What Does a Hair Developer Do by Itself?

Once I had coloured my hair brown but it was looking almost black, guess I had chosen a very dark shade of brown. Recolouring it before 15 days was a complete no from my stylist.

But I was sure I wasn’t going back home with an unwanted hair color having spent so much. That’s when my stylist recommended me trying hair developer instead of recolouring my hair.

He applied a 30 volume developer starting from the roots to the tips of my hair and we waited for 20 minutes just to watch the magic! Once my hair was washed and dried, I was overjoyed seeing the exact shade of brown on my hair!

This story pretty much sums up what a hair developer does by itself. Yes, a hair developer is capable of taking down shades from your hair color.

 Types of hair developer

What does a hair developer do alone or on its own?

Before moving to the work of a developer, let me clear one thing, a developer is not a bleach though it does pretty much similar work and that’s bringing down the color shade of your hair or in other words, it helps to lighten your present hair color.

But how does it do so?

The main composition of a hair developer is peroxide. It helps to open up the hair cuticles and as a result the melanin from the hair is washed off. This ultimately helps to lighten the hair color.

So, if you only want to lighten the shade of your hair, you can use just a hair developer all by itself. But you need to know which volume developer you actually need (you can learn that from the table above).

What does a hair developer do with dye?

Very contrary to the work that a developer does by itself, when mixed with a hair dye, a hair developer helps to open up the cuticles and help absorb the dye into the hair shaft so that the color builds up in the hair. 

So, your hair color cannot be complete without the use of a hair developer in it because if you only apply the dye and not the hair developer, your hair cuticles won’t open up and the color will not be deposited in the hair. Therefore, using a hair developer is a must if you want your dye to show its color in your hair. 

Can I use hair color without a developer?

You can definitely do so if you want to just waste your money and the hair color. Without a developer, your hair cuticles won’t open up and the hair dye won’t be deposited in your hair shaft evenly which will result in splotchy colouring in your hair.

Also, the hair color will not be of the same shade as the dye as your natural hair color won’t absorb the dye to its true colour without it bleaching or lightening itself. 

Does developer damage hair?

A developer is basically hydrogen peroxide and any chemical is certain to harm your hair to a certain level and to speak the truth yes a hair developer can also damage your hair if used in the wrong volume and for the wrong amount of time.

That said, a 10 or 20 volume developer won’t damage your hair to the extent a 30 or a 40-volume developer will do. A 40 volume developer is the strongest and poses the most potential to damage your hair, making it lose its natural color permanently.

So, it should always be mixed with bleach or a permanent dye and then applied to the hair and not alone.

The work of a developer is to open up the hair cuticles and when a high amount or a higher volume of developer is used to do so, there are chances that the hair will open up to the extent that it will cause breakage of the hair in a very short time.

See also: Can I Put Bleach Over Hair Dye that is Semi-permanent?

See you soon!

I would suggest not using a developer by itself alone at home. If you indeed need to use it by itself, always do it under the care of a hair stylist because he will know best which developer to choose for you.

That’s all for the day, hope you enjoyed reading with me. Stay tuned for more hair care, skin care and fashion tips. Till then…..

Keep it simple, keep it fashionable!