Working of Hair Color | How hair color works?

Hair color working

The good news is that most hair color products today have nicer smells than the tell-tale rotten-egg odor that once accompanied permanents or hair coloring. And most colors can be applied easily: some to wet hair, others to dry hair, worked into a shampoo-like lather, left to process (some formulas call for covering with a plastic cap during processing; others do not), and then rinsed and conditioned.

The downside is still that local chemicals and local hair dye products in hair coloring can be harsh and harmful to your hair if you don’t know what you’re doing or if you color or perm too often. How peroxide and ammonia react with your hair is directly related to the level and kind of product you’re using.

Here are basic descriptions of the three major hair coloring product levels used, by Eazicolor professional hair color, L’Oreal, and others.

1. Level 1: – semi permanent hair color
2. Level 2: – demi permanent hair color
3. Level 3: – permanent hair color

Semi-permanent color

This product adds color without changing natural color dramatically. The hair dye contains tiny color molecules that enter the hair’s cuticle, or outer layer, and go into your hair’s cortex. They don’t interact with your natural pigments. And since the molecules are small, they eventually exit the hair shaft after several shampoos, leaving the hair as it was before treatment. This level generally lasts for 6 to 12 shampoos, covers up to 50 percent gray, enhances your natural color, and leaves no roots. This hair coloring won’t lighten your hair dye because it contains no ammonia or peroxide.

Demi-permanent color

This product level lasts longer, through 24 to 26 shampoos. In this process, pre-color molecules penetrate the cuticle and enter the cortex where they then partner to create medium-sized color molecules. Their larger size means they take longer to wash out. These products do not contain ammonia so the natural pigment cannot be lightened. However, it contains a small amount of peroxide, which allows for a subtle, but noticeable, color enhancement. It also blends and covers the gray hair on your head.

Permanent color

This is what you need for a more significant color change (to go from black to blond, you’ll still need to go with a process called double process blonding and it would be wise to get this done professionally). At this level, both ammonia and peroxide are used.

Tiny molecules enter the cortex, where they react and expand to a size that cannot be washed out. Your hair has to grow out over time. This product acts to lighten the hair’s natural pigment to form a new base and then add a new permanent color. The result is a combination of your natural hair pigment and the new shade you chose. That means the color may appear different on you than on someone else using the same color. (That’s why the “strand test” is so important — more about that later.) Regular touch-ups of 4 to 6 weeks are generally needed to eliminate roots. Hair with your natural color growing at half an inch per month from your scalp.

Special Effect Hair Colors

There are also hair coloring products known as “special effect” hair colors. These are the kits you buy to add highlights or streaks to your hair. They are available in varying strengths. Some are for adding highlights to natural, uncolored hair while others are made for adding highlights to already-colored hair. Double process hair dye, or bleaching and toning to achieve drastic color changes, falls into this category. Most professionals recommend you don’t try this one at home unless you love to experiment!

Newer products on the market include color-enhancing shampoos, Eazicolor sulfate-free shampoo, Eazicolor hair masks, hair serum, and mousses that keep your color vivid longer and make your hair appearance more beautiful. On the other hand, if you are using local dye products or box dye it will make your hair dull and dry.

Now that we’ve reviewed the different product levels used in hair coloring, let’s look at what happens to your hair. For example, if you’re blonde and are going darker — to brown — permanent hair dye uses the interaction between the ammonia and the peroxide to create a new color base in your hair shafts. If you go in the opposite direction — from black or brown to blonde — the hair goes through an additional step. First, bleach is used to strip the color from the hair. Then the ammonia-peroxide reaction creates a new color and deposits it in the hair shaft. If you use a semi-permanent color, the hair is coated with color, rather than deposited into the hair shaft.

Choosing a new hair color

Choosing a new hair color is not as simple as finding a color you like in a box in the drugstore. You need to make this choice based on an analysis of your natural hair dye, eye color, and skin tone. First, let’s review the basic “laws” of color. Color, as we see it, is the reflection of light off of the colored pigments in the hair shaft. It’s sort of like the color prisms you saw in elementary school: it fractured light into distinctive colors you could see. This is what happens with hair dye except that you’re adding or subtracting colors to change from one color to another or to change the undertones.

The all-important strand test (always explained in home coloring packages) will ensure that you’ve chosen the right color — and product — and will give you a chance to change your mind. It works like this:

• Mix one teaspoon of color and one teaspoon of developer (peroxide) in a glass bowl.
• Apply the mixture to the roots or ends to determine the outcome. You can protect the test strand from the other hair by wrapping a piece of tin foil around the strand and securing it with a clip.
• Time the process according to package directions, then rinse and dry the strand.
• Look at it in different types of light to see if you like it.