Managing Melanin As We LIGHTEN Hair

Whatever we do as we color hair, the result is most always a mixture of TWO things:

1. The natural hair color we are dealing with

2. The chemical makeup and ability of the product we are applying.

When we effectively prelighten the hair, we are free to create any muber of shades on this clean pallette. Just remember that bleached hair behaves NOTHING LIKE virgin hair.. it

has been broken down by the strong action of hair lightener.. regardless of the conditioners

or bonders present in modern bleaching agents.

To review: Natural black or dark brown hair contains a large number of big, dense oval granules of eumelanin, distributed evenly through the cortex.

Brown hair contains a smaller number of granules similarly distributed.

in blonde. hair the granules are much smaller and more widely dispersed, BUT they are make up, again of eumelanin (black pigment)!

The phaeomelanin granules in red hair are much less dense, but are oval in shape.

When hair is golden brown or auburn this tells us that there are melanin granules in the

hair which are MIXED.. so they contain both kinds of pigment.. both eumelanin and

phaeomelanin.