Bleaching Hair At Home - Correctly : Becoming a Crib Colorist

Our most asked about issue regarding hair color is 'how to get the brass out of Blond'.... that... & how to get blond hair at home without damage or problems.

If you have not gotten a Color Wheel and are having problems with these issues ..... please get one - it will help - promise.  Studying the Color Wheel will help....as the goal of hair coloring is the opposite of what most of you think. . . it is eliminating the colors you don't want....AS OPPOSED TO : adding the color you think you should add. That is what I want you to think of FIRST. For example, with lightening hair very light............what "don't you want?"............Yellow or Brass.

This is when you grab your Color Wheel......and continually  look for the color Opposing the color you are trying to diminish.
If you don't want Brass. What color is opposite of it on the Wheel?..............Purple.
Therefore using a lightening product that is either blue or violet-based always helps. 
We have a WONDERFUL Violet Developer with the Oil Bleach Kits.

 Everything we can do to help get rid of yellow/gold/brass tendencies is included in that kit.

For 20 years I have been looking for a professional BLUE DEVELOPER and we finally have one in the store. What does BLUE counter on the counter wheel GOLD or ORANGE or what I refer to as BLORANGE ! So, we now have a blue developer option. ! I am so happy to offer this to many of you.

I'm always trying to figure out "how" to tell you the proper way to achieve your goals in hair coloring so, be sure to read all my posts on any 1 subject, especially this one...remember in each one I will try a different method of explaining the subject. I have found in Hair Coloring explanations.....just read the post over and over.....eventually it WILL sink in
!

For the purposes of this Post we will refer to Hair Bleach as Hair Lightener.....that is how I was taught and that is how I feel YOU should get used to.
Hair Lighteners are used to create a blonde shade that is not achievable with hair color.

What happens usually is: you will use a highlift blond (Level 12 blond) color, then there will come a day when  it no longer lightens your hair light enough (without yellow) - as you grow older your hair becomes darker and it needs the next step......which is Hair Lightener (bleach).
Studying the Color Wheel will drive it home faster for you . .
Just follow this post and use our professional lightening supplies for a Professional result.

Notice the 2 completely different shades (tones) of bleached blonde hair of these 2 men :
Brad Pitt & a model that looks like him. The model is white and Pitt is yellow. The difference is.....if you were to leave the lightener on longer it would kick the yellow out of the hair and you would NOT have to use a Toner. That is the DESIRED look when lightening hair this light, to have to use a TONER always would be costly and tiresome. Some of you have so much natural yellow DURP, that a toner is necessary, we have a page of Toners. 






YELLOW -YELLOW -YELLOW.....Mr. Pitt is just too Yellow

I have 2 Toners I love from LAKME, 
one fights brass................................................................10/22 + 13.Volume or 6V.
and one fight Blorange......................Blue /Ash Platinum 10/17 + 6.Volume or 13 V.

Probably seems strange how a colour wheel can relate to hair colour
most brilliant ideas go back to "the basics", there is nothing more basic than the Colour Wheel most of learn it in elementary school.

As you look at the Color Wheel you see Yellow.................what is directly across from it??????????
Purple.
Using a Toner with a Purple Base will eliminate Mr Pitt's problem. 

objectionable shades in hair colors

• in blondes: the yellow tone of a blond is very unappealing + as well as Gold / or Blorange
• redheads: ORANGE / GOLD will be the objectionable shades in a tinted redhead
• objectionable Brunettes would be "GREEN" brunette (ash)....but then there are others who won't want any red in their brown. To be honest it takes a balance of green & red to make a gorgeous brunette, isn't that funny who would ever guess there is all these colors in another color. 
  Remember we are talking about 'artificial hair

Yellow Bleached hair is probably one of the worst things on planet earth.
The method of fixing a too yellow blond is the best way to show you how the color wheel relates to hair colour.
In order to cancel the yellow tone in the blond one must head to the color wheel (until you memorize it)
The opposite of yellow?
Purple/Violet or even a Blue-Violet BASED toner ...is the answer.....which is why you would order BREAKING BAD BLUE BURST Conditioner if you would like to cancel those Gold-y - BLOrange Tones that are so irritating

PLATINUM   BEAUTY

This is what a cool clean platinum should look like and in acieving platinum almost every single person is capable of achieving this color. You do not need to be somebody special, you just need to use all the tools available to achieve it. That, and apply the bleach multiple times. Applying it once is for  Virgin Level 9.............Applying it Twice........is for Virgin Level 7 + 8............Applying it 3X is for Virgin Level 6.............Applying it 4 X is for virgin Level 4 & 5............and so on......Level

Lighteners

As soon as Lighteners are mixed with hydrogen peroxide...it begins to release Oxygen. This process is known as oxidation - - - occurs within the cortex of the hair!

