Entertainment Fashion & Style High Lift Tint Hair Color Level 10 or Higher Share PINTEREST Email Print Rayman/ Getty Images Fashion & Style Hair Accessories Tops & Sweaters Dresses Skirts Jeans Pants Do It Yourself Shoes Skincare Advice Makeup Fragrance Tattoos and Body Piercings Kids and Teens Bumps & Babies Learn More By Giulia Heiman Giulia Heiman Writer Giulia is a contributing writer and a freelance hair stylist. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on 02/24/18 High lift tint is usually categorized as hair color that is a level 10 or higher. Use high lift tint to achieve light blonds without the use of bleach. Unlike bleach, which strips the hair of natural pigment, leaving nothing behind, high lift tint lightens the hair and then deposits tone all in one step. High lift tint can also be used to 'break the base'. What is High Lift Dye? Many people are afraid of bleach because they've heard awful stories about melting hair or scalp burns. This is a problem that does exist unfortunately because people who don't know what they're doing and haven't taken the time to learn about the product go ahead and bleach their hair. If you don't know what you're doing and make the bleach too strong or use bleach on hair that is already highly damaged, you probably will forever be afraid to use bleach. But bleach does not have to be the enemy. Bleach can actually be a highly useful and necessary product. High lift dye was born to cater to those who refuse to bleach their hair. High lift color is permanent hair dye, but it works slightly differently than other hair dyes because of its unique composition. High lift colors contain more ammonia, more dye pigment, and are mixed with a double ratio of 40-vol developer. This results in hair dye that lightens your hair more effectively than other blond dyes yet still tones it during the lightening process. High Lift Hair Color Vs. Bleach High lift dye was invented to replace the use of bleach for those who didn't want to bleach their hair, but it is not interchangeable with bleach. The uses of high lift hair color are fairly constrained and it can only be reliably used on virgin hair that is already a dark blond color, or at most a light brown shade. A regular blond hair dye mixed with 30-vol developer can lift around two to three levels, or in other words, lighten hair from dark blond to a medium to light blond color. It does this while toning the hair, whereas the use of bleach requires you to tone your hair separately as an additional step. High lift hair color offers a boost to lightening, equivalent to about one extra level on top of what a regular blonde dye would achieve. Although you can lighten your hair up to four levels using a high lift dye, you're also restricted to using it on virgin hair because like other hair dyes, it will not lighten dyed hair. Dye doesn't lift dye and if you've dyed your hair, you will need to use hair dye remover and bleach to lighten it. This means that you need to already be a natural blonde to use a high lift blond dye. If you apply one of these dyes to brown hair you will end up with a regrettable shade of orange. Featured Video