The Difference Between a Color and Bleach

I hear people talking about getting their hair done all time. Every time I mention that I am stylist they start playing with their hair and talking about what they want to do with it. So often I hear them say that they want to color their hair but the in the next sentence they are talking about frosting it or lightening it. It gets very confusing to us stylist when the terminology is off a little and with that confusion can come a bad service. Hopefully explaining the difference between the types of colors will help you to communicate to your stylist exactly what you would like to have done.

First I want to give you some back ground on how we see color. Some of you may have already had some kind of a biology or science class where you learned about how we see it but I am going to explain for those who haven’t. The color that you see with your eye actually comes through light. The whole color spectrum is contained within light and the color that your eyes see is the color that is allowed to pass through or reflect off an object. When you see white you are seeing everything in the color spectrum and when you see black you are seeing no light pass through. It is a hard concept to grasp so let me see if I can give you a better example. You could think of a prism or a rainbow, when light passes through something clear like water or a crystal it is refracted or broken up. That is why when you see it, you see the colors separately. When you see browns or other colors that are not in the rainbow you are seeing the mixture of colors, more than one color is let through the object.

Hair works the same way. Black hair isn’t letting any light pass through and white blonde or platinum is letting all the colors through. When hair is shiny it means that the color is coming through clearer, there is nothing blocking any of the light or the color. The more color molecules in the hair the darker or richer the color. Grey hair has a few molecules left and white hair has no color molecules at all. The reason that natural grey or white hair is so stubborn is because there is nothing blocking those center bonds in the hair, so they kind of puff up cause they have the room. Less needs to be squeezed into the hair shaft when it is being made.

Now that you have a little bit of an understanding of how color works with your eyes, let me explain how the chemicals work with your hair and how the color spectrum works in this case.

When the stylist is choosing which product to use on your hair, the tube of color that would best work for you, they should be thinking about what color molecules are already in your hair and which ones they need to add. For instance, if you looked at a color wheel, the ones you probably saw in grade school, with the colors of the rainbow, you would notice that with it in a circle there is a color directly across from every other color. Looking at the color wheel, if your hair contained say a red or orange quality and you wanted it less red or orange you would use a color that contained the color directly opposite of the red or orange, which in this case would be blue or green. That way when the color was deposited into your hair, the blue or green would sort of block out the red or orange. Confused yet? I hope not, let’s move on.

Each color tube that we have on the shelf falls somewhere in the color spectrum on that color wheel. So in choosing a color we should be thinking about what we want the color to be when we are done. It is the hardest part of doing a color because sometimes the lighting in the salons can be unnatural and not all the colors are shining through your hair shaft. I always take my clients into natural lighting before and after a color to see what colors are being let through the hair shaft. I can also tell if there is any build up I need to remove before the color by looking at the shine of the hair. Remember, if it’s not shiny, then the light is being blocked, kind of like curtains on a window. You may have noticed yourself if you have had the color of your hair changed or maybe even if you haven’t, that it looks different in the sunlight than it does in your bathroom. Same with the colors of your make up. You probably wear different colors during the day than you do if you go out at night. It all has to do with the colors of light that are available. Bathroom lighting, or regular light bulbs have a blue-green spectrum, so again, reds and oranges won’t be seen as well Fluorescent lighting has a variety in the spectrum so the colors will depend on the manufacturer and what colors are shining from the light. This also means that in a salon with florescent lighting your color will look different than it will in the natural lighting outside. A blonde head may look good in a salon and be brassy outside. So be sure you check before you leave.

One thing I need to mention before I explain how each type of color effects your hair is that box colors from the grocery or drug stores contain different types of dyes than the ones we use in the salon. They all work on somewhat of the same principle but as you could imagine, there is a reason that we have a license. Our chemicals are stronger so they penetrate the hair better and move faster, they also leave less residue which means more shine. We also use products that will lay the outside of the hair shaft back down when we are through, where as the others, bought at the store, may not. Plus when we do a retouch, we do just the roots then pull it through the already colored hair towards the end. This makes the chemical work on what we call virgin hair and then fill in where needed, or brighten the previous color. When you do your hair at home and you are applying all over each time, you are filling your hair with unnecessary molecules and therefore blocking more light. That is why people who use, say brown color end up with black ends when they are done. Even though the box said brown, you are blocking more light with more color molecules so your eye sees black. If you have ever taken crayons and colored over another color you will notice that pretty soon it goes past the mixed color, gets dirty looking and less shiny and eventually looks blackish. Same principle here. The last thing about store colors, because the chemicals are a little different and they work a little differently, it makes our chemicals work differently too. We can not use ours to pull the other one out and corrective colors will cost you a fortune. I used to charge up to $45 an hour to correct colors, salon colors or store colors and sometimes it will take me a whole 8 hour day to get you to what you want. Be careful with store bought colors.

