'Tones' In The Level System of Hair Color : Part 2

Tones and understanding them are more important than the Levels...even though that is what they named the entire System. When you applied your Hair Color you aoolied or even that you had done at a big fancy Salon and it was goofed up...what do you complain about? ... not the Level ...you don't normally say "OMG my hair is too dark or too light" (most commonly, I should say) the issue normally is with the "Tone"..... 'its too brassy or too red or too BLORANGE ! ! ha ha or something in one of the many many tonal categories. 
Learning the intricate part of each Brand is so finely tuned you must study each line separately.....Because each one has its own directions and ratio's and tonal categories !

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Now here is a great chart that shows you the under-"TONES" on every Level  when it is virgin hair the category that says:"UNDERTONES of Existing Shade" is the virgin hair category. 
Then it shows every tone that becomes exposed as you lift ( lighten) the hair. Even if you are using a Level 9 on a Level 7, By the way which category would that example put you in? ? ? ?Anyone Know? Guess Below??

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 



What we will do here today is speak about the Tonal categories in most lines of hair color today. I'm going to use the chart that has the most categories so you will see the wide range these companies can reach to in making their lines of color.

    Tonal Categorys (for fun!)

So here is the Category that is in every line and the one we use the most. NATURAL or NEUTRAL. There are no tones it is just flat and given the number "0" to describe it. This is used to get a neutral tone with no warmth and no coolness - right smack in the middle

  Next is INTENSE NEUTRAL, or NN is how it is described in most lines. This has double neutral pigment, & what do u think we would use that for? To cover stubborn or resistant gray. This tonal category would always be used for that no matter which Level. This would always be used for resistant or hard to cover gray. Always!
Natural Tan or Beige is the most commonly used term, which creates natural looking rich warm tones. Perfect for gray coverage as one must use warm colors when covering gray even if u don't want a warm tone. Its the whole having no tone in the hair thing.
Natural Ash, which mean a little bit of Neutral and a little bit of Ash, with a blue-violet base it produces neutral cool tones and controls unwanted orange.yellow tones. This works well in gray coverage.
A Blend of Ash and Gold equals Beige and equals a classic beige blonde which is one of my favorite tonal looks.
Ash is such an argued about category...I mean every single company uses a different color to use for their Ash base...I mean look at this one they use BLUE! Which to be perfect honest it makes me want to try their color, and you know why>? Blue gets rid of BLORANGE ! and so many blonde's have enough of that tone floating around.Wella use's green, Kaaral uses gray, LANZA uses Violet which in my mind is what it is supposed to be....to get rid of all the brass that flys everywhere!!
Pearl is Violet/Blue which controls all the unwanted orange tones that come when lifting.

VIOLET :Blue & Red make violet therefore when one uses violet based darker colors it comes out in Burgandy colors...when added to lighter levels it kills all that nasty brass we fight when lifting. I love me some violet when blonding.Nothing is better.
Red/Gold base produces luminous warm reds, most people would reffer to this as Copper


Red mahogany is referred to as /Red brown or Auburn I guess....base creates beautiful natural reds


Red : Formulated with a true red base that ensure rich vibrant tones.....this is that bright ass Red I call it.


Intense Red base creates extremely wow red tones....even redder than above!



Red/Orange Base  this produces bold red- copper tones. Now all of these can be use in tiny amounts or 50% of the formula, that's where the experience comes in and strand tests work for...


Copper: orange base, which may sound really weird but if you have some blue you need toned down this is your girl !



Gold/Red Base produces beautiful rich, warm mahogany tones. This is the tone that the actress : Jessica Chastain has ...that is so darn popular right now.

Gold - gold base creates gold tones and if you have blue tones u would use this to tone it down......every tone can be used for both a base and to cancel unwanted Tones out your color.

Intense Gold: Creates radiant brilliant golden tones.



So that is about the biggest tonal chart I have ever seen so I wanted to use this one. Now if you have any questions please ask them now so I know what to continue writing about within the Tonal category. Which I would love to do but I need help with the direction to go in....
I hope this has helped a little....It really is the hardest part of hair coloring.

Bad-Ass Beautiful Braid Trend, Here To Stay

Braids 

trending
for 

summer

Shampoo Train ... to Vanish... to Re-Color

So many of you lately are taking the plunge and have been on the Shampoo Train....for weeks and have just ordered your VANISH to finish it off. I cannot tell you how proud of you all I am.

