May 21, 2025 • 28 mins
We dive deep into the chemistry behind hair color, explaining why blonde hair turns brassy and how different color formulations interact with your hair structure.
• Natural hair color comes from melanin - eumelanin (brown/black tones) and pheomelanin (red/golden tones)
• Hair structure consists of cuticle (outer layer), cortex (middle layer with pigment), and medulla (inner layer)
• Permanent hair color uses ammonia and peroxide to open cuticle, remove natural pigment, and deposit new color
• Demi-permanent color is gentler with no ammonia, slightly lifting the cuticle without removing natural pigment
• Semi-permanent color simply coats the outer hair layer, perfect for adding shine or subtle tones
• Different developer volumes (10, 20, 30, 40) serve specific purposes in lifting and depositing color
• Understanding the color wheel helps neutralize unwanted tones (blue cancels orange, purple neutralizes yellow)
• Individual factors like porosity, previous color history, medications, and minerals affect color results
• Strand tests are essential for predicting how hair will react to color and preventing disasters
Grab your free downloadable hair color science cheat sheet through this link to keep this information handy, whether you're behind the chair or in front of your mirror at home.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever wondered why your blonde hair
turns brassy or why your colorfades faster than your friends,
even when you use the sameproducts?
Or maybe you're a stylist whowants to explain color without
sounding like a chemistryteacher?
In this episode, we're pullingback the curtain on what's
really going on in that colorbowl, from natural melanin to
(00:23):
permanent versus demi versussemi, so why developer choice
really matters.
You're about to understand haircolor on a whole new level.
Whether you're behind the chairor just curious about your own
hair, this is the science ofcolor made simple, useful and,
dare I say, pretty fun.
Welcome to All About Hair,where we talk, shop, share
(00:47):
stories and spill the secretsbehind great hair and a great
career.
I'm your host, denise Kylitz, aformer salon owner, educator
and a lifelong hair crusader.
Whether you're a new stylistbuilding your book or just
someone who loves learning aboutall things hair, you're in the
right place.
Each week, we dive into realtechniques, honest career advice
(01:11):
and inspiration to help yougrow behind the chair or just
fall even more in love with theworld of hair, because around
here, it's not just aboutlooking good.
It's about learning, evolvingand having a little fun along
the way.
So grab your coffee, yourshears or your dry shampoo and
let's get into it.
Hey there, and welcome back toAll About Hair and so much more.
(01:42):
I'm your host, denise Keilitz,a lifelong stylist, salon owner
and hair educator with a passionfor helping you understand
what's going on above yourshoulders, whether you're a
stylist, a client or justcurious about hair science.
Today's episode is for you.
We're going to go behind thescenes to break down what's
(02:03):
really happening when you coloryour hair.
Spoiler alert it's not just apretty paste and a prayer.
I know we've all prayed to thehair gods, but really there's
some serious chemistry going onin that bowl.
So let's start with what giveshair its natural color.
Before we talk about coloringyour hair, let's start with what
(02:27):
gives it its color in the firstplace.
Your natural hair color comesfrom melanin.
That's the pigment that livesinside the cortex of each hair
strand.
Remember how I said there'sthree parts of the hair.
I've said this on many of myvideos and podcasts.
There's the cuticle.
That's the outside layer.
It kind of looks like fishscales or a pine cone or tiles
(02:49):
on a roof.
Then there's the cortex.
That's really the meat of yourhair.
That's the inner circle, andthen there's the medulla.
The medulla doesn't really doanything, so we're really going
to concentrate on just thecuticle and the cortex.
Inside the cortex of your hairis melanin, and there's two main
types of melanin.
(03:10):
There is eumelanin, which giveshair brown and black tones, and
there's pheomelanin, whichgives hair red and golden tones.
Now the combination, the ratioand the concentration of these
pigments create your uniqueshade, whether that's jet black,
(03:30):
light ash blonde or copper red.
As you age, your melaninproduction slows down, and
that's when you get gray hair orwhite hair.
Now let's talk about the typesof hair color.
There's permanent, there'sdemi-permanent and there's
semi-permanent, and they allbehave on your hair differently.
(03:52):
Okay, let's start withpermanent hair color.
This is the most powerful andthe longest lasting.
It uses ammonia or somethingsimilar, that's an alkaline
agent and hydrogen peroxide,which is the developer, and what
it does is it opens the cuticleRemember those fish scales
opens it up, goes into thecortex of the hair, removes your
(04:15):
natural pigment and then itreplaces it with new color
molecules deep inside yourcortex.
Permanent hair color is perfectfor lightening your hair
because it can lighten it ordarkening your hair.
It's great for full graycoverage and it's great for
anybody who's looking for a longterm change.
So say you had brown hair.
(04:37):
You wanted to be a redhead or ablonde or whatever.
This doesn't wash out.
It grows out, though it canfade a little bit over time
depending on how well youmaintain it.
Remember I have a whole videoon why does your hair turn
brassy.
And it does this because yourpermanent hair color remember.
(05:01):
It goes in.
It takes care of your, removesall your natural hair pigment
not all of it a little bit andthen it replaces it with this
new color molecule.
So if you're not taking care ofyour colored hair, your cuticle
will open up, it releases someof those artificial color
molecules and what's left iswhat your cortex looks like
(05:22):
after the permanent color hadremoved your natural pigment,
which is typically orangey,reddish, yellowish.
It's not pretty.
I know that's a full-blownexplanation of that, but go
watch that video.
I'll link it in the show notes.
Just know that permanent haircolor typically grows out.
If you're taking care of yourhair and by taking care of it is
(05:44):
you want to use sun protection,you want to make sure you're
using products that seal downthat cuticle of your hair every
time, which is a goodconditioner or some of the
products that we use, help toshut that cuticle down.
