This one starts a week early. A strand from the nape goes on 30 vol for 40 minutes, gets rinsed and dried on white paper, and it answers two things before the day: whether this 7 reaches a 9 with tint at all, and whether the bowl gets 30 or 20. Then it is two bowls and 75 minutes.
Why 30 vol here
Two levels is a 20 vol job lower down the chart, and on fine hair 20 vol does reach a 9 from a 7. But on medium and coarse hair the last step, 8 to 9, is where permanent color runs out of push: the pigment left is pale and thin, and the dye’s own deposit lands on it as it lifts. Twenty volume stalls that hair at a warm eight and a half, and thirty gives the last half level. Thirty on a scalp is as far as tint goes, since most colorists keep anything above 20 off the skin and 40 is for the high-lift series. Sixty grams and 60 g of developer, about 2 oz each, weighed in a plastic bowl, with a bond builder in at its own dose, because a 30 vol lift at the top of the chart is a dry one. Mixed fresh and used now. The dye amount calculator scales it.
The pale yellow you will see
At 30 the nape strand is yellow with orange still in it. At 40 it is pale yellow, and it looks wrong. It has not gone wrong. A 9 is pale yellow underneath, the top rung of the red-orange-yellow ladder, and 9.1 or 9.2 on 30 vol lifts harder than it deposits. 9.2 is the better choice over 9.1 on most heads, because at 9 the pigment is yellow with no orange left, violet alone is the neutralizer, and the blue in 9.1 has nothing to cancel and drifts the ends green-gray. On US lines that is the 9V over the 9A, and the pearl toner after it is a 9VB type. Rinse, then mix the 9 to 9 toner, demi 9.21 on 10 vol, on towel-dried hair, roots first, 10 minutes, ends checked at 5 (it looks purple on the head, and a client who sees it in the mirror will need telling that it rinses out pale). The toner selector confirms the pearl against the dried first rinse.
The wiped strands go on a strip of white card taped to the cart, 30, 40 and 45 in a row, because pale yellow against pale yellow is impossible to judge on a towel. The sink lies most at this level. Wet, a 9 reads like an 8, and the violet in a 9.2 sits on top of the level while it is on the hair.
Hot roots at the top of the chart
Scalp heat is worth a level at any depth, and between 7 and 9 it is a level the client can see across the room. Mid-lengths and ends first, roots at minute 15 on the one timer, a cap between looks, and from 25 the nape gets scraped every 5 to 10 minutes because it went on first. A root inch that went on at minute 0 is a 10 over a 9 by the rinse, and the fix is a 9N demi on the roots alone.
| Bowl one, the lift | Bowl two, the toner | |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Permanent 9.2 (or 9.1), 60 g | Demi 9.21 pearl, 30 g |
| Developer | 30 vol, 20 on fine hair, 1:1 | 10 vol at the tube’s demi ratio |
| Goes on | Dry hair, mids first, roots at 15, capped | Towel-dried hair, roots first, fast |
| Time | 40 to 45, nape scraped from 25 | 10, ends checked at 5 |
| What it does | Lifts two levels and leaves pale yellow | Cancels the yellow with violet and adds the pearl |
Between the visits
The lift is permanent. The toner fades in four to six weeks, and a purple shampoo once a week is the upkeep, and it will not tone a yellow 9 back on its own. A ten-minute 9.21 refresh handles the ends when they warm. The retouch at four to five weeks is the 9.2 on the root inch only, never overlapped, with a bond treatment after for ten minutes and no longer.
High-lift or bleach instead
A high-lift blonde is a permanent series that lifts three to four levels on 30 or 40 vol on virgin hair, and the level 5 to 8 formula explains what one is. On a 7 it reaches a 10 in 45 minutes, comes out yellow too, and is harder on the hair than 30 vol with a standard 9.
Bleach wins when any of the hair has been colored, since a remover or bleach is the only thing that moves old dye. It wins on ends porous from sun or old highlights, and when the client wants a 10. Bleach to a 9 is 25 minutes on 20 vol and a violet toner, with a bond builder in the bowl either way. Gray: a 9 blends white hair and does not cover it, so past 20 percent white the gray coverage calculator usually says 8N.
