EP 341: What Ammonia, Peroxide, And MEA Actually Do To Your Hair

Want gorgeous color without the damage spiral? We break down hair dye like real people, not lab manuals—what ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, and MEA actually do, why micro-pigments changed the game, and how to keep your cuticle calm while your color looks rich and glossy. 

We start with simple color science—how light and pigment create what you see—then move into how permanent color really works inside the hair. You’ll learn the difference between ammonia and ethanolamine, why modern low-alkalizer formulas can feel gentler, and how developer volume controls both lift and risk. 

From shade selection to aftercare, this episode is a playbook for safer choices. We cover low-lift approaches like demi-permanent glossing, deeper and warmer tones that look dimensional without bleach, and the protein-moisture-lipid balance that keeps elasticity and shine. Practical tips include keeping developers at 5–10 volume for fragile hair, spacing out highlights, using weekly masks, and leveraging bond builders when it truly counts. By matching the chemistry to your hair’s current condition, you can color smarter, keep your cuticle smoother, and enjoy results that feel like self-care rather than compromise.

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Chapters

• 4:24 Why Color Looks The Way It Does
• 7:57 Melanin And Natural Hair Pigment
• 11:34 How Permanent Color Works
• 17:49 Ammonia Vs MEA Explained
• 23:11 Micropigments And Cuticle Health

