In recent years, the hairdressing industry has seen a marked increase in the number of clients who want to go blonde but don’t want to use bleach. For a long time, there was simply no way to cater to these clients and you couldn’t dye dark hair blonde without the use of bleach. That changed with the advent of high lift hair color, and now it’s possible to dye your hair blonde without the bleach powder. Or at least, in certain circumstances.
What is high lift dye?
Many people are afraid of bleach because of the horror stories they’ve heard about melting hair or scalp burns. This is a problem perpetuated through the use of bleach by people who don’t know what they’re doing and haven’t taken the time to learn about the product before they go ahead and bleach their hair. Combine a lack of direction, making the bleach too strong, and using bleach on hair that is already highly damaged and you end up with a widespread fear of bleach.
Bleach is not the enemy and is actually a highly useful and necessary product in all salons, but more and more people are being lead to believe it is too harmful to use. As such, hair dye manufacturers discovered a new market to penetrate and high lift dye was born to cater to those who refuse to bleach their hair.
High lift color is permanent hair dye, but it works slightly differently to other hair dyes because of its unique composition. High lift colors contain more ammonia, more dye pigment, and are mixed with a double ratio of 40 vol developer. This leads to a hair dye that lightens your hair more effectively than other blonde dyes yet still tones it during the lightening process.
High lift hair color vs. bleach
High lift dye was invented to replace the use of bleach for those who didn’t want to bleach their hair, but it is not interchangeable with bleach. The uses of high lift hair color are fairly constrained and it can only reliably be used on virgin hair that is already a dark blonde color, or at most a light brown shade.
A regular blonde hair dye mixed with 30 vol developer can lift around 2 – 3 levels, or in other words, lighten hair from dark blonde to a medium to light blonde color. It does this whilst toning the hair, whereas the use of bleach requires you to tone your hair separately as an additional step. High lift hair color offers a boost to lightening, equivalent to about 1 extra level on top of what a regular blonde dye would achieve.
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Although you can lighten your hair up to 4 levels using a high lift dye, you’re also restricted to using it on virgin hair because like other hair dyes, it will not lighten dyed hair. Dye doesn’t lift dye and if you’ve dyed your hair, you will need to use hair dye remover and bleach to lighten it. This means that you need to already be a natural blonde to use a high lift blonde dye. If you apply one of these dyes to brown hair you will end up with a regrettable shade of orange.
Lightener comparison
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Lightener
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Lift potential
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|---|---|
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Generic bleach powder (20 vol)
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3 levels
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Generic bleach powder (30 vol)
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4 levels
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Igora Vario bleach
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3 – 8 levels
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Wella Multi Blonde bleach
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3 – 7 levels
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Indola Rapid Blonde bleach
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3 – 7 levels
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Indola high lift dye
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4 levels
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Wella high lift dye
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3 – 4 levels
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Igora high lift dye
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4 levels
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Matrix high lift dye
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3 – 4 levels
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How to Bleach Hair
Would you like to know more about bleach? Find out how to prepare and use it to lighten your hair…
High lift or bleach?
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Hair condition
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High lift or bleach?
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|---|---|
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Dark hair
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Bleach and tone
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Dyed hair
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Hair dye remover and bleach
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Natural blonde hair
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High lift dye
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Natural light brown hair
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High lift dye
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Natural red hair
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Bleach and tone
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Is high lift dye less damaging? 
The most popular misconception surrounding high lift hair color is that it is dramatically less damaging than bleach. This is not completely true though. The damage of a high lift dye or bleach are roughly equivalent, and this shouldn’t be the primary factor used to determine which product you use.
When you lighten hair with dye or bleach, it is the oxidation from the developer that is causing your hair to lighten. It does this through a chemical reaction with the melanin pigment that is inside each hair. This melanin is what gives your hair its natural color, and by discoloring it with oxidation, your hair becomes lighter.
Damage to your hair isn’t a result of the use of bleach or dye itself though. The damage that occurs is a side effect of the oxidation process that is occurring inside the hair shaft. Whilst oxidation is necessary to lighten melanin and activate the dye molecules so that they become permanent, this oxidation also affects the structure of your hair. When the keratin protein comprising your hair structure is oxidized, it weakens, leading to damaged hair.