You don't want to use too muchheat, you don't want to use
stripping shampoos.
You get the general idea rightNow there's demi-permanent hair
(06:06):
color.
This is actually my favoritehair color to use, and why is
that?
It's because it's ammonia freeand it uses a very low volume
developer, so it's very gentleon the hair.
It gently lifts the cuticlejust enough to deposit pigment,
but it doesn't lift or removeyour natural hair color and I
(06:28):
love this and even color grayhair.
It depends on what line ofcolor you're using.
The line I use, euphora haircolor.
You can use a demi-permanent wecall it no ammonia hair color
to a hundred percent cover grayhair.
It is beautiful.
But you can also usedemi-permanent hair color for
blending gray hair, forrefreshing faded hair color and
(06:52):
for glossing and toning and itjust makes it so it lasts just a
little bit longer.
But you can also use it.
If you want to try out a newcolor, say you're like me, I
have brown hair.
Basic brown hair can also useit.
If you want to try out a newcolor, say you're like me, I
have brown hair, basic brownhair I don't know what you want
to call it and I have some fewhighlighted pieces in there and
sometimes those fade out.
What if I wanted to do rosegold?
But I don't want to be rosegold all the time.
(07:13):
Well, I could use ademi-permanent hair color on my
hair and it would last about 20or 30 shampoos and it doesn't
leave any harsh line ofdemarcation.
I love this.
Or say you were just refreshingthe ends of your hair,
wonderful.
It doesn't open the cuticleanymore, it does not damage the
(07:35):
hair anymore.
You're not going to get anykind of lift out of it, just
enough for that artificial colormolecule to get underneath the
cuticle of the hair.
But it does fade gradually.
This is also wonderful.
Got to say wonderful for men'shair coloring, because it fades
off the hair.
Because when you're coloringmen's hair, first of all do not
(07:58):
use warm shades, only use ashshades.
When you're coloring men's hairand you don't want a line of
demarcation, no man wants hishair growing out from the roots.
That is a telltale sign.
Typically, they just want it toblend their gray and not 100%
cover up.
Now let's talk aboutsemi-permanent hair color.
(08:20):
This is the most gentleof-permanent hair color.
This is the most gentle of thethree types of hair color no
ammonia and no developer.
This type just simply coats theouter layer of the hair or kind
of slightly sinks into thefirst like layer of cuticle.
It just depends on how porousyour hair is.
If you've got very porous hair,that color is going to
(08:40):
penetrate just a little bit morebecause you don't have any
protective of cuticle.
It just depends on how porousyour hair is.
If you've got very porous hair,that color is going to
penetrate just a little bit morebecause you don't have any
protective outer shell toprotect your cortex.
But it shouldn't affect yournatural hair color at all.
Again, if your hair is extraporous, it might get into the
cortex and it actually mightstain your hair.
So that's a quick tip.
If you've been pre-lightened along time ago or even last week,
(09:01):
it might absorb moresemi-permanent pigment and hold
onto it longer than you expected.
So be careful with that.
But semi-permanent hair color iswonderful for adding shine or a
subtle tone, especially like ifyou just got highlighted and
you want to take the yellowunderlying pigment and balance
that out.
You would use a semi-permanentor a toner.
(09:24):
You can also play with fashioncolors.
Most fashion colors aresemi-permanent hair color.
They just coat the outsidestrands of the hair and it's
also great for people who arejust starting out with color,
say you're brand new to color oryou don't really want a
commitment at all.
Maybe you have a specialoccasion to go to, maybe for
(09:46):
Halloween you're dressing up incostume and you want red hair,
be a clown or something.
Make sure your hair is notporous, because I've had lots of
clients who made that mistakeby putting a semi-permanent.
You know they bought it at theHalloween store and it said
semi-permanent hair color and itactually stained their hair.
So just be careful.
(10:06):
If you're going to go thatroute, make sure you go to a
professional who can do it foryou.
Most semi-permanent hair colorslast anywhere between four and
12 shampoos.
It depends on what productyou're using and it depends on
your hair type.
Okay, now that we know thedifferences between permanent,
(10:26):
demi-permanent, semi-permanent,let's talk about the chemistry
of permanent hair color.
Most salons out there still usepermanent hair color the most.
Still use permanent hair colorthe most.
So why is that?
I've already told you thatdemi-permanent is my favorite
go-to and I probably have twothirds of my color cabinet is
(10:49):
demi-permanent versus a thirdpermanent, because my clientele
is mostly gray or they're goingdarker or they're just wanting
to brighten up.
So there's a lot you can dowith demi-permanent color, but
we're going to talk about howpermanent color works.
The process starts by usingammonia to lift the cuticle
(11:10):
layer of the hair strand.
That's like opening a window toget into the house and then it
uses hydrogen peroxide andthat's what does the work.
It begins to oxidize andlighten your natural melanin
inside the cortex of your hairand, at the same time, this new
synthetic dye molecule thatyou've just introduced that's
(11:33):
going into the cortex and thenthat new color molecule develops
and expands and it locks in thenew hair color.
This is why the result is solong lasting.
The color is literally builtinside your hair's cortex.
You've probably heard ofdifferent volumes of developer.
So why does this matter?
(11:55):
Why do developers matter in thefirst place?
Why can't you just have abottle of developer and go to
town?
Well, it's not something wejust grab off the shelf and play
around with.
It's actually a really big, keypart of the formula, because
different volumes of developerserve different purposes.
(12:15):
There are developers anywherefrom five volume developers,
developers, heck, all the way upto 70 volume.
