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!