How to Tell When Step 1 Has Finished Processing

One of the most important skills to master in brow lamination and lash lifting is knowing when Step 1 has finished processing.

Processing times are important, and you should always work within the guidance provided for the system you are using. However, timings alone cannot tell you exactly when every individual client is ready. Different hair types respond differently to chemical processing. Fine, delicate hair may soften relatively quickly, while coarse, dense and resistant hair can take considerably longer. The goal is to learn how to assess the hair alongside your processing times, so you can recognise when sufficient reduction has taken place.

What Is Step 1 Actually Doing?

Step 1 contains a reducing agent, such as Thioglycolate (TGA) or Cysteamine, which alters the disulphide bonds responsible for maintaining the hair’s natural structure.

As reduction takes place, the hair gradually becomes softer, more flexible and easier to manipulate, allowing us to redirect it into a new position. But the aim isn’t to make the hair as soft as possible. We want to reach the point where enough structural change has taken place for the hair to be successfully repositioned, without unnecessarily compromising its integrity. This is why knowing when to remove Step 1 is so important.

Brow Lamination: What Are You Looking For?

With brow lamination, one of the biggest indicators is resistance. Before processing, brow hairs naturally want to return to their original growth direction. As Step 1 begins to work, this resistance should gradually decrease. When assessing the brow hairs, gently manipulate the hair into a different direction.

Ask yourself:

• Does the hair move easily?
• Does it remain where I position it, or immediately spring back?
• Does the hair feel softer and more pliable than it did at the beginning?

When the hairs can be easily redirected with minimal resistance and no longer strongly spring back towards their original growth pattern, this is a good indication that sufficient processing has taken place.

The Hair Should Be Pliable, Not Weak

There is an important difference between softened hair and compromised hair. Correctly processed brow hair should feel flexible and responsive while still retaining its strength and integrity. If the hairs are still firm, resistant, and continually springing back, they may require further processing. However, if they start to feel/look excessively soft, stretchy, or kinked, you may have progressed beyond the required level of reduction.

The goal is the point in between: soft enough to redirect, strong enough to remain healthy.

Resistant Brows May Take Longer

Coarse and resistant brow hairs can take longer to reach this stage.

These are often situations where artists become nervous and remove Step 1 prematurely because the recommended processing time is approaching, but this can result in underprocessing.

If the hair hasn’t been sufficiently reduced, it may look beautiful immediately after styling but gradually begin returning to its original growth direction. Rather than automatically extending your timings, learn to continually assess how the hair is responding, and when to remove Step 1 for that individual hair type.

Lash Lifting: What Are You Looking For?

Visual assessment

The most effective way to assess the breakdown of disulphide bonds is through a gentle bend test using a pointed tweezer:

• Select a lash midway along the length.
• Gently bend the lash downwards.

What to look for:

• If the lash forms a “U” shape, it is under-processed and requires more time.
• If the lash bends into a “V” shape with a clear kink, it indicates that the disulphide bonds have broken down sufficiently, and the lash is ready for the next step.

Visual Assessment Is a Skill

One of the biggest mistakes artists make is expecting the manufacturer’s guidelines to be gospel. It simply isn’t the case.

It’s also important to remember that different reducing agents and formulations behave differently. A TGA system and a Cysteamine system shouldn’t automatically be assessed or timed in exactly the same way, and even two products using the same reducing agent can differ in strength, pH, concentration and overall formulation. Never transfer timings from one product to another simply because both are labelled Step 1.

Don’t Be Afraid of Step 1

Artists are often so worried about overprocessing that they remove Step 1 too early.

Being cautious is important, but consistently underprocessing the hair won’t protect your results either. The answer isn’t to process every client for longer or shorter. It’s to become better at recognising when that individual client’s hair has reached the appropriate level of reduction.

The Bottom Line

Step 1 is finished when the hair has undergone enough reduction to become pliable, responsive and easy to redirect, while still maintaining its strength and integrity. For brows, pay particular attention to how easily the hairs can be repositioned and how much resistance or spring-back remains.

For lashes, assess how the lashes respond to manipulation and whether they have softened sufficiently to accept their new direction and curvature.

Use your recommended timings as your framework, but develop the confidence to assess the hair in front of you.

Don’t just watch the clock. Watch the hair.

Hair Types: Making Assessment Easier

Assessing different hair types:

Fine

If you feel/brush through your client’s brow hairs/eyelashes, and they are easy to move and very light, soft and slim in nature, your client has a ‘fine’ type of brow/lash hair. Therefore, when you carry out lamination/lifting, the product won’t take long to achieve the desired results, and the product will easily and quickly be able to access the cortex in order to modify the hair’s structure.

Normal

If you brush through your client’s brows/lashes and they feel fairly strong and slightly rigid with their movement, and they are slightly thicker in texture, you are working with a normal hair type.

Coarse

If, when brushing through your client’s brows or lashes, the hairs feel resistant to movement, lack flexibility, and appear thick or dense in texture, they are likely coarse. Coarse hairs have a more compact cuticle structure, making it more challenging for the product to penetrate the cortex and break down the bonds within the hair. As a result, they typically require longer processing times to achieve adequate softening and successful restructuring.