I don't think in the unitedstates 70 volume is is.
You can even get it.
You might be able to.
I've never used that.
The highest I've ever used is40 volume.
But I have everything in myarsenal from 5, 7, 10, 20, 30
(12:37):
and 40.
I actually Guarantee you that15 really comes in handy when
you don't want to lift too muchbut you want to cover.
That's a whole other podcast,but let's just talk about the
top four that you probably haveor have heard of, and if you're
a colorist, they're probably inyour cabinet, or if you're a new
(12:58):
stylist, so you have 10 volume.
This opens the cuticle but itdoesn't lift the natural hair
color.
Typically this is perfect fordeposit only color like your
demi permanence.
And the reason why it says itdoesn't lift the natural color
most of the time is because ifyour hair is really fine, it
will lift your hair color.
Trust me, I've made thatmistake many, many times,
(13:21):
thinking that my 10 volume wasgoing to be safe.
And it wasn't.
And it is.
It is lifted at the root,especially when you have that
heat at the scalp.
So be really careful with thatIf you're thinking that you're
going to put 10 volume on andyou're not going to get lift.
You might get hot roots.
So if you can find yourself afive volume or a seven volume,
that might be your volume ofchoice for something like that,
(13:43):
especially with root smudges,you know those are very popular
nowadays.
20 volume this is the workhorse,it seems like in most salons.
This lifts your levels one totwo.
Now a level is, say it's on ascale of one to 10, one being
the darkest black, 10 being thelightest blonde, and each level
(14:05):
goes through another color.
So you're going from black todark brown.
You know, medium brown, lighterbrown.
Every color line calls themsomething different.
20 volume would lift one to twolevels and it is your standard
for gray coverage in most colorlines, because what it does is
it lifts and deposits.
(14:28):
Remember when I was just talkingabout how color works,
especially for permanent haircolor.
30 volume lifts two to threelevels.
Why would you use 30 volume?
Well, say you have somebodythat's a level six and they want
to be a level eight copper, youwould need to use a 30 volume
(14:50):
to raise them up two to threelevels so then you can deposit
the color on top of that.
20 volume wouldn't get youthere because it only raises it
up one to two levels.
Make sense.
This is on natural hair, notpre-pigmented hair, not
pre-colored hair.
This is if you had somebody oryou yourself have virgin natural
(15:11):
hair and you wanted it to betwo to three shades lighter
using color, you would use a 30volume developer 40 volume this
is used for high lift blondes orin some lighteners.
But handle with care because itreally does open that cuticle
quickly and sometimes quickly isnot what you want.
(15:31):
Now I do use 40 volume from myhigh lift color because you need
that to open up the cuticle anddeposit it, because it's we're
actually working at like 11 and12 level, which I told you.
There's only one to 10.
So this is, it doesn't havemuch pigment in it.
So you need the 40 volume toactually break down more of the
(15:54):
natural pigment in the hair todeposit these really, really
fine, beautiful blonde pigmentsin the hair.
These are wonderful.
For if you are level seven,which is kind of like a dark
blonde or lighter, and youwanted highlights without using
bleach, you would use a highlift blonde with double 40
(16:15):
developer In most cases.
I know a lot of stylists justreach for bleach and they just
go to town and then they toneright out over that.
Tell you the truth.
I mean that is quick and thatis a no brainer, but I prefer
and anybody who knows me knowsthat I prefer to use a high lift
blonde if I can On my type ofhair.
(16:36):
Could I use a high lift blonde?
I could, but it doesn't haveenough tint in it, enough dye
load to actually tone my hairand plus, I have color on my
hair.
So this is hypothetical.
If you see my picture, my levelof hair color is in between a
five and a six, so it'sbasically brown hair, right, and
(16:56):
then it has some highlights.
Sometimes, if I get bored, I douse a lightener for mine
because I have color on my hairbut pretend like I didn't.
I could use a high lift blonde.
It would lift me about two tothree shades, but a high lift
blonde, like I said, doesn'thave much dye load to it, so I
(17:18):
would still have to tone my hair.
That's a lot on high liftblondes, but I love high lift
blondes and so if you're notusing them, if your color line
has them and you're notutilizing them, I would highly
suggest take a class on them orreally you know, try them out,
use them on swatches, see whatthey could really do to you.
(17:38):
But it's really for level seven, eight, nine, natural hair.
That's when you use the highlift blonde.
And I use them for highlights.
You could use them in all overcolor, but mostly highlights
Developers.
Why do they matter?
If you use the wrong developer,this can lead to uneven results
, breakage or simply color thatdoesn't last.
(17:59):
You got to know what developerto use for the outcome that
you're trying to get.
It's not a guess, it's astrategy, it's part of the
formula.
Now let's talk about toning andunderstanding the underlying
pigment Toners.
These are your best friends.
When you are lightening thehair, like I just mentioned,
(18:20):
most stylists go in.
They use bleach or a lightener.
We never called it bleach inthe salon, just FYI, but it's
the same thing.
Bleach and lightener are thesame thing.
So when you lighten your hair,you expose what we call the
underlying pigment and this isthe natural warmth hiding
beneath the surface.
For example, if you lift blackhair to brown, you often expose
(18:45):
a red underlying pigment whichyou would probably want to
neutralize out.
And if you're lifting dark,brown or blonde hair, this often
exposes orange or yellow, which, again, you typically want to
neutralize out.
So this is when you would comeup with your color wheel.
(19:05):
Remember in school we had thecolor wheel in art class.
Go to the color wheel and thevery opposite color of what
you're trying to neutralize willcancel that out.
So say, you just pulled orangeunderlying pigment.
You would want to go to theopposite side of the color wheel
, which is blue, to neutralizethe orange in your hair.