Again . . . Lighteners are used to create a BLOND shade that is no longer achievable
Lighteners are chemical compounds that lighten hair by dispersing, dissolving, and decolorizing the natural hair pigment. EVERYONE has pigment in their hair except for ??? Who ???         Gray Haired people. Gray hair is hair with NO pigment in it.

Lighteners usually come in 1 of 2 forms : Powder..............or Cream.

Here at Killerstrands we have the old school method of an "Oil Bleach" : Which means a bleach one can mix up with Oil + Developer and apply directly to the scalp without any irritation to the Client at all. Its funny in all my years there is no way to tell who will be sensitive to Lightener or not....therefore I ALWAYS apply Oil Bleach to a client who desires a look such as Mr. Pitt's (and whiter of course!!).

Powder Lightener ( powder bleach)

 This lightener is the old standard. Most everyone uses it for just about any lightening they have. I'm hesitant to tell you all the ways people MIS-Use it. So, I won't.

Applying a blue-violet or purple based Toner to the yellow blonde will kill the yellow and make the blond a very pleasant Platinum ( think Marilyn Monroe white-blonde) or like the gentleman model on the right at top of the page.
SEE THE DIFFERENCE THE PROPER TONER MAKES?. PItt has no toner on his bleached mess, the bleached model has a violet based Platinum Toner from Wella which was left on the hair for 25 minutes after the bleaching process.
Mixing toners produce wonderful results - having multiple dozens of brands and tones, there is nothing more fun than playing with hair colour toners on blondes, silly, huh?
I love it!
The same process works for every hair colour, they have toners in all shades and tones. The too-green (ASH) Browns...using a red brown (AUBURN) toner will warm that brown right up...and so on.
A toner has three possible names

1. Toner


2. Semi-Permanent color


3. Demi-Permanent color

They are very low volume peroxide colours ...so there is no lift (cannot go lighter). The colours end up being very transparent / sheer cover over the hair...........they add shine and cancel unwanted tones.... They also do wash out easily, it is especially important to use a sulfate-free shampoo. 

Here at Killerstrands, we make sure to ONLY SELL SULFATE-FREE SHAMPOO!

Color Wheels for Reference

go across(opposite) for whatever colour you want to get rid of to neutralize

Peroxide -- Friend or Foe ?

Now that I have helped befriend our dear darling Peroxide, the inquisition continues. I went looking through my old notebook for the calculations on how to make different Volumes of peroxide for your Color Room out of 130 Volume .I forgot to mention even worse than my writing? My math. Boy, I rarely mention my main faults so early in the game but they are necessary here. I will give you what it says and you all can take it from there. Tho - I'd like a volunteer to field questions about the calculations - please sign up in the Comments section below. (my kids are just like me its a disease math-i-tis I think they call it). 


In addition, I'd like to fill in with what else I can about Hydrogen Peroxide to help you all warm up even more to the little bugger. There are many chemicals just like this little one, which is a terrific project that needs to be rescued by the big MFG. companies, I get my hopes up that big companies like P & G (whom actually I would love to work for > altho only on the "Green" side) might have researchers scoping the net trying to figure out the future of Hair.

Its easy, its possible and it can be done at reasonable prices. I swear to you I am just not too sure why it is not done now. What is better than a completely happy customer with Killer hair color. The way it is now the only reason people use those damn boxed color kits is because they are afraid to calculate the hair color themselves. I don't believe "fear-driven" success is near as prosperous as "confidant & successful" driven success

There was an instance I bet when I mentioned "chemicals" that blew that fear of "Word Phobia" through your bones, am I right? Be honest - people hear "chemicals" and think; bad - horrible - get them away from me thoughts, when in fact so much of what we need, we require and what we actually want are chemicals in our daily life. Of course there are "bad ones" and "good ones" and there are bad 'amounts' of them and good 'amounts' - that is the fine line that must be maneuvered

Chemicals are all around us, always, and always have been. We are made of chemicals, indeed chemicals R Us. The plants we eat are also full of chemicals. But how does the body deal with these chemicals and what do they do to us?