Ok, now on to the explanation of what each term means.

1. Colors-

A permanent color works by lifting the outer layer of your hair shaft, that looks like fish scales, then depositing color into the cortex, which is the middle layer of your hair. This isn’t the center of the hair shaft, it is the layer between the fish scales, or cuticle, and the center, or medulla. This is the layer that contains the color molecules that make your hair the color that we see. After depositing the desired molecules it then lays the cuticle back down as tight as possible and then your color is locked in. With the permanent color molecules, because they are artificial and not made by your body, they are larger than your regular molecules, so once they are in there, it is very hard to yank them back out. So once your hair is colored with an artificial color it is very hard, and can be very damaging, to take out. Just because you were coloring those greys to your natural color doesn’t mean that if you decide to change the color that you will be able to. To make sure your stylist knows a head of time if you have had any color altering chemicals on your head at all.

A semi-permanent color doesn’t go into the hair shaft. It deposits into the fish scales and then smoothes them out to hold it in and kind of coats the hair shaft with a layer that wears off. That is why sometimes they can last up to six weeks and sometimes they will wash out right away. It all depends on your hair and how healthy it is. The healthier it is the shorter the color will stay. When your hair is already pretty smooth because it’s healthy, then there really isn’t anything for the semi-permanent color to stick to, it slides off easier. It also means that if your ends are dry and your scalp is healthy, you may end up with two different colors. Your stylist should be thinking about this when they apply the color. They should also be looking for any kind of build up on the hair from product or chlorine. The color won’t stick to build up and it won’t last you two days.

A temporary color works like your products do. They was right out and should leave no residue or build up on the hair. However, if your hair shaft is wide open, the cuticle is standing on end and not laid down, the color may slide in a little too far and it will take a few washings to get it out. That means that a temporary color may stick to your dry, or damaged hair, a little longer than expected. It should, however, eventually wash out. Just a quick tip for those who bleach their hair and then put different colors in, like what some of the younger people are doing these days. You can use kool-aid or jello to put that color in your hair. But reds and oranges have bigger molecules and because your hair is damaged from making it lighter, they may stick around for a few days. Also, jello is pretty sticky due to the sugar so go lightly if your want your hair to move around and not be stuck in one place. If you have ever made jello then you should know too that it dissolves better with hot water, so watch the heat when your apply to wet hair and if it sticks too long, rinse it with hotter water.

Toners work on the same principle as the semi-permanent color and are usually applied after bleaches to block out any unwanted colors or to give you a certain range or blonde in your hair, cool or warm tones.

2. Bleaches

A bleach works by lifting up that outer layer of your hair shaft and removing color and hopefully laying it back down. The reason that bleaches sometimes don’t seem to lay the cuticle back down is because the hair shaft is changes. It’s kind of like stacking blocks. You have removed the middle block and sometimes the top block falls in. If this happens your hair may feel like mush or it may just seem a little slimier when it’s wet. Your stylist should be filling that back up for you with a deep conditioner. Toners will also fill the hair back up but give you a bit of residual color in the warm or cool tones as I mentioned above.

A foil, which most people think automatically means bleaching or streaks. Yes, most foils are bleaches and you do get streaks but the amount of streaks can be controlled and also be judged by how thick of sections the bleach is applied to. But you can also foil in colors, any type of color, permanent, semi-permanent, temporary or toner. You can foil in a bunch of different colors. I am sure you have seen foiling done. It is really hard to miss because there are foils all over your head or in spots depending on what you are having done. You can choose the amount of foils that are done and in what area’s, how many colors are used and how big you want the streaks. When you use a cap it’s more difficult.

A cap frost or color is when they put that stupid looking little hat on your head and pull some of your hair through. If someone knows what they are doing it can work really well, but if they don’t you can end up with some really funky looking hair. Again, you can apply bleach or color, or both. But it is hard to see where the hair is coming from when you pull it through, what the difference is between your natural hair color and the altered hair and it is hard to get bigger streaks or control that aspect of the color. Also, pulling longer hair through is a pain in the you know what because it tends to tangle up and you get half hair shafts. I have actually seen people get spotted hair from a cap because the hair shafts weren’t pulled all the way through. Your stylist should be able to run a comb through the hair that is pulled through without any trouble. Any snags could be hair shafts half way out.

Hopefully understanding the way that colors and bleaches work will help you to communicate what you want easier. In review, colors deposit color and bleaches take it out. How you apply it is up to you and your stylist. There are a million ways to apply them and they are meant to be fun, so have fun with them. Your stylist is an artist and you are the pallet and your hair does grow out. If you have any questions look me up on the internet or leave a comment below. May all your days be good hair days.