(19:28):
Purple cancels yellow, greencancels red.
Or you can enhance those colors.
So say, you took somebody brownand you lifted them to orange
and they really want to becopper.
Well, heck, there's your baseright there.
You don't have to do much toget them a beautiful copper
color.
See how that works.
(19:49):
Typically, though, we're tryingto neutralize or balance the
color.
So it really you got to reallyknow what you're trying to
balance and pay attention to thecolor wheel.
The color wheel does not lie.
So many times I have seen peoplewith brown hair with orange
highlights and they're trying touse a purple shampoo and
(20:09):
they're wondering why doesn'tthis work on me?
Because purple doesn'tneutralize orange.
There's not enough pigment inthat.
Purple neutralizes the yellowin the hair, but you're still
going to have orange in yourhair.
So if you have brown hair andyou got orange undertones,
you're going to need a blueshampoo or a blue conditioner or
a blue toner or something witha blue background to it, because
(20:34):
If you don't tone your hair,I'm a believer that every time
you highlight somebody's hairwith bleach or lightener, you
really do need to tone it.
Even if it came out exactly whatyou wanted, it is still raw
hair.
It's like raw material, and youneed to seal that cuticle back
down.
Even if it's just with cleargloss, you need to tone it with
(20:57):
something, because the tonerreally makes it look polished
and customized and completelyintentional, if you know what I
mean.
If you just bleach somebody'shair and you leave it like that,
doesn't it look like bleachedhair?
Yes, it does so.
Look at their skin tone, lookat the eye color.
Figure out what toner you want.
(21:18):
If you're trying to cancel outthe yellow and they've got blue
eyes, guess what?
A nice, beautiful, cool, icyblonde, whatever.
See how you can be an artistwith this.
It's up to you as a stylist andup to you as as the client too,
or somebody who just reallyloves hair.
Sometimes you look at somebodyor look at yourself and you're
(21:39):
like something's off.
I just can't put my finger onit and it could just be the tone
of your hair.
It's just not going with yourskin tone, with your eye color,
something, and it could just bea little off and you just need
to neutralize it.
That's where the color wheelcomes in handy.
How come you can't take oneformula and apply it to the same
brown headed client?
How come you can't take oneformula and apply it to the same
(22:00):
brown headed client?
You know and I know we havelevel six clients all day, every
day, great touch-ups, all that.
How come you can't just pull atube of six in and stick it on
the same person and get the sameresults?
You cannot, you cannot.
Used to be able.
I mean, we used to say youcould, but you cannot.
Everybody is different.
Have you ever had a client thatcame in and said my friend used
(22:23):
the same box color and lookedtotally different on me?
It's because nobody's the same.
Things like hair porosity, pasthair color history.
If you have old hair color onyour hair, color will not remove
color.
You will have to use some kindof bleach or lightener to remove
the color.
Color on your hair.
Color will not remove color.
You will have to use some kindof bleach or lightener to remove
the color out of your hair.
Sorry to say I don't know howmany times I've had to say that
(22:47):
Color does not remove color.
Color does not remove color.
If you have color on your hair,you cannot put another color on
top of that and expect it tolighten your hair color.
It doesn't work that way.
Plus, there's medications inour system.
There's mineral buildup.
What if you live in a placethat has a high mineral content
in your water?
That really does turn your hairbrassy and it will really do a
(23:13):
number on your hair and reactwith the chemicals of a hair
color or lightener If you do notget those minerals off your
hair before you start theprocess of coloring hair color
or lightener, if you do not getthose minerals off your hair
before you start the process ofcoloring your hair.
And then, of course, let's notforget hormonal changes.
Holy cow, add that to the list,right?
This all affects how your hairreacts to artificial hair color.
(23:34):
That's why a professionalconsultation with your
hairstylist and sometimes even astrand test Strand tests in the
salon have saved us so muchwork in the end, especially
knowing that somebody withreally long hair comes in and
they said, oh no, I haven'tcolored my hair in years but
(23:57):
their hair's really long and youknow that on the ends there's
going to be some hair color onthere.
So, taking a test strand, youjust take a little clip, cut
some out of the back or do it ontheir head.
I mean, if they want to stickaround, sometimes we used to
just cut a little tiny piece,like a half an inch piece, and
we would test it in our downtime, put some lightener on there
(24:19):
with different volume, see if iteven came out.
Even, because most of the timethat old hair color, even with
lightener, it'll turn orange,depending on what they had on
their hair, whereas the freshgrowth would lighten really
really fast.
Or sometimes even the old hairthat had the color on it would
turn to mush because it's justbeen over, over processed so
(24:41):
many times.
So instead of going in andtrying to color all their hair
and give them everything theywant in one sitting, when you
don't know their history, man, Itell you test strand can be the
difference between a beautifultransformation or a horrible
disaster.
(25:02):
Yes, I'm laughing because it's aterrible thing to happen when
it happens to you and many times, brand new stylists.
It seems like they just reallywant to do a good job, whether
it's for the client, forthemselves or for the salon
owner.
They just want to provethemselves, and so they'll take
on a situation that theyprobably shouldn't, and they
(25:23):
think that taking a strand testum makes them look weak.
Somehow it doesn't so okay.
So there you have it.
Hair color Isn't just beauty,it's biology, it's chemistry,
it's artistry all wrapped intoone.
The next time you see thatformula on your color bowl, just
know it's a custom creationbuilt on science and experience.
(25:46):
If today's topic helped youbetter understand the magic and
science of hair color, I'd lovefor you to share it.
Leave me a review or send me amessage with your biggest
takeaway.
