Lets Talk Hair Color Categories <> Beginning w/ Demi-Permanent

There are a four hair color categories in the world of hair color:

• Temporary Hair Color
• Semi-Permanent Hair Color
• Demi-Permanent Hair Color 
• Permanent Hair Color

At this particular time, ALL OF YOU....want to know ALL ABOUT: Demi-Permanent Hair color... 

It lasts longer than semi-permanent, is great for first timers, great for when that first grey hits your temples, is perfect for men/women wanting to color their grey at home with top quality hair color.

I developed a love and deep affection for the newest category of hair color many years ago, as soon as the category was announced, now, nearly every single line has a demi-permanent line of hair color. 

We, carry 3 different demi-permanent lines :  

• Wella Color Touch   
• Schwarzkopf Toners
• Demi Toners for Blondes + Brunettes....Various Brands

When I began in the hair business, Demi Permanent Hair color did not exist. this new category added a whole new plethora of hair coloring ideas and options that are endless.

• great choices for Hair Color "first timers"
• clients 'new' to Gray hair
• even "teen" Hair Color benefits from new class of hair color
• men, perfect for men's hair color 
• let alone all tricks we use it for in Hair Shows + Editorial Shoots 

 We use multiple Demi Permanent brands of Hair Color here at KillerStrands

 Demi is used on almost all Hair Color & Shampoo photo shoots. . . for any & all the boxed hair color brands . I'm sorry to say we don't use the product that is inside the box, we use the most expensive and BEST LINE of Hair Color that exists. What people want and look for is:  ? ? ? ? Shine - SHINE - SHINE - SHINE, and awesome condition. I mean besides the obvious "Photo Shop--ping" and silicone shine serums we have used since the 1990's if you can believe that ! We hi-jacked the silicone serums from the ethnic hair care companies...who found them to help with their FRIZZ 20 years ago which is pretty funny if you think about it.. that's how I found them 15 years ago!  We used to keep our photography secrets - hidden and away from the public. 

A while ago on the front page of the Los Angeles Times were 2 photos of a model  . . . both were in Color ....

The entire page was devoted to explaining in detail how the PHOTO SHOP program works and how almost every single actor, model and even sports celebrities have PHOTO SHOP Editing rights on every Photo taken of them - prior to publishing. The reason this article was in there? Seems one of the Kardashian sisters (who live near here)  had a photo taken of her and published 'accidentally'  PRE- PHOTO SHOPPING procedure. Turns out the young lady is a lot heftier than we see, think or believe her to be. Boy did that news spread, (operative word being 'spread')  - -lawsuits were threatened, yelling and screaming ensued we could hear all the way in my city 20 miles away ( not really but sounds good- - -  right?) all sorts of important things like that were flung from email to email.!! The result? The article on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, when I saw that initially I just laughed and laughed. It actually was a relief and I couldn't wait to not be restricted by that "silent" code of conduct.... 

Hallelujah! I could finally talk about it all openly and not have to worry I was the one blowing the whistle on the whole process. I WANT all the info out there, so young girls know the truth about these models that they look up to. I want them to see and hear how much work we go to, to make them look perfect , its something they can never achieve and it took me  a lot of years to comes to Terms with myself.....

The 2 photos of the model ( which were huge) showed the difference in very explicate detail, the photo on the left was the "Before" Shot.....the photo on the "right" was this woman "Photo Shop-ped" and 'After'. The article was a good one, I didn't even need to read it, I knew exactly what it said.... but when you have based a huge portion of your career on the deception we call advertising.... 

Well ---> It was as if I had been holding my breath for years, and I finally could let it out . That is what that article and those photos did to me and I'm sure every single other artist that works on advertising & photos and in that genre, from make-up people, to hair, to production, to P R, to Publicists, Agents, to the Celebs themselves. The truth finally out there.. OMG, don't you just LOVE the Internet..... here are the photos:

 

This is what young girls strive to make themselves like. . . something that just isn't even real. Please educate your daughters and yourself on this deception.... that is very carefully crafted.

