Formula: Level 5 to 7, Light Brown to Medium Blonde

Steps

Count the levels and take the history. A 5 to a 7 is two levels, the most 20 vol gives on virgin hair. Any color through the lengths in the last couple of years and those inches will not lift, so a remover or a lightener goes on them first.

Strand test a piece from the nape for the full 40 minutes and judge it dry. Patch test 48 hours before, as every box of permanent color says.

Mix 7.1 with 20 vol at 1:1, equal parts, fresh. Use 7.12 on hair that was lifted before. Add 7N, up to half the bowl, for gray over 30 percent. The directions in the box set the ratio and time, and ours is the fallback.

Apply to dry hair in four quarters, thin sections, every strand coated top and underneath: mid-lengths and ends first, half an inch off the scalp. Then the roots last, because the scalp is warm and lifts them faster. Cap the head.

Set one timer when the roots are on. From 30, go back to the first quarter you painted and wipe a strand every 5 to 10 minutes, read dry. The mids should be a warm gold-blonde and the roots a shade lighter. Rinse at 35, 40 on coarse hair, never past 45.

Rinse until the water runs clear, shampoo, condition, towel-dry. Then the toner: a demi 7.12 on 10 vol on the towel-dried hair for 15 to 20 minutes, checked every 5, and dry it before you judge it.

From the chair

The mixed color looks gray-brown in the bowl and tells you nothing about the result. The dry strand at 30 does.
Four quarters, thin subsections, and the mids of all four before any root. That first pass takes 12 to 15 minutes on a full head, which is why the roots wait.
If a strand test on 20 vol only reached a 6 at 40 minutes, the hair is resistant: 30 vol on the lengths, 20 vol at the roots, since the scalp is warm and does half that work on its own.

This is a two-product service, and the price should say so before the first bowl is mixed. A natural level 5 on 20 vol lifts two levels to a level 7, and the hair at the rinse is yellow-orange by design, because lifting exposes red, then orange, then yellow, and a 7 sits near the yellow end. The ash in the permanent shade covers most of it. A demi toner on towel-dried hair covers the rest. A client who hears “and then a toner” at the consultation sees the warm rinse as a stage. The one who hears it afterward sees a mistake.

Twenty vol is the developer for two levels on virgin hair, 30 on the lengths only of coarse, resistant hair, and 20 at the roots, where scalp heat is doing half the lifting.

7.1, 7.12 or 7N in the bowl

Ash against warmth is the rule when lifting with tint, and at 7 the ash finally shows. 7.1 is blue-based ash, and on a natural 5 that has never been colored it is the pick: the blue meets the orange coming up and the two more or less cancel. 7.12 adds violet for the yellow half, for hair that has been lifted before and shows yellow sooner, and on a virgin 5 it can drift mauve at the roots. 7N reads warm and is for gray only. Straight 7N on a lifted 5 is the orange in the complaint.

Dot code	On US letter lines	On a lifted 5
7.1 (ash)	7A, or 7-1 on dash lines	Blue meets orange, the pick on virgin hair
7.12 (ash-violet)	7VB, 7BV, or a 7AV type shade	Blue and violet, for hair lifted before
7N (natural)	7N, 7-0, 7/0	Warm, a quarter to half the bowl for gray only
T18	A liquid toner from the beauty supply	A level 10 toner on 20 vol, does nothing on a 7

Sixty grams of 7.1 to sixty of 20 vol, equal parts, an ounce and an ounce if you measure that way. Read the directions on your line, mix fresh, and mix a little over on dense hair. Some colorists add a bond builder to the bowl on any two-level lift.

Mids of all four quarters before any root

Dry hair, four quarters, thin subsections, and every strand saturated top and underneath, because a thin coat shows at the rinse as a darker stripe. Mid-lengths and ends first, half an inch off the scalp, all four quarters. That first pass takes about 12 to 15 minutes on a full head, and the roots wait for it, since the scalp is warm and lifts them faster than anything below. Then the roots, then a cap to hold the warmth in.

One timer, set when the roots are on. From 30, back to the first quarter you painted, a wiped strand every 5 to 10 minutes, read dry, because wet hair reads a level darker than it is. The mids should be a warm gold-blonde and the roots a shade lighter. Rinse at 35, 40 on coarse hair, and never past 45. A 7.1 left 55 minutes on a natural 5 comes out the same warmth as at 40 with worse ends. More is not more.

Where the color stops and the toner starts

A 7.1 covers about a level of warmth, and hair coming up from a 5 carries a level and a half, so 40 minutes leaves a medium blonde a shade warmer than the swatch. The rest of the job is the level 7 to 7 toner, a demi 7.12 on 10 vol on towel-dried hair, 15 to 20 minutes with a wiped check every 5, roots first because the ends grab. A toner changes tone and does not lift, so it cannot rescue a head that stalled at a 6. On a real 7 it takes the gold out of the mids.

Hot roots, a pale first inch over a 7, come from roots that went on with the mids, and a demi 7N on the root inch settles them.

The rinse is a checkpoint A 5 lifted to 7 on 20 vol rinses warm every time. Judge the color dry, at a window, after the toner.

Gray at a 7 on a 5

With white in the 5, the ash alone goes sheer and slightly green on the white hairs, because there is no natural in the bowl to hold it. Add 7N, a quarter of the bowl under 30 percent gray and half above it, on 20 vol, and give the front its color first and its full time. That is more natural than the brand charts ask for, which errs toward coverage. The N warms the result a touch, so plan on a firmer 7.12 toner.

Six weeks on

The blue leaves first. By four weeks the mids read gold again, by six the whole head is a warm 7 with a line of 5 underneath, and the roots want the same bowl every four to five weeks. Between visits a purple shampoo once a week holds the yellow back, and it is upkeep, never a toner. The demi 7.12 goes on again at week five or six, ten minutes. Porosity decides how fast, and the toner selector will list what a 7 can carry once you have seen the fade.

The questions that come with the orange

Why is it orange when I rinse it?

Because that is the pigment a level 5 sits on, and lifting exposes red, then orange, then yellow. Two levels up exposes the yellow-orange that lives under a 7, and the ash in the shade covers only part of it. A demi 7.12 toner on 10 vol on towel-dried hair takes out the rest in 15 to 20 minutes.

Can I use 30 vol to get it lighter?

On the lengths of coarse, resistant hair, yes, with 20 at the roots. On fine or medium hair 30 vol lifts the roots toward an 8 while the mids are still a 6, Twenty vol and the full 40 minutes gets a more even 7.

I want an 8. Will 40 vol with the same 7.1 do it?

It will not, and it will hurt. A standard shade stops at three levels whatever the developer, and 40 vol under a 7.1 only makes the result warmer and the scalp sorer. Five to eight is a high-lift on virgin hair or two visits, and the level 5 to 8 formula lays both out.

My lengths were colored a 5 a year ago. Will they lift?

Barely, if at all. Permanent color lifts natural pigment and leaves artificial pigment where it is, so the virgin regrowth goes to a 7 and the old lengths stay a 5 with a slightly cooler cast. That band needs a remover or bleach on the lengths, or a plan that accepts the lengths as they are.

Will a T18 fix the orange instead of a demi toner?

A T18 is a level 10 toner on 20 vol, built for pale yellow hair, and on a 7 it does next to nothing. The toner for this hair is a demi at 7, a 7.12 or a 7VB type shade on 10 vol, and it changes tone, never level.