Formula: Level 5 to 6 Full Color, Light Brown to Dark Blonde

Steps

Check the level in daylight and take the hair history: a natural 5 is light brown that goes coppery in the sun, never colored. If it looks like a 4 in the shade, it is a 4, and that is the level 4 to 6 page.

Ask what she means. Less red is 6.1. Lighter and softer is 6.13. Just lighter, or gray at the front, is 6N. Patch test 48 hours before whichever it is.

Dry, unwashed hair in four sections. Weigh 60 g of the shade and 60 g of 20 vol, equal parts, and mix until the cream is one even color. Check the time your line prints.

Mid-lengths and ends first, half an inch off the scalp, thin sections, saturated, all four sections fast. Set the timer, then go straight back for the roots at 5. One level does not need a long gap, and the scalp warmth still puts the roots ahead. Cap it.

At 20 it is orange under a blue-gray film. Leave it. From 25 wipe a strand from the first section you painted every 5 to 10 minutes and read it dry: rinse when it is a cool dark blonde with no red, 30 to 35 on fine hair, 35 on medium, up to 45 on coarse.

Add a little warm water and work it to a lather at the scalp, rinse until clear, shampoo once, condition. Dry a section fully before she looks. Wet, 6.1 on a lifted 5 reads gray-green and a level darker.

From the chair

Her word decides the shade. 'Less red' is 6.1. 'A bit lighter' with nothing about red is 6.13 or 6N, because a straight ash on someone who liked her warmth looks flat to her the next morning.
Fine hair grabs the ash at 30 and the ends go steel by 40. Coarse hair rinsed at 35 is still a 5.4 at the nape. Two clocks for one bowl, and the wiped strand runs both.
At week five the ash has faded and the level has stayed. A demi 6.1 toner on 10 vol for ten minutes puts it back without lifting the lengths again, and a purple shampoo once a week stretches the gap.

One level of lift, three shades to pick from, and the pick is made by one word in her sentence. “Less red” is one bowl. “A bit lighter” with nothing about red is another. Her hair is a natural level 5, light brown on the pro chart, and it goes coppery from May to September. Box names run about a level darker than that chart, which is why the box she has been buying calls something near her own color dark blonde, and why it keeps coming out reddish brown. One level up is a level 6, the smallest lift on this site and the one with the most talk about tone, because the client who asks for one level notices half a shade of warmth.

Why one level from a 5 goes orange anyway

Lifting exposes warmth in order, red, then orange, then yellow, and it does not skip a stage. Under a 5 the pigment is orange-red. Under a 6 it is orange. Twenty volume has to move through the first to reach the second, and at 20 minutes the hair is bright orange under a blue-gray film. Say so at minute 0, because she will look. The 6.1 carries blue, blue cancels orange, and it does that in the last ten minutes once the level is reached. Rinse at 20 and you have a 5.4, a copper light brown, which is exactly the red she came in to lose.

Sixty grams of color to sixty of 20 vol, equal parts, an ounce and an ounce, mixed fresh. Dense or long hair takes more.

Ash, beige or natural at 6 on this base

The general rule when lifting with tint is to go cool against the warmth, and at 6 it holds, with a caution. A straight 6.1 (a 6A on letter lines) takes the red out, and on fine or slightly porous hair it goes a step past that into a flat, cool dark blonde that a woman who secretly liked her warmth will call dull by the next morning. The 6.13 is ash with a little gold, beige, and on a lifted 5 it reads as a soft dark blonde with the copper gone. 6N sits comfortably on the orange, a warm natural dark blonde, for the client who only said lighter. Icier than a cool 6 is a lift to 8 first, and that is a different service.

Shade code	Reads as on a lifted 5	Best for
6.1 (6A, ash)	Cool dark blonde, can go flat on fine hair	“Less red”, said twice
6.13 (beige)	Soft dark blonde, copper gone, a little warmth kept	“Lighter and less red”
6N (6N, 6-0)	Warm natural dark blonde	“Just lighter”, or 20 percent gray
6N with a touch of 6.1	Neutral dark blonde, barely cool	Gray plus a wish for less red
6.3 (6G, gold)	Golden dark blonde, close to caramel	A different client, one who wants warmer

I put the two swatches side by side and let her point. About half point at the beige.

Mids first, roots five minutes behind

Dry, unwashed hair, four sections, thin partings, fully saturated. Mid-lengths and ends first, half an inch off the scalp, all four sections fast, then one timer, then straight back for the roots at 5. The scalp is warm and the roots lift faster, and on one level a five-minute gap is enough. A bag or a cap keeps the scalp warmth where it is useful, keep the room steady, and go by the time on your line, because longer past the red does nothing but dry the ends.

From 25 go back to the first section you painted and wipe a strand every 5 to 10 minutes, and dry it before you read it, because wet, every one of these shades reads gray-green and a level darker than it is. Rinse when the dry strand is a cool dark blonde with no red left.

Gray from 5 to 6

A natural 5 with white at the front is common, and 6.1 on white hair without a natural in the bowl goes greenish. Half 6N and half 6.1 in the same 60 g up to about 30 percent gray, 20 vol as always for white hair, and past that mostly 6N with a quarter of .1. That is heavier on the natural than the brand education runs, and it is the end to start at, since a sheer white hairline is the complaint you hear about. The mix is warmer than a straight 6.1, so say so before it goes on, because the woman with gray who asked for less red gets a little less of it.

Two clocks, one bowl Fine hair: wipe at 25, rinse by 35. Medium: 35. Coarse: up to 45, and if the nape is still a 5.4 at 45, it is a 30 vol head next time.

Fine hair and coarse hair keep different clocks

Fine hair lifts fast and grabs ash faster. At 30 a fine strand is already a cool 6 and by 40 the ends are steel. Coarse hair rinsed at 35 is a 5.4 at the nape and a 6 at the crown, and it wants 40 to 45. Both are one bowl and one timer, and the wiped strand is what separates them, which is why the first look comes at 25 on every head. Coarse hair that is still warm at the nape after 45 minutes on 20 vol is telling you about next time: 30 vol on the lengths, 20 at the roots, since nothing over 20 belongs on a scalp, and the same 6.1 on top.

The questions this bowl gets

It is only one level. Why does it still go orange?

Because the pigment under a 5 is orange-red and the pigment under a 6 is orange, and the developer has to go through both to move the level at all. Every lift exposes the warmth of the level it passes through. The 6.1 cancels it once the level is reached, and at 20 minutes it has not been reached yet.

6.1 or 6.13?

Whichever her sentence points at. Less red, 6.1 (a 6A). Lighter and softer, 6.13, which has a little gold in with the ash so it never goes flat. Put the two swatches side by side and let her point, and about half point at the beige.

Can I skip the lift and use a 6.1 toner?

A toner deposits and does not lift, so 6.1 as a demi on 10 vol on a natural 5 gives you a cool 5, a light ash brown, which is a fine result if that is the ask. Lighter needs the 20 vol.

I have some gray. Does 6.1 cover it?

On its own it goes greenish on the white hairs, because there is no natural in the bowl to hold it. Mix 6N in, half and half up to about 30 percent gray, on 20 vol, and the N gives the white something to hold while the .1 keeps the rest cool. The gray coverage calculator does the split.

How long before the red comes back?

The ash fades over four to six weeks and the level stays, so by week five the hair is a warm 6 with half an inch of natural 5 at the root. Roots only with the same bowl, and a demi 6.1 toner on 10 vol through the lengths for the last ten minutes.