Developers...

Lets take a deep dive into developers:

Developers are a very misunderstood component in the haircoloring process.

So lets first talk Volume

What does volume really mean?

It refers to an amount of something, right

When we cut and style hair, we try to add volume or remove volume in a design or style right—its a quantity of hair

So when we talk about volume with regards to developer it is referring to the amount of available oxygen that can be released from that particular hydrogen peroxide solution.

And keep in mind, that the liberation of oxygen is responsible for not only the lightening of the natural hair but also the development of the dye precursors and couplers in a haircolor formula.

Knowing how much available oxygen that you have to work with will allow you to know the degree of lightening and the degree dye development you can achieve.

Developers have 3 main functions:

1) PREPARE: Developer prepares the hair by releasing oxygen to break down some of the natural pigments in the hair in order to make room in the cortex for the artificial pigments.

2) DELIVER: Developer utilizes the oxygen release to help carry the precursors and couplers into the cortex.

3) DEVELOP: Developer utilizes the oxygen release to help the precursors and couplers come together and connect and “develop” from small colorless individual parts into larger colored dye molecules in the hair.

These are all great functions to the haircoloring process—we need them to color hair

There is however a down side to developer—and that is that developer DEGRADES!

Developer is an acid, so it is corrosive.

One of the things that happens with developer, that no one really talks about is that developer can not only degrade the hair fiber, but it can also degrade the dye precursors and couplers themselves.

The rule of thumb here with permanent haircolor is that higher the volume of developer the greater amount dye degradation that occurs.