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 2:56

Hey guys, welcome back to the show. Today we're chatting color chemistry, but the real human kind, the super simple kind, so we can all understand what's actually inside hair dye, why it works, and whether we need to panic or if we just need to pour another cup of coffee and relax about it. So let's pretend we're sitting together in the salon break room. No science degree, just good sense, and maybe a little hair color on our shirts, okay? You might hear words like ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, even ethanolamine. And the big question is, is this stuff harmful? Could it make your hair fall out? And should you be worried? Let's talk like real people for a minute. Welcome to All About Hair, where we talk to shop, share stories, and spill the secrets behind great hair and a great career. I'm your host, Denise Keilitz, a former salon owner, educator, and a lifelong hair crusader. Whether you're a new stylist building your book, or just someone who loves learning about all things hair, you're in the right place. Okay, so first things first. Hair color is basically light plus pigment plus a helper ingredient that gets it to stick to your hair. When we talk about light, what we actually mean is the fact that every color we see in the world comes from light bouncing off of something. So hair dye, paint, clothes, all the color around us, it's literally just light reflecting back to us in a way our eyes understand. That's a really hard concept to grasp. When light hits a pigment, like in hair dye, that pigment absorbs some light colors and reflects others. That reflected color is what we end up seeing. So if a hair color looks red violet to us, that means it's bouncing back the red and violet parts of light and soaking up the rest. Now, the hair strand itself. Your natural hair before any dye. It gets its color from melanin, which is your body's built-in pigment system, basically the same pigment family that colors your skin and your eyes, too. You have three types of melanin living in your hair, all mixed together in different amounts. Some people have more dense, darker melanin, that gives brown to black hair. Some have more of the warmer pigments, that gives off the gold and the orange tones, and a teeny tiny amount of the super strong red melanin shows up in redheads. Tells you that redheads are really rare. Your melanin cells keep adding color into your hair until, well, life happens. Then melanin production slows down and hair gradually turns gray and eventually white. So now let's shift into the actual hair dye. Most traditional permanent salon hair color works the same exact way it did 50 years ago. It's usually PPD-based, uses hydrogen peroxide, and uses ammonia to open the door to the hair strand so color can get inside and permanently change it. Permanent color can both lighten and tone the hair in one step. If you're using 10 volume developer or higher, you guys have heard me say this over and over again. And if not, I'm going to let you know about it right now. Think about fish scales or a pine cone. Okay? Your hair strand has basically fish scales around it. That is the cuticle of the hair. Permanent hair color uses the ingredients in that to open those cuticles up, kind of like an open pine cone. It makes the permanent hair dye go into the cortex of your hair, which is the inside of your hair, and then it shuts down the cuticle just a little bit. Okay. Permanent hair color can do that using the hydrogen peroxide and ammonia. Okay. So it lightens and tones the hair in one step. If you're using 10 volume developer or higher, okay. And the developer, that is basically a hydrogen peroxide mix. If you have one liter bottle of 10 volume developer, only 3% of it is actually the active oxygen that powers the hair dye. The rest is literally water. So what the developer is doing is giving the dye the energy it needs to lift your natural pigment and bond the artificial hair color inside of your hair strand. Hopefully that makes sense to you. Now, ethanolamine. This is where some modern ammonia-free lines switch out the ammonia for a gentler alkalizer like MEA, which comes from the ethanolamine family. That family is basically a group of less intense cuticle openers. Remember when I was talking about the cuticle? So it's supposed to be a more gentle, and it is, a more gentle hair color. A lot of color lines, like the one I use, Euphoric color, uses the lowest amounts possible of ammonia or the MEA, anywhere between 0.53 to 0.8%. This is Euphoric color I'm talking about. You'll have to check out the colors of other lines, ask your stylists, or if you're a stylist, take a look at the packaging. Because the dye molecules are so small and efficient now, thanks to something called micropigmentation. This is again in Euphoricolor. It is known for micropigmentation, meaning the smallest possible color molecules. So what happens is you don't have to open up the cuticle quite as far like you used to. So you're not going to damage the hair. Okay? The size of these micropigments matters because they're small enough to slip into the hair without the hair having to swell up like a sponge to let them in. And that's what used to happen. Tons of ammonia in colors, and so it would blast open that cuticle, and it was really, really hard to get it shut back down. And so that's why you ended up with frizzy hair long time. I'm talking about like in the 80s. Um there was a lot of other things going on in the 80s that caused frizzy hair, so it wasn't just color, but let's just talk about color right now. Um, but the amount of ammonia that used to be in some of these colors were just crazy. So, what's the translation of this? So having the ethanolamine in the color, they open less, they stink less, they hurt the strand less, and they give a lot of shine to the hair. And because you no longer have to crank the cuticle wide open to make color stick, the hair stays in better condition, especially for our fragile and fine-haired friends. Now, does ethanolamine or MEA cause hair falling out from the root? No, no, there is no solid evidence of root-level hair loss from ethanolamine or MEA specifically. But, and this is key, anything that opens a cuticle, even gently, can contribute to breakage if the hair was already hanging on by a prayer, and you know who you are. And breakage can absolutely trick people into believing they lost hair because shorter snapped pieces make the overall density look thinner. So if someone colors weak, damaged, dry strands too often with a high developer, the strands might crack mid shaft. That is not hair falling out, that's hair saying, girl, get some moisture in my hair strands. Okay, so here's the real pros and cons we want to give people without making it sound terrifying. If your hair is healthy, ethanolamine-based alkalizers like MEA are actually the more gentle choice. They smell better, they feel kinder on the scalp, and they're a smart option for people who can't use harsher ammonia systems. But if the hair was already porous, dehydrated, or overcolored, the alkaline ingredient can contribute to dryness, which increases breakage, which increases the illusion of thinning. So it's less harmful, and more about using it cautiously on fragile hair, keeping lift minimal and stacking conditioning support. Okay. So now let's talk shade choices for someone who still wants color but wants minimal chemical stress. If someone really truly does believe coloring stresses their hair and they want to continue, here's the first thing I would say. Slower is safer, softer is shinier. Hydration is your best friend. And color that deposits without aggressively lifting is gonna feel the most gentle on your strands because hair that's stressed should stick to colors that don't require bleach, don't require high developer energy, meaning low developers under 10, and mostly just tint and gloss the strand deeper or warmer. So you're not lifting any color out of your strands. So the colors that you can choose that are beautiful, like a chocolate brown, you can get richer color without lifting anything out of your hair or without lightening it. A copper brown tint, this is really in right now, warm, dimensional, and