6 Crucial Factors Affecting Your Hair Color Result

How To Evaluate those Factors at Home

This is the area I know many of you struggle with. I’ve stressed these factors individually but now I am going to review them all together. Now if you are trying to assess your hair in preparation for YOU to color it for the first time …this is the article for you.

6 Imperative Factors to Know Before, ANY Hair Color Procedure

Existing Hair Color
Virgin Base Level
Percentage of Gray
Ethnic Background
Porosity
Texture

The results of your haircoloring, I promise you, will only be as good as your analysis of these 6 points. Hair Colorists who do this day in and day out…should be held to that same rule. If your hair colorings continue to come out wrong. Always revert back to this page. Print it out. Keep it in your cupboard where you have stored your hair color tools. If you don’t have any, get them ! Don’t do hair color with home products, when your goal now is to have your hair look professional. Its not hard to do a good analysis, you just have to know what to look for.

I’m telling you, it would be so simple to print this page out….or simplify to how it makes sense to you (keeping the important parts). Each time you go to “change your hair color” you use the sheet. Answer all 6 questions.

1.) Existing Hair Color >? I have found in our Group that this is the most misunderstood step. You need to answer honestly to yourself whether you have put hair color on your hair is the last 12-18 months. If you have it alters what you can do profoundly. Don’t lie to yourself. Hundreds of people everyday sit in chairs and lie to hairstylists. . . they don’t think we can tell and we can. We want to see if you are going to be honest or not. So remember this. Once you have applied any type of hair color that uses developer to your hair there are so many options that become impossible to do. So think about this the nest time you feel like running out to the drugstore and applying, quickly, some boxed haircolor , because those are the worlds hardest colors to get out. Don’t do it, if you ever want to have nice hair color. If you do have hair color determine what level that color is.There are different plans to think about if your present hair color is

lighter…………than your ‘desired’…you will pre-pigment or fill
the same level as your ‘desired’…...this is easy – smile
darker ……….than your ‘desired’…..you will remove color (Vanish)

2.) Virgin Hair Level – Determine Your Virgin Level by parting the top of the hair down the middle. Doing it to yourself? Use bathroom so you can look up close take the end of a tail comb (tail comb) take a copy of any 1 of the 2 dozen Level Charts on this Blog I have given you, with you. Pull the hair up near the part, gauge it from there. NEVER THE ENDS. If your not sure ask a partner, ask a family member, ask a friend.

3.) Determine the % of gray – Gray hair is basically hair with no pigment. Haircolor looks different on gray hair than on any other color. The reason? If gray has 0 pigment

Level 10 blonde - 10% pigment
Level 9 blonde - 20% pigment
Level 8 blonde - 30% pigment
Level 7 dark blond - 40% pigment
Level 6 Light brown – 50%pigment
and on down the line till you reach Level 1 – with 100% pigment

Gray is not on that chart at all. It has “0” pigment. With no pigment it has nothing the hair color can latch onto, so therefore when you color without using the tricks to covering gray….it will cover but in 1-2-3 weeks the gray will begin to show its ugly head!

When you have gray you must come up with an estimate of how much gray you have, this can be a little tricky at the beginning. So let me give you a couple tricks. 10% gray means one in every ten hairs is gray. Many times it is the first impression that makes me decide. Remember all of these factors go back to number 1 – do you have color on the hair already. If so, you are doing this estimating on the “base” (roots) ……….. {roots is such a God-awful word they came up ‘base’ –much more appealing…try to use it}. So there are many different situations you may find yourself in. Close your eyes……….open them, does your hair look more gray than natural? Than you are over 50%….and vice versa. If you are coloring your own hair you will be able to play with this..as a professional I feel you should know exacts before you ever start hair on clients.

Below in the picture of a chart on the right hand side….it shows 25% gray – 50% Gray & 75% Gray…………..

With this color Series I am going to go through coloring all the way. Not leaving things out with hopes of a book. That will never happen, so now you will get the entire color Instruction and in order. You will be taught the Sassoon method of how to cover gray, and everything else.

4.) Ethnic background – I put this in here because I feel most publications (and my training left it out as a distinct category. It is deeply studied in the European part of the world and they have magazines and books that deal only with ethnic hair.

> Afro American hair tends to be very curly and darker and coarser, on average, than Caucasian. > Asian hair tens to be coarse , very resistant , very dark and straight.

So those….. and I have written a wonderful post about ethnicities & their hair but all hair on all people has most of the same properties. The properties from one ethnicity to another will most definitely be different so that subject does not really affect this post.

5.) Porosity – Resistant hair is slower to accept haircolor. It’s funny out of all these steps……I have found both in the group –and- in all of the Consultations I have done . . . everyone knows whether or not their hair “takes’’ color well or not. Isn’t that funny?? I think that is super unusual. Every single hairstylist out there must be saying to themselves as they takes the foils out or I have always scratched the color off with my fingernail to see if the color is taking fast or not – that every single one of you KNOWS the answer to that question !!! Well, THAT is the porosity of your hair. You were born with it.

Overporous hair processes quickly and may require more warmth in the formula and a weaker developer ( and possibly ‘filling’ or they used to call it pre-pigmenting).

Then there is normal porosity….means a slightly raised cuticle – just barely lifted. No adjustments need to be made and most of you have this porosity.

I feel porosity affects a lot more than most give it credit for… you will see in following posts.

6). Texture of Hair – Most people have medium texture so no special considerations are needed.

For extremely fine and “might'” have to pay attention to…. the “quote goes 9 out of ten people are medium texture” so most people don’t have to worry. I find that quote a little off with all the ethnicities here now and with all the cross marriages…lots of beautiful new textures are popping up.

What you will want to be careful of is the fine hair around the face some people have. If that is you ….there are a couple tricks …but I will give you the 2 easiest. Because to me there are 2 kinds of face frame hair….one is super find one is medium fine. The only difference is in timing – I was this picky – maybe you don’t want to be.

Super fine….3-5 minutes before end of processing time (save a bowl of color – always) apply color. Rinse that part last.
Medium fine … just apply color on whole head then apply last ( this way it has 20-25 minutes.!)