I’ve gone marakech (Schwartzkopf Country Colours)

Member Name: Shazzy

Product:	Schwartzkopf Country Colours
Date:	21/03/02 (1560 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy application

Disadvantages: The box doesn't tell you that you can't use it on streaked or henna'd hair

I’ve got long, dark brown hair. That’s it. It’s just long and dark brown. Oh, and it’s straight. Not a kink in it anywhere. So there you go. Long, straight, dark brown hair.

I like my hair. I’ve not started to go grey yet (okay, I’ve pulled out a couple but hey, I’m 41 so what more can you expect?) and it generally looks pretty healthy. Right now, it could do with a good cut, but I hate going to the hairdresser, so it’s just long, straight and dark brown.

Or is it?

No! It isn’t! Not anymore. Not since I dyed it a couple of weeks ago.

It was a whim thing. I was walking around Wilkinson’s when I suddenly decided to change my hair colour. I didn’t want to do anything drastic, but I definitely wanted a change.

Now I’ve had a few colours in my hair over the years, ranging from blonde streaks to purple all over. I’ve even tried black, which I actually quite liked, but mostly I’ve been dark brown. This time I fancied something red. Not carrot coloured or anything too flaming; something close to my own colour but with a bit more warmth to it.

After browsing the shelves for a while, I decided to go for a semi-permanent colour. I didn’t want to have to worry about roots in the future, but I didn’t want something that was going to wash out within a couple of weeks either. That’s basically why I chose Schwarzkopf Country Colors, which is a tone-on-tone colourant, whatever that means. There are three varieties to choose from, one that’s permanent, one that’s semi-permanent and should last up 24 washes, and one that washes out.

Right, now that I know the type of hair colour I want, it’s time to choose the actual colour. There are plenty of colours to choose from in the semi-permanent range, ranging from golden blondes, through browns and reds to black. I chose Marakech, which looked as though it&#
8217;d be dark, reddish brown. Just the ticket!

Home again and upstairs to the bathroom. There was no time to waste; I wanted to get my colour done NOW! I’m like that you see. Once I’ve made my mind up, there’s no hanging around.

Full of excitement, I opened the box (I must lead a boring life) and peeked inside. What did I find? A sheet of instructions with plastic gloves attached, an odd shaped bottle, an odd shaped sort-of bottle type thing, and a tube. Hmm… not the sort of bottles I would’ve expected to find. That things aren’t the way you’d expect them to be isn’t always a bad thing though. These bottles were odd shapes because of the simplicity of the system. You just take the smaller odd-shaped bottle looking thing (contains the colour lotion) and screw it into the bottom of the bigger bottle type thing (contains the crème developer). You then turn the whole thing upside down so that the contents of the smaller wotsit can mix with the contents of the bigger one, twirl them about a bit to get a good mix, remove the cap and off you go.

The colour has to be applied to dry hair, and although the box said that those with long hair should use two packs, I only actually needed one. My hair was drenched in the stuff after applying one lot so where I’d put the other lot is a mystery to me. If you’ve got hair down to your waist, then you might well need two packs, but if your hair’s below the shoulder type length then one pack is all you’ll need. Don’t be fooled into buying two like I was.

I’ll have to admit that I didn’t do the skin sensitivity test thing so I didn’t know whether I was about to come out in dreadful sores all over my head. I know we’re supposed to do these tests, but I really did want to dye my hair NOW!!! If the truth be known, I’ve never done one of those tests. Not since the very first time I dyed my hair abo
ut 25 years ago. I’m still alive, and luckily I didn’t come out in sores this time either. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do the test though. You should. The packet says so.

The colour went on nicely. The applicator was very easy to use and the colour itself was nice and creamy, not at all runny. I did get some on my forehead, ears and neck, but that was because I wasn’t careful, not because it ran. It came off easily enough with soap, and don’t we all make a bit of a mess of home hair colouring?

The colour has to be left on for 20-30 minutes. Now that’s the bit that always gets me. It takes me about 15 minutes to cover my hair with colour, which means that the bits that get done first will have had colour on them for 45 minutes by the time I wash it all off. I always leave it on for the maximum time y’see, which always leaves me worrying that I’ll be left with large chunks of VERY coloured hair, and the rest normally coloured. Or worse – some of my hair might frizzle up and disintegrate.

Anyway, I left it for 30 minutes and returned to the bathroom to wash it all off again. You don’t have to shampoo as the dye itself lathers up when you put water on it, but believe me, it takes ages to get it all out. My bathroom looked like a pig had been slaughtered in it by the time I’d finished. I’m a bit messy y’see. I did hold my head over the sink, but I’m not very good at being still in odd positions and I suppose one turn of the head would be enough for my hair to swoosh about a bit and chuck some colour up the wall. Never mind. Worse things have happened at sea.

Once the water ran reasonably clear, I used the tube of conditioner that’s supplied with the colour. I’d expected my hair to feel all soft and lovely afterwards; it usually does after colouring, and as this one contains beeswax and wheat protein, I thought I’d be left wi
th wonderfully healthy looking hair. Not so. It actually felt a bit greasy and limp and I had to wash it all over again using my regular shampoo and conditioner.

And so for the result. Was it any good? Well a certain special somebody who wasn’t too keen on the idea of me colouring my hair, said it looked nice, so it can’t be that bad. It isn’t quite the colour I’d expected, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. It’s dark and it has a reddish tone and that’s what I’d wanted after all. The certain special somebody said that the colour looked a bit too uniform; that you can tell it’s not real because natural hair colour has variation. Fair enough. I don’t know about you but I don’t expect dyed hair to look natural. It’s like make-up. Everybody knows that green eyelids and purple lips aren’t natural but does it really matter?

Evidently, Country Colours covers up to 50% grey hair, which is handy if you’re sick of the way men look distinguished but women just look dowdy with grey hair. And let’s face it, grey hair does generally look better on blokes, doesn’t it? Although I’m not grey yet, I’m pretty sure I’m going to look dowdy when it does happen, and I’m damned if I’ll go along with that! Once the grey takes over, I’ll probably dye my hair bright pink and embark on my ‘growing old disgracefully’ mission.

The list of ingredients is loooooong. I won’t bother with them here because it’d take me a month of Sunday’s to type them out, I’d doubtless make umpteen spelling mistakes and you probably wouldn’t bother to read that bit anyway. I shouldn’t imagine many of us would have a clue what any of it meant either. It doesn’t contain ammonia though.

If your hair’s highlighted or streaked, you shouldn’t use it. The same goes for metallic dy
es and hennas. The box doesn’t tell you this though. You have to read the enclosed leaflet to find out whether or not you can use it. If my hair had been streaked or henna’ed, I wouldn’t have been too impressed at having to take it back just because the Schwarzkopf company couldn’t tell me whether or not I can use it on the OUTSIDE of the pack. Germans! Hmmph!

Schwarzkopf say that none of their products are tested on animals but as they purchase chemicals throughout Europe, they can’t be certain of the testing procedures used by their suppliers.

All in all I was satisfied with this product. It was very easy to use with minimal mess (thanks to the strange bottle type wotsits, remember?), coloured evenly, didn’t smell too bad and has now been through about 10 washes without any fading. The RRP is £5.29 but I paid £2.48 at Wilkinson’s. At that price I really can’t see any reason to quibble.


~~+~~+~~

Summary: