Dark banding

[Cjh]

Hi all
I have one client who gets a dark band when we do her root. I’ve been applying the same colour for a year now and sometimes it does it, sometimes not.

I have been applying a 55.0 with 20vol.
Her hair is super thick, she has a keratin blow dry every 3 months and is a level 5/6 naturally with about 5-10% grey.
I’ve thought that it clearly must be my application and it’s me overlapping but I’m wondering if there’s another reason why it’s so blummin obvious. I’ve tried emulsifying the root colour out a little in the last 5/10 mins to try and blend it out but I feel that this makes the band darker.

I’ve considered dropping down to 10vol but it tends to deposit darker and she doesn’t want to be any darker. I could go up half a shade with 10vol but then I’m worried I’ll just make more bands. I’ve also considered doing 5.0 instead of 55.0 as could it be too strong as it’s not super grey?

I break the line every couple of months with foils as she’s a balayage on the mids/ends. This does help but I can still see the odd old band between the foils.

I feel silly and frustrated as this is a basic that I should know how to fix easily and I carry out so many more complex services but it’s just stumping me as I don’t get this with any other client using the same colour. The client says she can’t see the bands and in indoor lighting you can’t but in outdoor daylight they’re so obvious.

Any advice would be appreciated as everytime I do this client I get such bad anxiety wondering if it’s going to band or not. Photo attached is outside in direct light.

 

[ronray]

Hi all
I have one client who gets a dark band when we do her root. I’ve been applying the same colour for a year now and sometimes it does it, sometimes not.

I have been applying a 55.0 with 20vol.
Her hair is super thick, she has a keratin blow dry every 3 months and is a level 5/6 naturally with about 5-10% grey.
I’ve thought that it clearly must be my application and it’s me overlapping but I’m wondering if there’s another reason why it’s so blummin obvious. I’ve tried emulsifying the root colour out a little in the last 5/10 mins to try and blend it out but I feel that this makes the band darker.

I’ve considered dropping down to 10vol but it tends to deposit darker and she doesn’t want to be any darker. I could go up half a shade with 10vol but then I’m worried I’ll just make more bands. I’ve also considered doing 5.0 instead of 55.0 as could it be too strong as it’s not super grey?

I break the line every couple of months with foils as she’s a balayage on the mids/ends. This does help but I can still see the odd old band between the foils.

I feel silly and frustrated as this is a basic that I should know how to fix easily and I carry out so many more complex services but it’s just stumping me as I don’t get this with any other client using the same colour. The client says she can’t see the bands and in indoor lighting you can’t but in outdoor daylight they’re so obvious.

Any advice would be appreciated as everytime I do this client I get such bad anxiety wondering if it’s going to band or not. Photo attached is outside in direct light.

Hi there I understand how frustrating this can be. Generally speaking of this is a continuous/ reoccurring issue unfortunately it's more than likely down to application. It's vital not to overlap especially when using double bases. Have you tried using a deep cleansing shampoo? I sometimes find this is enough to budge that slight over deposit of colour. The alternative is to use something like Malibu c undoo goo or one of the colour treatment like colour correction or crystal gel.

 

[Cjh]

Thank you for your reply. I haven’t used those or deep cleansed but I will do next time I’m not sure if you’ll see this but-

I’ve just had two clients this morning
1.Client 1 I use 44.0+55.0 10vol. She’s around 60% grey, more so on the top. When she arrived I took photos in daylight and it looks like the last time I’d done hers there was a lighter band where the virgin hair was and then a darker band next to it. Which is the same problem as the client above.I dropped down a quarter shade and was super careful in my placement with a teeny brush.
2.client 2 I use 55.0+66.0 20vol. She’s around 70% grey. Last time it lifted too light. This time I dropped it down to 55.0 20vol and there’s also a band with a lighter root (I’ll add these pics also).

I noticed that my colour spreads out a lot. By the time I’d got down the head and flipped my sections back down the colour was everywhere at least 1cm past where I’d put it. I tried really hard not to over saturate also and used a teeny brush to apply.
The colour itself doesn’t seem to be coming out a nice tone, it looks lighter on the virgin hair and then fades out warm (I’ll attach a pic)
I used to use Wella and redken in other salons and I never had this problem. Someone suggested velvasilk as they said it wasn’t as warm a base so better for grey coverage. But it’s very cheap £2.99+vat per tube. Could it be the colour line?
I’m starting to question my application definitely and will be keeping a close eye on precision but I’m also thinking of switching to a thicker consistency such as Wella could help?

