Hair Coloring
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Hair Color Types
- Semi-permanent color: This product adds color without changing natural color dramatically. The hair color contains tiny color molecules that enter the hair's cuticle, or outer layer, and go into your hair's cortex. They don't interact with your natural pigments. And since the molecules are small, they eventually exit the hair shaft after several shampoos, leaving the hair as it was before treatment. This level generally lasts for 6 to 12 shampoos, covers up to 50 percent gray, enhances your natural color and leaves no roots. This hair coloring won't lighten your hair color because it contains no ammonia or peroxide.
- Demi-permanent color - This product level lasts longer, through 24 to 26 shampoos. In this process, pre-color molecules penetrate the cuticle and enter the cortex where they then partner to create medium-sized color molecules. Their larger size means they take longer to wash out. These products do not contain ammonia so the natural pigment can't be lightened. However, it contains a small amount of peroxide, which allows for a subtle, but noticeable, color enhancement. It also blends and covers gray. (Both semi- and demi-permanent colors can become permanent on permed or already-colored hair!)
- Permanent color - This is what you need for a more significant color change (to go from black to blond, you'll still need to go with a process called double process blonding and it'd be wise to get this it done professionally). In this level, both ammonia and peroxide are used. Tiny molecules enter all the way into the cortex, where they react and expand to a size that cannot be washed out. Your hair actually has to grow out over time. This product acts to lighten the hair's natural pigment to form a new base and then to add a new permanent color. The end result is a combination of your natural hair pigment and the new shade you chose. That means the color may appear different on you than on someone else using the same color. (That's why the "strand test" is so important -- more about that later.) Regular touch-ups of 4 to 6 weeks are generally needed to eliminate roots -- hair with your natural color growing at half an inch per month from your scalp.
Material in this section is from How Hair Coloring Works[1], unless otherwise noted.
Color Levels
Color levels are the degrees of lightness or darkness of a color seen by the eye. Hair color is assigned a level number from 1 to 10, with 10 being the lightest and 1 being black. Black reflects very little light and the lightest shades of blonde reflect the greatest amount of light. A colorist would say that a level 10 blonde is two steps lighter than a level 8 blonde.[1]
Picking the Hair Color
When in doubt, some experts suggest to aim for the color of your hair when you were 12 years old.[1] Generally, try to stay within the range of two shades darker or two shades lighter than your natural hair color.[2]
Gray Hair
Gray hair is a result of hair building up too much hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide, which is produced naturally in the human body, interferes with melanin, the pigment that colors our hair and skin. The body also produces the enzyme catalase, which breaks down hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. As we age, catalase production tails off, leaving nothing to transform the hydrogen peroxide into chemicals the body can release. So, as hydrogen peroxide builds up, we go gray.[3]
Some gray hairs, especially coarse hairs, prematurely gray hairs and gray hairs around the temples and hairlines, are especially resistant to color or quicker to lose color than other gray hairs. Try the following suggestions:
- Apply color to gray areas first. (This gives resistant gray hairs more time to absorb color.)
- Leave color on longer. (Adjust your timing and try it first in the strand test. Grays could take up to 45 minutes to color.)
- Increase your hair color level. (If your grays still show up even after you've adjusted the timing on your semi- or demi-permanent color, you might consider going up a level.)
Application: Hair Coloring at Home
If your hair is longer than shoulder length, buy two boxes of dye so you have enough to cover your entire head. Always used gloved fingers, never a comb, to distribute the dye through your hair. Color opens the hair cuticle, making strands vulnernable to damage. Dragging a comb through the hair can break it.
- Test - Start with dry hair; place a dark towel over your shoulders and put on the color kit's gloves. Test the dye formula on an inch-wide section of hair from the nape of your neck, and on another hidden section of hair at your crown.
- Prep - Spread Vaseline on your skin right next to, but not touching, your hairline to protect if from stains. Part hair in the middle and continue the part down the back of your head, which will make it easier to disperse the dye evenly.
- Apply - Working from the back of the hair to the front, squeeze dye on one half-inch wide section of hair at a time, from the roots to just a few inches above the ends. (Revmoe any dye stains from your skin with an alcohol-based toner.)
- Distribute - Run your fingers through your hair, including the ends, to distribute the dye; the ends are porous and will absorb more color, so they can become too light or too dark if you apply the dye directly on them. Set a timer and wait.
- Rinse - When the time is up, step in the shower and rinse until the water turns clear. Apply the color kit's conditioner throughout hair (or use a deep conditioner instead). Leave on for five minutes then rinse. Wait 24 hours before shampooing.
- Touch up your color every three to five weeks, but don't re-dye your entire head. Apply the dye only to the regrowth at your roots, and leave it on for the number of minutes listed in the directions. When the time is up, use your fingers to work the color through the rest of your hair. Wait one to tow minutes, then rinse.
- To conceal gray hiars or regrowth between colorings, use a root touch-up kit, which is designed to match your hair color when it has faded after a few weeks.
- If you're unhappy with the results, you can mute the color by applying a deep conditioner to damp hair. Then, cover your head with a plastic wrap and a hot, damp towel. Leave on for 20 minutes (at ten minutes, blast your head with a blow-dryer), then shampoo and condition hair. If you're still not happy with your shade, see a professional rather than attempting to fix it yourself.
Material in this section is from Beauty 101: At-Home Hair Color[2], unless otherwise noted.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 http://science.howstuffworks.com/hair-coloring3.htm
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Beauty 101: At-Home Hair Color". Allure. August 2009: pg. 60.
- ↑ http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/03/02/gray-hair.html
