Mastering Redken Shades EQ: Unlocking The Secret Of Undertones For Perfect Hair Color
Redken Shades EQ has become a staple in salons worldwide, revered by professional stylists and hair color enthusiasts alike. This versatile demi-permanent hair color is celebrated for its ability to transform hair, offering everything from subtle enhancements to dramatic tonal shifts. But what truly sets it apart, and how can you leverage its full potential to achieve your dream hair color? The answer lies in understanding its intricate system, particularly the crucial role of undertones.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll dive deep into the world of Redken Shades EQ, demystifying its numbering and lettering system, and focusing on how mastering undertones can elevate your hair coloring game. Whether you're a seasoned stylist or simply curious about what makes this product so special, get ready to unlock the secrets to perfect, customized hair color.
What is Redken Shades EQ?
At its core, Redken Shades EQ is a professional demi-permanent hair color. Unlike permanent dyes, it's ammonia-free and doesn't lighten hair, making it a gentler option that's perfect for a multitude of services. Its primary uses include:
- Toning: Neutralizing unwanted warm or cool tones.
- Glossing: Adding incredible shine and vibrancy.
- Refreshing Faded Color: Breathing new life into dull, previously colored hair.
- Adding Dimension: Creating depth and movement within the hair.
- Correcting: Fixing uneven or undesirable color results.
- Blending Grays: Softly integrating gray hairs without harsh lines.
One of the key reasons for its exceptional performance is its unique formulation. Shades EQ contains both oxidative and direct dyes, which means it delivers both rich color deposit and high tone reflection. This dual action ensures a vibrant, multi-dimensional result that truly stands out. Moreover, it's known for its acidic formula, which helps to condition the hair and seal the cuticle, leaving it feeling healthy and looking incredibly glossy. Redken has even innovated further with products like Shades EQ Bonder Inside, which is their first all-in-one acidic demi-permanent toner + bonder. This revolutionary product tones and helps to strengthen sensitized hair in a single step, thanks to its built-in bonder.
Decoding the Shades EQ Color Chart: Levels and Undertones
To truly master Shades EQ, you need to understand its language – the numbering and lettering system found on its color chart. The Shades EQ Color Chart is a visual representation of all available tones within Redken’s Shades EQ range. It’s an indispensable tool that includes an extensive variety of shades categorized by levels, tones, and undertones, making it easier for users to select the perfect shade.
In summary, the Redken Shades EQ numbering system assigns codes to each shade. The numbers typically indicate the shade's intensity or depth, with lower numbers representing darker shades and higher numbers indicating lighter shades. For instance, a 09 might be a very light blonde, while a 06 would be a medium blonde.
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Understanding Undertones in Shades EQ
While the numbers tell you the depth, the letters are where the magic of undertones comes into play. These letters categorize the colors into specific tonal families, indicating the underlying pigment within the shade. Understanding these undertones is paramount because they dictate how the color will appear on your hair and how it will interact with your hair's natural or existing undertones.
For example, if you see a shade like 09V, the '09' refers to the level (very light blonde), and the 'V' indicates a Violet undertone, designed to neutralize yellow brassiness. Other common letters represent different undertones:
- P (Pearl): Often used for cool, iridescent results.
- T (Titanium/Taupe): Typically cool, often with a metallic or muted quality.
- G (Gold): For warm, golden tones.
- GG (Gold Gold): Extra warm, intensely golden.
- B (Blue): For cool, ash tones, often used to counteract orange.
- R (Red): For vibrant red tones.
- C (Copper): For warm, coppery tones.
- M (Matte): Often a green base, used to neutralize red.
By understanding these letters, you can predict how a shade will perform and select the ideal one to either enhance your hair's natural undertones or neutralize unwanted ones, like brassy yellow or orange tones.
Why Undertones Matter for Your Hair Color
The importance of undertones cannot be overstated. Your hair naturally has underlying pigments that become more visible when lightened. These can be warm (red, orange, yellow) or cool (blue, violet, green). If you apply a color without considering these undertones, you might end up with an unintended result – for example, an ash blonde turning green on hair with strong yellow undertones, or a brown looking too red.
Redken Shades EQ excels at managing these undertones. With its ability to instantly banish brassy tones, add a hint of creative color, and neutralize pH levels post-lightening, Redken Shades EQ is an invaluable tool for achieving a balanced, harmonious hair color. By selecting shades with complementary or neutralizing undertones, you can achieve clean, beautiful results every time. This is why the chart, categorizing colors into tonal families, levels, and undertones, is so crucial for users to select the perfect shade based on their desired outcome and existing hair color.
Mastering Shades EQ Application: Tips for Perfect Undertone Results
Achieving the perfect result with Shades EQ goes beyond just picking the right shade; it also involves proper mixing and application techniques.
Dilution and Intensity Control
One of the most powerful features of Shades EQ is its flexibility in terms of intensity. The level of deposit and intensity in any Shades EQ formula can be adjusted or lightened. This can be done by mixing lighter shades with darker shades to create a custom tone, or more commonly, by diluting the formula with 000 Crystal Clear. Shades EQ can be diluted with Crystal Clear to lessen intensity or lighten the tone of any Shades EQ formulas, making it perfect for toning, balayage, and blondes where a softer, more translucent result is desired.
Mixing for Specific Tones
The versatility of Shades EQ allows for endless custom formulations. For example, to achieve an icy blonde result, a shade is beautiful when mixed with equal parts of P (Pearl), V (Violet), and T (Titanium/Taupe). A pro tip: add a splash of a warm shade like 8GG (Gold Gold) to keep it from looking too flat, ensuring a multi-dimensional icy blonde that isn't one-note. For those seeking cool coverage, you can refresh zones 2–3 with a shade from the Shades EQ Gloss Ash Brown family for the perfect 1:1 liquid color pair, delivering truly cool coverage results.
Remember, Shades EQ Gloss and Shades EQ Bonder Inside results will vary based on the level of hair to which it is applied. Always consider the starting point of the hair for optimal results.
Important Considerations
As with any professional hair color product, an allergy alert test must be done 48 hours before application to ensure safety.
Beyond Toning: The Versatility of Shades EQ
While toning is a primary use, Shades EQ's capabilities extend far beyond. It can be used to gloss, tone, refresh, correct, add dimension, and blend grays. Whether you want to enhance natural color, enrich existing tones, subtly change a shade, match a specific hue, or simply add unparalleled shine, Shades EQ delivers. It’s truly a liquid color that empowers stylists to create their best work, with comprehensive shade charts available to reference or print for salon use.
Final Summary
Redken Shades EQ is a revolutionary demi-permanent hair color that offers unparalleled versatility for toning, glossing, and refreshing hair. Its unique acidic, ammonia-free formula, combined with both oxidative and direct dyes, ensures rich color deposit and high tone reflection. The key to mastering Shades EQ lies in understanding its numbering system for depth and, critically, its letter-based undertone system, which categorizes shades into tonal families like P (Pearl), V (Violet), T (Titanium), and G (Gold). By recognizing how these undertones interact with existing hair color, stylists can banish brassiness, achieve desired cool or warm results, and customize formulas using techniques like dilution with 000 Crystal Clear or precise mixing (e.g., P, V, T for icy blondes). With innovations like Shades EQ Bonder Inside, the product not only tones but also strengthens hair, making it an indispensable tool for achieving healthy, vibrant, and perfectly nuanced hair color.
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