Calculating A Hair Color Formula - KC's Infamous KILLER 18 Questions !

Hair Color FORMULATING....
with previous hair color on  ! 

Many books & many Colorists, think there are only 4 or 6 or even 7 Questions to answer in order to get their color Selection. Well, I say, NOT in today's world  !  

Therefore, I put together the NEW Killer 18 Questionnaire. Answer this honestly & completely =  your magical answer will appear.

The tricks of the trade in Hair coloring ? ? ? 
There are no tricks....it's all science/chemistry/art & experience. There is no guesswork if you learn THE LEVEL SYSTEM. It comes down to a combination of ART & Science. You need education in both to be successful and or a master of your own Crib Coloring adventures.

People want me to give them a one word answer for their hair color selection, I would LOVE to be able to do that. But, what I have found out in the years on this Blog? Most of you love hair coloring (I completely understand), and have many layers of color on your hair by the time you find me. That is unfortunate,  as it is the first red-flag in hair color analysis. It changes all the simple Rules, that were designed not too long ago by hair color manufacturers. 


 Killer 18 Questions by KC
for hair color FORMULA Selection when you have previous hair color on

1. Texture & length ?
2. Length of hair ?
3. Ethnicity ?
4. Has hair Been Bleached ?
5. Porosity ?
6. Boxed Color? How many?
7. Percentage of Gray?
8. What Type of Color is on ...Box? Professional?
9.  Straightener? Ever?
10. D.U.R.P. - Dominant-Underlying-Remaining-Pigment ?
11. Your opinion ...Resistant? or Not?
12. Virgin Color - Level & Tone ?
13. Current Color - Level & Tone?
14. Desired Color - Level & Tone? 
15. Damage? Extent of, all over or sections
16. Your age ( ball park only ) '
17. Your lifestyle
18.  What is your favorite SHOE ?

If you need my help, I need the answers to those questions..... start working on them!

I've said this numerous times, but I hope for it to make sense in the "big" picture.
When you have previously colored hair it makes it very difficult to create any new color you desire. The fact that I have told you that the LEVEL SYSTEM is a chart of rules and numbers that one may use to come up with your new perfect formula, only pertains to those with VIRGIN hair. Now THAT my Dear, now-a-days is as rare as a Unicorn. Those rules and system work excellent on someone with virgin hair, but that just isn't that helpful any longer, not when grandma - Grandpa and the DOG !! have their hair colored already!

Just 30-40 years ago, people would go to the Salon with Virgin hair (never colored) ask for a new color...or (mostly) ask to get their gray covered...and they were done. Today, so many of you are lured by the advertising on TV, magazines & right here on the web. Your favorite stars have been paid an obscene amount of money to put on a (virgin!) wig that has been colored by that companies brand of color and smile and lie to you with no regrets or guilt at all. Most of you write and tell me that you grabbed a box of color at the grocery store/drugstore/ or weekly trip to Targeeee(t). Really, since when does the place you purchase the food you feed your children, sell boxes of color that any 11-13-15 year old can purchase and begin the long, downhill, arduous road to damaged hair? This all leads to the problems that end up here at Killerstrands and for which I spend hours trying to figure out ways for you to repair your hair & predict your next hair color choice! Whewwww !!

Many of you respond to me about VANISH...the hair color REMOVER we carry...."how come no one has heard of this product?" I am asked... "why don't more Stylists use it??". There is a saying that goes something like this: "however goes California...there follows the rest of the country"..its from a history book I was reading. 

There was a smile that hit my face when I read that....and I know it to be true.  I mean why? What makes us different out here, and especially in Los Angeles....there must be an answer for that. But that is my only reason on the Vanish question.

Many books & many Colorists, think there are only 4 or 6 or even 7 Questions to answer in order to get the color Selection. I say, NOT in today's world  !  Therefore, I am going to put together the NEW Killer 18 Questions ...I will list them today & and in the next couple weeks will write a post on some, there are already 1-4 posts on each topic currently just put the title of the post you want to read in the SEARCH Bar and it will take you to all info pertaining to that subject. GOOGLE runs my BLOG and search engine so it works really well ! so they are updated with as new information as there is in the world of color. I will strive for the following:

•  Simple as possible 
• Clarity for the layman
• Pictures to help

Laters !

 

2017- 2 Winning Hair Color Tools Under $5.00

  Shape of Things To HELP: King Size Tint Brush!

Applying bleach and colour with these types of brushes make life easy - safe and leak-free, so make the miniscule investment and purchase a few of them for multi color applications which we all end up doing at some point.

We now carry about 6 different styles of Tint Brushes, as with any field they are constantly designing and re-designing Tint Brushes. In 2015 they came up with the various rubber headed Tint brushes and for many different reasons these too . . .  are a gold mine.
WHY? Because they don't soak up the color like the others.....

