Pro tip: mixing developer isn't always worth the savings

I used to swear by buying my 20 volume and 40 volume separately and mixing them for 30. But last week at the Sally's in Oak Park, a stylist I barely know told me to just buy the 30 volume straight up for most roots-to-ends jobs. Tried it on a client with 2 inches of regrowth and it saved me 10 minutes of fussing with measurements. Has anyone else found that pre-mixed just works better for certain formulas?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugomurray27d ago

Man, I've been there. Mixing developer was such a pain especially when you're rushing between clients. I started buying straight 30 volume after I messed up a batch on a balayage and had to redo the whole thing. It's way less stressful to just grab one bottle and know it's right.

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the_lily27d ago

HARD disagree on this one @hugomurray. Buying premixed 30 volume is a trap for MOST of my clients because hair is SO different. If you're always using 30 vol for everything you're going to OVERLIFT fine hair or UNDERLIFT resistant gray in like a month. I need to mix my 20 and 40 depending on the situation or sometimes i'll mix them together for a custom strength. If you mess up one batch of balayage it SUCKS but it's a learning curve, not a reason to ditch mixing entirely. It's like saying you'll only use one brush for every haircut because you once nicked someone with a razor. You're losing control of the result to save a few minutes.