Confessions of a Literary Addict

Note: this is being tested on previously processed (bleached about twice, I would say) and colored (Shark Blue from Ion Brilliance Brights) hair.

Like many other people out there who color their hair unusual colors, I hate having to go through the process of bleaching my roots and slapping on some dye (usually for the entirety of the day so I can get the longest color payoff, after having pre-conditioned my hair for a whole day the day before so the bleaching wouldn’t destroy it) every time some normal-colored hair peeks through.

Actually, that’s kind of a lie. Since my hair is short and curly, it takes a while for my roots to actually show, so I have a horrible habit of waiting until I can’t stand it anymore to actually go through the bleaching/coloring process.

Anyway, it sucks and I hate it. So, naturally, I was amazed, thrilled, and 120% skeptical when L’Oréal released boxed pastel hair dye. But, since the alternative was immediately going through the bleach-and-dye process for my overgrown roots, I decided to put on my procrastination pants and try out this dye on previously bleached + naturally-darker-than-the-recommended-color hair.

Here are my results:

Pre-dye job, with previously bleached and faded-out Shark Blue hair. (It never keeps well at the bottom, I need to start letting that process a little more.)

It’s a little difficult to tell from the pictures, but my hair is darker than the recommended color at the roots. I have ashy light brown/ashy blonde-ish hair a few shades darker than that darkest blonde color. I wasn’t expecting it to do anything to my roots (and it didn’t), but I did have some dark bleached blonde hair at my nape that better matched what I was supposed to have when using this. You don’t need to have bleached hair when using this, and I actually think it’s probably better if you don’t (or, if you do, very barely bleached into the blonde range).

It had a very dark processing color. Again, I think it’s because this is for non-bleached blondes, so less porous hair.

Very, very dark at the top, not even remotely like the box. I blame this on already having blue-toned hair and the hair itself being very porous due to bleaching, which allowed a lot more of the color to sink in than what probably should have sunk in if I hadn’t had bleached hair. And, like I said, it didn’t even touch my roots. In the back there it came out much closer to the intended color, which is why I think it would be better for less-processed hair, but don’t hold me to that.

So, the verdict?

Nah. Won’t be buying again, and wouldn’t be able to use it even if I didn’t bleach my hair. I don’t mind the blue tone it did give me, but I can get much better color payoff by doing the coloring myself, even if I weren’t bleaching my roots. Box dye just doesn’t set right on my hair, and it always goes better if I do it myself.

… I might try the pink one sometime. We’ll see. I need to grow this mess out before I do anything.