The idea that light hair color may not be put upon dark hair color and be expected to work, that just is not part of today's technology. I can tell you that I know that is the number 1 thing all Cosmetic Chemists are working on day in and day out. They are trying to make it become a reality for all you Crib Colorists out there...but to date it just has not happened ! ! 

So even once you have hopped on that shampoo Train and shampooed the living hell out of your hair....followed that with 1 -2 -3 Vanish Treatments...your hair that is underneath is NOT going to be your virgin hair -- I want you to know that. The hair underneath was changed forever that first day you applied whatever color you did by the developer that was mixed with that color.

Some of you think that after all of that you will reach your virgin hair....this is just to tell you the hard but necessary news that ....you will not. You will reach some odd form of brassy Blorangey - Bronze. Then you may make your plan for where to go from there. Be very careful in your decision, because you want it to be something beautiful which you have the power to do now.

If necessary join our group talk to fellow members who have gone through similar Hair Color disasters and most have come through the other end very happy and with a smile on their puss ! ! Permanent color has only the capacity to lift VIRGIN hair, not hair AFTER Color is removed.

You possibly may get a little lift, but if its blonde you are looking for you must choose: oil-bleach, creme bleach, or powder lightener for your weapon of choice.

Do not let this discourage you from the process though, because I never hear more complements than I do from this protocol. I hear the following sentence (or some version of it) over and over :

" I finally feel my own hair back again, 

it is soft and light, like it used to be. . . ."

. . . and I have been hearing that for every week of my entire 7 years on the Internet !

KC

Tonal Qualities in the Level System of Hair Color (yes, finally)

 Level and Tone are the basis of the Level System of Hair coloring and understanding the difference between the 2 must be clear, before proceeding. I missed teaching this in all these years. I should have taught the difference between "Level" and "Tone" and reviewed the entire category of Tonal qualities, but somehow I didn't and am sorry. It is a hard subject to teach online for 2 reasons :

1. each hair color company has different tones.............remember no one regulates the billion dollar hair color world, they just fly by the seat of their pants ( & you know... men run all of these companies...which is ridiculous, don't get me wrong I love me some men - but what do they know about hair color or for that matter, what do they care?)  
2. color settings & quality on computer monitors..........sometimes the difference between 2 tones are slight and it would be almost impossible to show the difference because we all have different brands and different monitors of computers. Which doesn't mean I'm not going to try, I just want you to be aware of that fact.

In the last 17 years, I have watched companies jump from 6 to sometimes over 20 various tones...and again each hair color line is different. A great example of 'Tone' is to look at a black white photograph:

you are seeing only LEVELS of Color not tones.If you were to wash this image with Gold, then you have a Tonal Series. It would show light gold, medium gold. dark gold..etc. 

Level simply refers to the lightness or darkness of a haircolor. Words such as light, medium, dark, palest, darkest and very light tell you about a colors LEVEL. Level, is how light or dark a color is.

TONE
Refers to the hue of a haircolor...the main tones and where haircolor started : Neutral, Ash, Gold & Red. So they began with the letters for Tones A-Ash...etc..., but then later came the numbers which correlate with Tones as well which go like this:

• A. Ash : 1 stands for Ash so 8/1 is a level 8 Ash or 8/1A is how you'll see it as well.
• G. Gold :  3 stands for Gold so 10/3 is a Level 10 Gold or 10/3G
• N: Neutral : 0 for Neutral or Natural so 4/0 is a Level 4 Natural or 4/0N
• R: Red : 4 in most lines stand for Red so 6/4 is a Level 6 Red or 6/4R

Any color really, haircolor or not can be described in terms of Level & Tone. Say you are painting a wall and you are trying to decide which color to paint it.... you choose Blue. You go and look at paint chips and they range from lightest powder blue to deepest navy ink  and all of the shades in between- those all could be called Levels of Blue!

Any Questions leave them in Comments section below...they will be answered shortly. We carry a Color wheel and a Peroxide wheel to help once you get the basics down...I love them and still glance at them occasionally.

  

Join our Group for all things hair, hair color and/or hair products.

 End of Part 1, Part 2 shortly

thank you
KC

Mandatory Knowledge, For Screwed Up Hair Color

Far too many people throughout the years have panicked over a botched hair color job and reached for, what I call, "Box-O-Color/crap", and further destroy it. The reason I never wrote this Post before? Most look for me when its too late - but maybe this will help some of you in the future. I will tell you what you should have done BEFORE you applied the box-o-crap.

