Violet shade and tone it's role hair colouring

Back2myroots : A place to share thoughts and grow idea's. B2MR

As I post my blogs and decide on topic's or articles. I always take a look at what is being searched for to see if it's an issue I can write about .

                                One such topic is Violet in hair colour! Such a cool topic!
Required to create a cool natural looking bleached Blonde Required to control unwanted yellow undertones!

When one thinks about violet as a colour or tone . I ask my self are we thinking Violet tone in controlled reds.Those shades of cool red that one see's so much of these days.
Or are we thinking about. The role Violet plays in the hair colour process. Violet as shade or tone plays a much bigger part in hair colouring than one might think. But it's almost behind the scene in the colour process.

Firstly with our natural or N series or natural series Violet will always play a key role depending on the level you are working on and what your target colour is .

                       As always to understand this we have to either look at the colour wheel or a chart.

With the chart i have attached one can see very clearly where and at what level Violet comes into play
from the numbers system on the left hand side we can see it's plays a very big role in levels of hair form 8 to 10.
Maybe your asking what role does it play?  All hair colour is a balance of our primary colours . RED. YELLOW. BLUE. When blended together at any given level you will alway get a perfect natural shade  balance at that given level. A natural level 8 will not be to warm or gold or to ash!
Even when doing Hight lights or partially lifting sections, as in shot below once desired level has been reached toning with be required.

What changes this. When we lift hair with a chosen level of peroxide with lighten it .this lightening process will expose the natural pigment in the hair. At our level natural 8 as we lift it i will expose yellow Orange [see chart]  this warmth would be fine if you are trying for a warmer shade at level 8. If however you are trying to maintain a natural level 8 then the warmth exposed would have to be controlled.

Remember we discussed balance well if we have exposed that warmth in our level 8. Exposing yellow and orange pigment we need to balance that off.

Yellow/ Orange or  Yellow / Yellow /Red   or Y+Y+R = yellow Orange

To restore our Natural balance what do you think is required?  what is lacking in the above formulation?
What will re balance us back to our Red yellow Blue?

Blue/Violet  or Blue / blue red  or B+B+R =  Blue violet.

How does this work well if you look at the two formulations : The balancing required for out natural level would be as follows
Our first formulation is gold and warm it lacks any Blue . The balancing formulation replaces that Blue
but also balances out the the lacking Red pigment that is dominated by the yellow in the first part.

Final  Balanced Level 8 tone  Y+Y+B+B+R+R =  Yellow Blue Red at a natural level 8
It's all about balance.

Violet Control yellow!  not ASH ! Yellow and Ash make  GREEN !

When pre lifting hair with Bleach to any level of Yellow . A violet Tone will re balance  you are introducing an equal amount of Blue and Red mixed together to control and re balance the yellow exposed in the lifting process.

If you assess the degree you have lifted as being slightly orange yellow then you would have  use a slightly more blue tone !   See chart above.

Violet in permanent colour or N series is normally calibrated to be the right amount of pigment fro the level you are working at. But choice of Developer or Peroxide will always pay a role in this.

Violet as a toner or pre lightened hair would be used when a yellow or pale yellow level of lift has been reached.

This wheel may help you as you can see Violet sits opposite the yellow telling us that it's would be required to restore balance. Opposites re balance or neutralise the unwanted pigment exposed or created.

Formulation: Target colour = Lift. Deposit. Timing: always the equation to think about.
Ask your self  Do you want to utilise or neutralise the pigment you are going to expose.
Violet plays a key roll as a controller in the Blue cool reds and even in shades as Dark a 3 N see chart above.
In the toning of hair Violet plays a key role in controlling the yellow pigment exposed and giving a really nice shade of platinum Blonde. Always when toning stay with the toner as it develops to get the desired effect you are looking for . In some cases of toning if left on to long the pigment can over deposit.

Cool reds depicted by the V in above shot.  Fashion shade top row. Violet based high lift Blonde toner second in from the right second row.
I hope this answers some questions if not feel free to post questions . Mike B2MR