While coloring natural or grey hair is common, even more often you might find yourself coloring previously colored hair, sometimes with colorations we may not know. When you find yourself in this (nearly daily) situation, you can also following the 4 golden rules to choose the most suitable formula.
DETERMINING THE NATURAL STARTING LEVEL AND REFLEX (DIAGNOSIS)
The evaluations that we get when we realize the diagnosis, with all the precautions and measures that we have already analized, will allow us to establish both the level and the reflex of the natural re-growth.
DETERMINING THE DESIRED LEVEL (CHOOSING THE PEROXIDE)
In this case the level won’t be the actually desired one, whereas it will be determined by the existing level on the lengths. The comparison (always using It’s Color chart) will be between the natural re-growth and the colored lengths, and will lead us to decide:
• If we need to remain on the same level
• If we need to darken or lift the re-growth • Consequently, which peroxide to use
DETERMINING THE DESIRED REFLEX (CHOOSING THE SHADE)
Also the final choice of the reflex will be influenced by the reflex on the lengths. In this case we want to have a uniform reflex between the re-growth and the reflex on the lengths (possibly refreshing it) we need to choose a shade from the same series. If we want to change it instead, we need to consider the colorimetric rules, both for the re-growth and the lengths.
CHOOSING THE FORMULA
The fourth rule is the one that sums up all the reasoning of the previous steps and allows us to choose the most suitable color formula to achieve the final goal.
Quite often we will need to choose two different formulas, one for the re-growth and one for the lengths, when we do that we must be careful with the developing time and with the application procedures in the different areas of the head.
COLORING BY DARKENING: REPIGMENTATION
When we need to darken natural hair with It’s Color, we won’t use special tricks, except for the preferable use of warm shades, used alone or mixed with natural, especially if we want to darken more than 2/3 levels. We often need to darken:
• Hair previously colored with very light shades
• Faded colors
• Previous highlights (partial or total)
In this case we are talking about hair that lost most of the pigments (artificial or natural) that constitute the color base. It becomes necessary to re-pigment the hair; re-pigmentation will restore the underlying pigments lost during previous lifting processes to the hair.
- We prepare a mix 1 level lighter than the desired one (same level if we want to darken more than 3 levels), with a warm reflex – natural if you want to get a colder result.
- Mixing ratio is 1:1 with 5 volumes peroxide.
- Developing time is around 5 minutes, then we remove the product in excess and, without rinsing, we apply the desired shade on the areas that we want to darken.