Monday 9 February 2015

I dyed my hair!

It's spring time* and I needed some change...

*by which I mean: I finally took the Christmas tree down and the sun is shining!

... so I decided to change my hair.

I've never dyed my hair myself before, but I actually really dislike going to the hairdressers because it makes me feel so vulnerable. There was a phase in my life when I would actually cut my hair myself because I didn't trust the hairdresser to do it properly. Thankfully, after many disappointing and expensive trips to various hair salons, I have finally found a fantastic Polish salon where I've always got good service and they have managed to make my very difficult hair look great. But those disappointing salon experiences have taught me to be really nervous about other people touching my hair, so I wanted to learn to dye my own hair.

I started getting my hair dyed when I was 12, because it was the thing to do in the small Finnish town that I come from. "No one" had natural hair there. And I didn't want to stick out that much — I was already getting bullied enough for other reasons. But after I moved out of Finland I've let my natural highway grey, maantien harmaa, hair colour grow back and I've been pretty content with it.

My natural hair colour.

So this time, instead of being ashamed of my natural hair colour, I decided to dye my hair out of curiosity. I wanted to try what I would look like with another hair colour.

I meant to buy a permanent colour and checked what they were selling on Boots.com. They appeared to have some serious problems with their website and Boots Botanics Non-Permanent Hair Dye came up when I looked for a permanent hair-dye. I really liked the colour Palest Oatmeal Light Blonde and I didn't find this colour in the permanent section. Because it was cheap, I figured that I could just go and buy that one as a practice hair-dye. After all, I had no idea whether I would even manage to get it on my head. Maybe it was a mistake to choose the cheapest hair dye in found... But this is what I went with.

Batiste dry shampoo bottle did not come with the box.

I bought two boxes because I had read that sometimes you may need two boxes to dye longer hair. Each box contained conditioning hair colour, developing lotion, enriching after colour conditioner and gloves. To me all of those things sounded awfully similar and it took me a while to identify which ones I was supposed to mix together. Why could they not just call them "developer", "colourant" and "conditioner"?

I did my best at following instructions but actually made a mistake when I was trying to test whether I'm allergic to this hair dye or not. I was supposed to mix one teaspoon of the colourant with one teaspoon of the developing lotion, but I opened the whole cap of the colourant instead of the tiny tip of the cap. I poured too much out, freaked out and posted a Facebook status about it. My Facebook friends provided me with some great advice and moral support and I managed to mix the hair dye and got it all over my hair and nowhere else. 


Although, I had bought two boxes, I only used one. There was enough dye for covering my hair. The dye didn't smell too bad or make my head itch or eyes hurt. The box had some serious claims for a non-permanent hair dye though. It promised to make even brown hair blonde. I was feeling fairly sceptical about these claims, but since I figured that my hair was probably closer to "dark blonde", I gave it a chance.


I let it develop for 20 minutes as instructed before I rinsed it off and used the conditioner that came in the box. 

... Then I spent quite a lot of time analysing whether my hair colour actually even changed.


... Maybe it somehow looked more even? It seemed maybe a little bit more brown? Not darker or lighter, but just a little bit less grey. I guess non-permanent hair dye just can't do much to my hair. People did tell me that it's impossible to make your hair more blonde without just bleaching it, but of course I was rebellious and way too curious not to test the box's claims anyway.

When the sun came up the next day I analysed my hair in my kitchen where I had taken the photos of my hair before I had dyed it. Do you think it looks even a little bit different from what it was? 

 
I was a bit too excited about my little experiment and hair dying experience to even be disappointed that the dye didn't do more than that. The dye was quite conditioning, but if anyone wants to use the same one I advice you only to use it if your hair already is lighter than what you want to dye it to. The Botanics line has some other shades as well, all of them look like natural hair colours.
Result?

When I compared my hair against the sun, I could see that it did actually give my hair the tint it promised on the box, but because it didn't actually change my hair colour it was hard to see whether it had even done anything. But I guess you need a stronger dye to do more than this. The box says that it will wash off in 24 washes, so if it had done more, maybe it wouldn't wash off?

I've been analysing my hair colour a lot know and I feel that I like it more now  — not because it changed, but because now it's an "approved" colour because it came out of a box. No one would be able to sell a lame hair colour. So maybe next time someone asks what my natural hair colour is, I can describe it as pale oatmeal blonde instead of highway grey as they call it back in Finland.

I've already ordered another hair dye to see if permanent hair dyes are able to do my hair a bit more than this. I really like my hair now, but maybe I will be bored again in a couple of weeks time.