And don't forget, click thelink below to grab your free
downloadable hair color sciencecheat sheet so you can keep this
info handy whether you'rebehind the chair or in the
(26:07):
mirror at home, and rememberwhen you know better, you do
better.
Thanks for tuning in to AllAbout Hair.
If you loved this episode, hitsubscribe, leave us a review and
share it with a fellow stylistor hair-loving friend.
You want more tips, tools andbehind-the-scenes goodness?
Follow me on YouTube or head tomy website at denisekeilitzcom.
(26:30):
Yes, I know it's hard to spell,so don't worry, the link is in
the show notes.
Until next time, keep learning,keep creating and keep loving
what you do.
Have you ever wondered why your blonde hair
turns brassy or why your colorfades faster than your friends,
even when you use the sameproducts?
Or maybe you're a stylist whowants to explain color without
sounding like a chemistryteacher?
In this episode, we're pullingback the curtain on what's
really going on in that colorbowl, from natural melanin to
(00:23):
permanent versus demi versussemi, so why developer choice
really matters.
You're about to understand haircolor on a whole new level.
Whether you're behind the chairor just curious about your own
hair, this is the science ofcolor made simple, useful and,
dare I say, pretty fun.
Welcome to All About Hair,where we talk, shop, share
(00:47):
stories and spill the secretsbehind great hair and a great
career.
I'm your host, denise Kylitz, aformer salon owner, educator
and a lifelong hair crusader.
Whether you're a new stylistbuilding your book or just
someone who loves learning aboutall things hair, you're in the
right place.
Each week, we dive into realtechniques, honest career advice
(01:11):
and inspiration to help yougrow behind the chair or just
fall even more in love with theworld of hair, because around
here, it's not just aboutlooking good.
It's about learning, evolvingand having a little fun along
the way.
So grab your coffee, yourshears or your dry shampoo and
let's get into it.
Hey there, and welcome back toAll About Hair and so much more.
(01:42):
I'm your host, denise Keilitz,a lifelong stylist, salon owner
and hair educator with a passionfor helping you understand
what's going on above yourshoulders, whether you're a
stylist, a client or justcurious about hair science.
Today's episode is for you.
We're going to go behind thescenes to break down what's
(02:03):
really happening when you coloryour hair.
Spoiler alert it's not just apretty paste and a prayer.
I know we've all prayed to thehair gods, but really there's
some serious chemistry going onin that bowl.
So let's start with what giveshair its natural color.
Before we talk about coloringyour hair, let's start with what
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gives it its color in the firstplace.
Your natural hair color comesfrom melanin.
That's the pigment that livesinside the cortex of each hair
strand.
Remember how I said there'sthree parts of the hair.
I've said this on many of myvideos and podcasts.
There's the cuticle.
That's the outside layer.
It kind of looks like fishscales or a pine cone or tiles
(02:49):
on a roof.
Then there's the cortex.
That's really the meat of yourhair.
That's the inner circle, andthen there's the medulla.
The medulla doesn't really doanything, so we're really going
to concentrate on just thecuticle and the cortex.
Inside the cortex of your hairis melanin, and there's two main
types of melanin.
(03:10):
There is eumelanin, which giveshair brown and black tones, and
there's pheomelanin, whichgives hair red and golden tones.
Now the combination, the ratioand the concentration of these
pigments create your uniqueshade, whether that's jet black,
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light ash blonde or copper red.
As you age, your melaninproduction slows down, and
that's when you get gray hair orwhite hair.
Now let's talk about the typesof hair color.
There's permanent, there'sdemi-permanent and there's
semi-permanent, and they allbehave on your hair differently.
(03:52):
Okay, let's start withpermanent hair color.
This is the most powerful andthe longest lasting.
It uses ammonia or somethingsimilar, that's an alkaline
agent and hydrogen peroxide,which is the developer, and what
it does is it opens the cuticleRemember those fish scales
opens it up, goes into thecortex of the hair, removes your
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natural pigment and then itreplaces it with new color
molecules deep inside yourcortex.
Permanent hair color is perfectfor lightening your hair
because it can lighten it ordarkening your hair.
It's great for full graycoverage and it's great for
anybody who's looking for a longterm change.
So say you had brown hair.
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You wanted to be a redhead or ablonde or whatever.
This doesn't wash out.
It grows out, though it canfade a little bit over time
depending on how well youmaintain it.
Remember I have a whole videoon why does your hair turn
brassy.
And it does this because yourpermanent hair color remember.
(05:01):
It goes in.
It takes care of your, removesall your natural hair pigment
not all of it a little bit andthen it replaces it with this
new color molecule.
So if you're not taking care ofyour colored hair, your cuticle
will open up, it releases someof those artificial color
molecules and what's left iswhat your cortex looks like
(05:22):
after the permanent color hadremoved your natural pigment,
which is typically orangey,reddish, yellowish.
It's not pretty.
I know that's a full-blownexplanation of that, but go
watch that video.
I'll link it in the show notes.
Just know that permanent haircolor typically grows out.
If you're taking care of yourhair and by taking care of it is
(05:44):
you want to use sun protection,you want to make sure you're
using products that seal downthat cuticle of your hair every
time, which is a goodconditioner or some of the
products that we use, help toshut that cuticle down.
You don't want to use too muchheat, you don't want to use
stripping shampoos.
You get the general idea rightNow there's demi-permanent hair
(06:06):
color.
This is actually my favoritehair color to use, and why is
that?
It's because it's ammonia freeand it uses a very low volume
developer, so it's very gentleon the hair.
It gently lifts the cuticlejust enough to deposit pigment,
but it doesn't lift or removeyour natural hair color and I
(06:28):
love this and even color grayhair.
It depends on what line ofcolor you're using.
