Illegally Blonde (Garnier Nutrisse)

Member Name: Lizzy8

Product:	Garnier Nutrisse
Date:	26/08/05 (3056 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Natural looking results, no stinging, doesn't drip, price .

Disadvantages: The smell

I've a confession to make.... I'm not a natural blonde.

I've been colouring my hair since the age of sixteen, deciding to go brunette a few months back, and then changing back again after deciding that blondes do have more fun. I've used the same old trusted brand of hair colour for years, it did the job and never let me down, but after a trip to my local chemist and my initial panic over them not stocking my usual brand, I had the choice of either, trying a different hair colour, or taking a trip into town to hunt out the hair colour I had always used..... I'm lazy, a different brand it would have to be.

After looking through the wide selection of options, I finally settled for 'Garnier Nutrisse Cream' permanent hair colour, in shade 90 (light natural blonde), priced at £4.29, the girl on the front of the box had lovely long blonde hair too... "Haa!" I thought to myself with bitter resentment, "how often do we actually end up with the exact colour of hair as the girl on the box, I bet she was born that way... ". After glaring at her for a few seconds more, I headed for the checkout.

Now, there is always a fine line when you come to colouring your hair blonde... If you get it right, you will get that lovely, natural looking, golden blonde hair, like glamorous Hollywood actress Charlize Theron. Or you could get it wrong, and end up with the 'trashy' look, like Christina Aguilera, or Britney Spears. It's important to choose the right shade for you, and not to pick a drasticly lighter shade if you want the natural look.

===== The Product =====

Garnier Nutrisse Cream hair colour is enriched with fruit oil and nurishing ingredients - i'm not sure what these are, but it sounds good. In the box you will find an applictor bottle of developer milk, a tube of nurishing colour cream, a sachet of nourishing after colour conditioner and an instruction leaflet with green (green?) gloves attached to it.

The instruction leaflet is very straight forward and advises you not to use if you have already experienced a reaction to a hair colourant before, or if you have a sensitive, itchy or a damaged scalp, it also says if you have a Tattoo, you may be at greater risk of allergy. Now, perhaps all of these years of being a fake blonde has started to affect me, but I found that really confusing, can anyone tell me why having a tattoo can put you at a higher risk of allergy from a hair colour? It also advises you to perform a skin sensitivity test 48 hours before using the product, but like I said, i'm lazy, so I skipped the skin sensitivity test and got straight onto mixing the colour.

Simple instructions are given on how to mix the hair colour and then you are ready to apply. After applying the hair colour, all that is left to do is sit and wait for 25 minutes (or longer if your hair is particularly resistant, or if you have a lot of grey hair) on it developing, while choking on the hydrogen peroxide fumes (something you will get with most hair colours, although I must admit, the smell and fumes from this were not as bad as some hair colours I have used!).

Something that still makes me anxious when using a permanent hair colourant, is the stinging sensation you sometimes get. I once experienced this to the extreme when I was using a hair colour a few years back, as I sat there, waiting on the colour developing, I had noticed a slight stinging sensation, which soon built up to a very strong burning feeling on my scalp. I remember rushing the the bathroom, franticly washing the colour out, while grabbing my hair and making sure it was still attached to my head at the same time. So needless to say, I was on my guard, ready to run to the bathroom should it happen again, but there were no problems with this, you could almost forget you had it on your hair if it were not for the smell. The colour doesn't drip, or run down your face either.

===== The result =====

After the 25 minute development time was up, I thoroughly rinsed the colour out of my hair and applied the after colour nourishing conditioner, which smelt gorgeous, and massaged it into my hair. I left it for another 2 minuites before rinsing again. I took a quick glance in the mirror, relieved that at least my hair had not turned green and then went off to blow dry it, so that I could see the full results.

After my hair was completely dry, I looked in the mirror and studied the results. I was very impressed. My hair was a gorgeous, golden shade of blonde, it was shiny and it looked very healthy! My colour even survived wash after wash with no fading. After all these years of being stuck in a rut with my usual hair colour, I had actually found something much better!

Garnier Nutrisse Cream is also perfect if you want to cover 100% of grey hair (something I don't need to worry about just yet) and comes in a wide range of colours to suit everyone, if you fancy a complete change, or just want to enhance your own natural colour, then give it a try, although I will say it again - blondes DO have more fun!

Recommended.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: Natural looking results that don't fade.