Work, work, work

So, Evelyn is forever snagging the corrective colors that come through the door. I'm not sure if today's exciting episode was scheduled in advance, or walked in, but she snagged it. (I was pedicure girl today....such is life, taking care of feet) This nice lady had lots of built up color...her ends were downright BLACK (her hair wasn't terribly long, maybe to the middle of the neck, and layered), her mid-shaft, brown-ish, and her regrowth, WHITE. So, obviously, we've got white hair that we're trying to cover up. And one of two scenarios has happened. A) We've been coloring our hair at home and following the directions (always so NOT the person's fault), or B) a hairdresser, possibly one of my co-workers, is doing this to this nice lady. At any rate, a hot mess on her head. So, Evie worked her magic and mixed up a batch of "Color Balancer" (shampoo, lightener powder & developer) to bring her up to a nice coppery color with screaming white (with hint o' gold) regrowth. And then proceeded to re-color her hair, using 20 volume & ammonia based hair color all over. Just a refresher: The 20 volume, combined with the ammonia based hair color creates up to 2 levels of lift on already previously lightened (to brownish orange) hair. She's using Paul Mitchell color, which states that to make their permanent color line demi permanent, just use 5 volume instead of the 20, creating more deposit than lift. In theory, that's a fabulous idea. The reality is this: Any time you use ammonia based hair color, no matter what strength the developer is, you are creating "lift"--lightening of the hair underneath the hair color. In the case of this coppery color to start, now you're lifting/lightening it to orange. Underneath the cool based color that is ammonia based. And, another refresher: What is permanent about permanent hair color?? The lightening action, not the depositing action. So , what will happen in any where from 2-6 weeks (depending on how often she washes her hair, what she uses, and how hot her water is) from now?? The CB(cool blonde/cool brown, depending on the level) will fade away and what will be left behind?? Another hot mess. The first client we did this experiment on will be coming in, fairly soon (saw her name in the books) for a retouch....should be interesting to hear what has happened with her hair since she was in last. The color ought to be reeeeaaaallly interesting...