Grey coverage is still the number one requested service and reason to colour hair, but not all grey coverage is the same. Whether looking for 100%, or not, not wanting to commit to coming into the salon every 4 weeks to have their regrowth coloured, or simply wanting to enhance what they got, to blend or not to blend is the question, because there are a lot of shades of grey!
So, let’s talk about grey coverage vs grey blending and how get customizable results for each client:
Grey Coverage.
Grey coverage is a fuller, more saturated, more uniform colour result. It tends to be more of a commitment than grey blending services as it is typically performed with a permanent colour like Aloxxi’s CHROMA™ Permanent Creme Colour or Aloxxi’s ANDIAMO® Express Permanent Colour. Clients who are looking for full coverage, solid coverage, or desire to lighten their natural colour and cover their grey at the same time, will seek out coverage with a permanent colour.
Aloxxi offers 5 different
CHROMA™ series for grey/white coverage to deliver customized coverage:
- N(.0) – Natural for natural coverage
- NT (.03) – Natural gold for natural warm coverage
- NA (.01) – Natural ash for cool coverage and excellent for blonde bases
- NAMt (.017) – Natural ash matte for cool coverage, and great for dark bases and excessive warmth
- NN (.00) – Intense natural for opaque coverage. This is formulated with a heavier dye load per level
Grey Blending:
Grey blending delivers a very natural result with more of a translucent quality, not a solid finish! Aloxxi TONES® Demi-Permanent Colour is a fantastic option for grey blending!
TONES® for grey blending is best for clients that are showing their first signs of grey. TONES® will gradually fade in up to 24 shampoos allowing a client to try on the colour without commitment. Additionally, for those clients that are looking for a very natural highlighted effect. To achieve this, use the client’s natural pigmented hair as the lowlight and formulate 1-2 shades lighter than the natural level and deposit colour on the grey/white as a highlight.
Aloxxi offers three different
TONES® series for grey blending. These can be used alone or mixed with other TONES® shades:
- N (.0) Natural for natural blending
- NT (.03) Natural gold for warm blending
- NA (.01) Natural ash for cool blending
Once you’ve determined if you are looking to achieve grey coverage or grey blending, it’s important to understand how to play in the grey when hair is resistant.
The first thing to remember is not all resistant hair is the same.
Coarse resistant hair that appears translucent:
This type of resistant hair needs more pigment to have full coverage. An intense natural shade (NN or .00) is recommended for this type of hair. That being said, an intense natural shade is not for every hair structure. One of the most common mistakes made is utilizing one on fine hair or with a low percentage of grey/white. Intense natural shades (NN or .00) are formulated with additional pigment per level and are formulated for 50% or more resistant grey/white, typically coarse textures.
Fine or glassy hair structures with compact cuticle:
This type of resistant hair typically repels colour when applied because the hair structure has an extremely compact cuticle. This hair does not need more pigment, but a slight boost in alkalinity to allow the pigment to penetrate. Aloxxi CHROMA™ Boost is an amazing too and go to for these clients. Simply add 10% Boost to your CHROMA™ formula, with no additional DEVELOPER.
An example of the mixing would be: 30g CHROMA™ formula + 3g CHROMA™ BOOST with 45g Aloxxi® Creme DEVELOPER.
We hope this information is valuable, and gets you thinking about grey in a different way!
Happy Colouring,
Your Aloxxi® and Sweis Team