The line I use, euphora haircolor.
You can use a demi-permanent wecall it no ammonia hair color
to a hundred percent cover grayhair.
It is beautiful.
But you can also usedemi-permanent hair color for
blending gray hair, forrefreshing faded hair color and
(06:52):
for glossing and toning and itjust makes it so it lasts just a
little bit longer.
But you can also use it.
If you want to try out a newcolor, say you're like me, I
have brown hair.
Basic brown hair can also useit.
If you want to try out a newcolor, say you're like me, I
have brown hair, basic brownhair I don't know what you want
to call it and I have some fewhighlighted pieces in there and
sometimes those fade out.
What if I wanted to do rosegold?
But I don't want to be rosegold all the time.
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Well, I could use ademi-permanent hair color on my
hair and it would last about 20or 30 shampoos and it doesn't
leave any harsh line ofdemarcation.
I love this.
Or say you were just refreshingthe ends of your hair,
wonderful.
It doesn't open the cuticleanymore, it does not damage the
(07:35):
hair anymore.
You're not going to get anykind of lift out of it, just
enough for that artificial colormolecule to get underneath the
cuticle of the hair.
But it does fade gradually.
This is also wonderful.
Got to say wonderful for men'shair coloring, because it fades
off the hair.
Because when you're coloringmen's hair, first of all do not
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use warm shades, only use ashshades.
When you're coloring men's hairand you don't want a line of
demarcation, no man wants hishair growing out from the roots.
That is a telltale sign.
Typically, they just want it toblend their gray and not 100%
cover up.
Now let's talk aboutsemi-permanent hair color.
(08:20):
This is the most gentleof-permanent hair color.
This is the most gentle of thethree types of hair color no
ammonia and no developer.
This type just simply coats theouter layer of the hair or kind
of slightly sinks into thefirst like layer of cuticle.
It just depends on how porousyour hair is.
If you've got very porous hair,that color is going to
(08:40):
penetrate just a little bit morebecause you don't have any
protective of cuticle.
It just depends on how porousyour hair is.
If you've got very porous hair,that color is going to
penetrate just a little bit morebecause you don't have any
protective outer shell toprotect your cortex.
But it shouldn't affect yournatural hair color at all.
Again, if your hair is extraporous, it might get into the
cortex and it actually mightstain your hair.
So that's a quick tip.
If you've been pre-lightened along time ago or even last week,
(09:01):
it might absorb moresemi-permanent pigment and hold
onto it longer than you expected.
So be careful with that.
But semi-permanent hair color iswonderful for adding shine or a
subtle tone, especially like ifyou just got highlighted and
you want to take the yellowunderlying pigment and balance
that out.
You would use a semi-permanentor a toner.
(09:24):
You can also play with fashioncolors.
Most fashion colors aresemi-permanent hair color.
They just coat the outsidestrands of the hair and it's
also great for people who arejust starting out with color,
say you're brand new to color oryou don't really want a
commitment at all.
Maybe you have a specialoccasion to go to, maybe for
(09:46):
Halloween you're dressing up incostume and you want red hair,
be a clown or something.
Make sure your hair is notporous, because I've had lots of
clients who made that mistakeby putting a semi-permanent.
You know they bought it at theHalloween store and it said
semi-permanent hair color and itactually stained their hair.
So just be careful.
(10:06):
If you're going to go thatroute, make sure you go to a
professional who can do it foryou.
Most semi-permanent hair colorslast anywhere between four and
12 shampoos.
It depends on what productyou're using and it depends on
your hair type.
Okay, now that we know thedifferences between permanent,
(10:26):
demi-permanent, semi-permanent,let's talk about the chemistry
of permanent hair color.
Most salons out there still usepermanent hair color the most.
Still use permanent hair colorthe most.
So why is that?
I've already told you thatdemi-permanent is my favorite
go-to and I probably have twothirds of my color cabinet is
(10:49):
demi-permanent versus a thirdpermanent, because my clientele
is mostly gray or they're goingdarker or they're just wanting
to brighten up.
So there's a lot you can dowith demi-permanent color, but
we're going to talk about howpermanent color works.
The process starts by usingammonia to lift the cuticle
(11:10):
layer of the hair strand.
That's like opening a window toget into the house and then it
uses hydrogen peroxide andthat's what does the work.
It begins to oxidize andlighten your natural melanin
inside the cortex of your hairand, at the same time, this new
synthetic dye molecule thatyou've just introduced that's
(11:33):
going into the cortex and thenthat new color molecule develops
and expands and it locks in thenew hair color.
This is why the result is solong lasting.
The color is literally builtinside your hair's cortex.
You've probably heard ofdifferent volumes of developer.
So why does this matter?
(11:55):
Why do developers matter in thefirst place?
Why can't you just have abottle of developer and go to
town?
Well, it's not something wejust grab off the shelf and play
around with.
It's actually a really big, keypart of the formula, because
different volumes of developerserve different purposes.
(12:15):
There are developers anywherefrom five volume developers,
developers, heck, all the way upto 70 volume.
I don't think in the unitedstates 70 volume is is.
You can even get it.
You might be able to.
I've never used that.
The highest I've ever used is40 volume.
But I have everything in myarsenal from 5, 7, 10, 20, 30
(12:37):
and 40.
I actually Guarantee you that15 really comes in handy when
you don't want to lift too muchbut you want to cover.
That's a whole other podcast,but let's just talk about the
top four that you probably haveor have heard of, and if you're
a colorist, they're probably inyour cabinet, or if you're a new
(12:58):
stylist, so you have 10 volume.
This opens the cuticle but itdoesn't lift the natural hair
color.