 

[ronray]

Thank you for your reply. I haven’t used those or deep cleansed but I will do next time I’m not sure if you’ll see this but-

I’ve just had two clients this morning
1.Client 1 I use 44.0+55.0 10vol. She’s around 60% grey, more so on the top. When she arrived I took photos in daylight and it looks like the last time I’d done hers there was a lighter band where the virgin hair was and then a darker band next to it. Which is the same problem as the client above.I dropped down a quarter shade and was super careful in my placement with a teeny brush.
2.client 2 I use 55.0+66.0 20vol. She’s around 70% grey. Last time it lifted too light. This time I dropped it down to 55.0 20vol and there’s also a band with a lighter root (I’ll add these pics also).

I noticed that my colour spreads out a lot. By the time I’d got down the head and flipped my sections back down the colour was everywhere at least 1cm past where I’d put it. I tried really hard not to over saturate also and used a teeny brush to apply.
The colour itself doesn’t seem to be coming out a nice tone, it looks lighter on the virgin hair and then fades out warm (I’ll attach a pic)
I used to use Wella and redken in other salons and I never had this problem. Someone suggested velvasilk as they said it wasn’t as warm a base so better for grey coverage. But it’s very cheap £2.99+vat per tube. Could it be the colour line?
I’m starting to question my application definitely and will be keeping a close eye on precision but I’m also thinking of switching to a thicker consistency such as Wella could help?

Yeah I can see what you're talking about. I trained with wella and will always favour it. But it's just so expensive these days. I've never used velvasilk. But may be worth checking to make sure that you're following their grey coverage guidelines. This isn't me assuming you're not, just talking from experience - when I switched brands 3 years ago we had loads of issues but that's because we were still trying to formulate it like wella ..... And it was very different, you had to mix base and tone , 10vol for grey coverage and mixed 1:2 when I eventually left the salon I couldn't wait to change to something that made more sense to my wella brain I now use wunderbar for my old wella clients , formulations and coverage guides are the same and numbering system is exactly the same and it's about £3 less a tube than KP .

For most of my clients I now use colorissimo.... Although their guide says to use 20vol for grey coverage and it only gives up to 70% coverage I find if I use 15vol instead I get the 100% coverage I'm looking for. Also a very similar formula theory to wella.
A thicker colour will definitely give neater results.
To increase the coverage you get with the existing range you could look at a few options. 1) add warmth to your formula warmth will help with coverage. If you don't want gold you can use a small amount of a chocolate shade for example. 2) mix 1g -2g less of developer in your formula this will encourage better coverage.
3) look at buying a colour thickener to add to your formula to hold the colour in place better which should also increase coverage.
4) lay the colour on to the root rather than brush the colour on. I find a soft brush actually lays the colour on the hair better rather than spreads it about.

 

[ronray]

Yeah I can see what you're talking about. I trained with wella and will always favour it. But it's just so expensive these days. I've never used velvasilk. But may be worth checking to make sure that you're following their grey coverage guidelines. This isn't me assuming you're not, just talking from experience - when I switched brands 3 years ago we had loads of issues but that's because we were still trying to formulate it like wella ..... And it was very different, you had to mix base and tone , 10vol for grey coverage and mixed 1:2 when I eventually left the salon I couldn't wait to change to something that made more sense to my wella brain I now use wunderbar for my old wella clients , formulations and coverage guides are the same and numbering system is exactly the same and it's about £3 less a tube than KP .

For most of my clients I now use colorissimo.... Although their guide says to use 20vol for grey coverage and it only gives up to 70% coverage I find if I use 15vol instead I get the 100% coverage I'm looking for. Also a very similar formula theory to wella.
A thicker colour will definitely give neater results.
To increase the coverage you get with the existing range you could look at a few options. 1) add warmth to your formula warmth will help with coverage. If you don't want gold you can use a small amount of a chocolate shade for example. 2) mix 1g -2g less of developer in your formula this will encourage better coverage.
3) look at buying a colour thickener to add to your formula to hold the colour in place better which should also increase coverage.
4) lay the colour on to the root rather than brush the colour on. I find a soft brush actually lays the colour on the hair better rather than spreads it about.

Affinage do 2 types of thickener. They are both called colour your way. One is liquid one is powder. For what you'd need I'd use the powder.