Hair Color Cowboys Go Crazy

Back to the Books

Had a couple over enthusiastic hair color cowboys plow into coloring without realizing this is a serious business, and improper technique can bring disastrous results. As much as I have been thrilled with many success stories, a couple of disasters can erase it all.

It makes me feel like maybe I have failed and did not stress the importance of reading through the entire Blog and all of its steps. Or maybe my explanations were not clear enough. No, I don't have everything posted yet, that will never happen.

There will always be new procedures to bring up-to-date and refresh but the basics are here and if you plan on trying to learn the CRIB COLORIST method you must review the entire blog.

If you are interested in this process I am teaching here , I think I should put it in perspective for you so you understand what an accidental gold mine you have stumbled upon. I bet it was accidental too wasn't it! People spend $40,000. - $50,000. to go to Vidal Sassoon Academy for a year to learn all the information I am delving out here. FREE. Truthfully only top stylists would recognize it, and why would they be looking for it? They wouldn't. That is a pretty damn good deal for all of you and the only reason I am doing it is >

because I am sick. I had a whole other plan, and this sure wasn't it.

So please,

take advantage of this odd occurrence - use it in the way it should be used....correctly. Please, read through the entire Blog, take a week to do it - if it seems overwhelming or 'too much' ... it doesn't take that long and everyone I ask to do that - 'Thanks me' they really do! Absorb and learn it so you have the advantage

BECOMING LLLLLEVEL HEADED

I want to go back and review some of the Level System. Of course in this small arena I have I have not covered it all. I tried to focus on the important parts, but I realize there are additional areas I must cover so the education is more thorough.

What I'd like to do is to get everyone on Killerstrands talking in 'Levels and Tones', as a Sassoon Colorist that's how we roll. Everyone is known by their hair color level & tone, every single person has one, even if they have never colored their hair. So as you go through your day, as you stand in the line at the post office - start guessing everyone's Level and Tone - practice makes perfect

The first task in learning hair color theory is to understand the difference between LEVEL and TONE. These 2 characteristics of Color are the most important and vital to understanding the concept.

Level, I feel fairly confidant that most everyone understands this concept, it simply refers to the lightness or darkness of hair color be it natural or artificial. If anyone out there is having a difficult time with the concept of "Level" I want you to post a comment at the end of this post OR email me so I know. Everyone here needs to be able to name every person in your life's Level/Tone of hair. Think about that. . can you?

Everyone is a LEVEL 1 thru 12 .

I guess the confusing part comes from the fact that as soon as the major hair color manufacturers decide on a basic 8 Tones, one of the companies decides to add a new tone or two, for Pizzazz! As colorists we are never more thrilled when we hear of a new tone coming down the pike. They call that a Lab-Rat, and sadly I may fit well into that category -- what a loser.

Manufacturers Level Systems vary somewhat from one another. Some products have ten levels, some 11, some 12. Regardless of the variations the lowest number will be the darkest color in any given system - highest number the lightest color.

Levels are precise degrees of lightness standardized across the manufacturer's tonal groups. All colors of the same level will have the same degree of lightness or depth, whether natural (neutral), ash, gold, matte, Pearl, Brown-Red-Violet, or any other tone.

To illustrate this, visualize a tall building, black is the basement and white is the penthouse, graduating from dark to light each story a grade lighter than the one beneath it. That is the International Level System, with numbers identifying those grade of dark to light. If you wash this image with a hue, such as gold, then you have a tonal series. Imagine a "black and White" photograph - in that you are only seeing 'Levels" of color. Before color in our TV's and in our photographs we only had this "tonal" look. Its taking one color and going from the dark to light in each.

TONE

Tone refers to the hue of a hair color, be it natural or artificial. The main tones, or hues, of hair coloring are natural,ash,gold & red...although I would add Brown, matt,pearl, brown-red and a few others.

Another point I know I didn't clarify was the labeling of hair color, so when you go to buy that first tube of color you won't be thoroughly confused by what's printed on the end of the box. Manufacturers usually indicate the tones of their colors with letters: 'A' for Ash ....'N' for Neutral and so on. Numbers are also used to designate 'tone', for instance, if ".1" means ASH , then a Level 6 ASH would be a 6.1. That's the method, my European based WELLA line uses and to make it easier on the end of the box it says : 6/01A, so you get both.

