Toning Down Gray on Men

At the PA class I did a few weeks ago I had a question about toning down (not elimanating) gray on men. I told the class about the articles in the NY Times Style section that appeared a while ago. Here is the link: NY Times Style Section

A beautiful brunette with highlights

Gosh, it seems like every colorist these days has a story of a client who decided to save money by doing her hair at home--most often, unsuccessfully. I had such a client recently. She had literally been pouring boxed medium brown haircolor over her entire head. As you can imagine, her ends were quite dark, with the rest of the hair slightly lighter. She wanted highlights with minimal warmth. I was very honest with her and told her that I was not sure that would be attainable in this visit. I proceeded by applying her new formula at the root to match the midshaft 1oz 5nn color fusion and 1oz 5T/20 v, and then when I was done, I applied lightner in a discreet area in the back with 20v from roots to end. 35 minutes later, when her color was shampooed out, I looked at the strand. It actually decolorized fairly evenly from roots to end. I proceeded to dry this hair, and highlight it in my usual manner. Decolorized to orange/yellow, I shampooed and towel dried very well and then glazed with Shades EQ 07G =09N, for a full 15. The results were stunning. Normally I might highlight and apply a single at once, but because I didn't know how the hair would decolorize I broke it up into 2 steps. What if the hair had decolorized to maroon, as so often dark haircolor can??? What then??? Big mess. Sometimes, taking the longer route, saves you time in the long run.

The Importance of continuing ed

I was so impressed over the weekend with the great turn out for the Schoeneman Show in PA. I was there doing 3 highlighting classes for Product Club. I sincerely do love Product Clubs foils and I use always use them at Cutler Salon. Alot of the students wanted to know the exact foils that I used during the classes and those were the precut light weight in various colors. Early on when I first started doing color I used similiar light weight foils and have just become very used to them. However, I do on occasion when the job calls for it, use longer pop up foils.

Before I started the classes I asked the students how far they had traveled to get to these classes and many traveled anywhere from 2 -5 hours. That was the degreee of thirst for knowledge they had--great. I met a group from a salon where the team of 4 each attended different classes and then were going to get together today at the salon and share all the information they had learned--very smart.

When I first started coloring hair I tried to get my hands on any bit of education that I could--videos, seminars, books. I still look for any educational opportunity that comes my way--there is always something new to learn--not only in haircoloring but in life.

Highlighting Class

I am doing a highlighting class this coming weekend for Schoeneman distributer in Valley Forge, PA. There is a Sunday class that is 10am-4pm and on Monday there will be several 1 hour short presentations. During this class I am going to be giving all sorts of tips and tricks for highlighting hair for todays modern looks (think Julia Roberts in Duplicity--lots of lightness on ends of hair, depth at the root).

The forgotten strand test..

What is it about the strand test, that dreaded little task, that seems to take up so much time. Who has the time to strand test? So here we are, so very busy in our day at the salon, and our clients ready to leave the moment they sit, and we are expected to perform a strand test. What the hell exactly is a strand test? And why on earth would I bother? Simply put, a strand test is taking a small slice of your client's hair, placing it in a foil with your desired product, waiting 15-20 minutes to "preview" the results, and see how the hair is going to interact with the product you plan to use on the clients hair. You may be wondering, why? Why bother with this? And do you really do this??

No, I do not usually do a strand test, but here are situations where I would:

• I do not know what is on my clients hair, and for various reasons (length, condition, previous color) I need to know how my decolorizer will work as far as even lift I will apply a strand test. I may also question which lightner will work best in this situation, so I may do 2 or 3 strand test. (No, not all lightners are created equal or work the same).


• I would like to know which of 2 or more shades will be appropriate for my desired end result. Example: I have a highly sensitized hair that needs to be lowlighted, which formula will look the best. I might strand test while my color processes at the root to save some time.

Now here is the ultimate strand test and one that can be a real life saver:

This is the I want to change my clients color from color treated black to a much lighter shade and she has and inch of her own Level 5 haircolor, and colortreated Level 3 and wants to be a Level 6 haircolor with little warmth. Here is how to proceed:

• Take a very fine slice of hair in an inconspcious area of the clients head (perhaps nape, but of course assuring that whereever this strand is taken from is a represenation of the what is going on all over the head.


• Mix a small amount of your lightner, color, various colors etc. and apply from roots to end. Allow to process for 20 minutes or so. Wipe strands off very well, and dry. You should have a fairly good represenation of how the lowlight, color, lightner etc is going to work. Now here is where the strand test really comes in handy, when trying to decolorize. In the example above, you want to look at the lightening action that has occured along that strand. If after 20 minutes or so your colortreated level 3 haircolor has not budged, or produced any warmth, or underlying pigement, you SHOULD NOT PROCEED. You are not going to get this hair anywhere near a a level 6 undertones of Orange/yellow.

