I have been an avid fan of dying my hair for as long as I can remember and having naturally medium/ dark brown hair I have tried every colour from peroxide blonde to bright red. I am therefore well acquainted with the hair dye section at my local Boots. Due to the amount of dye that my hair had experienced over the years I was drawn to this product as it gives a semi-permanent colour without ammonia, thus I thought shouldn't be too damaging.

The Product ~

The product is packaged in a standard sized cardboard box, which shows a glossy model on the front with perfect hair and illustrates the colour that you can expect to achieve with your current hair colour on the back of the box. Having spent time growing out my hair I selected the mahogany colour 550 option to give a glossy red finish, however this product does come in a variety of options which range from light blonde tints to dark brown and black shades which provide a semi-permanent colour and lasts up to 28 washes depending on how often you wash your hair.

The Price ~

Being priced at around the £5.99 price tag means that this hair dye does not fall into the cheap hair dyes on the market and is therefore a middle of the range product.

Application ~

Upon opening the box you are presented with two bottles of formula the crème colorant and the developer crème, a bottle of conditioner, a pair of flimsy latex gloves and a rather lengthy instruction leaflet. It is advised that you do read this leaflet and do perform the strand test and sensitivity test behind your ear 48 hours before applying the hair colour to your head. However this is made difficult by two factors, one that you have to open and mix the two bottles of formula together so that you can perform the strand and sensitivity test and two, that the leaflet advises that upon mixing the formulas should be used as soon as possible and should not be left to sit. Therefore you have to try and put a drip of both and mix in a separate mixing bowl to do your early tests, why they haven't though of providing a small tester bottle in the kit is beyond my limited scope as a hairdresser novice.

Once satisfied that you are not allergic to the formula and are happy with the colour, the two formula bottles should be mixed together in the larger of the two bottles the developer crème. The crème colorant should literally be poured in and then the combined contents shaken to ensure that the two mix well together. On the top of the developer crème bottle is a nozzle which can then be unscrewed to apply the formula to your head. Once mixed the formula is of a medium consistency, the benefit of which being that it will not drip of your head and neither is it too gloopy. It also has a pleasant fragrance which is slightly fruity although not as nice as some of the other hair dye products on the market.

From experience, it is best to divide the hair into sections to ensure that you can totally cover every strand of hair and to wear the gloves to prevent dying your hands. The bottle is usually more than enough for my medium length hair and therefore could stretch to long hair if needed. The hair should be wet and towel dried and from experience it is usually best to use on hair that has been washed a day before application.

Upon leaving on for 20 minutes (or as the box says depending on desired colour) the product should be thoroughly rinsed from the hair, towel dried and then conditioner applied before a final rinse.

My Experience ~

As previously mentioned I bought this dye to add a touch of flare to my hair which had been left to grow out for several months. I found the entire application process relatively straightforward and not dissimilar to any other hair dye kit on the DIY market. The colour did take quite a while to rinse out and took several minutes of showering for the water to turn a very light pink, and afterwards my hair did feel slightly starchy. However the conditioner which I left on for one minute let my hair soft and very shiny.

I was quite dissatisfied with the colour results however. The colour on the box promised a deep red result and upon blow drying my hair I was left with a very dark brown. This took several days of washing to reach the intended shade.

Unfortunately being semi-permanent, I found that by the time I reached my desired shade I was already about 6 washes in and therefore could not expect to keep this colour for the 28 washes intended. Additionally, although this hair dye does not have any ammonia and promises to condition the hair, upon washing for 28 washes I was left with hair that was slightly lighter in colour to my natural hair colour, so it obviously did some damage.

I am therefore scoring this hair dye 3 stars out of 5 as it failed to impress with the overall results.

Thank-you for taking the time to read my review.

This review is also posted on Ciao under the same user name.