The operation of changing the original hair colour is known as hair colouring or hair dyeing. The principal reason is purely cosmetic; it is to cover up all the grey or white hair, colouring is also more chic and preferable these days and after dyeing or sun bleaching it again changing it back to its original colour.
Hair colouring or dyeing is almost always done professionally by a hairdresser in a salon or sometimes it can be performed independently at home.
History of Hair Dyeing
The art of hair dyeing is an ancient procedure which involves treating the hair with various chemical compounds. In those days the dyes were obtained naturally from plants. The most well known and common colouring plants were henna, indigo, cassia, obovata, senna, turmeric and amla. There were many more plants which gave the natural dyes. They read as katam, black walnut hulls, red ochre and leeks. This was the ancient art.
The synthetic hair dyes can be traced back to the 1860s when reactivity of para-phenylenediamine with air was unearthed. Eugene Schueller the founder of L’Oreal is credited with creating the first synthetic hair dye in 1947. That very German cosmetics company Schwarzkopf floated the first home hair colour product “Poly Colour”.
Hair Colouring is fast picking up in the modern era. Today the hair colouring industry has become a multibillion-dollar industry with maximum men and women around the world colouring their hair. This industry takes into consideration both plant derived and synthetic dyes.
Types of Hair Colouring
Hair Colouring can be classified into four types based on their longevity. They are: permanent, demi-permanent, semi-permanent and temporary.
Permanent: By and large permanent hair colour contains ammonia and must be mixed with a developer in order to gain permanence in changing the hair colour. The ammonia opens up the cuticle layer allowing for the developer and colourants entering into the hair cortex. The loftier the developer volume is the higher the lift of a person’s hair pigment.
Demi-Permanent: This method of hair colouring consists of an alkaline element other than ammonia and is always employed with a developer whose concentration maybe lower than that of permanent hair colours. Since the alkaline agent engaged in this process is less effective in removing the natural hair pigment they provide with almost no result. Thus they are less damaging cover the greys well.
Semi-Permanent: This method involves no ammonia at all and is thus less damaging in effect. Since the molecular weight of the compound in the hair dye is very low, they only just about manage to squeeze in under the cuticle layer. Its longevity is just about 4-8 washes. This is more natural looking.
Temporary Colour: The hair colour used in this method is easily available in the form of rinses, shampoos, gels, sprays and foams. It is just a matter of one wash before the colour vanishes. It is mostly used in costume parties and Halloween. The colour particles just get absorbed enough to cling to the surface of the hair shaft.
Techniques
There are two techniques in Hair Colouring: off-scalp and on-scalp. These techniques help to colour the hair in various ways and designs.
There are various ways in which one can colour the hair employing various techniques, but it can be said that all of these are to be found in Hair Colouring in Brisbane where the fad of hair colouring is the new thing especially among the teenagers and youngsters.