13.2 Hair Coloring Procedures and Safety

Categories of hair color

Quick Answer: Temporary color coats the cuticle and is taught as lasting about one shampoo. Semipermanent color has little or no ammonia and no meaningful lift; it fades over several weeks. Demi-permanent is deposit-only oxidative color (often low-volume developer, little or no lift, gray blending). Permanent color uses an alkalizer plus hydrogen peroxide to lift natural melanin and deposit artificial pigment, including gray coverage. Developer volume numbers below are textbook teaching. The manufacturer label and N.J.A.C. 13:28-3.3(e) win. N.J.A.C. 13:28-6.29 still budgets 145 hours for tinting and bleaching; temporary rinses also appear in the 60-hour shampooing line.

NIC Domain 2.E.1.a is hair coloring, including corrective color. Corrective strategy (fillers, banding, color removal) is section 13.3. This section is which product class you chose, how you apply it, and how you keep it off broken skin.

Those week and shampoo counts are teaching ranges, not Board clocks. A manufacturer that says “reapply in 28 days” is the shop rule for that SKU.

Aniline-derivative / para-phenylenediamine (PPD) oxidative tints are the ones Chapter 8’s predisposition test is built for. Apply the patch. Do not restage the 24-to-48-hour procedure here. A negative patch last spring does not authorize a walk-in permanent color this afternoon if the label still requires a test before every application.

Textbook developer volumes (label still wins)

Volume names how much oxygen gas a peroxide solution can release in textbook chemistry (10 volume ≈ 3%, 20 volume ≈ 6%, 30 volume ≈ 9%, 40 volume ≈ 12%). New Jersey does not publish a legal volume chart. Use this teaching map, then read the box:

High-lift blonding tints are still color, not powder bleach. They still deposit while they lift. They are not a substitute for a double-process when the contributing pigment will not land on pale yellow. 40-volume on the scalp is a manufacturer-and-integrity decision, not a Board requirement. Many lines restrict 40-volume to off-scalp or to specific high-lift formulas. If the scalp is thin, abraded, or previously burned, you do not “make it work” with a higher volume.

Mixing ratios (1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2) are line-specific. Gray-coverage formulas often want a creamier, more pigmented mix than a fashion glaze. Do not quote a fake N.J.A.C. ratio.

Virgin application versus retouch

Virgin hair has no existing artificial color. Body heat at the scalp processes faster than the midshaft. Textbook virgin application for permanent lift-and-deposit therefore usually starts about ½ inch off the scalp on the resistant midshaft, processes until that hair has moved, then applies to the scalp last, and treats porous ends with a shorter time or a milder formula so they do not go darker or more ashy than the midshaft. Exact inch marks and timers are manufacturer rules.

A retouch is new growth only. You apply to regrowth, not “through the ends to blend” with the same high-lift or high-volume mix. Overlapping permanent color or lightener onto previously colored lengths is how you get banding and breakage at the line of demarcation. Refreshing faded lengths uses a lower-volume, deposit-only, or toner formula after the new growth has processed—not the same 30-volume bowl dragged to the ends.

Resistant gray (often at the hairline and temples) may need pre-softening, a longer process within the label, more pigment load, or a 20-volume coverage formula rather than a sheer 10-volume glaze. Heat from a dryer is only if the manufacturer says so. Cooking gray with a cap “because Edison is busy” is overexposure.

Metallic, compound, and progressive dyes

Metallic and progressive dyes (often sold as gradual men’s color or old-fashioned compound hennas with metallic salts) deposit metal that can heat, fizz, smoke, discolor, or break when hydrogen peroxide is added. Chapter 8 taught the incompatibility test idea. Apply it: if history or the test warns of metal, you do not apply peroxide color, bleach, perm, or relaxer. Lower volume is not an antidote. A filler is not an antidote. Cutting and a grow-out plan are professional; boiling metal in 20-volume is not.

Safety you will be tested on

Personal protective equipment: chemical-resistant gloves (nitrile is widely used for tint; check the SDS), apron, and eye protection when mixing powders. Bare-hand mixing is practitioner overexposure.

Drape: Chapter 10’s chemical drape—an absorbent cotton towel against the skin plus a waterproof chemical cape—so drips are absorbed, not trapped against the neck. A cutting cape alone is the wrong barrier.

Predisposition test: required by theory and by the label for aniline oxidative tints. A pretty strand does not clear an allergy.

Do not apply to an abraded, inflamed, or broken scalp. Scratches from a tight ponytail, a fresh fade with nicks, or dermatitis are stops. Product on broken skin is a chemical burn waiting for Chapter 7’s first aid: stop, remove saturated cotton, rinse with large amounts of water per the SDS, do not “neutralize” a scalp burn with leftover toner or kitchen acid unless Section 4 of the SDS says that exact action, and refer for medical care when the injury is more than a brief sting that rinses clear.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.15(b)6: you may not perform or offer a service that claims to cure or remedy any disease or illness. “This tint will clear your eczema” is a prohibited claim even if the formula is legal. N.J.A.C. 13:28-2.15(b)3: no eyebrow or eyelash tinting—haircolor procedure does not extend to lashes and brows in New Jersey.

N.J.A.C. 13:28-3.3(d) still refuses service when you know or have reasonable grounds to believe the patron has a communicable disease that could transmit during the service. Color does not override that shop rule.

Document formula, volume, ratio, time, and results on the card. That is how a Cherry Hill retouch stays consistent—and how you prove you followed the label.