So there is only 1 disaster instead of 2.........which compounds everything.

OK 
Thousands of time since this Blog began 7 years ago, I have received emails/comments/Posts etc...with the sound of Panic in the air, 

"I was trying to color my hair_________,  BUT it turned Blorange, so I panicked - ran to drug store & bought a darker box-o-color/crap..........now what do I do?"

The trick is simple.

In the movie industry we are constantly coloring hair for a daily job on either the actor, stunt person and at times even the Extra's. 

We either wet or shampoo the hair then we grab our little secret magical bottle ............

I'm sure some of you recognize it !

Its Roux Temporary Color Rinse and it comes it 20 shades....its great for temporary uses.
Remember the different color categories?

• Temporary
• Semi-permanent
• Demi-permanent
• Permanent

No one ever talks about temporary, not even me ! ha ha. This is what you should run & get at Sally's and buy in times of hair disasters. ( I can't believe I said that, BUT, it does carry it and Sally's is in every town in our country). So its super convenient and you can get this as easily as Box-O-Color.

Why is this a good choice? You wet the hair, put gloves on ( all color that doesn't use developer is messy ) and apply straight from the bottle. I used to be a Stuntwoman (15 yrs) and I brought my own, because sometimes they would want to color your hair to match the actress I would be doubling and I was already for them with every color in my stunt bag.  They would wet my hair and kind of section and comb section and comb......applying barrier creme around the hairline then after rinsing use a Color Stain Remover around the hairline to clean up any left-over color.

Then you can go to work, school or care for the kids while you CAREFULLY plot your next move on your hair disaster. The color simply shampoos out, yep, all the way out no residue at all - so you have not compounded your original disaster. I would definitely condition with INTENSIVE or THRIVEN following it, it is a teeny bit drying, but hey, what isn't?

So isn't that great? Too bad most people don't look for me until they already put a box of color on.....but maybe I will save someone with this Post !


Here is what the company says about the product:

• Great for roots between permanent coloring treatments
• Contains its own setting lotion and conditioners
• Easy to use
• Works great

Roux Fanci-Full Rinse temporary hair color keeps hair color looking its best between color treatments. Evens tones and removes brassiness. Blends away gray. Color is instantaneous and non-damaging. Added styling lotion allows for coloring and styling in one easy step. 


Killer Chemist

That 'Bed-Head' Look .... Easier To Accomplish Than You Think !

To create that Bed-head look that is everywhere (and will not go-away), we carry one little simple product, needed to create it . Last time these were in they flew out, before I ever got to explain how to work them so lets to try again.

The answer is: 5 little words ! Jumbo vented hot roller clamps !  Let me explain how to use them to achieve this style ( which has been in every Victoria's Secret Catalogue for the last decade) !

What you will need is:
-  1 pin-tail comb
-  2 - 3 packages of vented roller clips
-  Styling product, I like:
  REF 525 HOLD HAIRSPRAY : pH 5.6. 
You can regulate the curl by the amount of product used

What you do is divide the entire head into 12 small sections, when the hair is lightly-damp. More dry than wet. 

Towel dry the hair gently also works,  then... roughly take each section and wind it up into a messy curl & clip with these clamps. The messier the better and not tight, using these clamps works better than any other device on the market. You can wind those 12 sections up in 10 minutes or less. Do this before you start on your make-up. Once the hair is all clipped up - begin your make-up. Next shoot the hair with a diffuser, or if you want the method Professionals use, pull out your travel hair dryer. Having the hair completely dry is important for giving the hair that messy feel and having it "last-that-way" all day {in a photo shoot}.

Now, when hair is completely dry, let down the hair gently as you want the hair to remain in that form till you check to see that it is completely dry thru & thru ! If necessary use a diffuser on the end of a dryer to completely dry sections. If you don't completely dry it, the curls will fall -- but more importantly you will lose the VOLUME. Then take a hot curling rod and wind JUST A COUPLE pieces of hair around it to give the look of a few - formed - curls.

 Poof ! ! the perfect Bedhead Look 

SOMETIMES IT'S THE EASIEST TRICK ... 
THAT'S USED TO MAKE THE BEST STYLE

The theory is very similar to making pin curls....you know those curls they wound around their fingers??? Before there were such-a-thing as "ROLLERS" ! ;) !

Regulate the amount of curl you get by the dryness of the hair. The dryer the hair..... the LESS the curl.