Any color can be described in level and tone. If the sky is blue and darkest blue almost navy along the horizon and then graduates up as you look into the sky. Those are also distinctions in "level". The level system pertains specifically and only to haircoloring.

If you are having problem distinguishing between level and tone, give it some more time. It will come to you. Its just foreign lingo.

FYI: the painters use of these words are totally different than the haircolorists and should not be related -- each has different vernaculars.

I’m BACK FOR GOOD. So am ready to gear up for hair education for all. Yahoo!
Tones of Hair Colour

There is not an easy way to teach & explain tones of hair color and especially not through a computer screen, but it is a very important topic. One of the secrets to the success of my work was being a Tonal Fanatic. Truth be told, tones and hues are one in the same, I will use the term “tones” just know they are one in the same in the hair universe.

Neutral- Ash- Matt - Gold - Gold/Red- Red- Red/Violet- Violet - Brown - Brown/Red - Pearl >TONES
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
(Hair Color Chart mock-up )

In all hair color charts from top to bottom are the Level’s we have gone over & over: Level 1 through 12. Across the top of the chart are the TONES, which have become very specific: natural, ash, matt, gold, gold-red, red, red-violet, violet, brown, brown-gold, auburn, brown-red-violet, & pearl. Each color line has different tones they think will sound fascinating to Colorists. Redken may have 14 tones, Framesi has 17, Joico has gone with just the basic 5 tones while Wella has 21. 20 years ago the few companies that were making hair color just used the basics: Natural – Ash – Gold & Red –period!
Every single hair company has gone into making hair color because it is the most lucrative of all the hair products. It used to be a "hidden" process women would have done....on the "down-low". Now to have hair color is the mark of a well groomed woman.Personally I use 6 lines in order to complete my palette of 150 colors to draw from when I go to color hair, with Wella’s European line “Koleston Perfect” being my main line.

There are close to one hundred different hair color manufacturers spread throughout the world. The “behind- the-scenes” look at how it is ultimately decided as to which Salon uses which color line goes somewhat like this...


I would ‘ballpark’ there to be approx 100 lines of hair color available to the Salon owner, and when opening a Salon,
Hair colour will be the biggest and most crucial decision and expense they have every single month. Its one thing to purchase hair color for one person, but when you are purchasing Color for a Salon with 20 Stylists and all 20 have a full clientele, your monthly color bill ( yep just “tubes of color” and Developer -the white stuff . . .) can easily be $5,000 - $10,000 - $20,000! yes!

Therefore ‘before’ the Salon has opened, the owner is ‘courted’ by all the hair color companies. They offer the owner >deals, bargains – offers of hair color educational classes throughout the year for Stylists, guarantees of shipping etc, all in an effort to try to become the Salons only “Color Line”. Therefore every client that leaves that Salon has “Redken” Color or “Joico” Color…..or whatever Line is decided upon…..Color is the most expensive service available in a Salon which I am sure you are well aware of, also the most profitable.


When the Salon’s owner sits down finally to decide which line of color they will ultimately use
6 points need to be considered

• Grey coverage
• Tone
• Variety
• Shine & Conditioning
• Vibrancy
• Lasting
• &Cost
  

Top quality Hair color costs between $ 5.00 & $18.00 per 2 or 3 ounce tube of color. To color one head of shoulder length, medium thickness hair doing the roots and lengths, takes about 1 ½ tubes of Colour. So that is $21.00 just for the hair color alone – plus the developer: plus the foils: plus the after treatment cream etc. I want to stick up a little for the “cost” of hair colour, I think many walk into a Salon and drop their shirt when they hear the prices. When I do a head of Slices when I am using 7 or 8 colors

I’m sure you all at one time or another have been shown that big book of hair swatches…which seems to some women like a big box of chocolates ! The bigger the swatch book – the more enticing the line, I say. For a dedicated Colourist, there is nothing more exciting than new tones and hues added to their favorite line of Colour. Personally, when a new color for my fav line is introduced I feel like its Christmas, I can’t wait to try it! Silly I know, but that is how into Hair Color I am. I mix custom colors all the time, because even with the 150 colors I have on hand I still feel like they are missing some tones. Like, I make a mean CORAL ROSE BEIGE….can you picture that? It is beautiful.

