Grey tone didn't take

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SkittleJello

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Oct 19, 2020
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Yeovil, UK
I'm a little worried about my last client.
She wanted grey/silver into teal ends.
The teal has taken well but the grey was only okay on day one.
After a couple of washes, one with purple shampoo, it's brought more yellow through!?
I'm going over the grey next week but I'm worried the same thing will happen.

Because her hair was already so blonde from her regular highlights I didn't want or feel the need to bleach.
I used Wella Illumina Color but I thought I would only need to deposit the colour, so I used 4% developer.
I aim to use 6% next week, but I'm a bit worried we'll have the same issue.

What is the best way to tone out the yellow before I go in with the grey again?
I prefer to use Wella colour, but I do have a Matrix developer if getting a tone-on-tone shade or something will help.

Also, I'm a freelance mobile hairdresser just starting out so the less I need to buy for this the better.
Developers in stock are 1.9%, 4% & 6% Wellexon Perfect and 3% Matrix

Thanks in advance.
 
I'm a little worried about my last client.
She wanted grey/silver into teal ends.
The teal has taken well but the grey was only okay on day one.
After a couple of washes, one with purple shampoo, it's brought more yellow through!?
I'm going over the grey next week but I'm worried the same thing will happen.

Because her hair was already so blonde from her regular highlights I didn't want or feel the need to bleach.
I used Wella Illumina Color but I thought I would only need to deposit the colour, so I used 4% developer.
I aim to use 6% next week, but I'm a bit worried we'll have the same issue.

What is the best way to tone out the yellow before I go in with the grey again?
I prefer to use Wella colour, but I do have a Matrix developer if getting a tone-on-tone shade or something will help.

Also, I'm a freelance mobile hairdresser just starting out so the less I need to buy for this the better.
Developers in stock are 1.9%, 4% & 6% Wellexon Perfect and 3% Matrix

Thanks in advance.
Don't use 6% that's opening the cuticle more. Which will leave the hair more porous. What level is her hair? I always found 10/69 + 8/69 + 7/81 was a really good silver.
Or tour other option would be colour touch, my favourite is colour touch 8/81 +10/6. All with 1.9% as youre only depositing. Make sure you use an anti oxy conditioner to finish the process too.
 
Don't use 6% that's opening the cuticle more. Which will leave the hair more porous. What level is her hair? I always found 10/69 + 8/69 + 7/81 was a really good silver.
Or tour other option would be colour touch, my favourite is colour touch 8/81 +10/6. All with 1.9% as youre only depositing. Make sure you use an anti oxy conditioner to finish the process too.

I used 8/69 for the root area and 10/69 for the mids. Natural level is around a 7/8 and the rest has been previously bleached to a level 10...
I understand that the 6% will open the hair more, but I need that grey to stick! :(

I tried the lower developer and that didn't work...

This is why I'm thinking of pre toning it to get it really ashy before applying the grey again, then I'd feel better sticking to the lower developers.
 
If you add a permanent tint to a level 10 hair with 6% it will lift not deposit. This will cause any of the darker hair to appear warmer inbetween the highlights, creating the long term illusion that the hair is warmer.
You'd probably be better pretoning the hair first with either colour touch10/6 or 9/16.
Then when you use the illumina colour for your final toner, you need to include some ash or pearl to the formula. You won't get a true silver just by using violet. Silver is typically a mixture of blue, green and violet.
What's probably happening is the violet over tone is coming out in the first wash or two and just leaving you with a clean blonde? Which is what I'd expect from just a violet toner to be fair.
 
Okay, I get that. Thanks :)

I did mix some of their pearlescent Illumina into the mix as well but I guess it didn't help.

So can I not pre-tone with Illumina Color? I'd like to avoid buying a whole new developer and colour if I can help it. Buying a new shade or two is okay but I can't afford to buy colours and developer really, I'm doing this as a free fix.
 
Okay, I get that. Thanks :)

I did mix some of their pearlescent Illumina into the mix as well but I guess it didn't help.

So can I not pre-tone with Illumina Color? I'd like to avoid buying a whole new developer and colour if I can help it. Buying a new shade or two is okay but I can't afford to buy colours and developer really, I'm doing this as a free fix.
Yeah of course if you still have it I'd use 8/69 + 10/69 as pretone and then add in your 7/81 with the same formula again.
For future reference though I've tried every possible combination I could think of in wella to achieve silver /grey and the most reliable was definitely colour touch 8/81, 9/16, 10/6 and 7/89 obviously you'd mix them to suit the clients needs but a combination of any of these will be great!
 