you don't need bleach to do it. You can choose mahogany or soft burgundy browns. This is really glossy color without aggressive lightening first. And what about demi-glossing? This is also an awesome way to keep the tone refreshed, super low stress and lots of shine. Actually, that's what I use on my hair. I use a demi-permanent hair color. I recommend that to so many people. If you're not trying to get your hair lighter, always go with a demi-permanent hair color. I learned that from Beth Minardi a long, long, long time ago. You do not have to reach for a permanent hair color if all you're doing is going the same shade or darker. In fact, it is so much healthier on your hair if you just choose a demi-permanent hair color if you're not going lighter. If you're going lighter, your only options are either a permanent hair color on natural hair or a lightener or bleach. So what we're saying here is permanent color is still oxidative, yes. But avoid the heavy lift choices like bright blondes, high lift fashion tones, or anything requiring a 20 to 40 volume developer, at least until the hair is stronger. So, how do you get it stronger? There's protein masks out there. If you need recommendations, let me know. I'll I will I have a bunch actually on my Amazon um page. I have my links down in my show notes, but there's a couple of really good masks on there that if you use them weekly, if you have, if you have uh your hair's been kind of traumatized by color, you really do need to get some protein and moisture, not just protein, moisture, um, into back into your hair. And this takes a little bit of time. So what if you want to keep coloring your hair, but you don't want the drama, you don't want this to happen. Just go darker and warmer. That's what I do. I have gray hair and it covers 100%. Get very dimensional gray um brown hair, which is what you want anyway. It's more believable, it's more natural looking. You don't want a one solid color hair, so demi permanent. You want to gloss more, you want to lift your hair color less, meaning you want to lighten it less. Um, in my hair, I maybe highlight it once a year and barely. I put like six foils in my hair. So, in case you're wondering. And you definitely, definitely want to condition more. Meaning, weekly masks, if your hair is really, really stressed, you might want to do it like every third day until your hair starts feeling better. Your hair's gonna tell you, okay, because the hair color is not the thing that's hurting you, it's the pressure and lift that can get dicey on hair that's already fragile. If your stylist is putting something on your hair that your hair can't handle, you will get breakage. You will. I don't care what brand of color you're using. There's all kinds of things out there that you can put into hair color to we used to call it our arsenal, so you could hardly ever even, you know, hurt the hair. Um, the bond builders, things like that. Yes, that helps. I'm not saying uh that doesn't. That there are things out there that uh science has found that is freaking fabulous. But if your stylist isn't using bond builders every single time, and uh probably more than likely they're not because it costs money. And these days everybody's trying to save money any way they can, uh, or they're gonna charge you more for it, and maybe you're saving money. I don't know, but the bond builders they really do help with the breakage and with the color lasting longer. But if your hair is fragile, you need to get it in in good working order before you color your hair. And listen, I'm not here to say that hair color is scary. I'm here to say that color is chemistry, yes, but not all color formulations are created equal. And the modern lines that rely on micropigmentation and low MEA or low ammonia are some of the most gentlest our industry has ever seen. So should you be concerned about ethanolamine in your hair dye? If you're using a high-quality salon color brand that keeps it low and you're not bleaching, frying, or applying high developer energy to fragile strands every week, no, you shouldn't be concerned. You don't need to live in fear of it. You just need to respect what your hair is capable of tolerating and choose color that supports your strand, not shocks it. Because remember, you can absolutely keep coloring your hair. I just want it to feel like self-care, not chemical warfare, okay? So here's what you should care about more than any scary ingredient headlines say that you could should care about care about. Hair is naturally ascetic, around 4.5 to 5.5 on the pH scale. Healthy hair stretches when wet about 50% without snapping. Okay, so if you took a strand and out of the shower and you stretched it, it should stretch. Hair stretches when it's wet. Okay, if it snaps right away, there's a problem. Your hair is mostly protein and moisture, the lipids provide the shine. So you need all three protein, moisture, lipids. Dye bonds to protein. Okay, so the hair dye bonds to the protein. So if protein gaps exist, the color fades uneven. Isn't that incredible? So if you don't have enough protein in your hair, you need a protein spray or a protein mask so your hair color doesn't fade uneven. If you're a stylist, you actually need to be spraying some kind of protein conditioner on the hair before you put the hair color on. That'll help the color take more even. Okay, so in hair color, there are larger dye molecules, and that goes on the outside of the hair strand, and then the small ones slip inside easy. Okay. So a lot of the color brands out there, they have the larger dye molecules. Now, I'm not saying all of them, because um, in today's world, our science is getting better and better, and the molecules are getting smaller and smaller. But if you're still using an old brand, uh you might be doing more damage than you know. The developer gives the hair dye the lift energy. The higher the volume, the more lift. When I say lift, I'm saying lightening. So if you're using a 40 volume, keep this in mind. It's gonna, it's going to lighten your hair about four levels of lift. That's a lot. That's a lot of pressure for the fragile strands. So if your hair is fragile or fine in that matter, stick with 10 volume or lower. They make five, they make seven, they make ten. Actually, you can take a 20 and and add, we used to do this. Um uh what do you call it? Not not regular tap water, but um, oh shoot, I've lost it. Um but you can add water to it and make it a less less volume because basically it's just water and hydrogen peroxide. So chemistry, yes. Harm? Not if you're using the right strength for the hair. Concern? Only if we're not checking strand health and developer percentage. Hair loss from the root because of ethanolamine, not proven. Hair loss from breakage becomes stressed hair. Couldn't take more cuticle swelling? Very possible. So overall, color isn't the thing hurting us. It's the strength, timing, lift, porosity, moisture, and how often we process it. That's what really matters. So to wrap it up in the most human way possible, if your hair could talk to you, it would say, don't be afraid of the hair color. Balance the chemistry, lift less when you can, and hydrate the heck out of you like it's your favorite plant. Right? Make sure you're doing a weekly mask, especially if you're coloring your hair. It's okay. It's okay to take care of yourself. And for anyone who's listening who's ever panicked over a color ingredient list, do not stress, don't spiral, and don't give up coloring if you don't want to. Just shift your shade, okay, soften the lift or use a demi-permanent, boost your conditioning, and keep that good hair energy flowing. Because at the end of the day, knowledge gives you choices, and choices give you confidence. And remember, when you know better, you do better. Thanks for tuning in to All About Hair. If you loved this episode, hit subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with a fellow stylist or hair loving friend. You want more tips, tools, and behind the scenes goodness? Follow me on YouTube or head to my website at deniseKeilitz.com. Yes, I know it's hard to spell, so don't worry, the link is in the show notes. Until next time, keep learning, keep creating, and keep loving what you do.