Every Stylist has their favorite brand based on their experiences with the 6 points above.. While at Sassoon, we had an advantage, Sassoon had access to nearly every brand ( as an Academy that trains hundreds of future Stylists – getting a brand in the hand would be “key” to brand loyalty for hundreds of careers… for years. ) Sassoon had one brand that was only used exclusively for grey coverage, one specific brand that was used for redheads. A brand for blonde’s, a brand for bleach, for crazy colors…they were extremely picky, which fit right into my neurosis about tones of colors. Brown was NEVER EVER just “brown” to me. I always looked at what tones of brown I could come up with that would be unique and flattering to a clients’ skin and eyes.

According to the dictionary the definition of TONE is : the comparative darkness caused by the interception or screening of rays of light from an object, place, or area or …the warmth or coolness of a color. Reds, Oranges and yellows are all warm tones as are auburn, copper, gold, bronze, caramel or honey. The cool tones are blue, green and violet. Descriptive hair color names in the cool range include ash, drab, smoky, matte, or platinum.
These all matter why?
For multiple reasons that you will see come out as we go on, but mainly for getting that dynamite color that one will be able to achieve by using a tube of color as opposed to that kit. What those kits lack is tones, yes, the Photos on the front of the box have some model that has the color of hair the photo is supposed to be already. Yes, the PHOTO looks excellent, but you must know that the model they have used would never ever use that cheap crappy color, I promise you I did a lot of Hollywoods hair at one time.

Intensity refers to the strength of a color tone. Intensity is described as mild, medium or strong. Strawberry blonde, copper brown, and bright orange are various intensities of red shades.

Artificial hair colors are developed from the primary and secondary colors that form base colors. A base color is the predominant tonality of an existing color. The base color influences the final color result. For example, a violet-based color will deliver cool results and will help minimize unwanted yellow tones. why? We haven’t reviewed this yet but will when we begin formulating…this is where your COLOR WHEEL review comes in. To cancel any unwanted tones in the hair what you do is go across the color wheel to ‘cancel’ it out. Violet is across from yellow on the color wheel remember? This is a common cancellation in hair color, as is going Platinum’s biggest problem is what? Coming out to brassy - too yellow, which is why you see lavender or violet based toners for blondes, they cancel the yellow. Those are the very obvious ones. The tricky ones come when you are talking about Ash, drab, smoky, matte, etc.

The trickiest part of trying to get you to understand tones, is trying to do it over a computer screen. I feel the success of my career is largely based on my understanding of tones so I if I can relay that information to you…you will be a better home hair colorist because of it. The Colors on each of your monitors is going to be different…there are some of you with screens from the 90’s (archaic in the world of computers)and some of you with the newest – coolest monitors on the market. Each of those monitors is going to show the color of one picture completely different.
So there truly is no way to accomplish it, the differences are so slight.

What I need everyone to do is to either go down to is to pay attention to EBAY you can get Color Charts for Wella - Koleston perfect hair Color and then Color Touch Demi permanent line of color - which ROCKS....+ you can get them cheaper than I can. Having one of those charts to just play with, and look at - will teach you so much - Keep it next to your computer screen. Everyone should have at least 1 Swatch Chart…

To see what I consider the best array of tones in the hair color industry please see Wella’s European line (Koleston Perfect) - join Google Groups - Killerstrands

Coming Into The Home Stretch of Home Hair Color

Into the home stretch on the Home hair coloring series…
..just a couple small categories to brush over.
What I’ve done is take tons of info and try my hardest to condense so once into specific cases, for ex: if you are a Level 4 and you want to be a level 7 what is the procedure, I will be able to refer to many referenced points in hopes of clarifying . I want everyone out there to have the tools & knowledge to "formulate your own hair color" as easy as you would bake a cake.
Know what?...that is basically what it is!