From this you can understand that damage to your hair is directly related to the amount of lightening that takes place, through the amount of oxidation. If you were to lighten your hair 3 levels with a high lift dye, or 3 levels with bleach, the amount of damage would be exactly the same because although both products are formulated differently, both work through oxidation. The oxidation lightens your hair, and damages it as a side effect.
The main benefit of high lift dye over bleach in this sense is in being less drying and cutting out the additional toning step that bleaching requires. Dryness compounds damage during hair lightening, so anything you do to keep your hair nourished and conditioned during the process will minimize damage. Bleach is a lot more drying than most high lift dyes.
High lift dye has a specific use and it will generally work very well if you use it properly. This means that you should not be applying it to black or brown hair and expect to end up with blonde hair. You also shouldn’t be using high lift hair color on hair that has been dyed in the past. Unless your last color has completely grown out of your hair, you can’t lighten your hair with high lift dye.
High lift dyes are best used under the following conditions:
- You have virgin hair
- You only require 3 – 4 levels of lift
- Your hair is in good condition
- Your hair is already dark blonde or a very light brown
Although high lift dyes are generally used to dye hair a light blonde without bleach, they can still be used to lighten darker hair. Please note that you won’t reach a blonde shade if you do this, and you still must have virgin hair in order for the dye to work. The darker your hair is, the less lightening that will occur, and you need to tone it afterwards because the blonde dye in the high lift isn’t concentrated enough to tone dark hair. In this case, bleach is far superior.
How to prepare high lift hair dye
High lift hair color is prepared in mostly the same way as other permanent hair dyes. You will need a tinting bowl and brush to mix it in, as well as the appropriate developer to mix with the dye.
In this case, the developer used has to be 40 vol developer. The boxed high lift dyes you can find in supermarkets that use 30 vol developer or less are not high lift dyes at all. Manufacturers can call these products ‘high lift’ or ‘hi color’ because there is no set standard for naming a high lift dye. These products that mimic actual high lift dyes are merely regular dye marketed in a way that makes it seem like they lift more than other dye brands because of their name.
The reason you need to use 40 vol developer is two-fold. Firstly, high lift dyes are formulated to work optimally with this concentration of peroxide and the lift and deposit balance is changed when you don’t use this. Secondly, if you don’t use 40 vol, the dye loses much of its lightening power and you may as well be using a regular blonde dye as the high lift will be a waste of time. Always mix high lift hair color with 40 vol developer.
You also need to be aware of what shade you’re using and choose an ash shade rather than the shade you want. Even though high lift dyes are formulated to tone hair as your hair lightens, they don’t live up to expectations here. An ash shade is necessary to counteract the warmth crossdress that will be revealed during the lightening process. If anything, even the ash shade won’t be enough to counteract the warmth and you will still need to tone your hair anyway.
Once you’re ready to prepare the dye, measure it by volume and to each part of high lift hair color, add two parts of 40 vol developer. It’s easiest to mix developer into dye by adding a small amount first, then gradually incorporating the rest. Otherwise the dye has a much thicker consistency than the pool of developer surrounding it and you have to go to extra effort to incorporate it all together without making a mess.
- How to dye your hair
Would you like more information about hair dye and how to apply them properly? Find out how to achieve salon quality color…
Lift booster
Hair dye brands will sometimes produce a lift booster product that is designed to be added to their high lift color. Lift booster is essentially an ammonia supplement that boosts the ammonia content in the high lift.
Ammonia acts as a catalyst, driving the decomposition of the peroxide in the developer into active oxygen that oxidizes and lightens the melanin in your hair. More ammonia means that more oxidation can take place, and lift booster can provide up to 1 more level of lift when mixed into your high lift color.
After you dye your hair with a high lift color, it may be necessary to tone your hair. Like all hair color, this dye will fade with time too, and a regular maintenance routine is the best way to keep your hair looking great and prevent it from becoming brassy.
You will also need to condition your hair thoroughly after using a high lift, just like when you bleach your hair. For this purpose, a conditioning treatment or a deep conditioner is all you will need. Add a protein treatment like Redken CAT Reconstructor and your hair will look and feel great long into the future.