Hair Coloring Tips
Hair Coloring adds glow to hair and gives it more body. Hair color can improve the appearance of your hair by adding shine and sparkle, covering the gray, and enhancing your skin coloring. For hair that is very fine and limp, the hair-coloring process will add body.
There are several types of color that can be used, from a one-time color that can be shampooed out to the permanent tint. Here is a brief description of the varieties available.
Temporary Hair Coloring
Most temporary hair products come as hair rinses. Temporary colors do not penetrate, and thus will not produce a dramatic change in your color, but they will add highlights or intensify your own color. They wash out completely with one shampooing (that’s why they’re called temporary). Temporary coloring is usually made from acid dyes approved for food, drug and cosmetic use by the FDA, so no patch test is required. If, however, you choose a package that calls for a test, be sure to do it.
Semi Permanent Hair Coloring
Semi permanent color lasts through four to six shampoos, but each time the hair is shampooed, the color fades gradually. These formulas do not contain peroxide and won’t change the hair structure. You can use semi permanent colors to conceal gray hair without changing your natural color.
Permanent Hair Color
This type of product is exactly what it says: permanent! It will remain on the hair until it grows out or is cut off. The only way it can be altered is to use chemicals that strip the dye from the hair (like bleach). There are three types of permanent hair color:
1. Vegetable : The most popular is Egyptian henna, made of all natural ingredients. If applied properly, your hair will have lots of shine and body along with beautiful highlights. A few precautions should be observed when using henna: Never perm hair that has been treated with henna-mild disaster could occur when trying to use both. Also, it is a very messy paste and if splashed around, the spots will stain.
2. Metallic : Known as a color restorer, this forms a metallic coating over the hair shaft. Never perm, tint or lighten hair that has been treated with a metallic dye. Hair treated with metallic dyes is usually dry and dull in appearance. (Often the hair will have a greenish, purple or pinkish cast.)
3. Synthetic permanent tint : Most hair color is done with synthetic permanent tint, where the dye or tint is mixed with hydrogen peroxide. This makes the color permanent-it will not wash out! These tints usually may be applied over hair that has been permanently waved, but you should wait at least two weeks and does a strand test before your color. You should also do a patch test before using this type of tint. Permanent tints can be used to completely cover gray, lighten or darken hair or intensify your natural color.
Special effects such as frosting and streaking are most commonly done with bleach to Iighten the hair, and then a tint or toner applied to the bleached hair. Frosting is done by placing a transparent plastic cap over your hair, after which small strands of hair are pulled through holes in the cap and then bleached or colored. With the technique of foil wrapping, strands of hair are covered with bleach and then wrapped in individual pieces of aluminum foil. By applying heat to the foil (usually by sitting under a hair dryer) you accelerate the bleaching action in your hair.
You may notice that throughout this procedure you resemble a creature from outer space-but it’s worth it. A newer technique is hair painting, which gives a terrific effect of many subtle colors in your hair. Here your hairdresser “paints” bleach or tint on the hair with a brush anywhere you want the color.
Add comment May 3rd, 2008