Do It Yourself the Easy Way - Clairol Nice 'n Easy (Clairol Nice 'n' Easy)

Member Name: foreveramber

Product:	Clairol Nice 'n' Easy
Date:	10/03/09 (618 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Inexpensive, wide range of colours, leaves hair soft

Disadvantages: Strong smell, can stain clothes

Having been unblessed with natural mousy brown locks, I've spent and a great deal of time and money changing its colour over the years. Unfortunately, once you've lightened your natural hair colour you face a life long commitment of touching up the regrowth.

Not having much in the way of spending money when I was younger, I soon discovered home hair dye kits. Nice 'n Easy by Clairol was in fact, the first hair colour I ever bought and I'm still using it despite trying out several other brands. They are still far cheaper to use than a trip to the hairdressers, with a box of hair colour costing between £3.50 and £5.00 depending on where you buy it or the promotion at the time.

Although they make a non-permanent hair colour which lasts around 6-12 washes, I always tend to use the permanents because I want to lighten my hair. Non-permanents can't lighten hair as they don't contain the strong bleaching ingredients such as ammonia or hydrogen peroxide.

~~~Range of Colours~~~

One of the reasons I use Nice 'n easy is because of the wide range of colours provided. I don't want to go too blonde as it doesn't look natural on me, but they do a nice range of golden browns and dark blondes that suit my skin colour.

~~~What's in the Box~~~

Inside each box you'll find two bottles and a squeezy tube. The tube is a wonderful conditioner which you cover your hair with after you've finished colouring it. The other two bottles contain the colour formula (the strong stuff that contains the ammonia and hydrogen peroxide) and the colour activating crème. There is a large fold out instruction sheet and a cardboard packet containing a pair of disposable plastic gloves to protect your hands from staining.

~~~How To Use~~~

You must pour the colour formula into the activating bottle and shake thoroughly to mix the contents well. Once it's mixed you must use it immediately and discard any unused mixture.

It's best to use the colour on hair that's not freshly washed and it must be dry. Once you've applied the colour, you have to wait the recommended amount of time which can be anything from 10 minutes to 45 minutes. Again, if it's the first time you've used the colour you should do a preliminary strand test just to make sure you like the colour and aren't going to suffer from any allergic reactions.

Before colouring you should always cover yourself up with old towels because if you get any onto your clothes, then believe me, it won't come off again. I always think I'm being careful but so often I've found some small spot of hair dye in an obvious place on my clothes that I just can't hide.

If it's the first time you're colouring your hair with a particular colour, then you can simply apply the colour all over your dry hair. If you have already coloured your hair and just need to colour the roots, then you can just part your hair and apply the colour to the roots first then if there's any left over, you can squeeze that over the rest of your hair.

~~~My Experiences~~~

When I open the lid of the colour formula, I often find my eyes water as it's quite an overpowering smell. Even when it's been mixed with the activating crème, it retains its strong smell when it's on your hair. The consistency of the formula is reasonably thin but it's easy to pour it out slowly and it doesn't drip once its on your hair. The activating crème is quite a rich white coloured cream that once mixed with the colour, becomes very dark.

Next you pull off the top of the activating crème bottle. This is a nozzle through which you can squeeze the hair colour. I find it very easy applying the colour. Since I'm always touching up my roots, I have to section off my hair all over and this can take a while because I have quite long hair. I never have any left over. This can be a problem if I'm trying out a new colour because I then have to purchase two boxes to ensure I have enough colour for all my hair.

I never use the gloves provided because I like to feel exactly which bits of my hair are still dry and I can't do this with the gloves on. It doesn't leave too much staining on my hands, mainly it's just around my fingernails for a couple of days before it washes off. Anyway, once the colour is on, I clip it up onto my head and busy myself with something for half an hour. After the allotted time, I wash it off in the shower. It can make a lot of mess so you need to be careful not to splash around too much. It can take a while to make sure all the colour has washed out. After this, you apply the conditioner which is incredibly good and leaves your hair very soft and shiny.

~~~Results~~~

Once your hair is dry, you can inspect the results. I usually find that the colour is darker than I would like at first. However, after a couple of washes, it usually fades to the colour I am looking for. Of course, the end result all depends on what your original hair colour is and many people make the mistake of thinking that the picture on the front of the box is the colour their hair will be after using the dye.

The Nice 'n Easy blurb on the packet promises 100% grey coverage and states that the colour should last for up to 6 weeks. This is really how long it will take until your roots will start to show as the hair colour itself won't go away but it can fade over time. I usually find I need to redo my roots after around 4 weeks.

Unfortunately, with age come grey hairs and I now have a few of these. Another reason for the permanent hair colour is I find non-permanents simply don't cover any grey hairs. Unfortunately, even when using Nice 'n Easy, I still find a few stray grey hairs that always seem to miss out on the colour. I don't know how this is because I make sure every strand close to my head is completely saturated. It does say in the instructions that if your greys are stubborn then you should leave the mixture on for 45 minutes which I know I haven't been doing.

You can now buy the conditioner separately which I am very happy about. Years ago I rang Clairol asking if it was possible to buy this conditioner separately and they told me that it was too strong! Seems like they've changed their minds now. Something to do with the competition maybe. Whatever the reasons, it's extremely powerful and after colouring my hair using Nice n Easy I always feel my hair is in very good condition as well as feeling much thicker. It's certainly improved a great deal from when I first started buying it.

Clairol have since launched a Root Touch Up hair colour which comes in a few selected shades designed to blend in with a range of their permanent colours. However, even more recently they've launched a permanent hair colour called Perfect 10 which I believe is going to supersede the Clairol Nice n' easy hair colour that I'm reviewing right now.

It's widely available in all major supermarkets and pharmacies.

Summary: An inexpensive way to colour your hair