Yeah of course if you still have it I'd use 8/69 + 10/69 as pretone and then add in your 7/81 with the same formula again.
For future reference though I've tried every possible combination I could think of in wella to achieve silver /grey and the most reliable was definitely colour touch 8/81, 9/16, 10/6 and 7/89 obviously you'd mix them to suit the clients needs but a combination of any of these will be great!

Fantastic! I will switch / expand to the Colour Touch range in future. Just early days & hard times at the mo.

Thank you so much for your help!
 
Fantastic! I will switch / expand to the Colour Touch range in future. Just early days & hard times at the mo.

Thank you so much for your help!
I completely understand :)
 
Yeah of course if you still have it I'd use 8/69 + 10/69 as pretone and then add in your 7/81 with the same formula again.
For future reference though I've tried every possible combination I could think of in wella to achieve silver /grey and the most reliable was definitely colour touch 8/81, 9/16, 10/6 and 7/89 obviously you'd mix them to suit the clients needs but a combination of any of these will be great!

Hey, sorry, just to clarify before I go ahead with this session tomorrow...
I'll pre tone and then colour with what level developers? :)
 
Hey, sorry, just to clarify before I go ahead with this session tomorrow...
I'll pre tone and then colour with what level developers? :)
I personally always use 1.9%or 3%to tone, I never go above that as the higher developer you use with a permanent tint the more distorted the tone becomes because it causes lift.
 
I personally always use 1.9%or 3%to tone, I never go above that as the higher developer you use with a permanent tint the more distorted the tone becomes because it causes lift.

Thank you so much
 
Okay, so, I pre-toned with a mix of equal parts 8/69 + 10/69 and a dash of Chrome Olive and Silver Mauve.

I then used 7/81 on the roots melted into 8/69 + 10/96 + dashes of Chrome Olive, Silver Mauve and Platinum Lily.

It definitely looks better than before but there's still some brassy tones in there which I'm not happy with...

All with 1.9% to avoid lift.

All of her hair apart from the roots was already a level 10 ash blonde before I started, maybe the 4% I used the first time around brought out those brassy tones but I thought that this session would fix it...

It definitely looks better than last time and better blended with the brassy tones BUT we don't want brass in the grey! 😂
I also think she's still gonna wash it too much or keep that water hot (even though I have suggested cooler water and not washing every day)

I'm really not sure what to do.
I guess Color Touch will be better than Illumina Color? So that's my next move.

Luckily my client isn't blaming me for this, but I am getting myself upset over it to be fair... :(
 
Don't beat yourself up, Rome wasn't built in a day.
There's got to be a reason why you can still see brass. Are you 100% sure there's nothing darker than a level 10?
Because your toner is a definite level 8 essentially, so if that's not covering it, then that tells me there's some hair that's darker.
 
Don't beat yourself up, Rome wasn't built in a day.
There's got to be a reason why you can still see brass. Are you 100% sure there's nothing darker than a level 10?
Because your toner is a definite level 8 essentially, so if that's not covering it, then that tells me there's some hair that's darker.

Thank you :)

Oh, I forgot a bit of 10/81 in the main mix as well 😂 (Just checked my notes)

I'm sure that all except her roots are level 10, her roots are a 7 or 8. The 7/81 went over her roots beautifully with less brass showing than the rest...

I hope it will be okay this time and not fall out so quick, she's definitely happier than last time which is a bonus.
 
Thank you :)

Oh, I forgot a bit of 10/81 in the main mix as well 😂 (Just checked my notes)

I'm sure that all except her roots are level 10, her roots are a 7 or 8. The 7/81 went over her roots beautifully with less brass showing than the rest...

I hope it will be okay this time and not fall out so quick, she's definitely happier than last time which is a bonus.
Next time try colour touch instead 10/6 +8/81 + 1.9% it's almost fool proof. And for more depth or a darker grey you can add 7/89
 
Next time try colour touch instead 10/6 +8/81 + 1.9% it's almost fool proof. And for more depth or a darker grey you can add 7/89
Brilliant, thank you so much for all your help ❤
 

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