Now, let me get back to Demi-permanent Hair Color.The newest classification of hair color which is called Demi Permanent is deposit only and referred to as 'semi' permanent by some manufacturers, it is very similar to semi, but more long lasting.  Some of the European companies have chosen to use super low volume peroxides to differentiate the semi from the demi lines. But if you read the first post, which I hope you do/did . . . “True” Semi-Permanent hair color is not mixed with any sort of developer or catalyst and that is how I feel it needs to stay. I teach you all this, in the hopes honestly, it depends on the manufacturer, the Colorist or the school as to how it is defined. My education is Vidal Sassoon based which is known as the "Harvard of Hair Schools" so I think you'll be safe using my criteria.

First of all it helps if you understand a little bit about the technical side of how hair dyes work. Semi-permanent color consists of tiny molecules that enter through the cuticle but they don’t affect the natural pigmentation of the hair. Because these molecules are so small they can be washed out after only half a dozen washes.This is the one and only hair color that does not change your own hair color at all. The rest do, which I know is odd to many of you. But there are no rules in hair color, there is no one single HAIR GOD that regulates how the hair color system works.  The hair color manufacturers make it up as they go along.

 DROP GOES THE JAW of most of you!

I have seen "Semi-Permanent Haircolor Boxes" where they provide developer in the box. That is a major hair color company going AGAINST the rules of haircoloring in order to sell a product to you. As you can see a semi-permanent hair color Can not and Should not COME with DEVELOPER. Maybe if I put this here, people that come to visit here,  will begin to learn and someday some of you will begin getting mad, when your hair color has been destroyed due to that fact. You must start writing .... start turning those companies IN.   Where do you turn them in? start with your local congressional Rep (Google it) and then CC the Food and Drug Administration (Google it).

Demi-permanent color also enters through the cuticle but it combines with other molecules in your hair to make it larger molecules and these take longer to wash out....Demi permanent color is used with any developer 3 Volume all the way to 18 Volume. So many of you get all in a fluff when I tell you 15 Volume is Demi the same as 10Volume ...the same as 6 Volume ... all of which we carry.  Hair color is a scientific science it is not an Artistic painting. If you follow the rules of the science that I try to teach ........you will have successful color. It also involves color theory from the artistic world though so you cannot just be a Cosmetic Chemist. When that web site online that claims to be all Cosmetic Chemists and they answer all your questions and they claim" they don't work for anyone". Ask yourself ........who do you know who works all day on a business does it for free??? My answer to you........No one.  The Cosmetic Chemists  HAD to get together with the hair artists in order to make the hair color chemistry work correctly, because they did not understand color theory at all.

....which brings us to Permanent hair dyes, these react after entering your hair because they use ammonia and peroxide which shrinks as the molecules of color go in the hair strands and then makes the color molecules EXPAND so they cannot get out once inside.... it makes the molecules much too big to be washed back out of the hair. If you keep this information about molecules in mind when deciding which hair dye to use then it will stop you from choosing the wrong product.
Always make sure that you do a strand test before dying your hair, this makes sure that you have the color you want and that you don’t react to the dye, remember different dyes from different makers have different chemicals in them. There is no UNIVERSAL SYSTEM over-seeing the hair color business . . . that implements these rules/laws .  Its up to each hair color company to follow what we hope is this universal LEVEL System I talk about so much.

 Remember . . . You may ALWAYS request a Free Strand Test with your purchase, I do that to show you how much I believe in them.

  If you have long hair make sure that you cover it properly with the color in any of the categories.... otherwise you will end up with streaks you don’t want and make sure that your hair is clean and damp before applying the dye.  For the absolute best application I would ALWAYS suggest applying one of our Malibu2000 COLOR PREP Applications.  Make sure that your bathroom or wherever else you dye your hair has plenty of fresh air - its just great for the lungs and health...don’t use hair conditioner for a day or so before putting on the hair dye but you should shampoo your hair to makes sure that it’s clean. 

 When using Level 7 and darker I would suggest using a Barrier Cream       which you apply around the hairline....it keeps the color OFF the skin, at the end of the process with darker colors. On the flip side there is also color-OFF that is used when the procedure is done and you didn't get it all off the skin.

