10 volume developer (3%): what it does and when to use it

Some lines go lower still: a 5 volume toning developer, and a zero that is developer in name only, both sold for demis and toners where nothing at all should move. On natural hair 10 vol moves nothing, or half a level on fine hair left the full time, while 20 volume in the same 35 minutes takes it one or two levels, and the level chart with a picture of each shows what one level looks like. 20 volume lifts one to two levels in the same 35 minutes, and the level chart with a picture of each shows what one level looks like.

Ten is the lowest bottle most lines carry, and the shelf does go lower. Several lines sell a 5 volume, sometimes labeled toning developer, and a few sell a zero. Brands that print percent put 1.5% on the 5 and 3% on the 10. If the directions on the back name one of those, use it. If they say 10, or say nothing, 10 is the answer.

Where it lets people down: gray

The one place 10 vol goes wrong is gray, and it goes wrong slowly. White hair is resistant, wiry, the cuticle lies tight, and 3 percent does not open it far enough to push pigment in and hold it. A 6N on 10 vol over a head that is a quarter white looks fine at the basin the day it is done, then slides off over the next two or three washes, and the client comes back saying it never took. What 10 does to gray is blend it, a softer salt-and-pepper effect where the white takes a tint rather than the shade on the tube, and that suits some people. Anyone who wants the gray gone is a 20 vol permanent job, and more natural (N) shade in the mix does more for coverage than any bottle. Going darker on 10 is right, unless there is gray in it.

Demi and cream toners: 10 vol, damp hair, short time

Liquid toners follow the bottle: the T18 type names 20 vol, and 10 vol is the gentler choice on a tender scalp.

Lift is the one thing a toner does not want. Toner goes onto hair that lightener has already opened, so it grabs, and every bit of extra lift pulls up more of the yellow the toner is there to cancel. The routine taught for it is towel-dried hair, 10 volume, up to 15 or 20 minutes, checking every five, and the processing time calculator says a demi toner runs 10 to 20 minutes and a liquid toner 15 to 20. Put 20 vol under the same toner and the cuticle opens wider than the hair wants. The violet lands harder and less evenly, the peroxide keeps lifting the yellow underneath, and a fresh level 9 ends up pale gray at the ends and still yellow at the root in the same twenty minutes.

Mix it at the ratio on the back. Liquid toners of the T18 type mix 1:2, so 40 g of toner gets 80 g of developer; many demi glosses mix 1:1. The tube decides. An ounce of toner to two ounces from the bottle is the same thing measured by the cup, and the developer mix calculator turns either into the other. Clear developer, the runny one, is what a bottle-applied toner wants. Cream is what a brush wants. Same 3 percent in both.

Going darker, and a demi for the ends

Going darker is deposit. A 7 that wants to be a 5, or a faded blonde who wants her dark blonde back, gets a demi or a permanent on 10 vol, and the result is the shade printed on the tube, because nothing warm was pulled up underneath it. The same shade on 20 comes out a touch lighter and warmer than the swatch.

Faded ends on a root retouch get a demi gloss on 10 vol for the last ten to fifteen minutes of the root time, and the permanent stays on the regrowth. Permanent laid over permanent builds up on the lengths. Each retouch leaves the ends a shade darker and duller than the roots, and that build-up is hard to lift back out later. A demi in the same tone family refreshes the lengths, matches the root and fades out gradually instead of stacking.

Fragile and previously lightened hair

Previously lightened, high-porosity, fine or chemically straightened hair takes color faster than healthy hair, so the answer is not more time. The time stays where the tube puts it and the first look comes earlier, because porous hair grabs pigment in the first few minutes and keeps grabbing. Lengths that only need tone take a demi on 10 vol, which deposits and asks nothing of the cuticle. Regrowth that needs lift or gray coverage keeps the volume the job needs, which is 20 vol: dropping to 10 there buys a calmer cuticle and loses the coverage. Mixed that way on hair that has been colored before, permanent on 20 for the regrowth and a demi on 10 for the lengths, the two come out closer in tone than one bowl over the whole head.

Bleach on 10: low and slow

Ten under lightener is the slow end of bleaching, and it is a real method. With bleach the developer sets the speed and the lift is in the powder, so 10 can get close to what 20 reaches, given much more time, though the four volumes do not land in exactly the same place. Colorists who work this way use it on the scalp and on hair that is already compromised, sometimes thinned to one part powder and three or four parts developer, because slower gives them more time to watch and less heat on the skin. A lower volume can reach a long way, given the time: inside the manufacturer’s 50 minutes a 10 can take a level 3 toward a 7, and the four volumes do not land in the same place. Some colorists never go below 20 with lightener, because the longer hair sits in an alkaline mix, the more the slow route costs it. Ten with lightener is slow, it has to be watched to the end of the brand’s time, it needs saturating like any other bleach, and it works.

Lightener stays on 20 for the scalp and 30 in foils, and goes to 10 under it on ends that are already porous and need one more shade.