What do you think — do you think the colour changed? Do you dye your hair yourself? Any tips to this complete newbie?

13 comments:

  1. Kuvien perusteella ainakin näyttäis vähän sävy muuttuneen, ehkä just toi harmaisuus vähentynyt. Sopii kyllä hyvin sulle tuo väri :) Mä oon tosi malttamaton hiusvärieni suhteen, enkä paljoa ajattele kuluuko hiukset, yleensä meen ääripäästä toiseen, eli punaisesta platinablondiin :D Eli ei kannata ainakaan musta ottaa mallia. Mut jos vielä vaaleammaksi haluat, niin suosittelen että ostat ihan kestovärin, vaik jonkun luonnonvaalean sävyn, niin luulis tulevan sopivat, eikä oo niin 'tyjyä' tavaraa kuin ihan blondit värit :)

    http://maailmanauraamukana.blogspot.fi/

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    1. Kiitos! Itse asiassa juuri ilmaantui ovelle tuo tilaamani kestoväri. Ehkä jossain vaiheessa voin sitten kokeilla, mitä sillä saa aikaan. Mutta oon kyllä ihan tyytyväinen, että harjoittelin ensin tuolla halvemmalla värillä tuota värjäämisprosessia, kun olisin varmasti ollut tosi kauhuissani jos olisin sössinyt sen värin sekoituksen tuolla kalliilla kestovärillä. :D Nyt ainakin osaan sekoittaa ne ja tiedän missä kohtaa pääni on!

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  2. Näyttäisit miljoona kertaa paremmalta jos et ottaisi kuvia yläviistosta, se saa jokaisen näyttämään kamalalta...

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    1. Kiitos mahtavasta vinkistä, alaviistostako niitä kuvia sitten kannattaa ottaa?

      Oikeasti tässä nyt kyllä haettiin sellaista kuvakulmaa, jossa nuo hiukset näkyisivät parhaiten ja valonlähde oli yläviistossa.

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    2. Edestä. Ylä- ja alaviisto kummatkin vääristää ja näyttää kauhealta.

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  3. Sun oma hiusvärikin on tosi kiva ja niin on myös tuo värjätty lopputulos! :-) Tykkään muuten hirmuna sun blogin ulkoasusta ja liittyisin ehkä lukijaksikin jos jaksaisin lukea englantia ja osaisin sitä paremmin haha! Jatka samaan malliin jee :--)

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  4. Ihanan luonnollinen lopputulos <3

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  5. Kiva väri tuli! Kyllä minä olen vuosia joko värjännyt itse tai sitten käynyt kampaajalla. Nyt olen siirtynyt täysin luonnonväreihin, joissa ei ole ammoniakkia tms.

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    1. Tuossa, jolla värjäsin mainostettiin myös, ettei siinä ole ammoniakkia - en tosin oikein edes tiedä mitä se on! Mutta ehkä sitten on hyväksi hiuksille, ettei siinä ole sitä? Myös tuo jonka tilasin netistä on sellainen, ettei siinä ole ammoniakkia, parabeeneja, silikoneja, metalleja, sls:ää, hajusteita jne.

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  6. En oikein osaa sanoa, näenkö värissä eroa. Mutta on siinä silti jotain eroa.

    Mä en ole värjännyt hiuksiani sitten sen, kun olin 17 -vuotias kai. Aina välillä mietin että voisi, mutta sitten kuitenkin tykkään omasta hiusväristäni, niin en viitsikään.

    Mun mielestä mun hiukset ovat värjäytyneet parhaiten juuri sävytteillä, kun käytin sellaista punaista. Oli selkeä ero ja hiukset voivat hyvin niiden kanssa. En ole koskaan värjäyttänyt hiuksia kampaajalla.

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    1. Mäkin turhauduin siihen, kun väri ei muuttunut paljoa ja värjäsin tästä viikon päästä uudestaan kestovärillä. :D Punainen on kyllä sellainen, että sen kanssa huomaa selvän eron, mutta mulla oli tarve vaalentaa, kun en ollut koskaan kokeillut sitä - toisin kuin punaista ja tummempaa. Mäkin opin tykkäämään tuosta omasta hiusten väristäni, kun olin niin monta vuotta värjäämättä. Mutta nyt kevään kunniaksi tosiaan kaipasin vaihtelua. Värjäämisessä ikävintä on juurikasvu, ja sen takia en mitenkään radikaalisti haluakaan värjätä eri väriseksi.

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