Modern Salon - November 2007 - (Page 66)

color q&a Ask Beth they ask me, I’m at a loss. I suggest a retone along with their follow-up six-week appointment for a treatment and trim. This seems to work well on the gold control, but I’d still like to know what causes the brassiness.—Barb Nicaise A. This month, Beth Minardi talks about how you can bust brass. Q. My client has Level-6 hair with about 10- to 25-percent gray throughout. She has blue eyes with flecks of yellow, warm skin tone and she was a tow head as a child. When she first came to me, she had had her base color broken and highlights, but she complained that her base was too brassy. The first time I colored her hair, I used a Level-6 neutral and a Level7 silver brown, and added some highlights to blend. When she left, we both agreed her color looked great. I sold her the proper moisturizing and color deposit shampoos, and she set up an appointment for a cut a week later. But when she came back, her color at the scalp was brassy. I toned it with a Level-7 ash, and again it looked great. Is there any way I can break her base to cover gray and not come up with orange-looking hair?—Cindy A. You say this client has golden flecks in her eyes. This is a clue that her hair, although naturally light at Level 6, may contain hidden warm undertones that when lightened will readily turn brassy. You have several choices. If this client came to Minardi Salon, we would probably use a neutral-toned Level-7 demipermanent shade to eliminate the gray hair. While this formula would not lighten the base color, it would transform the gray to a soft neutral blonde. We would follow the gray “coverage” by highlighting with a professional lightener. If the client demands that the base be lighter, however, I’d recommend mixing a Level-6 blue-based ash shade with a Level 7NN—a double-neutral shade. I might mix one ounce of 6B with a half-ounce of 7NN and two ounces of 20-volume developer. This formula will lighten the base color slightly as it covers gray. Then follow this application with placement of highlights. If the client desires a much lighter base, you would have to pre-lighten and then tone the base. This procedure is the ONLY way her hair will develop to a blonde that will still look lighter and neutral, not brassy, one to three weeks after the color. No one ever complains that their hair “lifts too cool.” Experience teaches us that lighter levels of hair can, indeed, lighten easily. But if the hair contains warm undertones naturally, you must choose either to refrain from exposing them, or to remove them and finish the look by toning the hair to a final cool shade of blonde. Q. It is true that the skin is an organ of exchange. In rare instances, the sebum coming from the pore openings in the scalp can contain traces of chemical products which are present in the bloodstream. More often than not, however, the “yellow” we see in brassy hair is caused by external environmental factors like the metals, minerals and chemicals in most municipal water supplies and pollutants in the air. If a client complains about “yellow,” or if you see unwanted gold tones in the hair, I recommend that you precede your color application or highlighting with a chelating treatment. Products like Clairol’s Liquid Uncolor Treatment, Redken’s Pre-Art, or Malibu’s mineral cleansing systems are very effective treatments. In addition, Malibu, Redken, Davines and many other manufacturers offer products your client can use periodically in order to remove traces of yellow from her hair. You may also want to take some time to adjust your application technique by dividing the hair into tiny sections for highlighting. Remember, if lightener dries out, hair will stop lifting when it reaches the gold or yellow stage. Dry lightener stops working and leaves you with hot spots, a risk when you’re using very large sections. I recommend you use one of the new pastetype lighteners when performing a highlighting service, and that you make every effort to completely saturate the hair strand with lightener. Good luck! Now you can own some of the best hair color information available! Call 800MINARDI to order Beth Minardi’s TOP 20 COLOR FORMULAS—a sampling of Beth’s favorite salon-proven recipes. Included are corrective colors, great ideas for beautiful gray coverage and dramatic blondes, all for just $25.99. You don’t have to guess when you know the formula! Why do clients on certain medications like Synthroid or insulin seem to go gold in their blonde highlights? When Got a color challenge? Expert colorist and color educator Beth Minardi is available to answer all your questions on color application, formulation and results. Contact her via MODERN SALON, c/o Color Q&A, 400 Knightsbridge Parkway, Lincolnshire, IL, 60069, fax: 847-634-4342, or go to modernsalon.com to post a question. 66 NOVEMBER 2007 www.modernsalon.com http://modernsalon.com http://www.modernsalon.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Modern Salon - November 2007

Modern Salon - November 2007 Contents Behind the Cover Notebook Beauty Matters Contributors New-Now-Next Modern Reports For the Chemical Specialist News and Trends Ask Beth Color Clients Your Makeovers Ask the Experts Beating Body Burn-Out American Masters: Neo-Baroque Beauty Show Scooped Modern Update The Goods Personal Style

Modern Salon - November 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.