Quality colour at discount price (Boots Permanent Hair Colour)

Member Name: owensmum

Product:	Boots Permanent Hair Colour
Date:	21/01/08 (430 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good value, quality colour

Disadvantages: None

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I am unfortunate enough to have to colour my hair regularly to cover up my very grey roots. In the past I have spent money in the hairdressers to have this done, but more often than not to save money I reluctantly colour it at home myself.

The brand I previously used most often was Movida hair colour but I found that they tend to be one of the more expensive brands. So over the last few months I've sampled quite a few of the top brands, my choice determined by which was on offer in my supermarket at the time. I've found that they are all pretty much the same.

Recently, I had to buy a colour from Boots as I'd left it until the last minute before a night out and didn't have time to go to the supermarket. I went in to Boots expecting to buy Movida or one of the other big brands I'd used.

While scanning the shelves I spotted Boots Colour. I had seen it before but they were promting it and so had it on the top shelf. To be honest the packaging looked like something out of the seventies, but I was drawn to it as it was only £2.99 compared to the usual £5-£6 I would have expected to pay. I read the packaging and it seemed on a par to all the others so I thought I would give it a go. There was quite a choice available for shades and I chose Dark Chocolate Brown. As well as permanent they also had semi-permanent.

One of the drawbacks I find with some colours Ive used is that you have to wet your hair before hand. If not this then you can't use it on clean hair but you hair can't be too dirty. As I am usually disorganised about these kind of things I'm not very good at having my hair in the right condition on the day! The first plus point about Boots Colour is that you have a choice. If your hair is clean, you apply straight onto dry hair. If it could do with a wash, you do so and then apply to wet hair. Easy as that.

The colour comes with the usual two part mixture that you have to mix together using the gloves provided. I have found with colours that you usually get flimsy badly fitting gloves thrown in. These were proper thick latex type gloves. Also the container you use to dispense the colour onto your hair had a screw top to remove rather than a snap off bit that I often have problems with.

Once mixed you simply apply to the hair and then leave to develop. You are supposed to do a sensitivity test as with all colours and then a strand test to work out your individual development time. To be honest I've never bothered with the sensitivity test as I've never got 48 hours to wait! So I just guessed my development time based on other colours I've used and went for 20 minutes. It does also say approximate colouring time of 20 minutes on the box.

Using warm water you have to massage the colour in and then rinse off the dye. Once the water runs clear, add the Colour Lock Conditioner provided. This contains enough to apply again 3 times and it recommends you do this once a fortnight. I now have a stock of this in my bathroom cupboard!

When my hair was dry, the colour achieved was as good as any other I've had previously and all my roots were covered. Having to use dark colours on my hair, I usually find that my forehead gets quite a lot of colour on it which I then have to try to remove and usually end up washing my hair to get rid of it. With the Boots Colour there was no dye on my head. Brilliant! This is a definite plus point for this colour.

Overall, I was extremely impressed with this product, I have now been using it for about 6 months and have had tremedous results every time. The product is currently on offer in Boots at 2 for £5 making it even cheaper.

To sum up what I like about this product:

A) it was cheaper than all the rest
B) it was quick and easy to use with clear instructions
C) My head didn't get covered in dye
D) Better gloves and extra conditioner thrown in and
E) it coloured my hair as well as any other colour I've used in the past.

Summary: A cheaper permanent hair colour