The Devil you know... Lighteners are $$ for stylists and maintaining a beautiful blond is our bread and butter. They can be tricky and they are not afraid to burn you... or your guest. Used correctly, they can yield fantastic results and new technology is making them less and less harsh while increasing their effectiveness.Just a thought today: Peroxide has a pH close to 7. Most developers that we mix with lighteners also have a pH close to neutral. To penetrate and lighten hair in the cortex, obviously we work on the alkaline side of the scale (from around 8-9.0). This highlights the importance of following manufacturer's mixing ratios closely to get healthy and predictable results.
Just keep in mind then that the alkalinity needed for lightening hair is coming from the lightener, whether powder or cream. I know that some stylists are temped to mix in more developer thinking that this will increase the strength. It doesn't. It will actually water down the mix and make it weaker. On the other side of the picture, some stylists like to mix lighteners to consistency. Perhaps a thicker mix makes for easier foiling or better balayage results when freehanding? Just be cautious.
Consider that more lightener (most especially clumps that have not been properly mixed) have more concentrated alkalinity and can often create weak and over-processed spots and breakage. Why damage hair more than you need to or should? Especially because your guest wouldn't be too happy if they thought you were being reckless with the health and integrity of THEIR hair. For women who have or want glamorous long hair past the shoulders, bleach jobs like that will haunt them for years.
You know what I'm talking about. Those strands and split ends that you cut, but 1 week later (or less) the split end is back again and those pieces just keep getting shorter and shorter rather than longer and longer.
Avoid overlapping fresh lightener on already lightened hair. It's important to you and it's definitely important to your guest. Formulate and apply lighteners thoughtfully and skillfully. Think of your services as roads to a distant destination. Don't turn down roads that will take you and your guest farther from your goals and don't make your job harder for yourself now or in the future. Damaging or over-processing hair now will severely limit what you can do with that same strand of hair in the future. ex. breakage, poor texture, dull color, lifeless hair. It's hard to make $$ on a canvas like that.
Keeping clients means protecting, respecting and cultivating your canvas (their hair) and keeping future color and style options wide open. Take it easy with developers. Don't rush it and damage hair unnecessarily. Be ultra cautious using heat with lighteners. Think about investing in more premium lighteners that may inflict less damage and yield great results. Good decisions now mean great hair later and limitless opportunities for artistic expression and $$$ later for you as you guide your guest and their hair safely through the process!
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