If you’ve ever wanted to go lighter without reaching for bleach, high lift color is something that you should consider.
It’s a special category of professional hair color that can lighten darker blonde or light brown hair several levels—all in one step—using permanent color instead of traditional bleach.
What Is a High Lift Color?
High lift colors are colors formulated with a stronger concentration of ammonia and cool, ash-based pigments, allowing them to both lighten and tone in a single application.
Stylists like to use them because, when used correctly, they allow you to lift the hair without using bleach.
They can therefore be a real time-saver in the salon as well as permit the stylist to avoid double process blonding.
Unlike regular permanent color, which can lift about 2–3 levels, high lift colors can typically lift up to 4 levels depending on your starting shade and developer choice.
These shades are ideal when you want lighter blonde tones but prefer to avoid the dryness or fragility that can come with bleach-based lighteners.
When to Use a High Lift Color
There are two main use cases when you can use high lift color:
Adding Highlights or Doing Balayage to Medium Blonde or Dark Hair
For those with medium or dark blonde hair, you can also use high lift color to create subtle, sun-kissed highlights without pre-lightening.
This works especially well for achieving soft, low-maintenance blonde dimension with minimized damage.
It is often used by stylists doing balayage for this reason.
Lifting Medium to Dark Blonde Roots
High lift color can be a great way of taking roots blonde without using bleach.
If your client's root area is around a level 6, 7, or 8 , and your hair is fairly fine, you can brighten them and take them blonde.
Without using bleach.
It lifts and tones in one go, keeping warmth under control while creating a natural-looking result.
Allowing you to blend the roots seamlessly with the rest of your blonde hair.
Choosing the Right High Lift Shade
At Ugly Duckling, we offer two different high lift options, corresponding to the 2 use cases mentioned above.
High Lift Deep Ash Blonde 100.11
High Lift Deep Ash Blonde is designed for an application to the root area to lift it and blend it in seamlessly with the rest of a client's blonde hair.
It's perfect when you want a soft, bright blonde without bleach. There is just enough ash to keep the hair looking natural so that it blends in with the rest of her hair.
The .11 means that this color has a double ash or "deep ash" reflect. Which is what you need to tone the hair ash blonde while lifting so that it blends into the rest of your blonde hair.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW OF HOW TO APPLY HIGH LIFT ASH BLONDE TO THE ROOT AREA
Hair by Elona Taki
High Lift Ash Blonde is used by stylists is a product that cane be used for lifting and very often highlighting medium blonde or brunette hair.
It is an really necessary tool for any type of balayage operation. For free painting hair to produce highlights, in other words.
Formulated with stronger blue and violet pigments for an extra ash or cool result, High Lift Ash Blonde is excellent at counteracting warmth, especially on darker hair.
It has the right concentration of ash pigments to retone as it lifts.
It is therefore ideal if you tend to pull orange or yellow undertones when lightening.
It will tone highlights brunette instead. See the video below for a typical result.
Note: in this video the model had bleached highlights put in. Then the whole hair was colored with 100.10.
You can see that the base goes to a beautiful light brown color.
Whereas the highlighted areas go lighter still.
WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW OF HOW TO USE HIGH LIFT DEEP ASH BLONDE FOR HIGHLIGHTING & BALAYAGE
Hair by Elona Taki
How to Mix, Use & Apply High Lift Color
Which developer to use with high lift colors
High lift colors should generally be used with 30 volume developer on the roots for root lifting.
If you are working on the lengths you can also use 40 volume developer to achieve full lifting power when doing highlights or balayage on dark hair.
But only do so if you are confident of the health, thickness and strength of the hair that you are working with.
Avoid the root area when using 40 Vol. 40 Vol is not recommended for the roots.
Using Ugly Duckling Premium 30 Vol developer will give you superior protection and enhanced hair integrity with no compromise on lift.
This is important as you are looking to lift quickly and efficiently with no hair damage.
So we do recommend it when possible.
How to mix high lift color with developer
Use this mixing ratio: 1 part color to 2 parts developer.
This will give you the amount of developer you need to lift properly.
It will also give you a fairly wet mix, which will allow you to apply quickly and to saturate the hair fully.
Development time with high lift color
Development time is generally around 45 minutes processing time for the lengths.
Roots will develop faster, so when using high lift on the roots the rule is to keep watching and extend to the lengths for 5 minutes and then rinse when the right level has been achieved.
Around 30 minutes should be enough for most root applications in total.
Pro Tips for Best Results
When applying to the root area or indeed anywhere else, be aware that you can apply it only to virgin hair or new growth that hasn’t been previously colored.
You will not be able to lift artificial pigment. Hair that has been previously colored, in other words.
Work quickly and evenly—high lift colors are timing-sensitive. Saturate well.
Always evaluate your underlying pigment as you lift; if you’re starting from darker than a level 7, true blonde results may still require bleach for clean tones.
Conclusion
High lift colors are a powerful tool for creating bright, beautiful light blonde looks without bleach—especially on lighter starting bases.
Choose your formula (standard or ash), match it with the correct developer, and let it process fully for luminous, controlled lift and tone in one step.