The chemical industry has been able to make the stunning revelation that everything is made of chemicals! Chemicals are in fact perfectly natural substances and we really need to do more research before throwing them out . Apparently thousands of the so-called 'natural' products of the earth are laced with nasty toxic substances, of which, of course, we were all unaware until this startling discovery was made known to human kind chemicals are not only man made and not all of the chemicals made by man are dangerous and not all of the chemicals found naturally are safe. Some people will say that there must be a difference between things made by chemists in laboratories and things found in nature? It is true, there are differences, natural chemicals are often more complex and chemists find some very difficult to make! For example DNA and proteins are extremely complex. But surely man made chemicals must be more poisonous? Not necessarily true. We won't go into the entire discussion here. I just needed to point out - what I stumbled upon when I began my dive into Cosmetic Chemistry. Being a Vegan and a natural food buff for my entire life (yep californians are weird!) it was a very unusual revelation to come to terms with. So just know I watch out for every single healthy avenue for hair - I truly do, I doubt you will ever encounter a hair stylist more in tune with the "natural" "organic" and "healthy" avenues than me, except for maybe those that don't believe in hair color at all. I also live under the umbrella of " life cannot be all that serious" - we must have some fun, because life is short - play hard.











Again: H2 O is Water: a chemical- bad? I think not. Necessary? Very. When the Developer begins working with your hair color it starts out with 2 atoms of hydrogen and 2 of oxygen as soon as it is combined with the hair color 1 of the oxygen molecules is given off and the product is down to what? H2 O! Water. And that is bad? See how things get out of whack? Peroxide is your friend, it really is.

Hydrogen Peroxide is the OXIDIZER of permanent haircolor-ing, providing the Oxygen for

• lightening of natural pigment and for the


• development of artificial pigment.

Those 2 lines say it all, but those are 2 jam packed lines. Read them over a couple times as this will put your mind in the right frame to continue on.

The percentage of lift in any color is directly related to its ammonia content ( remember many stylists will quote "ammonia content" as a bad thing), in the Killerstrands world I: look for LIFT. Lift means lightening - plain and simple - if you don't want to lighten hair, do something else....most decent Colorists are looking to lighten hair...we want more ways to lighten hair....we want more conditioning ways of lightening hair. Don't people want to be blond?.... have blond ribbons, blond pirouettes, or blond under color blocks?? Lightening is the most common coloring technique in the biz... Every single time a new lightening product is developed it is greeted with a very warm reception by 10's of thousands of hair stylists so ammonia content is a very necessary product.

Blondes are very very popular, whether in 1 Color 'all-over-blond' or blond placed in very creative ribbons in a dynamic head of brown. If you can attain the lightening, then you can control it -- or tone it, is my theory. I want as much lift as they can give me, let "me" control the amount I use and where I use it. Maybe they don't because of all the mis-information going on around, but come on... that problem is easily solved. The biggest complaint category of hair color is

• "too brassy"


• "too orange"


• "too yellow"


• "too gold"

....have you all learned this one yet? What would be the reason for these 4 complaints?

Not enough lift - if you have those 4 problems then you have taken the bleach off TOO SOON

So having more lift, while remaining more conditioning & moisturizing has finally hit the manufacturers.Try replacing your conditioner with a SOMA Spray In Dry Conditioner. Conditioners are heavy and hold down the hair, a spray in makes it less heavy, leaving it with more volume! We sell this on our website, check it out!

The 'way' that shampoos work, must be understood.........not simple

Remember me rambling on about SLS shampoos - I did for weeks on end...??? Remember? Sulfate-free shampoos....? ? ? ? Which by the way> every single company on the market has one in production. Well, the one and only reason I have the confidence to make that claim is because I do understand "how" the shampoo works ...how each surfactant works and "how" each ingredient works. I have watched and breathed SLS and seen the damage it can do to a strand of hair...but Technicians do not have that advantage. What they do have is a company telling them whats in each of the shampoos, etc, and hopefully going on their advice. Its a wonderful library of information to have and I Love the fact that I was afforded the time to study all the chemicals and ingredients and know what they are and "why"!