Lately there are many rifts going around the hair color industry aimed at the consumer about hair color “ammonia” content. There is one line of color proclaiming they are the new wonder color because they do not use ammonia in their line of hair color. Yes, of course...there are people allergic to ammonia, but there are people allergic to the sun…does that mean we should get rid of it? Try not to prescribed to blanket statements like that, they are a marketing tool to sell- period.
The line of color I am referring to is made by the “CHI” company…sound familiar? Yep the - Flat Iron -dash- BioSilk -dash- everything –under-the-sun company from Texas. What consumer knows what ammonia does or does not do in hair color or hair, most consumers think of ammonia as something in window cleaner. Ammonia opens the cuticle on a hair strand which enables the color to go INTO the strand. That is what one needs in trying to change hair color, why wouldn’t you want it? If you don’t want certain things that chemicals do then one should just eliminate the entire process -- period. Don’t spend time trying to wiggle around them and end up doing the complete wrong thing to your hair. That’s what happens all the time, I run into it constantly.

CHI should not be making Hair Color or Flat Irons….I firmly believe in sticking to what you are good at. After BIO Silk they tried to go into shampoo’s conditioners, and failed at them…they sure do not learn. 3 of the best hair color manufacturers in the world are WELLA , FRAMESI, & RENBOW. What else do these companies make? NOTHING. Hair Color and everything around & for hair color. They come up with new color and new technologies for existing hair colors as a good company should – all facets of business should operate that way.



CHEMISTRY AND EFFECTS OF BLEACHING THE HAIR

Oxidation in the decolorizing process means the hydrogen peroxide is mixed with an alkaline product such as bleach. Once activated, the decolorizing mixture changes melanosome structure and lightens the color of the hair. It does this by breaking the melanin into tiny fragments which are no longer able to absorb light to the same degree as before. The melanin does not immediately lose its color when oxidized. The hair goes through relatively predictable color changes as the pigment disperses and lightens the hair to a new level. The following table lists each level of hair color with its corresponding undertone, as well as shades that are achievable at each level.

Chemistry and Effect of Bleaching the Hair

Undertone
Level
Achievable Shades

Pale Yellow
10
platinum blonde silver ash blonde ultra pale pastel blonde

Yellow
9
strawberry blonde beige blonde tan blonde taupe blonde

Yellow/Orange
8
honey blonde light copper blonde dark strawberry blonde dark beige blonde

Orange/YellowOrange
7/6
copper redfire red dark blonde

Red/OrangeRed
5 /4
mahogany burgundy

There are no established times for decolorizing the hair to any given level. Processing time always varies, depending on the strength of the decolorizing mixture, use of heat, as well as texture, condition, porosity, type and density of natural pigmentation. The best way to determine processing time is to perform a strand test and to follow manufacturer's directions.

TYPES OF DECOLORIZERS

There are three general classifications of decolorizers used in the salon: oil, creme, and powder. Each performs a specific function, and has unique characteristics.

OIL DECOLORIZERS

These are frequently used for on-scalp applications when a mild lightening action is desired. Oil decolorizers are part of a 3-component system including powder activator(s) and hydrogen peroxide developer. Oil decolorizers have a pH of approximately 10.

CREME DECOLORIZERS Creme decolorizers also include developers and may also include powder activator(s). They are formulated to stay moist during processing in a no-drip consistency. They are popular for their versatile application techniques and are used in both on and off-scalp methods.

POWDER DECOLORIZERS Powder decolorizers are often selected when lighter blonde results are desired on darker natural hair colors. Most powder decolorizers are for off-scalp techniques, although some do provide the flexibility for on-scalp applications. The pH of powder decolorizers is approximately 10.5.

There are two basic classifications:
1. On-scalp: Used on-scalp for double processing and off-scalp in highlighting and creative color techniques.
2. Off-scalp: This type of bleach is usually stronger and faster-acting than on-scalp bleaches due to the higher pH and stronger peroxide activity.

WHAT'S YOUR IDEAL HIGHLIGHT HUE ?

These are merely suggestions for highlights and lowlights.... I have had this chart for over 15 years, which shows you that Hair color may seem to change dramatically to you, but in all actuality it simply goes through phases, exactly the same as "fashion" does.

A new client called the Lab today and asked if we knew anyone that does that "NEW LOOK" of bleached white-blond hair with bright pink highlights surrounding the face...sound familiar? Its been done a lot....what we have to do and as a good hair stylist we 'should' do is come up with "new' ways of presenting the same thing.
Which we do - year in and year out.