These are the kits you buy to add highlights or streaks to your hair. There are also hair coloring products known as 'special effect' hair colors. (That's why the 'strand test' is so important - more about that later.) Regular touch-ups of 4 to 6 weeks are generally needed to eliminate roots - hair with your natural color growing at half an inch per month from your scalp. That means the color may appear different on you than on someone else using the same color. The end result is a combination of your natural hair pigment and the new shade you chose. This product acts to lighten the hair's natural pigment to form a new base and then to add a new permanent color. Your hair actually has to grow out over time. Tiny molecules enter all the way into the cortex, where they react and expand to a size that cannot be washed out.

In this level, both ammonia and peroxide are used. Level 3, permanent color - This is what you need for a more significant color change (to go from black to blond, you'll still need to go with a process called double process blonding and it'd be wise to get this it done professionally).(Both semi- and demi-permanent colors can become permanent on permed or already-colored hair!) However, it contains a small amount of peroxide, which allows for a subtle, but noticeable, color enhancement. These products do not contain ammonia so the natural pigment can't be lightened. Their larger size means they take longer to wash out. In this process, pre-color molecules penetrate the cuticle and enter the cortex where they then partner to create medium-sized color molecules. Level 2, demi-permanent color - This product level lasts longer, through 24 to 26 shampoos.This hair coloring won't lighten your hair color because it contains no ammonia or peroxide.

This level generally lasts for 6 to 12 shampoos, covers up to 50 percent gray, enhances your natural color and leaves no roots. And since the molecules are small, they eventually exit the hair shaft after several shampoos, leaving the hair as it was before treatment. They don't interact with your natural pigments. The hair color contains tiny color molecules that enter the hair's cuticle, or outer layer, and go into your hair's cortex.

Level 1, semi-permanent color - This product adds color without changing natural color dramatically.

Level 4 hair color highlight ideas