Fancyvi says…Normal haircolours can’t lighten up coloured hair, as peroxide brought the pigments together and can’t split them up afterwards. Which ingredient helps Majicontrast to do so? It’s obviously a haircolour and not like Magma a bleaching product. I already checked the ingredients and couldn’t find out how the product does it.
The Right Brain responds:
Well Fancy, you’ve certainly picked an obscure product to ask about because we haven’t been able to find out much about Majicontrast. The L’Oreal website gives virtually no information, probably because the product is designed for professionals and they want consumers to go to their colorist with questions. But on eBay, of all places, we did discover that this product requires mixing with either 6, 9 or 12% peroxide depending on the level of lift required. (That’s why peroxide doesn’t show up on the ingredient list, because you have to use a separate peroxide solution.) We couldn’t find a full ingredient list online so I’m including the list you provided in the Forum (I’m assuming you got this off the package.):
L’Oreal Majicontrast Ingredients
AQUA; CETEARYL ALCOHOL; AMMONIUM HYDROXIDE; OLETH 30, HEXADIMETHRINE CLORIDE; OLEIC ACID; OLEYL ALCOHOL; ETHANOLAMINE; PENTASODIUM PENTETATE; 2-OLEAMIDO-1,3-OCTADECANEDIOL; BASIC RED 51; PARFUM Resorcin; Toluylendiamin; Phenylendiamine and Ammonia.
Peroxide lightens hair
Apparently Majicontrast only lifts (or lightens) a little bit of your hair color which is enough that you can lay down a redder, more vibrant color on top of dark hair. The lifting is accomplished by the peroxide solution. That brings me to an important point of clarification: in your question you said that peroxide can’t lighten hair because it “brings pigments together not brings them apart.”
That’s not really technically accurate. Peroxide functions as an oxidizing agent. At high concentrations (and at high pH) it will oxidize existing color in your hair, breaking it down and making it lighter. It can also oxidize individual dye molecules (called monomers) causing them to form long chains (called polymers). These polymers, formed inside your hair, are what create the new hair color. So you see, peroxide can both color and de-color hair depending on what it’s reacting with.
You can read this article on how ammonia free haircolor works to give you some additional perspective: How Does Ammonia Free Hair Color Work?
If anyone finds any additional information on Majicontrast let us know and we’ll update this post.
Image credit: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2545/3974563382_9cf96e3255_o.jpg
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Isn’t this the case with all pro hair dye? You buy a tube of dye and mix it with whatever volume peroxide you want. You generally buy them seperately, so you have more options. The higher volume the peroxide, the more it lifts your hair. That’s pretty great for dark hair such as mine. No need to pre-bleach it unless I want to go a lot lighter.
If you get boxed dye, the choice has already been made for you, but you still have to mix them up right before you use them. Afaik, the box never says what % peroxide it contains, so it’s harder to predict the results.
Hi I am a colourist that works with this product and undergone a lot of training with loreal.
The product was originall developed at a time when it was popular for people with dark hair to add bright red colours to their hair by bleaching their hair and appling direct dyes e.g. Crazy colour etc. However this fades very quickly so a colourant was develop that could lift natural hair up to 4 levels (with 40 vol peoxide) and develop intense red and copper colours.
The product *may* slightly lighten coloured hair due to the high ammonia content (one of the reasons it isn’t reccommended to be used on the scalp). It is only reccommended that you use 20 volume peroxide on previously coloured hair, and don’t expect much change if the hair has been dyed black. One of the reasons it is so noticable is because the dyes are so intense, rather than the lift it gives. Just don’t get any on your skin!
If you want to know the ingrediants for the diffent shades let me know..
this message is
for adam:
hi im junior hair stylist i have this scenario:
lady that today I strip her black color and got and orange overall but still black patches that disnt come off, didnt want to continue with Efassor cuz was affraidi will damage her long hair, anyway the hair looked in very good condition and a colleague more experienced
than me told to apply a 1/2 6,66 + 1/4 5,3 so the client wanted rihanna red and it came almost burgundy
U think i can use majicontrast on her tomorrow??? thanx
Hi manu,
I’m guessing the hair may have been porous after the effasor, which means that the colour would take much quicker, and the tone would be cooler.
So next time if the hair is very porous you can reduce the development time of the lengths and ends down to about 15-20 mins rather than 35 mins.
Also you should add extra warmth or intensity to the colour, in this case I would have used 1 tube of 6.66 + an extra 1/4 to 1/2 tube red mix tone with no extra peroxide.
You can certainly try using majicontrast on her, just try not to stain her skin, stick to 20 vol with it.
BTW if anyone is interested the intense dyes in majicontast are called nitro dyes.
If you would like some colour training materials or have any questions my email is adam.lea87@gmail.com
Thanks
Edit: I stated before that it contains nitro dyes, it is in fact cationic dyes.