Hair Color Theory Mini Class: How To Lift Dark Base Colors Without Bleach Or Brass!

A lot of times, clients come in with this gorgeous inspiration. Photo you get a pinterest photo with like a level six natural base, and these gorgeous blonde highlights. But your client, their hair, is a level three. So what do you do? So? Let'S say you want to change their base, color from like a level three to a level. Six, that's like my favorite ideal base. Color comment below. If you agree, but let's say you want to change the base color from a level three to a level six. We all know that when you're trying to like lift hair with permanent color, it always turns warm. So i'm going to give you this go-to formula that i use whenever i want to first lift the base color before i do highlights, so we can have that natural level, six look and then put highlights over it. So the number one thing to remember when you're doing this is to remind your clients that and to remind yourself that, even if you lift to a level six - and you do everything right to make sure the tone turns out perfectly - it's still never gon na. Look exactly like what a level six naturally looks like and that's because you're using color anytime you're using artificial color. It'S never going to be exactly the same, but there are things that you can do to make sure it doesn't turn out brassy and warm, which is you know, a big complaint with most clients so and i'm going to give you the formula first and then what I'M going to do is break it down in case you don't use this color line. That way, you'll be able to figure out how to put this with a different color line, but you have to understand the principles behind it in order to do that, so i'm going to show you all of that today, let's get started so my go-to formula for Lifting from a level three to a level six is going to be wella is the color line i like to use for permanent color, and a lot of people forget that permanent color does lift hair. It has to be virgin hair. Of course, color does not lift color, so anytime, there's color in the hair. You have to do something totally different, but wella is a fantastic, permanent color line. I love using it. No, i'm not sponsored, but this is the formula i use in willa six stroke one and this is half and half and six stroke, two okay. So, what's this going to give me so a six stroke, one in wella, you just have to kind of know the numbers and the system of the color line that you're using, but in wella a one is a gray ash, color, okay and then a two is Green, so we're going to do half six stroke, one in half six stroke two. So if you look at these colors together you're going to get a very ashy color. The next thing that i'm going to do is actually add an additive. So in wella in the colistin perfect, so like the kp line, which is their permanent color, they have what's called like a special mix. So these are additives that you could add to your formula in order to customize it. So, whenever you're lifting hair, even though you're using you know the right tones adding that additive just kind of does a little bit more to prevent that brassiness that you don't want to see, you want to look as cool and natural as possible because in natural level, 6, doesn't look orange so what i do with their special mix here i'll write that here. So i do the stroke two eight okay, so why do i do two eight well in wella? Remember, 2 is green and 8 is actually blue. Okay. So why did i choose these tones? We'Re going to go back through this formulation process? You could figure out why i use these tones so that you could apply this to a different color line. Maybe they have a different numbering system? Oh and the amount of special mix is just going to be one half inch so literally just measure out one half inch. Sometimes they have them in the bottom of bowls, which is really helpful, so measure out just one half inch. Add it to your color just to kind of prevent the brassiness even more okay. So why does this work? The first thing that we're going to do is start with the natural level. Okay, so if we have a natural level three, i always like to start with my goal and write down my desired level. So i know where i'm starting and where i'm going just makes it so much easier, so we're starting at a level three and we're trying to get to a level six. So the next thing i'm going to ask myself is what is the remaining pigment at a level six and if you know what it is before, i say it go ahead and write it in the comments, but the remaining pigment at a level. Six is red orange. So what are the balancing pigments oops? Let'S move that a little bit? Okay! So what are the balancing pigments, so the opposites of red and orange, so that is green and blue. So if you look at this formula over here, we have the gray ash, and this is kind of gon na give you that gray and blue. They actually don't have like a six stroke. Eight. So that's why i did this gray ash with this green, but, honestly, everything like by today's standards. Everything always looks red. So if you do green you're going to be just fine, then adding this gray is just going to be even better. So that's why i chose the six stroke, one and six stroke, two. So first you start with your natural level and you're going to a level six. So one thing i know about kp, which you want to look up in your color line. So coleston perfect. Is it is able to achieve um four to five levels of lift? However you're limited by developer, because the highest developer, which is level 40, is only going to lift up to four levels, so 40 volume? I probably said i said level 40, sorry, but it's 40 volume it's only gon na lift four levels. So just keep that in mind, so this is well within the range to be able to get you to a level six. So you could do this with color by doing half and half then