Question: How to choose peroxide% and which color, for lift

[CharlotteHurra]

Hi, I am a hair dresser, or rather I have the education but went on to engineering school because my fibromyalgia diagnosis didn’t bode well for working on my feet in a salon - sadly!
But I still take care of my friends and family’s hair needs. However I don’t have the professional salon social arena to discuss and practice new techniques, and now I am a bit lost -

I know Wella Illumina can give up to 3 levels of lift, depending on the volume % peroxide. But: How do I choose the best color tube?

Say my sister is a natural 5/0 and I want to give her highlights with 2 levels lift, and an ashy cool tone.

Should I then pick a color in exactly the light/dark range I’m going for, say 7/81, and then mix 9% (30vol), is that correct?

What would happen if I used 7/81 but mixed with 12% (40 vol)??

Or conversely, if I used 9% (30vol) but used a 8/1, for instance- I mean, what will happen if the dye tube and choice of % peroxide don’t correlate with regards to the same level of lift?

Sorry if my question is confusing! I hope some of you active and experienced hair dressers out there understand what I’m wondering about and hopefully can contribute some helpful advice to me. I would very much appreciate any advice!
Am very close to just trying out a bunch of different recipes on my own hair to try and figure it out myself

adding a photo of my sister’s current hair full of baby lights (by me). I think they look good, but always looking for how I can improve

 

[ronray]

Hi, I am a hair dresser, or rather I have the education but went on to engineering school because my fibromyalgia diagnosis didn’t bode well for working on my feet in a salon - sadly!
But I still take care of my friends and family’s hair needs. However I don’t have the professional salon social arena to discuss and practice new techniques, and now I am a bit lost -

I know Wella Illumina can give up to 3 levels of lift, depending on the volume % peroxide. But: How do I choose the best color tube?

Say my sister is a natural 5/0 and I want to give her highlights with 2 levels lift, and an ashy cool tone.

Should I then pick a color in exactly the light/dark range I’m going for, say 7/81, and then mix 9% (30vol), is that correct?

What would happen if I used 7/81 but mixed with 12% (40 vol)??

Or conversely, if I used 9% (30vol) but used a 8/1, for instance- I mean, what will happen if the dye tube and choice of % peroxide don’t correlate with regards to the same level of lift?

Sorry if my question is confusing! I hope some of you active and experienced hair dressers out there understand what I’m wondering about and hopefully can contribute some helpful advice to me. I would very much appreciate any advice!
Am very close to just trying out a bunch of different recipes on my own hair to try and figure it out myself

adding a photo of my sister’s current hair full of baby lights (by me). I think they look good, but always looking for how I can improve

So if your sisters hair is already coloured then illumina won't lift colour. The only shade on the wella range that officially lifts colour is Kolesten Perfect 10/0 + 12% .
If you want a cool toned highlights at say a level 7 or 8 then the best option would be to highlight and then tone back down.
Even on virgin hair the lift you will get with tint + 9% or 12% won't be cool. You'll only get a cool tone if you use those shades to deposit colour rather than lift.
To answer your questions about the correlation of tube choice / developer choice..... I feel like most of the time the hair will dictate what results you get rather than the actual chosen formula. Because you can never really be 100% sure how the hair will perform. But theory wise a level 8 with 9% should give you 2 levels of lift but has a dye load suitable for a level 8 not a level 6 that you've listed from so the result will inevitably be warm. If you chose a level 7 with 12% in theory the lift should be the same but you have a stronger dye load, so technically should get a slightly cooler result. But I would imagine the effectiveness of the coolness to be poor.
What are you trying to achieve?

 

[vividamnesia]

Hi, I am a hair dresser, or rather I have the education but went on to engineering school because my fibromyalgia diagnosis didn’t bode well for working on my feet in a salon - sadly!
But I still take care of my friends and family’s hair needs. However I don’t have the professional salon social arena to discuss and practice new techniques, and now I am a bit lost -

I know Wella Illumina can give up to 3 levels of lift, depending on the volume % peroxide. But: How do I choose the best color tube?

Say my sister is a natural 5/0 and I want to give her highlights with 2 levels lift, and an ashy cool tone.