...so I know what everything is now when I look at it...THRIVEN will blow the socks off it - on 86% of the candidates.. So let's hope you are one of those chosen few where the stars meet the sky.


This industry should be setting the trends not lagging on them.The way the industry is now, Hair Color products are antiquated - archaic almost.. Hair color is a tremendously booming business - 2 $ billion a year is a very conservative estimate and the more tools the better for every Colorist: whether it be a Crib Colorist or Pro.





Why not put more tools in the hands of Home Hair Colorists? What's the big secret? There is plenty of hair color that needs to go around... why is there not a level of Pro Hair Color available for the women at home that don't live in LA or NY that desire the quality of hair seen on every magazine cover? There is plenty for the Salon Colorist, which is not available to CRIB COLORISTS - why not? There is so much room for growth - expansion and this subject needs to be talked about and discussed openly so that the women of America are able to achieve decent hair color in their own homes. For the many women that cannot afford or do not live near the high dollar hair salons...they are stuck using hair color products that are a much lower quality than the hair color if they go to Cosmetology School. Do you realize that there are lines of hair color that I may get in trouble for selling to the public - which I cannot figure out "why"?? Anyone care to address this subject with and for me...
How can it be against the law to sell 'certain' hair color?

To certain people?

Then all the hair color in Sally's need to be against the law to sell to the American people....which "brand" is OK? and which one isn't? more importantly - WHY???

Who sets those standards? There aren't any sort of laws.....or rules....or ???? Why can I not sell hair color that I have legally bought, to another person that would like to buy it ?? Because that person has not gone to Cosmetology School, what book is that a law in? That is the most bizarre restriction - ever . I looked in Sally's and the exact same thing is printed on a box of hair color in Sally's that is printed on a box of hair color from a professional company. BOTH of those companies are owned by the same larger company.....that larger company?
P & G. Proctor and Gamble. CLAIROL & WELLA
BOTH OWNED ULTIMATELY - - BY P & G
I'm not done reviewing : ammonia and peroxide so please put that subject in the "hold" category. I ran a whole new demo for Readers to show you what bleach with ammonia and bleach without ammonia did to Level 4 hair.....so stand by.

Blonde Icing Blitz - Off-The-Scalp-Bleach Test

New Professional Blonde Icing (Bleach) Test


Silver Jar - Ammonia w/ bleach Gold Jar -- No Ammonia
Goal: Observe strength of Bleach with & without Ammonia on Level 4 hair strips


1) Apply bleach to Level 4 strips in foil and set timers



















Test one strip with MAGMA Colored Bleach by WELLA : Bleach & Tone in 1 step

Best part? -- it works -

Limitations? Color selection

Koleston Perfect 55RV - Ego

Very difficult to see - I know - the darker the hair the less you see in photos - in person it looked great.
Same color as above notice 55 RVR - RUBY...only in demi permanent. I actually was surprized at how great this color took. For Demi-permanent it was pretty darn close to sister swatch



This test strip was one I really hoped you would be able to see better, a lot of readers have asked about lightening "Level 2 thru Level 5 hair".
This is Level 4 with 12 ASH + 40V = a very nice and warm - Level 7 Hair.




Here are the bleach swatches . . . Check out the Level 4 > lightened 60 minutes

swaches . . . . .




The rest of the swatches.
no toner has been used --
this was a childs hair,
I always believe a childs hair is when your hair will be the best...

What is very apparent here is this . . .

there seems to be absolutely no difference in the bleach "with" ammonia or the Bleach "without" ammonia
?? What does that tell me?? It tells me that "ammonia" is just the "word" of the moment....all the color that is labeled "without ammonia".....
Why?
What does everyone know about ammonia?
what I know - makes me want it -
When I want to lighten hair I want ammonia
so I can get the hair to the proper Level it needs to be, otherwise it will only get to the "orange-gold-yellow" stage, which is what happens when you don't use professional color.

Do you know that is the one big difference in the hair color that you can purchase at Sally's versus the professional color I make available to you ?
the ammonia content.
When you mix professional color the "light" colors pack a punch, when the product is poured into the bowl then the developer is added - the aroma is semi powerful...personally I love it. Some don't - its like that paint smell I guess.
I know something good is going to happen - so I enjoy it...
the sign of a true Hair Colorist!