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Highlighting with Shades EQ??

Printed From: HairBoutique.com
Category: Hair Talk
Forum Name: Hair Color
Forum Description: The tricks and tribulations of changing your hair color
URL: https://talk.hairboutique.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=51857
Printed Date: October 04 2025 at 2:52am


Topic: Highlighting with Shades EQ??
Posted By: mmfleisher
Subject: Highlighting with Shades EQ??
Date Posted: April 10 2007 at 8:42pm
Confused I am in beauty school and had a client call and make an app't for Saturday to get highlights.  She insists that the last time she got them, at a different salon, the stylist used Shades EQ. The client has very dark hair, probably a level 3 or 4. I have been taught that color won't lift color, so how could she have had highlights with Shades???? HELP!!


Replies:
Posted By: Claude
Date Posted: April 11 2007 at 10:00am
Originally posted by mmfleisher mmfleisher wrote:

Confused I am in beauty school and had a client call and make an app't for Saturday to get highlights.  She insists that the last time she got them, at a different salon, the stylist used Shades EQ. The client has very dark hair, probably a level 3 or 4. I have been taught that color won't lift color, so how could she have had highlights with Shades???? HELP!!


Shades EQ is not a permanent haircolor line. It is demi-permanent and it's deposit only. It will not lighten virgin or artificially colored hair. Shades EQ is used primarily to tone the hair. It depends on the hair color currently and where she wants to be and how it looks after you lighten it. If you are using bleach in foils to lighten her and depending on your speed of getting the foils in and whether or not she wants a full head or partial highlights. If she's a level 3 and her hair is think and coarse you might want to consider 30 volume with bleach if not I'd use 20 volume and bleach. My only concern with you as a student is how quickly you can get those foils in the head if your using 30 volume as you don't want to lift her past the safe pale yellow stage...because once that is done no pigment remains in the hair and you won't be able to get a filler to properly take back in the hair either.

Start foiling in the back of the head or near the crown so if you are slow you can take those foils out in the shampoo sink and leave the others in front untouched for a few extra minutes to allow them to process while you rinse the other ones that are already lightened out to stop them from over processing. 

How experienced are you with foiling? Do you know bleach swells while in the foils so depending on the bleach you need to account for that to avoid the bleach seeping from the foil onto the scalp and causing blotches on the scalp. Have your instructor help you with stuff like that.

If she wants a caramel color highlight....use some Shades EQ 8N and leave it on for a few minutes...watch it you will see it tone.....it will tone the brassiness out of the hair.

If she wants a lighter blonde then I'd suggest using 30 volume...get her lightened up then if you take the foils out and she's a canary or very gold, brassy blonde you will tone her highlights with shades EQ using 9N and 9V (9V USE ONLY a FEW DROPS...maybe 5-10 drops and I MEAN ONLY 5-10 drops) otherwise the blonde hair will turn purple. The 9V is a violet base and it will turn blonde hair purple if you leave it on too long or use it by itself but combined with primarily 9N 90-95% of 9N to only a few drops of 9V then you will end up with a very pretty natural blonde...after several minutes of toning.

When I've used Shades EQ I've never needed to leave it on for more than 2-3 minutes. The longer you leave the toner on the more it will darken it up....but make sure to watch it as it tones so you get the proper color you are striving for. Being able to recognize things like that take time and you need to be able to recognize haircolor wet vs haircolor dry...it takes time.

If I can be of more help to you please feel free to message me here.

G'luck and let me know how your Highlight turns out.

So a quick rundown here.....foils with bleach 20 or 30 volume....if she wants light blonde use 30 volume.....then you will need to tone the hair with Shades EQ 8N or 9N depending on what she wants with maybe a few drops of 9V in the formula to help cut that yellow brassiness but only a few drops....tone for 1-3 minutes...rinse, dry, whollah!!! BEAUTIFUL HIGHLIGHTS!!!!Wink

Cheers

PS - Don't forget to use Shades EQ developer 1:1 with your shades EQ color when toning.

Posted By: PlutoPowered
Date Posted: April 11 2007 at 2:13pm
Originally posted by mmfleisher mmfleisher wrote:

Confused I am in beauty school and had a client call and make an app't for Saturday to get highlights.  She insists that the last time she got them, at a different salon, the stylist used Shades EQ. The client has very dark hair, probably a level 3 or 4. I have been taught that color won't lift color, so how could she have had highlights with Shades???? HELP!!
 
One thig that I learned about customers is that I ALWAYS have to take what they say with a "grain of salt" ESPECIALLY when doing corrective color.
 
Customers may lie or just not really know what they are talking about when it comes to color and it can really throw you off.  It is very helpful to trust your instincts (and education) to correct the situation.
 
I've had people tell me that they had no color in their hair when it was painfully obvious they had colored their own hair / bleached it / ran peroxide through it ("but that's not color").

Posted By: mmfleisher
Date Posted: April 11 2007 at 8:38pm

I called the customer today to get the scoop from her, I didn't take the app't so I got secondhand info. Turns out she knows that she can't use Shades to get highlights, it was used to tone previous highlights. So, everythings straightened out!Thumbs%20Up Thanks for the advice!!!!!

Posted By: Claude
Date Posted: April 11 2007 at 8:43pm
And you can use Shades EQ in the formula I mentioned above and those can be your toners. 


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