A NICE PACKAGE, AN EASY SCREW AND EASILY EMPTIED TUBES! (Daniel Galvin Hair Colour)

Member Name: indigojade

Product:	Daniel Galvin Hair Colour
Date:	29/06/01 (476 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lovely packaging, hair smells perfumed, no overpowering fumes

Disadvantages: price, enormous bag to put over your head!

That’s it! The end is nigh!


I’m getting old – it’s official!

Why you might be asking she is only talking about hair dye, so she dyes her hair – yes folks its true I do – BUT I found grey hair!

Off I ran to Boots to see what specials in hair colorant they were offering. I only usually dye my hair every 4 months or so due to both finance and laziness, now it looks to be a more frequent thing in the light of my new discovery.

Amidst the huge range of hair colorants I found a beautifully package, under the name of ‘daniel galvin’. I say beautifully packaged, as usually hair dyes come in the standard ‘box’. This product came in a rather attractive – but simply designed, opaque bag, with a pastel green cardboard insert describing the contents.

Getting into this lovely designed package was a feat in itself (no I didn’t need a map!). The plastic the bag is made from is very tough, made all the more difficult by having a tough plastic bar code sticker over it! Once into the bag, I thought I had bought some fancy cosmetics rather than hair dye. There is a 45ml bottle of cream developer, with a screw top and my favourite part of the whole deal an easy screw off nozzle. How many people when dying their hair have battled to snap or snip off the nozzle to have dye fly across the bathroom? Well daniel galvin, bless his small initials, has come up with the easiest screw in the chemists! Also contained in the package is ‘toothpaste style’ tube of colorant. The reason I liken this to a toothpaste tube is that it is plastic, therefore easy to remove all the colour by squeezing or rolling the tube down. Once the colour and the developer have been mixed together remove the easy screw nozzle.

Also contained within the package is a box – not sure how to describe this, but similar in style to a spectacle case. Inside you will find the al
l-important destruction’s on how to apply the dye, how long to leave it on etc. The instructions are printed on rather high quality paper – almost like card, unlike the tracing paper quality instructions in some hair dyes, which combine those flimsy plastic gloves on them as well! Alongside the instructions are tips from the daniel galvin salon, these are actually quite handy to know not to mention interesting. The gloves are fabulous quality now, this is something that has improved overall with most hair dyes, rather than the thin ‘sandwich bag’ gloves that leaked and ripped. Most companies have taken on board suggestions to provide better quality gloves, yes I have resorted to marigolds in the past! You are also provided with a cap to place over the hair as it develops, this is a first for me as I usually resort to a freezer bag or carrier bag! The final component of the package is the finishing product. This is where daniel galvin has let himself down badly! The ‘colour protect protein complex’ comes in a 10ml sachet. I would have thought after putting so much obvious thought in to their packaging they could have come up with something a little more impressive than a paper sachet!

All in all the packaging is the most impressive I have seen in a long time for hair dye. The colour is subtle the text understated the instructions are high quality and you get a cap and good quality gloves to boot.

Now to the application – the instuctions tell you to cover clothes with a towel and all the usual precautions such as wash off the skin immediately etc. Well can anyone out there tell me how on earth I am supposed to look at the floor, part my hair into four sections and keep a towel in place and apply the cream? No didn’t think so! Instead of using the towel, I opted for lashings of Vaseline all over my neck, arms, shoulders and face. Applying the cream is quite easy; it is quite thick, but very easily spre
ad into the hair. After applying a small amount comb it through the hair from roots to end to ensure good coverage. NOW this is where my biggest problem came in. You apply the crème to dry hair, which is great as with the thickness of the crème you don’t drip. But when combing it through the hair, it makes the hair feel very coarse, so the comb ‘flicks’ drops of dye EVERYWHERE! My bath was speckled with little brown drops when I turned round! Fortunately I was quick with the cloth, but the shower curtain is ruined.

After using the crème place the plastic cap over your hair. Now I don’t know just how big daniel galvins head is – but to say you could line the average family wastebin with the cap is about right! Anyway cap in place, fixed with staples – ok I couldn’t find anything else, a rubber band would probably be just as good, I sat down to wait my 30 minutes, for the colour to develop. I always put a bag on my head to stop the drips running down my neck, apparently the cap is advised as the natural heat from the head assists the colour develop.

After 30 minutes, no longer no shorter, rinse your hair thoroughly to remove as much colour as you can. Then shampoo with your shampoo and apply the provided sachet on conditioner to your hair. Believe you me 10ml of shampoo is NOT enough. My hair felt like straw stuck together with mud after rinsing the colorant out. I applied the conditioner as best I could, even opening up the sachet to get every last bit out! I must admit though a little did go a long way in the end. If you have hair past your shoulders though, you may need more conditioner. After rinsing out the conditioner I combed and dried my hair. I was impressed with the conditioning action, my hair felt soft, looked shiny and smelt lovely! None of that nasty ammonia smell you get with a lot of hair dye products.

Was I happy with the colour? Yes I was, I have very dark brown, almost black hai
r and many colorants don’t show on my hair. I went for a mahogany colour, and it has highlighted my hair beautifully, it feels wonderfully silky, looks healthy and smells perfumed - not chemically.

The price of the dye is quite expensive at £6.29; I actually paid £3.15 for it in a sale at Boots. The packaging is quite opulent and makes you feel like you are spoiling yourself with something sensational. I think the design of the bottles in particular the screw top nozzle idea is excellent and other hair dye manufacturers should take note. I would use daniel galvin again, but only if it was on special offer, as I feel that paying £6.29 is a hell of a lot for a nice package and beautiful looking hair, when I can get the same hair result with a cheaper version.

Summary: