Pinky's tips: Black hair colour? It’s tough to lift

Why colour your hair black? 

‘It makes the hair look shiny’, ‘I feel my hair is healthier when it’s black’, ‘I don’t like my dusty natural hair’, ‘I wanted to get rid of my highlights’, ‘to cover my greys’... 

These are just a few of the reasons a stylist encounters daily when they a have client that has black colour in their hair. 

Although all of those reasons are true, they pose a huge problem when the client wants a colour change or a few highlights. 

As clients like to change their look very often, and most times from one extreme to the next when it comes to winter versus
summer, black hair colour is, for sure, a no go!  Due to the darkness of black (it is the darkest colour on the chart) the amount of underlying blue/red pigment in the dye means that colour can’t lift (or lighten). 

Using lightener (bleach) to lift black out of the hair  to get a lighter colour can be very tough on the health of the hair. 

Although some salons can lift through colour, black is not a candidate.  

The only option to maintain the health of your hair when you have black colour and wish to go lighter, is to let the black rinse out of the hair or grow the black colour out and then colour your natural hair when the black is out completely.

So if you are one of those clients who like to go darker in the winter and lighter during the summer, or just like to change your colour very often, please consider alternatives to black such as chocolate, golden, copper or beige browns options to get various results! 

If you have a question pertaining to hair for Pinky, please feel free to send questions to [email protected] and she will answer them in her next article.