adding that special mix of green blue one half inch, and when you try this formula you could start with one half inch. If you feel like it wasn't enough, it's not a big deal. You could always do a demi permanent over everything to kind of reduce that brass even more, but this seems to work really really well also, you might find that it's almost perfect and it just needs a little bit more. That'S, okay! So next time you do it just make it one inch so start with half inch, see how you like that um and then go to one inch as your go-to. If that, if you like that better, it's kind of just preference they're both going to be really nice and cool toned, but you may personally just like to use a little bit more of this additive. Oh, the other thing that i wanted to say is you have to use 40 volume. I know everybody online is always like afraid of using 40 volume. You don't need it, you don't need it. That'S true with bleach, but when you're lifting with color, you have to remember the purposes of the developers and the developers give you levels of lift for color so for lightener. All it does is control the speed of lift for color. It controls the amount of levels. So you have to remember that there is a difference between what the developer's purpose and objective is when it comes to color versus doing using bleach. So with color it absolutely matters which developer you use. 40 volume is going to give you four levels of lift or up to four levels of lift. I'M going to just show you what these colors look like just raw, but remember, because you're lifting those are the pigments that are going to be added into what you see on the swatch book. So this is what they look like. Just like the raw colors that i'm telling you to use so if the lighting is good enough, there's six one and then there's six two, so you can see like they're, pretty cool and natural. But when you have the remaining pigments added into that, because that's what's gon na be left when you're lifting hair you're gon na have those warm pigments coming out. That'S why i add this special mix to it to just kind of force it back to that ashy. Color that i want to see, i want to see it just like on the swatch book. You know what i mean. So if i were to not add this additive, it would still be cooler than if i were to use like a 6n or something like that. But that additive just pushes it back to the cool side, because it's going to be trying so hard to stay warm. So that's why this formula works so well and that's what the colors look like one more time so six stroke, two six stroke. One remember two is green. One is gray which is kind of like green blue-ish, so um, so those two together is what i use and then that additive, let's talk about application, real quick. So when it comes to application, i apply this similar to when you're doing like a global bleach application. You want to be wary of the roots. You want to make sure that you don't get hot roots right. So that's when it's like super light at the root, but everything else is kind of like a more natural neutral tone. So i have two options when i'm doing this type of application, so the first option is to do everything except for the roots. So this is like your. This is your strand of hair right here, i'm not a very good artist, you guys, but okay. So this is your roots. Um you're gon na leave your roots out and you're gon na color up to the roots and then in the last 20 minutes you're going to apply it to the root so you're going to go back through and apply it to the roots. Now your ends are going to probably get lighter than here, but to me i like that and that's okay, but if you're worried about that, you want to be super. Even all the way through to me, natural hair, doesn't look like that. So i'm just not too worried about the ends unless they're very over processed. Then you want to be kind of conscious about the ends, but i'm okay with letting the ends be a little bit. Lighter so i apply this all at the same time, so up to the roots and all the way through the ends um and then i'll go back in the last. You know 20 minutes after i've applied everything and then apply the roots. So then, i check the roots as soon as the roots are done, and this has been on long enough, which i believe the processing time is about 45 minutes. For this. This has been on long enough and the roots look good. Then i go ahead and rinse. It out so application number two is, i do the same thing, so i apply everything below the roots and then, after i'm done applying so directly after i'm done applying, i just kind of feather feather up to the roots, so i kind of swipe up my brush And feather up to the roots, so that's going to leave the roots slightly darker, always it's never going to look like hot roots and to me because of like what modern styles are looking like these days, it's always nice to just leave it slightly darker at the Roots plus, if you're going to go in with highlights and stuff later, it just looks a lot better to have depth at the roots and just lighter, as you go down through the mid shaft and through the ends thanks so much for watching that you guys, i Hope that that was clear enough and i hope that you'll be able to apply this to maybe the color line that you're using. But if you have any questions, just make sure to leave them in the comments below i'd love to help you out. If you want some more help with color, i have some resources that i'll just go ahead and leave in the links in the description below so go ahead and check out all of those resources. And then also, if you like this video - and you want to help me spread, the word make sure to share this video like comment subscribe all that good stuff. Thank you guys so much for watching. My name is lauren and you can find me on instagram laurenfrancishair and i will see you soon.