342
PART 3: CREATIVE HAIRDRESSING SERVICES
10
LIGHTEST
BLONDE
PALE
YELLOW
9
VERY LIGHT
BLONDE
YELLOW
8
LIGHT
BLONDE
YELLOWGOLD
7
MEDIUM
BLONDE
GOLD
6
DARK
BLONDE
ORANGEGOLD
5
LIGHT
BROWN
ORANGE
Copyright © Milady, a part of Cengage Learning®.
4
MEDIUM
BROWN
REDORANGE
process and make the client more comfortable. After the emulsion has
been rinsed away the hair can be shampooed with a mild colour shampoo
and conditioned with an anti-oxidising treatment.
Time factors
Processing time for lightening is affected by the following:
● the darker the natural hair colour, the more melanin it has and the
longer it takes to lighten
● the hair porosity will influence the time needed to lighten. Porous hair
at the same colour level will lighten faster than non-porous hair
● tone influences the time it takes to lighten. If the hair is naturally red, it
will take longer to lighten. You may not be able to reach your target on
the same day
● the strength of the lightening product affects the speed and amount of
lightening
● added heat causes the product to develop faster. It is important to
keep an eye on the processing so that you do not over-lighten the
hair. It could also diffuse so much natural pigment that the toner
may not produce the desired colour; it might grab the cool tones.
Copyright © Milady, a part of Cengage Learning®.
3
DARK
BROWN
RED
2
DARKEST
BROWN
REDBROWN
1
BLACK
DARK
RED-BROWN
Stages of lightening
FIGURE 13.25
Levels of depth (base) and levels of corresponding warmth
Depending on your natural hair colour, hair will go through various colour
changes (Figure 13.25). Hair moves quickly through the black, brown
stages as the pigment molecules are larger and more concentrated in the
hair. Red, gold and yellow stages are the slowest because the pigments are
smaller and more diffused (scattered) in the hair shaft, and therefore harder
to remove.
Black hair will be dark brown after the first stage, then red-brown, red,
red-orange, orange, yellow and pale yellow. The lighter the hair is to begin
with, the fewer bleaching stages there are.
ACTIVITY 13.6
BEST PRACTICE
Sometimes it may take
more than one bleaching
application on different
days or weeks to reach
the target colour and also
keep hair in relatively good
condition. Between each
bleach the client will need
to have a number of deepconditioning treatments
to prepare it for the next
application.
Lightening effects upon hair
To check how bleach or high-lift colour acts upon the hair, collect hair cuttings from the salon
sweepings and bond samples together. Then apply a lightener to it, be careful to time and observe the
process throughout the development.
You should be able to find out exactly how much lightening the hair can take and what the
resultant effects are.
Keep a record of the experiment and your responses to the following questions in your portfolio.
• Try lightening different wefts with different strengths of peroxide: what results did you achieve?
• Try lightening the same hair with different products: what differences did you notice?
• Try leaving the lightener on the hair beyond the manufacturer’s specified timings: what
happened then?
(Remember that if the hair contains a lot of red/yellow pigment, it must not be lightened too
much – the hair’s breaking point will quickly be reached.)