Killer Chemists > Most Common Question For August.

Below is a wonderful email from a Killerstrands reader, this seems to be a very common problem this month. At the end of every month I want to pick out an email that represents the most common inquiry to me for the month, in hopes of helping others out there, too timid to ask and answer it for you all in a post. I got Melissa's approval first to publish her email, so I thank her for giving us the peek into her hair world.

Please, I adore your questions and look forward to answering them. So ask away.

Here is melissa's Email...

I would estimate I had at least another 20 emails to me very very close to the same problem.... Melissa summarized it the best..

Aug 31 (3 days ago)

Killer CHEMIST,

i just found your blog, and i have to say i have learned a lot. i wish i found this earlier.
i need some help with a problem i have with my hair.

i asked my stylist to make my hair color a nice medium warm brown.
I have naturally black hair but has been highlighted, and then changed to a dark brown.

My hair looked brown when she was done, and i liked it. but when i got home it looked more of a dark plum red tint.
which i hate! i was pissed. in the light you could see this dark reddish purple tint to it. and even in pictures it looked like that.
so i panicked and bought a toner (demi-permanent), Loreal Gems. That made my hair black with a dark reddish tint! Yuck.

So i go to her to fix it. She doesn't lift my hair at all???? I thought that was weird.
Instead she said she put in more of an ash color in the mixture she made......It definitely got most of the red out but not all, there is still a slight red tint in the light, but its still black. Now in the light it will look brownish/reddish depending on the angle of the light.

Ugh! i don't know what to do. i want to be able to do this myself and i am worried about damaging my hair, meanwhile paranoid of hair loss.
i just want a nice medium but warm brown. is that so difficult. oh she said i would have to bleach my hair to get this color, which after reading you blogs, it sounds like she is right. she said my hair since i'm asian (technically only half, and I don't have typical asian hair) will always pull red.

i know when she did my highlights i got a nice brown. i don't know what i should do.

There is a whole art in the Hair Colour World called Color Correction. This would be a person that spends the majority of their time fixing others hair color mistakes. I did this throughout my career because I was trained by a Colour Correction Specialist, she was the top in the field in the United States and she continues to be. I was very lucky to have that training because there is no where to 'read' about it, one has to be trained or find someone that will let you intern/mentor underneath them... it is the only way. Most with the knowledge do not like to give it up they want it elite & private.

The very first point about this email that needs to be made.............
This is a HAIR COLOR Rule that is the most important one you will ever learn. Almost everyone that reads and comments on this blog....does not seem to understand what it means. I am upset that I have not explained it correctly & that no one understands what I mean.
Here it is:

Colour does not lift color.
Tint does not Lift Tint.
Dye does not lift Dye..............................all 3 of these statements mean exactly the same thing.
Its just what you are calling the hair color product. I prefer Tint.

If you put Tint or color or Dye....whatever you want to call it...on your hair.... once......like she did...she had brown colour put on her hair....
once you put that color on your hair.....you are basically screwed..... once it is on your hair, it is chemically impossible to take another color and put it on top....and have that color on top work....they do NOT WORK ON TOP OF EACH OTHER, that has not been figured out yet...
Once dark brown is put on hair.....the only way out of it is to wash it out or use a very expensive very long process called MODULAT a German color remover.

Modulat is how the Celebs all change hair color so much and their hair is still on their head. It does removes the color/tint/or dye....safely - it does not destroy the hair.... but it takes an entire day and can cost $200-$500. in the Salon.

Now we are right back to where we started......

Colour does not "Lift" Colour. ( lift means 'lighten') Can you grasp that statement? I think if you do it will help you all in so many ways...

So for Melissa and the many others that wrote to me with this problem.. ....I am making available the VANISH to any readers of Killer strands that want to do the procedure to themselves. The product ( 2 applications normally) costs $23 and is not difficult to apply I've helped a couple people with it :very successfully. That is one option.

The other is to start right away with the shampoo train.
I have quite a few people in this stage right now. This is what we use in the hair color world with hair models.....If you shampoo the hell out of hair, with a CLARIFYING shampoo....
the color begins to come out....you loosen the color molecules and begin to fade the hair color...exactly what we want.
It goes like this.....
The best shampoo is cheapest lousiest shampoo from grocery store....if you can't get that....buy a crappie CLARIFYING shampoo
....leave shampoo ON THE HAIR for 5-10 minutes ( longer the better) rinse...........wait min. 30 minutes & repeat..... Do this 4-5-6 times - EVERY day!!
That will lighten that black....which is what you want.

just give me the word and I will send you some VANISH !

First you have to work at getting that black and all those colors out of it......start that shampoo train up....so many people have tremendous success with this.....trust me. It's the beginning you need.
.....