Lifting Medium Brown Colors

by Betty Mills
(Jacksonville Fla.)

I have been coloring my daughter in laws hair a 4R with 1/4 4N and a splash of red kicker but now she wants to go a little lighter. What would you suggest I use. I have been putting it on the roots for 20 min. then pulling it through and leaving it on for 10 more minutes. I havn't had my license long and am still learning.

Any help would be appreciated. When I first started coloring her hair it was a pretty red and now it seems to be getting darker.

*****************

Sweetheart, her hair is getting darker cause you keep applying undiluted color to it. This is called overlapping and is a big no no.

You should only color her roots once you color it the first time. You can refresh the color intermittently however, by doing what's called a soap cap.

The way I learned it is to take any leftover color, and add shampoo to it and a bit of water. Shake it up and apply it to her when you're getting ready to rinse the color out. (Leave it in for 3 - 5 minutes.)

You don't have to add shampoo however, but you do need to dilute the color a bit. In this case, the last 10 minutes, you would dilute the color 1:2 (one part color to 2 parts water), shake it well and then pull it through her hair.

It is very hard to lift darker red colors successfully without pulling pink colors. My best advice would be to do a strand test and try a 5 or 6 golden color with a 20 volume peroxide.

If it pulls pinkish, then you know you'll have to use a color remover first, then apply color over her hair.

Understanding hair colors takes time. You need to learn your color bases and what they mean. Learning about the color wheel and the laws of color are also other things you'll have to understand before you can succesfully color other people hair in a salon setting.

I've been coloring other people's hair and my own for a long time. It takes time to understand color! I would suggest that you purchase my Hair Color Guide to help you sort all of this out.