7G (gold - toned). In minutes & hours.

  • How Toner works

It seems many of you think that lighteners works faster than they do.

I don't mean "you" I mean many of the heads of hair walking around the planet.

Therefore I wanted to show how slow the process really takes.

Began with 8 swatches of Level 7 G hair from a 12 year old who came to donate her hair to LOCKS OF LOVE, I figured you all would be just as grateful for her contribution (not to worry: I sent in her other braid).

Unfortunately the lighting does not do the color justice, trust me this is a solid Level 7 G hair.







Here we have the beginning color and mixing up the Bleach and 40 Volume Developer.





Applying the bleach to the hair in foil





Closing up the foils to protect and conduct heat , foils are available at Sallys or you get a few with an order if you request them.

















The FIRST swatch 15 minutes - will always be one of the biggest changes, then the change tapers off.



Bleach and 30 - 45 - 60 minutes the change starts to slow down, and is less apparent...although it is still working to get to the level that you need it at.

















Bleach on the hair for 3 1/2 hours is where the difference is finally made visible. I would never let anyone walk out of the Salon with that either unless, they were headed toward a LEVEL 8 /9 Blond. Which would take a very powerful Toner to tone down the yellow.
NOT all hair can be ALL colors - remember that



See what the 10/89 Pearl Ash toner does to it at 3.1/2 hours? Not much! Its much more than it appears in this photo but not enough for me to be happy with.



The blank sheet of paper is the next day I decided to run the hair through bleach for 90 more minutes! So 5 hours on Level 7 hair and it honestly could have taken about another 30 minutes to reach that Gwen Stefani blond.
The swatch on the left has no toner the swatch on the right has the 10/89 Toner.
Down lower here with the 6 swatches....and taken in better light...I think you can see the gradient change even better.
That is 15 min. - 45 min - 3 1/2 hours - 5 hours & 5 hours with toner
The last 2 swatches?
Level 7hair with 5 hours and 2 complete batches of bleach and 40 volume......and TONER.
So it takes pretty much an entire day to reach this....and that is on LEVEL 7 hair which is light
Those of you with darker hair keep that in mind.
Any questions?
At the very bottom of this page ...is a SLIDE show of the experiment >with captions, to clarify - check it out
.

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!

Monday, August 20, 2007

Bits & Pieces : Learn To Formulate Hair Color

Here are bits and pieces to help with Tuesday's Post and your first HAIR COLOR FORMULATION problem













Try the first Formulation quiz
You are a Level 4
and you desitre to be a Level 7