Remember as a professional Colorist your most expensive expense is the cost of your color. I know when you are purchasing 1-3 tubes of color as so many of you do.....it doesn't add up to THAT much and you are purchasing the top of the line hair color here at Killerstrands. But, imagine purchasing a couple hundreds tubes of color, which I used to do every other Monday. So basically the idea is to 'save' and 'scrimp' on every tiny ounce of that funny looking liquid that squeezes out the tube. 

If you use the bristle brushes you lose some of the product due to absorption by the bristles.....and I know it may sound silly.....but it is REAL and  many of you are busy Colorists so I thought I would tell you a new crazy BEST BRUSH ON PLANET EARTH tip. Purchase one of the rubber headed tint brushes ( red or turquoise) ....then also purchase at least one of the green short headed rubber tint brushes, which are used exclusively for oil bleach Re-TOUCHES.

I have found a way to cut hair color application 'time' in half, and its under $4.00. I bought a 3" wide paint-type brush (which is designed to apply facials and Spa treatments) to test on my own hair on my next re-touch, now that I am also a crib colorist.

The first 2 times I forgot about it & finally last week I remembered. Holy Shit-balls Batman ! Less than 1/2 the time to re-touch my own hair, & I am not exaggerating. I have both nearly waist length, dense hair (thanks to Secret supplement & Thriven) on a king size skull.....well those 3 things make for 1 very long re-touch experience! To re-touch my own hair takes me minimum 45 minutes (& I'm fast !) which is ridiculous. It makes me wait way too long every time because of how much I dread it. NO more !


One shot with this brush and I swear to you, I was done in 20 minutes and was so mad at myself for not trying it sooner, I didn't enjoy what a luxury I had just found.  So now that the wonderful realization has set in I want to make these available to you and they are even under $4.00 !  I have been looking for this particular brush for 5 years, I tried almost every paint brush they sell at paint stores/Home Depot .... 1/2 are too thick & the other half I couldn't figure out what the problem was? ! ?! There is one hiccup tho, but its super easy to deal with. Normal tint brushes don't have metal on them because they are in and out of water so much, the metal will rust - which drives the price up -- and nobody wants a costly tint brush ( also bleach is not fond of metal, so I suggest using this mainly for color). This brush has metal on it, so what I have discovered is, rinse all color out, then take 1-2 minutes to properly DRY with towel instead of leaving to dry in air. It takes so little time to do that, but you just saved 25-40 so its completely worth it.




For the Colorists & Stylists that are our customers, can you imagine how fast you will be able to apply everyone's color each and every day? !  I sure wish these were around when I was in the Salon. This has always been a problem for me and I had tried many different paint brushes that I had gotten at Home Depot, but the thickness was all wrong, it made it so much harder. The key to how successful this one is - -  is the thickness of it and it even has tapered bristles so it is actually the perfect width/thickness & length, which I now understand that is what I was looking for all along, I just didn't know ! It truly is the most comfortable Tint Brush I have ever used and I have well over 100 different styles in my bag! ! Purchase a couple, just remember DRY THEM after washing and they remain as good as new.

Point # 2: One of the # 1 questions I answer each and every day of each and every week is.................HOW CAN I GET MY BURST APPLICATION to be EVEN instead of blotchy. Everyone that has that problem has one of 3 of the same problems as everyone else.  Either you:

1.  do not have your water filtered or don't use a shower filter OR 
2. you are using some funky type of hair color underneath ( for example : boxed color or Sally's color or something along that line) . 
3. You have used OLAPLEX - one of the more recent causes of blotchy hair over the last 2 years is everyone's unsubstantiated need for OLAPLEX. Olaplex over half the time will give you an uneven result. I only know this from the many reports I receive - I have never needed the product to get a beautiful/healthy platinum but I never think people should follow what I do, do what works well FOR YOU !

The main cause is the water. In our water nowadays it is treated with God know what, but I know there is lots of chlorine, and copper and those are 2 ingredients hair color reacts badly to. So having that in your hair creates friction for a semi-permanent color like BOOST, BURST & BLAST!
The best long term solution is to treat your water with water purifying of some sort ( i have a REVERSE OSMOSIS treatment system and a shower filter) you save a helluva a lot of money if you are a water drinker (which you should be if you care about your hair in anyway ! ). Or you can purchase one of the many MALIBU Treatment packets. 

They work the absolute best for cleaning and preparing hair for coloring than any treatment in the year 2017. They are also under $5.00 and are worth 5 times the price. there are 8 different packets but you should chose one of these for prepping hair for coloring either with hair color of ANY TYPE and BOOST & BURST. The envelopes have powder in them which you mix with water = forms a GEL, which you apply and comb thru the hair we supply a complimentary plastic cap with every single packet you purchase from us because if you apply that - the heat it conducts makes the packet work on TURBO CHARGE mode! Rinse very well and you will now see what your hair feels like with out all that crap in your strands. It is one of life's crazy realizations !