Have you killed someone in the bathroom? (L'Oréal Feria Colour)

Member Name: Walli10

Product:	L'Oréal Feria Colour
Date:	15/05/01 (2160 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Effective and easy

Disadvantages: A bit pricey, Sometimes difficult to find

asked my flatmate the first couple of times I dyed my hair red. It is amazing just how much colour can come out of one small bottle, and how little of it can actually end up on your hair. This is kind of an occupational hazard when dying your hair, especially if it's quite long, like mine. I'm better at not splattering the basin now but that is only after many years of experimenting and refining my technique. And it's on this basis that I think I'm now quite well placed to review hairdye - and to say that this is the best I've found.

I'm not sure why I bought it the first time, especially as it's a bit pricey. Certainly a couple of quid more than I would normally pay. Probably the chemist didn't have anything else in the colour I wanted, which is a red/auburn to tint my dark brown hair rather than change it radically.

And to start with, I didn't notice a difference. Feria's the same as other hair dyes in that you have to faff around with little bottles and those crappy plastic gloves before you can get going. In particular, youi have to do tht thing where you get the blue bottle filled with dark stuff and kind of screw it into the bigger bottle with white stuff in it - you'll just have to trust me that the instructions are good enough for you to do this without any problems. The key thing is that when it says break the top off the bigger bottle AS SOON as you screw the smaller bottle in, they mean it. It will explode if you don't. This hasn't happened to me but it happened to a friend and suffice to say it's very messy indeed. Plus you have to buy a new kit and start over.


Now, if your hair is towel-dried and you've got a top on you don't care about (or better still, no top at all) you can get going. As soon as you do, the superiority of this dye becomes apparent. It's got a lovely gloopy consistency, thick enough to be controllable and runny enough not to go into c
lumps or splatter the bath (tho' you do need to be careful with anything). It also smells really nice, which is a very pleasant change compared to most hair dye. You get heaps in the bottle so there's more than enough to cover all your hair (a problem for me, as mine is quite long) and you only have to leave it on for half an hour.

When the time comes to rinse, the excess colour washes out really quickly and you can tell even when your hair is wet whether it's worked properly. And then comes the piece de resistance: the conditioner. This stuff is glorious, gloopy and silky and it makes your hair quite incredibly soft. I'd actually buy it separately if I could, but as far as I know it's not available. You can get away with not using it if you're in a hurry, but I wouldn't recommend it.

As with most dyes, you have to be prepared to have a fair bit more colour come out the first time you wash it afterwards, so going swimming or something immediately isn't such a great idea. I went straight to the gym after doing mine once, and didn't understand what the problem was until I saw everyone staring at me, looked down and realised the communal showers looked like something out of psycho.

And the colour lasts too. It's thick and rich and glossy and fades just enough that my roots don't show, and if you re-dye then it evens everything up. It actually makes your hair look like something out of an ad, to the point where you might even want to walk down the street swishing it about.

In short, it's a top product and well worth the extra quid or so. My only quibble, and it's a minor one, is that I'd really appreciate a shower cap to cover my hair while I'm waiting for the dye to take - otherwise it drips, and cling film is so fiddly. But then perhaps perfection is a bit much to ask for £6.50.

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