Thursday 16 September 2010

Hair Traumas

Eek! Sorry it's been a while. I am a baaad blogger! I have loads to do in the way of reviews, tutorials and general ramblings but for today my focus is all about hair, the things we put it through, and the trauma it suffers! This is on my mind as, over the weekend, much to the dismay of my mother and boyfriend I decided that my ends were looking a little ginger and decided to whack on an at-home dye to cover my highlights. It'll be a while before I go to the salon again and this seemed the most logical thing to do. Well, how mistaken was I. I applied a shade of dark blonde and left it for 15 minutes, half the recommended time. Foolproof plan I thought, leaving it in for the whole time would surely make my hair way too dark (this has happened more times than I care to remember in the past!) and so I proceeded in my merry way :) Unbelievably, the result was STILL too dark. I was brunette again, and this did not please me to say the least. I spent the first part of this week moping and complaining that I wanted to be blonde again, to the extent that I went to Superdrug with my Mum in search of a remedy. This is what I found:

http://www.boots.com/en/Colour-B4.-Hair-Colour-Remover-by-Scott-Cornwall-hair-expert._1000978/

I had read about this product before and it seemed too good to be true, but given the situation I was willing to try it. The little leaflet said that it works by shrinking hair dye molecules and allowing them to be washed away without affecting your natural hair colour. All very sciencey. I haven't seen my natural colour for years, so I was just after getting rid of the last dye I put on and restoring my blonde to it's former glory :) The instructions were as follows:

1> Must be used on clean dry hair free of other products. Cue a wash and blow dry to rid it of all the hairspray and dry shampoo I had used that morning!

2> Apply colour remover for 20 mins max. then rinse for 10 mins. In this case I have to say 10 minutes felt like an hour! My hair also felt a little rough and straw-like which was weird considering it says ion the instructions that it doesn't damage hair? hmm.

3> Apply buffer, lather for a minute, rinse for 5, followed by another buffer application and 5 more minutes of rinsing. This is where I started to worry. When rinsing the first lot of buffer out I couldn't believe the state of my hair :/ it felt matted, tangled and SO dry, I had a major panic and decided to slather it with deep conditioning mask for the next 5 minutes! So, no second stage of buffering, but I reckon I rescued my hair from the brink as it would not have tolerated another layer of that buffer!

Regardless, it actually turned out ok. I have been left with a pleasing shade of honey-blonde which is only a tiny bit more subdued than the blonde I started with. The ginger ends are gone - yay! And I will be staying away from the boxes of home-dye for the forseeable future :) My verdict? Excellent for lifting an unwanted colour, but be prepared for your hair to take a battering. It's fine now, nice and soft and shiny, but what I felt when washing the buffer out was comparable to a full head of bleach left on for a while.

Colour B4 cost me 9.99 from Superdrug, they also do an extra-strength formula at 11.99.



I promise not to leave it so long this time! Will blog soon :)
Lucy x