Typically this is perfect fordeposit only color like your
demi permanence.
And the reason why it says itdoesn't lift the natural color
most of the time is because ifyour hair is really fine, it
will lift your hair color.
Trust me, I've made thatmistake many, many times,
(13:21):
thinking that my 10 volume wasgoing to be safe.
And it wasn't.
And it is.
It is lifted at the root,especially when you have that
heat at the scalp.
So be really careful with thatIf you're thinking that you're
going to put 10 volume on andyou're not going to get lift.
You might get hot roots.
So if you can find yourself afive volume or a seven volume,
that might be your volume ofchoice for something like that,
(13:43):
especially with root smudges,you know those are very popular
nowadays.
20 volume this is the workhorse,it seems like in most salons.
This lifts your levels one totwo.
Now a level is, say it's on ascale of one to 10, one being
the darkest black, 10 being thelightest blonde, and each level
(14:05):
goes through another color.
So you're going from black todark brown.
You know, medium brown, lighterbrown.
Every color line calls themsomething different.
20 volume would lift one to twolevels and it is your standard
for gray coverage in most colorlines, because what it does is
it lifts and deposits.
(14:28):
Remember when I was just talkingabout how color works,
especially for permanent haircolor.
30 volume lifts two to threelevels.
Why would you use 30 volume?
Well, say you have somebodythat's a level six and they want
to be a level eight copper, youwould need to use a 30 volume
(14:50):
to raise them up two to threelevels so then you can deposit
the color on top of that.
20 volume wouldn't get youthere because it only raises it
up one to two levels.
Make sense.
This is on natural hair, notpre-pigmented hair, not
pre-colored hair.
This is if you had somebody oryou yourself have virgin natural
(15:11):
hair and you wanted it to betwo to three shades lighter
using color, you would use a 30volume developer 40 volume this
is used for high lift blondes orin some lighteners.
But handle with care because itreally does open that cuticle
quickly and sometimes quickly isnot what you want.
(15:31):
Now I do use 40 volume from myhigh lift color because you need
that to open up the cuticle anddeposit it, because it's we're
actually working at like 11 and12 level, which I told you.
There's only one to 10.
So this is, it doesn't havemuch pigment in it.
So you need the 40 volume toactually break down more of the
(15:54):
natural pigment in the hair todeposit these really, really
fine, beautiful blonde pigmentsin the hair.
These are wonderful.
For if you are level seven,which is kind of like a dark
blonde or lighter, and youwanted highlights without using
bleach, you would use a highlift blonde with double 40
(16:15):
developer In most cases.
I know a lot of stylists justreach for bleach and they just
go to town and then they toneright out over that.
Tell you the truth.
I mean that is quick and thatis a no brainer, but I prefer
and anybody who knows me knowsthat I prefer to use a high lift
blonde if I can On my type ofhair.
(16:36):
Could I use a high lift blonde?
I could, but it doesn't haveenough tint in it, enough dye
load to actually tone my hairand plus, I have color on my
hair.
So this is hypothetical.
If you see my picture, my levelof hair color is in between a
five and a six, so it'sbasically brown hair, right, and
(16:56):
then it has some highlights.
Sometimes, if I get bored, I douse a lightener for mine
because I have color on my hairbut pretend like I didn't.
I could use a high lift blonde.
It would lift me about two tothree shades, but a high lift
blonde, like I said, doesn'thave much dye load to it, so I
(17:18):
would still have to tone my hair.
That's a lot on high liftblondes, but I love high lift
blondes and so if you're notusing them, if your color line
has them and you're notutilizing them, I would highly
suggest take a class on them orreally you know, try them out,
use them on swatches, see whatthey could really do to you.
(17:38):
But it's really for level seven, eight, nine, natural hair.
That's when you use the highlift blonde.
And I use them for highlights.
You could use them in all overcolor, but mostly highlights
Developers.
Why do they matter?
If you use the wrong developer,this can lead to uneven results
, breakage or simply color thatdoesn't last.
(17:59):
You got to know what developerto use for the outcome that
you're trying to get.
It's not a guess, it's astrategy, it's part of the
formula.
Now let's talk about toning andunderstanding the underlying
pigment Toners.
These are your best friends.
When you are lightening thehair, like I just mentioned,
(18:20):
most stylists go in.
They use bleach or a lightener.
We never called it bleach inthe salon, just FYI, but it's
the same thing.
Bleach and lightener are thesame thing.
So when you lighten your hair,you expose what we call the
underlying pigment and this isthe natural warmth hiding
beneath the surface.
For example, if you lift blackhair to brown, you often expose
(18:45):
a red underlying pigment whichyou would probably want to
neutralize out.
And if you're lifting dark,brown or blonde hair, this often
exposes orange or yellow, which, again, you typically want to
neutralize out.
So this is when you would comeup with your color wheel.
(19:05):
Remember in school we had thecolor wheel in art class.
Go to the color wheel and thevery opposite color of what
you're trying to neutralize willcancel that out.
So say, you just pulled orangeunderlying pigment.
You would want to go to theopposite side of the color wheel
, which is blue, to neutralizethe orange in your hair.
(19:28):
Purple cancels yellow, greencancels red.
Or you can enhance those colors.
So say, you took somebody brownand you lifted them to orange
and they really want to becopper.
Well, heck, there's your baseright there.
You don't have to do much toget them a beautiful copper
color.
See how that works.
(19:49):
Typically, though, we're tryingto neutralize or balance the
color.
So it really you got to reallyknow what you're trying to
balance and pay attention to thecolor wheel.
The color wheel does not lie.
So many times I have seen peoplewith brown hair with orange
highlights and they're trying touse a purple shampoo and
(20:09):
they're wondering why doesn'tthis work on me?
