Viktoriia Pashkovska has been a professional hair colorist for the last 14 years and knows the finer details of hair coloring. She is willing to share her insider hair-coloring tips here with other professional hair professionals and non-pros alike.
Problems + Solutions for Blond Hair
The most popular mistakes that you can make when working with blond hair are:
1. Hot Roots
The Reason: The temperature of the scalp is not taken into account because the shade is not optimally polymerized.
The Solution: Use a tone-semitone paint darker for the root zone, but with a lower oxide than the length.
(Example: Root 9.12, length 10.12 (1.5%). Or: root 10.12 + 9.12 (1.5%), length 10.12 (3%).
2. Purple Roots
The Reason: The root requires a pure shade to neutralize, yet there is nothing to neutralize there. The background of the root illumination is cleaner than the length, due to the fact that the length is either under-lit or has residual base pigments from the previous toning.
The Solution: Use less pigmented shades or a predominance of base pigments.
(Example: Roots: matrix 10RA, length 10P + 10A (3:1). Or roots: 10P + 10Na, 10R length).
Ready-made shades of different densities were used for the solution, and the root was compacted with a base, reducing the intensity of the color.
3. Brownish Length That Goes Into An Eclipse
The Reason: Constant use of the same formula on the root and length result in resistant pigments that accumulate.
The Solution: When correcting the blond on the root, create a denser base shade when length is a more transparent color. If the length is already “clogged,” you can wash it off with a chelating bath (SHGO + KS).
4. Lack of Beautiful Complex Blondes from Dark Tones
The Reason: The optical saturation of yellow is an 8-9 tone level. When used in formulas of darker colors, the shades will always be colder due to the predominance of basic, stable pigments.
The Solution: Use shades that are at 8 levels of tone; even better are the 9 levels.
5. Color Does Not Hold and Is Quickly Washed Off
The Reason: Misunderstanding of processes leading to incorrect
consultations and, as a result, the client has unjustified expectations. Another reason could be the constant use of alkaline-resistant products, which leads to a decrease in hair quality, protein destruction, and a decrease in color resistance.
The Solution: Work on improving the quality of your hair, use clean lighting, and ensure proper home care to maintain your shade.
What should we put into practice for an optimal blond shade?
To maximize the quality and purity of the blond during toning:
1. Choose the least alkaline products. It can be special rulers, in any case don’t use “universal” paints, which are supposedly able to both tone and lighten, instead simply change the percent of the oxidizer. Due to the decomposition of peroxide into water and atomic oxygen, the alkalinity of the paint will always be higher than average, and a low percent of the oxidant will not salvage it.
2. Choose paints with a minimum content of base pigments so that your blond does not darken.
It is enough to have one tube of the base and add it to the formula if necessary to compensate for the root. The whole line should be transparent.
3. Take into account the pigmentation of your brand and its density.
4. With primary lighting on the “hot blond” (completely freshly lightened hair), with a uniform background of lighting – it is enough to vary the percent of the oxidizer (root 1.5%, length 3%).
5. In primary lighting, but with a warmer length – we vary with pigments. Roots = with basic pigments, length = a shade for neutralization. Or we compensate the root with gold.
6. In the absence of a soft toning dye, it is recommended to artificially create a less alkaline product from darker shades, reducing alkalinity due to clear (you can take not native) or oxidizing agent. Or do lipid toning (on a lipid mask). You can add up to 1/10 of the total weight of the paint mixture to the paint (paint + oxidizer). For example, if you take 30 g of paint, dilute it 1:2, that is, add 60 g of oxidizer, you get 90 g of the mixture. Therefore, 9 g of lipid mask can be added.
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Often the client asks for a transparent, white blond with a light shade, but in your paint arsenal there may not be ready-made light shades. What to do in this case?
Solution:
For lighter blondes from the 9th level of tone we work according to the table: we dilute with a tick 1:1 for the 10th level, 1:3 for the 11th level. Example: 11.12 is required. That is, take 10 g 9.12 + 30 g of clear (or 1.5%) + 80 g 1.5%. Or 10 g 9.12 + 110 g 1.5%. Or 10 g 9.12 + 17 g clear + 13 g lipid mask + 80 g 1.5% to get cleaner, warmer shades work with 9 levels. To get cold, you can work with 6 levels.
How to create a recipe for tinting?
When choosing a hair toning formula, the following is taken into account:
– Desired shade (50-100% of the formula)
– Neutralizing shade (if desired, cold shades) (50-30% of
formulas)
– Insufficient shade (if you want warm shades) (50-30% of the formula,
when obscuring porous hair by tone or normal by two tones)
– Compensating shade – 10% of the formula (shade opposite
desirable to prevent its distortion).
We usually compensate for the ash – orange, purple – yellow,
green – pink. If the brand has complex balanced shades, it is easier to work ready.
Example:
– 10.1 (A) – pure color. Can give a greenish tint on a yellow base, go into the mud on overexposed hair.
– 10.12 (AP) – has a pearl tint, which will be neutralizing.
– 10.14 (AO) – has a copper tint, which will be balancing for overexposed hair.
– 10.23 (PG) – has a golden hue that will be missing.
When tinting, the base (canvas) should be uniform. In case of irregularities, it is recommended to align under the darkest areas, and then tone. If in doubt whether the substrate/pre-pigmentation is needed, it is enough to wash your head with blue shampoo. If the shampoo lies unevenly, then the toning will be the same. In this case, you can combine reconstruction after lighting before toning with re-pigmentation. That is, on top of the applied reconstruction (lipid mask), apply a colored bath with the desired pigmentation composition.
Popular shades of blonde
Below are the formulas of the composition of popular shades. The proportions may vary slightly depending on the pigmentation of your paint. For example, if you want a shade of apricot, and in your brand there is orange with a predominance of red, and you mix in equal parts orange and yellow, the color will be more like peach, not yellow. So it is necessary to take two parts of yellow and one orange. Test these formulas on trial strands, adjust them to your brand, and then boldly work with customers.
The formulas are indicated for application to a pure blond without yellowness. If you apply them on a yellowish base, the shade will differ.
1. Platinum blond – 1 part purple + 1 part blue
2. Peach – 1 part yellow + 1 part red (or just orange)
3. Apricot – 3 parts yellow + 1 part red (or orange + yellow)
4. Chalk blond – 4 parts yellow + 1 part red
5. Mother of pearl – 1 part red + 1 part blue (or light purple)
6. Ash – 3 parts blue + 1 part purple (or 7 parts blue + 1 part red)
7. Mother of pearl with a pink tint – transparent red
8. Pink cold blond – 2 parts red + 1 part blue
9. Salmon – 3 parts red + 1 part blue
10. Sand (golden-ash) – 3 parts yellow + 1 part blue
11. Ash-brown – 3 parts blue + 1 part yellow
12. Ash-natural – 3 parts blue + 2 parts yellow (or 3 parts blue + 1.5 parts yellow + 0.5 red)
For the basis, it is recommended to use shades of 8-9 levels of tone. Remember that the optical saturation of gold cannot be lower than 8-9 levels or all colors below will not be pure. Use clear on the table to create the desired saturation. Choose the most transparent shades with a minimum amount of base without paraphenylenediamine. When washed off with vitamin C, these shades should be 80% removed from the hair.
In the absence of the finished pink (red in the formulas) direction, create it from a mixture of purple and copper. For the manifestation of warm shades, it is important not to change the alkalinity of the mixture (use only low alkaline clear). For cool shades, instead of clear, you can use a 1.5% oxidizer.
Follow Viktoriia on Instagram – @viktoriaa_pashkovska
