As I've mentioned on this blog, I'm struggling to find a way to dye my ombre purple. I've tried a high street bright purple dye which came out a strange pinky colour, which I couldn't wait to wash out. I was recommended more alternative, less widely available brands like Crazy Color as my ombre isn't bleached white, it's more burnt orange, and when Hunt Or Dye offered me the opportunity to try a dye from their range, I jumped for Crazy Color's Hot Purple.
Please excuse the attire - this is my 'hair dying nightie', which has taken a fair battering over the last decade. I have a splodge on there for every colour hair I've been in my life so far. It's one of those achievements in life I don't like to show off.
Hearing all my fellow bloggers recommending Crazy Color for not-quite-blonde hair, I had the highest hopes, even though I was happy for it to come out a bit darker than the 'hot' purple label, purely because my hair was halfway between blonde and brown. I couldn't go too wrong, right?
Well umm... I could. I guess I'm just not meant to have bright hair!
So it as good as turned my hair back to black, with the odd very very dark purple streak. This photo is where it hits the light the best, but in reality it very rarely shows up purple, it's all black from where I'm standing. Not that I'm complaining actually, as it's coming into autumn, I'm growing tired of my summer ombre so it's nice to have an alternative colour - plus if any of you have had an ombre before, you'll know how hard it is to redo your roots when you're trying to avoid coating the lighter parts of your hair...
As for the dye itself, it was a dream to work with. Although it's a shame it didn't come with gloves, as I'm used to with boxed dyes from the drugstore, but thankfully my mum had some lying around or I'd have found myself using my dad's industrial strength nitrile gloves, which really aren't the most comfortable things in the world, believe me.
I took one look at the bottle and thought 'nah, this'll never touch half of my ombre, nevermind my entire head', but actually, if I'd wanted to cover my head, I could've done. I managed to absolutely soak my entire ombre with the amount of product in the bottle. It really amazed me that so much dye squished into such a little bottle! So if you had shorter hair than mine and needed a dye that's going to last you, Crazy Color does that. I'm still baffled that you don't need to throw it away after you've used it, you can save it for another day - I've lived off drugstore dyes for far too long!
I may just be converted over to alternative dye brands after this, because it's definitely given a vibrant colour, but I've yet to discover it's life span, although it states about 5 washes, I figure this dark colour could linger a little more. Of course, I'm more partial to a permanent dye, but this is the one I'd go for if I had lighter hair to play around with awesome colours. Their shade range is unbelievably huge, so you really are spoilt for choice, if you have blonde hair of course.
If you use the hashtag #tweetordye and let @HuntOrDyeUK know what dye you'd love to try and why, you could be in with a chance of winning it!
* Dye sent for review
Its a veg dye so it only comes in one bottle . Any colour with no developer i.e the second bottle wont need to be thrown away as it does not need an activator to work . Basically its just a stain. But because it does not have a developer it cant lighten your hair. To do this you would need quite a high lift product. If you want to do this for your ends and you don't want to bleach your hair I thoroughly recommend Affinage B Red they do a Magenta or a red violet and either will go a purple colour http://www.amazon.co.uk/Affinage-B-Red-Violet/dp/B00BTI1J84/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1381333919&sr=8-15&keywords=affinage you can get them at this link. You mix them 1:1 with a 40vol developer you can get anywhere even on amazon. Or you can do the same with Loreals Majicontrast colours. To be honest its hard to get pure purple to take on non bleached hair its much easier with the red colours.
ReplyDeleteFor example the red hair you can see in my avatar here is all done with no bleach. By using the products I mentioned. x
DeleteYou should try the La Riche Directions, as they are much better than crazy colours and take much better to darker hair. As mentioned above you'll struggle to get a vivid colour without lightening first, but they give much brighter longer-lasting colours in general x
ReplyDeleteIt's still pretty. Have you tried Directions Plum? It can stain/run like buggery, but I remember it being a fairly dark purple that covered well and lasted a pretty long time on my hair back when I used it. It might do a better job of covering the red. Also, make sure you're not using any conditioner on your hair before dying, and the longer you leave 'em the better. No developer means you can leave the dye on for ages without damage :)
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