Should I then pick a color in exactly the light/dark range I’m going for, say 7/81, and then mix 9% (30vol), is that correct?

What would happen if I used 7/81 but mixed with 12% (40 vol)??

Or conversely, if I used 9% (30vol) but used a 8/1, for instance- I mean, what will happen if the dye tube and choice of % peroxide don’t correlate with regards to the same level of lift?

Sorry if my question is confusing! I hope some of you active and experienced hair dressers out there understand what I’m wondering about and hopefully can contribute some helpful advice to me. I would very much appreciate any advice!
Am very close to just trying out a bunch of different recipes on my own hair to try and figure it out myself

adding a photo of my sister’s current hair full of baby lights (by me). I think they look good, but always looking for how I can improve

I personally find it best to get a true cooler ash base with bleach & tone in target ash color....color lifting always pulls a tad more warmth. Farouks CHI infra color in BB or CB is the only hilift color line that I have found pulls a true cool outcome.

When a developer of stronger lift is used like in your query....it is overkill especially on fine- average hairtype. The color will look fine at first but it penetrates deeper into the cuticle making it wide open which means the color will wash out fast leaving the stripped raw base in a undesirable warm base of orange- yellow. Hope this helps explain!

 

[CharlotteHurra]

So if your sisters hair is already coloured then illumina won't lift colour. The only shade on the wella range that officially lifts colour is Kolesten Perfect 10/0 + 12% .
If you want a cool toned highlights at say a level 7 or 8 then the best option would be to highlight and then tone back down.
Even on virgin hair the lift you will get with tint + 9% or 12% won't be cool. You'll only get a cool tone if you use those shades to deposit colour rather than lift.
To answer your questions about the correlation of tube choice / developer choice..... I feel like most of the time the hair will dictate what results you get rather than the actual chosen formula. Because you can never really be 100% sure how the hair will perform. But theory wise a level 8 with 9% should give you 2 levels of lift but has a dye load suitable for a level 8 not a level 6 that you've listed from so the result will inevitably be warm. If you chose a level 7 with 12% in theory the lift should be the same but you have a stronger dye load, so technically should get a slightly cooler result. But I would imagine the effectiveness of the coolness to be poor.
What are you trying to achieve?

Thank you very much, I read the fact sheets but since I don’t actually work in a salon at this time I don’t have access to all of the most detailed information and I was not clear on the fact that Illumina only really performs best on virgin hair. I ended up doing multiple rounds of highlights with blondor and foils, then as fall came my sister requested a super cool darkish blonde color. So I used Wella Color touch 50g 7/86 + 10g 5/1 and 4% developer, and after that a few more blondor highlights

I think in the end Color Touch was ultimately the better choice for her - and she is very happy with the result she has now. Thanks so much for the input and help!

 

[CharlotteHurra]

PS for some reason (our lighting? My phone camera?) the photos apparently make lil sis’ hair look way pink, don’t know why but in reality it actually is a cool dark blonde which we have effectively ridden of all the yellow tones she didn’t want

 

[CharlotteHurra]

So if your sisters hair is already coloured then illumina won't lift colour. The only shade on the wella range that officially lifts colour is Kolesten Perfect 10/0 + 12% .
If you want a cool toned highlights at say a level 7 or 8 then the best option would be to highlight and then tone back down.
Even on virgin hair the lift you will get with tint + 9% or 12% won't be cool. You'll only get a cool tone if you use those shades to deposit colour rather than lift.
To answer your questions about the correlation of tube choice / developer choice..... I feel like most of the time the hair will dictate what results you get rather than the actual chosen formula. Because you can never really be 100% sure how the hair will perform. But theory wise a level 8 with 9% should give you 2 levels of lift but has a dye load suitable for a level 8 not a level 6 that you've listed from so the result will inevitably be warm. If you chose a level 7 with 12% in theory the lift should be the same but you have a stronger dye load, so technically should get a slightly cooler result. But I would imagine the effectiveness of the coolness to be poor.
What are you trying to achieve?

Actually here is a much better view of the result - should that be of interest. Anyways, again, very grateful for the thorough answer, thank you!