Hair Coloring and Lightening
Law of color and the level system
Levels run 1 (black) to 10 (lightest blonde); level describes depth, tone describes warmth or coolness. Primary colors are red, yellow and blue; secondaries are orange, green and violet; complementary pairs neutralize - blue cancels orange, green cancels red, violet cancels yellow. Every natural level has an underlying pigment you must account for when lifting.
Product families: temporary color coats the cuticle; semipermanent deposits without lifting and fades over several shampoos; demi-permanent uses a low-volume developer and deposits only; permanent (aniline derivative) tint lifts and deposits. Lighteners and decolorizers remove pigment through the warm stages (red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, pale yellow) and are not colors themselves.
Developer volume drives lift, not processing time: 10 volume deposits, 20 volume lifts roughly one to two levels, 30 lifts two to three, 40 lifts three to four. Time stops when the color is developed; leaving it longer damages hair without adding lift.
Traps
- Semipermanent and demi-permanent do not lift.
- A patch test is a safety step; a test strand is a color-prediction step. Do both when indicated.
- Metallic salts and henna can react badly with lightener - ask before you lift.
- A toner goes on pale yellow, not on orange.
Rule of thumb
Choose the developer by how many levels you need to lift, then choose the tone by neutralizing the underlying pigment you will expose.