Toning, Lifting, Bleaching?

[FennFire911]

I've tried so hard to google an answer for this and just can't find any clarification on this wording. Are "toning" and "lifting" just words professionals use to avoid saying "bleach" because bleach is perceived as bad? I feel like I'm lost in semantics here.
March will be two years ago since I "toned" my hair. I went to Sally's and got Wella T18 with 20 volume developer. That's 6% peroxide. I asked the lady that was working there wouldn't that be considered bleaching and she said no, it was lifting my hair not bleaching it.
A rose by any other name is still a rose....Did I bleach my hair?

[Obsidian]

Generally in the beauty world, bleaching is lightening your hair to a blonde shade. Toning is using developer to change tone and lifting is lightening the hair a shade or two. On LHC, any chemical used to lighten, lift or tone is called bleaching.
Personally, I don't consider toning to be bleaching as you are only using developer and not the bleaching powder. Toning can damaging if applied repeatably.

[FennFire911]

Alright, that definitely is clearing it up for me.

I only toned once. But a few months after that, a year and a half ago, I tried going red. It was deposit only dye, but I hated it and got rid of it over the course of the next few days by repeatedly washing with Head And Shoulders, sometimes adding baking soda to that, and doing strong ACV rinses. At this point I'm assuming I need to regard my hair from about my nape down, that's more than a year and a half old, to officially be "chemically processed/damaged" and go over to the Growing Out Bleach And Damage thread for specialized advice on this?

[Obsidian]

Yeah, I think thats a fair assessment of your hair at this point. I have damaged hair too, cones are really helping to keep it soft and manageable.

[GrowlingCupcake]

If a box dye advertises hi-lift dye, is that bleaching?

The dye in question is Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color Ultra Color V2 - Dark Intense Violet: https://www.garnierusa.com/about-our-brands/hair-color/nutrisse-ultra-color/ultra-color-v2-dark-intense-violet

[Lady Stardust]

If a box dye advertises hi-lift dye, is that bleaching?

The dye in question is Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color Ultra Color V2 - Dark Intense Violet: https://www.garnierusa.com/about-our-brands/hair-color/nutrisse-ultra-color/ultra-color-v2-dark-intense-violet

That looks like bleach to me as it contains hydrogen peroxide. It also lists Ammonium Hydroxide, I don’t know if that’s a dilute version of ammonia or just ammonia by another name. I haven’t used anything with peroxide or ammonia for well over 20 years as I found that both damaged my hair, but my hair is a fragile beast.

I used Daniel Field hair colour for many years without issue, they don’t contain ammonia or peroxide and the colour is permanent if applied on dry hair. However, the colour faded after 10 days or so. For example, this colour would give purple-red initially and would fade to dark red.
https://www.danielfieldmailorder.co.uk/bordeaux-darkest-brown-colour/

The dyes have been completely reformulated since I used them though, they used to contain PPD, so I don’t have any experience with the current version.

[Joules]

Anything that drastically changes your hair color is essentially bleach, because it has to (basically) get rid of your natural pigment and replace it. Toning is changing the undertone of your hair (duuh :D for example toning can be used to get rid of brassiness in bleached blonde hair), as far as I know it requires a very very low volume developer (like, 1.5%), so it's not nearly as damaging, but it can damage your hair if you do it many times. I'd personally either use deposit-only dyes, or just don't use anything at all. There's no such thing as not damaging semi-, demi- and permanent dyes.

[lapushka]

If a box dye advertises hi-lift dye, is that bleaching?

The dye in question is Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color Ultra Color V2 - Dark Intense Violet: https://www.garnierusa.com/about-our-brands/hair-color/nutrisse-ultra-color/ultra-color-v2-dark-intense-violet

Normally dyes always have bleach in them (that is your "developer" part), only it mixes with the dye tube and not with the bleach powder. But it lifts your hair a shade to be able to deposit the dye better.

Hi-lift means it lifts your hair "more" shades and it has stronger developer in there.

At least, that's how I understand it; correct me if I'm wrong on anything.

[Jo Ann]

You're not wrong, Lapushka--a peroxide developer is just a milder form of bleach. To lift anything more than, say, two shades, usually uses a higher volume of peroxide developer to try to get the necessary lightness for the deposited color (like, say, from a light brown to a light blonde).

That's the biggest reason why many ladies on other sites complain about how products like Color Oops "turned their hair orange," because of the lightening action of the developer used with the hair dye they're trying to remove.

[Alibran]

That's the biggest reason why many ladies on other sites complain about how products like Color Oops "turned their hair orange," because of the lightening action of the developer used with the hair dye they're trying to remove.

I think this is also partly due to the ease with which blue tones leave the hair, while red tones are more stubborn. My attempt with Colour B4 (which is the UK version of Color Oops) only lightened my hair by a level or two, but there's a distinctly warmer tone to it now. Since the original (permanent, salon) dye was very dark, and on very light coloured hair, my colourist used a low vol developer to lift the cuticle but not actually lighten my natural colour. The colour underneath was very cool and the dye was neutral, so a warmer result must mean more red tones were left behind than blue tones.