Want to change up your hairstyle but not willing to pay $200 for a salon makeover? One of the fastest and easiest ways to change your look is to change your hair colour.
The thing that makes salon colour so much better than box colours is that you can mix it up to suit the your current base colour and avoid excessive lightening because you only change the colour of your hair by the exact number of shades you need to lighten it by.
You then choose a hair developer to lighten your hair that number of shades.
Why do I need a developer?
A hair developer provides the chemical reaction to allow the hair dye molecules or particles to penetrate and get deposited into the hair shaft. This then causes the new colour to develop. So basically, you need a hair developer to produce a new hair colour.
What exactly is in a hair developer?
Hydrogen peroxide is the main ingredient in a hair developer. It is the oxidizing agent that allows the colour to develop.
Do all hair colour developers have the same concentration of hydrogen peroxide?
Nope. Developers comes in different concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, therefore bleaching the natural pigment to different degrees. The various concentrations are known as 10 volume, 20 volume, 30 volume and 40 volume; with 10 being the weakest and 40 the strongest.
How do I choose the right hair developer strength?
Well, the answer lies in how dark your hair is and how light you want it to become. The darker your hair the higher the volume of peroxide content you need in order to get a lighter shade.
How does a hair colour developer work to affect the natural colour of the hair?
To better understand the effect of hair colour developer on natural hair colour, we need to understand how the hair developer volumes work.
No Lift Developer
This is a semi permanent developer that can be used to go from lighter to darker shades. It is semi permanent because it does not contain bleach or ammonia to hold the dye to the hair. It only works if you are going from a lighter to a darker shade, not the other way round, as it does not have a lightening agent like bleach to strip the colour pigment so you can lighten your hair.
MYHD Developer 20 Volume
If you want to lighten your hair by two shades then choose this hair developer to lighten by two levels. This is perfect if the hair colour you have chosen to mix it with is only 2 shades away from your natural colour.
MYHD Developer 30 Volume
If you want to lighten your hair by three shades then choose this hair developer to lighten by three levels. This is perfect if the hair colour you have chosen to mix it with is only 3 shades away from your natural colour.
MYHD Developer 40 Volume
If you want to lighten your hair by four shades then choose this hair developer to lighten by four levels. This is perfect if the hair colour you have chosen to mix it with is only four shades away from your natural colour. Perfect for going the lighter colours in the range as it is a stronger formulation to shift darker colour… Perfect for going blonde.
In summary…
The basic principle is simple. Darker hair must use a higher volume of peroxide if you want to lighten your hair 2-4 levels. But if you simply want a very slight change then use a lower volume peroxide hair colour developer.
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Got your own share of hair colouring experience using hair colour developers? Why not drop us a few comments and share your experience? We’d love to hear from you.