If you stain your skin when dyeing your hair then rub a little stain remover. You will lose some hair when dying it but to keep this to a minimum after you have dyed it rinse it with cold or lukewarm water.

I like to think of Demi Perm Colors as any color line that uses above 5 Volume and below 19 Volume Developer, which makes this the perfect category to be used on men's, the first grays and up to 20 -25% Gray.

I use Demi Permanent Hair color on almost everyone EXCEPT if you want to go LIGHTER, that is the BIGGEST difference....in Demi-permanent color and Permanent color. The only action that will happen is Deposit of color - no lift <> no lightening......so remember that. There is no SUCH THING as a Semi-Permanent Blond no such thing as Demi Permanent blond. Those words make absolutely NO SENSE. If its a Level 9 blond that means it is a TONER .....remember why? because the developer is 10 or 13 Volume and that means its deposit only.  

I am of the belief that depositing color in the hair strands of either gray, white, or simply middle-aged (weak) hair can add:

• strength
• shine
• illusion of thickness
• reduce frizz & tangles 

This formula generally imparts vivid color results, and is ideal for covering un-pigmented hair, refreshing faded permanent color, depositing tonal changes without lift, corrective coloring and low-lighting.

 First of all it helps if you understand a little bit about the technical side of how hair dyes work. Semi-permanent color consists of tiny molecules that enter through the cuticle but they don’t affect the natural pigmentation of the hair. Because these molecules are so small they can be washed out after only half a dozen washes. Demi-permanent color also enters through the cuticle but it combines with other molecules in your hair to give larger molecules and these take longer to wash out, which brings us to Permanent hair dyes, these react after entering your hair because they use ammonia and peroxide and this makes the molecules much too big to be washed back out of the hair. If you keep this information about molecules in mind when deciding which hair dye to use then it will stop you from choosing the wrong product.  

Always make sure that you do a strand test before dying your hair, this makes sure that you have the color you want and that you don’t react to the dye, remember different dyes from different makers have different chemicals in them. If you have long hair make sure that you cover it properly with the dye otherwise you will end up with streaks you don’t want and make sure that your hair is clean and damp before applying the dye. I feel using our product that is a pH BALANCER  and is called INTENSIVE....helps with the shine and the longevity of the color on the strands...

By their very nature, demi's or deposit-only hair colors darken the natural hair color when applied. They cause little or no damage to the hair and are generally positioned as gentle and mild due to their low ammonia or no ammonia content. In recent years, many top  colorists will apply demi to the 'lengths' of the hair while permanent is applied to the roots. That is how the true color application should be applied.

Apply Permanent color to the base and Demi Permanent ot the ends to refresh the color if you are just trying to stay the same color.

This fights the build-up effect that can occur on previously colored hair and is also less aggressive, resulting in less damage.

Demi-Permanent Hair Color

• contains no ammonia
• is mixed with an activator, such as peroxide
• activator lifts cuticle slightly so color sits in and under the cuticle
• lasts 18 to 20 shampoos
• fades gradually and then washes out to the original color of the hair
• used for toning, changing tone, filling in highlights, and going darker
• good way to temporarily change hair color to try something new
• also recommended to color hair that is already significantly damaged or over processed

Demi-permanent hair color is, in fact, permanent hair dye mixed with low volume (usually a 5,10 up to 15 Volume) developer that blows off the ammonia from the permanent tube so that only color molecules penetrate the hair shaft.

Demi-permanents are much more effective at covering gray hair than semi-permanents, but less so than permanents.

However, demi-permanent hair colors must be used with caution because they are, in essence, permanent color and the darker shades in particular may persist longer than indicated on the box.

The two best lines in this category are:

• Wella Professional meaning Koleston Perfect, Illumina, Color Touch,Blondor, MAGMA
• Schwarzkopf : Igora Royal, Vibrance, BlondME

to date I have tested most every line and am still headstrong about these brands: its results & quality are top-of-the-line
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