Toning with Permanent vs Demi
When it comes to toning and glossing are you team Demi or team Permanent?
What if you could be both.
Typically, most stylists have been trained to use demi-permanent colour to refresh faded colour, tone highlights, or to make subtle changes to the natural hair with less commitment than permanent. These are all great reasons to choose demi but what about those situations where the hair is resistant, or the lift achieved from lightening is uneven or possibly brassy and demi just isn’t enough. It’s in these situations that permanent colour will be the best option and here are a few reasons why.
- Opacity – permanent colour has more pigment, so it has richer (less sheer) finish. In cases where the hair lifts brassy, the client wants to tone down (brunette with lighter brunette highlights), or wants an ashy tone permanent will be your best option
- Strength – the stronger the problem, the stronger the solution. If your lift is uneven or has strong underlying pigment permanent is the best option
- Oxidation – permanent colour, oxidizes slower therefore you have a longer time to work with it before it begins to oxidize and change colour versus a demi which oxidizes much quicker. This causes us to get scared and rinse too quickly or if left too long may go darker than anticipated or muddy.
The biggest disadvantage to using permanent to tone would be the possible lift it could cause to the natural hair based on texture. Typically, finer hair runs a bigger risk of lifting as opposed to thicker, more robust hair. To resolve this, you could always use demi at the roots and permanent mid-shafts to ends as the “cold shaft” is considerably less likely to lift even with permanent. However, because of the unique exothermic technology in Calura Permanent Shine Colour you can be even more confident using permanent to tone. Let me explain, because when we tone, the hair is not only wet but cold, which allows even less possibility of lifting or shifting the natural hair because it is harder to generate the heat needed to initiate significant lift. Lastly who should I use permanent on and what volume should I choose? Typically, the Demi Effect Developer will be the best option if you’re only looking for a deposit. If you're looking to get a little extra lift from the colour you may want to choose 20 volumes. As a general guideline or if you’re concerned about shifting the natural start by using permanent on levels 6 and below and Demi on levels 7 and above until your more comfortable as higher level of colour contain more lift which ultimately has a higher risk of lift.
Happy Colouring!