Hair color how does it work

Your natural hair pigment, called melanin, is housed in the cortex of your hair — which are the cells aligned along with the hair fiber.

This is why hair coloring also occurs in the cortex since it affects the natural pigment of your hair. What are the factors that affect how hair color works? Your current hair color natural or previously colored makes a difference in how non-permanent or permanent hair color turns out.

If you currently have medium brown hair, for example, you could lighten it to a light brown or a dark blonde or go darker to dark brown. Hair type also makes a difference. Coarse hairs, which are large in diameter, generally take more time to absorb color, while fine hair, which is small in diameter, takes less time to absorb color. Dry or permed hair may absorb color more quickly.

How coloring works? Hair coloring works by coating each strand with color non-permanent color or by penetrating each hair cuticle, entering the hair cortex, and bonding with the hair permanent color. While non-permanent hair color can be shampooed out eventually, permanent color, as the name suggests, permanently colors the hair. However, since hair constantly grows, the color will ultimately grow out.

The amount of total pigment dictates how light or dark hair is. Factoring in natural hair pigment helps determine how permanent hair color will respond. To make color easier to describe accurately, we say it has two characteristics: level and tone. Level simply refers to how light or dark—the lower the number, the darker the hair. This number ranges from , with 1 being darkest black, and 10 lightest blonde. Tone refers to the underlying color of the hair, commonly referred to as either "cool" or "warm.

A predominance of black and brown pigments creates cool-toned hair, while a predominance of red and yellow pigments creates warm-toned hair. We call cool-toned hair "ash", while warm-toned hair has visible gold, copper or reddish tints and is called chestnut, auburn, or golden.

To describe tone more accurately and to differentiate it from level, we use letters. Natural tones are G for Gold and C for copper, so chestnut brown hair is more accurately described as a Level 5 with gold and copper tones, or a 5GC.

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The Science of Hair Coloring. Sulfuric Acid and Sugar Demonstration. I read that the synthetic coloring agents can cause allergies, cancer, hormone disruption and what not.

Also, as far as hair health there is some discussion whether ammonia alternatives are actually gentler. I could go on, I want to know so much haha. For example if Wella Innosense really prevents allergic reactions, what you think of color removers like B4. By the way if you wrote a book I would totally buy it. My hair has been bleached for years now, and the struggle to keep the cuticles down aka make it look shiny is hard….

Hi Linda! Another thing you can do is making a hair mask with vinegar or lemon. The acid will close the cuticles and make the hair smoother. Thanks for telling me that using semi-permanent dye on my hair means that it can fade after a few washes. It might be a good idea to look up salons in our area and see if they offer this service.

Hi Michelle, I know that this is an old post and hopefully You can shed some light to this as I struggle to find an answer to it. Thank you very much. Thanks for your reply. I am elated.