Contributing Pigment

A few years ago, I did a segment for Clairol Professional at HairColor U.S.A., and my portion of the presentation concerned contributing pigment in haircolor. In particular I was talking about highlighting hair and how contributing pigment was important in your final result when applying a toner. After the class a student came up to me and said: your "show" was good, but it was extremely basic. I felt slightly dejected. But at this very show, someone had raised their hand and asked, why her client, who was a gorgeous level 7 Red Copper, and she had highlighted and glazed, ended up with very flat and pinky highlights. To someone in this class this information had not been too basic or simple.

At Cutler (the salon I work in in nyc) I recently did a double process on a guy. I wanted the final result to be very cool and steely. I lightened my client to a level 10, very pale yellow, and toned with a very delicate Shades E.Q. of 1 3/4 ounces of Clear and 1/4 of 9T. I applied this at the root for 10 minutes and then pulled through for an additional 5. While I was doing this, my mind wondered off to thinking of the Haircolor USA class, and the importance of contributing pigment in haircolor. It is important when producing beautiful color, when highlighting and particularly when doing a double process. If I had taken my male client to a level 8, with any yellow-orange in the hair, I would never have achieved my pale, very cool end result. The student at Haircolor U.S.A., needed to stop over lightening her client, and leaving some of that orange found at levels 6/7/8 to support the copper glaze that she was applying.

As I described it in that class, lightening hair is like traveling down a highway to visit your best friend. If your friend lives off of exit 7, traveling to exit 10 is not in your best interest. And so, lightening hair to level 6, and applying a level 7 copper toner will yield beautiful results. Applying a level 7 toner on lightened to level 10 hair, not as much.

Yes, it is basic, but always worth repeating: contributing pigment&artificial pigment=final result.

Happy coloring!

Low Lights

After years of doing blondes (mostly in the form of highlighting, but surely the following ideas can apply to double process blondes as well), I have come to embrace a couple of factors that are necessary for great looking blondes. One of the more important ones in my experience is dimension. After all, most woman start getting highlighted for exactly that reason: to get that been in the sun, dimensional look. However, after the client has been repeatedly highlighted she will start to lose that dimension, and look more like an overall blonde. Sure the placement of a couple of shades of blonde can help with this, but nothing helps put that punch back into an overly highlighted blonde more than lowlights. My work at a lab in a major color company allows me to play with many different brands. This last year I have had the opportunity to experiement with several demi permanent colors in several brands for lowlighting. Let me make it clear that I very rarely will lowlight with permanent color; the exceptions to this will have to wait for a whole other blog. Some of the demi permanents that I have been playing around with with various degrees of success are: Clairol Compliments semi; Richessse by L'oreal; Wella Color Touch; Clairol Second Nature; L'oreal Color Gems; Redken Shades E.Q. and to some degree I have been using Redken Shimmer one. My favorite at the moment is Wella Color Touch. I don't believe in flimsy, sheer lowlights. I prefer to put in a lowlight that has enough contrast to the blonde I have placed (though usually 1/2 to 1 level lighter than the clients base color). Wella ColorTouch tends to be more opaque and longer lasting. Others like Shades E.Q. are sheer and tend to be more temporary. As with everything I write about here, it is important to keep basic color theory in mind. Therefore, if the hair is extremely fine, damaged etc, even a sheer color like Shades E.Q. may turn "muddy, drab and dark". Here is a typical lowlight scenario: My client is a natural level 7 Medium Blonde and has level 55 highlights (just kidding). She has spent the summer in the Hamptons, been to the beach often and her hair is overly lightened. I have done a bleach highlight retouch that will be roughly a level 9, when shampooed and dryed. My lowlight formula will be a be roughtly 7.5 - 8 level demi. Unless the client hates any sort of warmth, I will usually add about 1/2 ounce of a Gold, or for a cooler lowlight an N on its own. In formulating with ColorTouch I use combinations of 7/0; 7/3; 8/0; 9/3; 9/03 and 10/03. In this particular example I will use 1/2 8/0 and 1/2 7/3. Because this hair is highly sensitized I want to replace some of the missing pigment in this hair at a level 7/8 and that would be gold. The deeper shade of gold will also dominant the lighter level 8. When lowlighting I prefer to wait until I have highlighted the entire head, then go in and place slices and weaves of the lowlight in a different color foil. This allows me to go in and remove those lowlights if I feel they are going to be there longer than I would like. I can also judge the "population" of lowlights by looking at the different color foil.  When applying the lowlight formula I apply the color to  about 3/4 of the way down the strand and leave out the ends. When I am going to rinse the lowlight I will take each one and work the color to the ends as I remove them. This helps to blend in the color on the ends without allowing the ends to go too deep or drab (of particular importance if the hair is sensitized or below the shoulder.) Placement of the lowlight is also very important, I place most of my lowlights further away from the top in the back and on lower part of the head on the sides. As I work my way to the top I will place less aggressive slices and weaves, and stay away from the area where the lady parts her hair. In the part area and along the face, I will take very delicate strands. So the key here is balance. Put back some of the dark, so that a blonde looks like a beautiful deminsional blonde and not like a flat single process blonde. Happy lowlighting. PS Please share some of your favorite lowlight formulas with us and let me know what type of topics would be of interest in exploring. Happy coloring!!!