Because purple doesn'tneutralize orange.
There's not enough pigment inthat.
Purple neutralizes the yellowin the hair, but you're still
going to have orange in yourhair.
So if you have brown hair andyou got orange undertones,
you're going to need a blueshampoo or a blue conditioner or
a blue toner or something witha blue background to it, because
(20:34):
If you don't tone your hair,I'm a believer that every time
you highlight somebody's hairwith bleach or lightener, you
really do need to tone it.
Even if it came out exactly whatyou wanted, it is still raw
hair.
It's like raw material, and youneed to seal that cuticle back
down.
Even if it's just with cleargloss, you need to tone it with
(20:57):
something, because the tonerreally makes it look polished
and customized and completelyintentional, if you know what I
mean.
If you just bleach somebody'shair and you leave it like that,
doesn't it look like bleachedhair?
Yes, it does so.
Look at their skin tone, lookat the eye color.
Figure out what toner you want.
(21:18):
If you're trying to cancel outthe yellow and they've got blue
eyes, guess what?
A nice, beautiful, cool, icyblonde, whatever.
See how you can be an artistwith this.
It's up to you as a stylist andup to you as as the client too,
or somebody who just reallyloves hair.
Sometimes you look at somebodyor look at yourself and you're
(21:39):
like something's off.
I just can't put my finger onit and it could just be the tone
of your hair.
It's just not going with yourskin tone, with your eye color,
something, and it could just bea little off and you just need
to neutralize it.
That's where the color wheelcomes in handy.
How come you can't take oneformula and apply it to the same
brown headed client?
How come you can't take oneformula and apply it to the same
(22:00):
brown headed client?
You know and I know we havelevel six clients all day, every
day, great touch-ups, all that.
How come you can't just pull atube of six in and stick it on
the same person and get the sameresults?
You cannot, you cannot.
Used to be able.
I mean, we used to say youcould, but you cannot.
Everybody is different.
Have you ever had a client thatcame in and said my friend used
(22:23):
the same box color and lookedtotally different on me?
It's because nobody's the same.
Things like hair porosity, pasthair color history.
If you have old hair color onyour hair, color will not remove
color.
You will have to use some kindof bleach or lightener to remove
the color.
Color on your hair.
Color will not remove color.
You will have to use some kindof bleach or lightener to remove
the color out of your hair.
Sorry to say I don't know howmany times I've had to say that
(22:47):
Color does not remove color.
Color does not remove color.
If you have color on your hair,you cannot put another color on
top of that and expect it tolighten your hair color.
It doesn't work that way.
Plus, there's medications inour system.
There's mineral buildup.
What if you live in a placethat has a high mineral content
in your water?
That really does turn your hairbrassy and it will really do a
(23:13):
number on your hair and reactwith the chemicals of a hair
color or lightener If you do notget those minerals off your
hair before you start theprocess of coloring hair color
or lightener, if you do not getthose minerals off your hair
before you start the process ofcoloring your hair.
And then, of course, let's notforget hormonal changes.
Holy cow, add that to the list,right?
This all affects how your hairreacts to artificial hair color.
(23:34):
That's why a professionalconsultation with your
hairstylist and sometimes even astrand test Strand tests in the
salon have saved us so muchwork in the end, especially
knowing that somebody withreally long hair comes in and
they said, oh no, I haven'tcolored my hair in years but
(23:57):
their hair's really long and youknow that on the ends there's
going to be some hair color onthere.
So, taking a test strand, youjust take a little clip, cut
some out of the back or do it ontheir head.
I mean, if they want to stickaround, sometimes we used to
just cut a little tiny piece,like a half an inch piece, and
we would test it in our downtime, put some lightener on there
(24:19):
with different volume, see if iteven came out.
Even, because most of the timethat old hair color, even with
lightener, it'll turn orange,depending on what they had on
their hair, whereas the freshgrowth would lighten really
really fast.
Or sometimes even the old hairthat had the color on it would
turn to mush because it's justbeen over, over processed so
(24:41):
many times.
So instead of going in andtrying to color all their hair
and give them everything theywant in one sitting, when you
don't know their history, man, Itell you test strand can be the
difference between a beautifultransformation or a horrible
disaster.
(25:02):
Yes, I'm laughing because it's aterrible thing to happen when
it happens to you and many times, brand new stylists.
It seems like they just reallywant to do a good job, whether
it's for the client, forthemselves or for the salon
owner.
They just want to provethemselves, and so they'll take
on a situation that theyprobably shouldn't, and they
(25:23):
think that taking a strand testum makes them look weak.
Somehow it doesn't so okay.
So there you have it.
Hair color Isn't just beauty,it's biology, it's chemistry,
it's artistry all wrapped intoone.
The next time you see thatformula on your color bowl, just
know it's a custom creationbuilt on science and experience.
(25:46):
If today's topic helped youbetter understand the magic and
science of hair color, I'd lovefor you to share it.
Leave me a review or send me amessage with your biggest
takeaway.
And don't forget, click thelink below to grab your free
downloadable hair color sciencecheat sheet so you can keep this
info handy whether you'rebehind the chair or in the
(26:07):
mirror at home, and rememberwhen you know better, you do
better.
Thanks for tuning in to AllAbout Hair.
If you loved this episode, hitsubscribe, leave us a review and
share it with a fellow stylistor hair-loving friend.
You want more tips, tools andbehind-the-scenes goodness?
Follow me on YouTube or head tomy website at denisekeilitzcom.
(26:30):
Yes, I know it's hard to spell,so don't worry, the link is in
the show notes.
Until next time, keep learning,keep creating and keep loving
what you do.
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