I'm a Tiger (Superdrug Performance Permanent)

Member Name: lwperkins

Product:	Superdrug Performance Permanent
Date:	13/03/03 (284 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Good quality

Disadvantages: Difficult, Time consuming

I have seasonal hair! It changes colour every few months just like the leaves on the trees (although it never goes green ? well very rarely anyway!) But unlike the leaves Mother Nature has very little to do with my seasonal variations!

I tend to go with baby blonde in the summer when the sun gives me a helping hand, but recently I?ve been having slightly more sophisticated ?Buffy Blonde? highlights. I?ve been having them done in a salon, but since I?ve been a student this has seemed like unnecessary excess.
So I decided, I?d do my own highlights. After all it looks easy enough when my hairdresser does it. And thus my tale of woe begins?

I had a few hair dye disasters when I was younger, so I was understandably quite apprehensive about doing my own hair. The lady in Superdrug reliably informed me that formulations have improved drastically in recent years. Home hair dye is apparently now easy and hassle free.

I purchased Superdrug?s own brand product ?Performance Permanent Colour? Highlights. The woman on the box had hair exactly the same colour as mine when I?ve just been to the hairdressers. Not that I?m so naïve as to think that the photo?s on hair dye boxes are accurate, but I thought with highlights it would be fine because its not as drastic as all over colour?How wrong I was!!

I was quite impressed with the contents of the box. Superdrug own brand products are at the lower end of the pricing scale (£3.99 which was the cheapest kit available) and I therefore expected the bare basics, but I was pleasantly surprised.
The box contains powder highlighter and developer and a mixing tray, a conditioning sachet, gloves, hat, and brush.
The instruction leaflet that accompanies it is clear and comprehensive.

The hat is really good quality made of thick plastic with ties for fastening it under the chin. (And as such could double up as a rain hat in an emergency).It is full of tiny holes for pulling through strands
of hair for colouring.
It looks totally ridiculous; so don?t expect to retain even a shed of dignity during this procedure.
The gloves are also good quality. They are big and long, but didn?t slip about and I didn?t get any rogue dye on my arms.

You get a little hook thing in the kit, like a crochet hook which I assumed was for pulling the hair through the holes in the hat, but it could have been to help pass the time in an arts and crafts sort of way whilst the dye was doing its job.
Not being the world?s greatest crocheter I chose to use it for pulling my hair through the hat. It?s a job that takes the hairdresser no time at all, but it took me two hours!! Yes, two hours! It was so difficult to get the hang of. It isn?t painful, just fiddly and you end up looking like some sort of mad professor!

The powder and developer mix up easily and when it was ready it has the consistency of grout mixed with butter cream (not that I have ever mixed grout with butter cream, I can?t imagine any scenario when I would have the need to either!)
It contains peroxide but doesn?t have a really strong smell and unlike some other peroxide based products I?ve used it didn?t make my eyes stream. But remember it will strip the colour from towels, clothes and carpets so care should be taken when applying it.
You apply it with a little brush and wait?

Waiting time depends on how long your initial stand text indicated to leave the mixture on. I left it for the maximum time of 50 minutes. It didn?t feel at all uncomfortable.
Then I came to wash it off?

And I was stripy!! Very alarming!
For some reason it was black and orange stripes!! I have no idea where the black bits came from; it hadn?t got any to start with!
My hair also felt really dry and brittle. I had a few moments of panic trying to untangle it thinking it was going to snap off. But the conditioning sachet was brilliant and my hair felt really soft after I?d applie
d it.
But still the problem that I looked like I was advertising Frosties!

A few tears later and common sense kicked in!! I had plenty of the original mixture left so I started again and reapplied and this time it was fine. Buffy eat your heart out!!

This was a good product for the money although given the choice I wouldn?t put myself through the trauma again. Hairdressing is blatantly not my forte and I know when to quit!!

Summary: