DailyEdge.ie paid for all products mentioned in the below post.
FOR AS LONG as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to dye my hair. My first source of beauty inspo was probably Mimi from Digimon. She made pink hair a thing before someone decided to stick ‘millennial’ before it.
However, I’ve struggled to commit to anything more extreme than a subtle balyage in my adult life. (There’s only so many times you can hear “but you’ll never be able to replicate your natural hair colour in a salon” before you start believing it.)
… Which is why temporary hair dye has always intrigued me.
After last week’s low-rated makeup brought middling results, I turned my attention to my gruaig.
When I mentioned I had bought the L’Oreal Colourista spray in the shades ‘Lavendar’ and ‘Turquoise’, my inbox was flooded – a myriad of horror stories about transfer, texture and a green tinge.
“These are the worst things ever,” one message read. “I cannot believe they’re still on sale.
But reader, I made a commitment, one I was determined to follow through on regardless of the 39 one star reviews between both shades.
Instructions
- Put a towel around shoulders.
- Shake well. Apply 15cm away from hair.
- Let dry & brush once.
- Spray longer for more intense colour.
- For a mermaid look, spray different colours on separate strands.
What I did
I changed into old clothes and eventually abandoned the towel mentioned initially as I found myself pulling the strands away from myself and spraying sections of my hair.
As my hair isn’t bleached, I knew I wasn’t going to get the same results as someone with much lighter hair. That said, there’s a significant difference in the pigment of both shades. The turquoise extremely vivid on my hair, surprisingly. However, the “lavender” gave more of a purple hue a la Katy Perry in that video for ‘Wide Awake’.
You need a lot of product to see a big difference, especially if your hair is in anyway thick. And for €9.50 a pop, you don’t get a lot of product.
Texture-wise, it didn’t look any different after I’d sprayed. However, the minute I ran my hand through my hair, it felt more like a cat’s matted underbelly than a mermaid weave.
Now, you’ll notice in the instructions that it recommends brushing through once. Not twice or three times, once. When I began brushing, my hair felt incredibly knotted, as if it would never be free of knots again. So naturally, I panicked and brushed the majority of the colour out in a frenzy. Oops.
Now, that’s not to say that that didn’t stop the spray from transferring on everything I know and love, including my neck. Seriously, I’m expecting for them to find particles of the colour long after I’ve gone and my rental gaff has been lost to the hands of time.
With that said, people still noticed hints of colour throughout my hair, and commented on it when they saw (note how I have written “commented” and not “complimented”.)
For those who dared to take a grip of a sprayed strand, I’m surprised they didn’t experience a feeling reminiscent of a rope burn.
Then came the washing.
After making the decision to retire from the mermaid life, I undertook the task of washing my hair. Easy, right? Sure it says 1 wash on the can. Ideal.
Two vigorous shampoos later, I was no closer to being reunited with my old hair. My beautiful hair. The hair I took for granted. I can only imagine how stressful it would be trying to remove the excess blue-green from blonde hair.
Myself? I can’t remember what it feels like to have clean hair that doesn’t leave your hands resembling an avatar when you bring it within a centimetre of it.
Any use?
No. Never again. Please love and cherish your normal, clean hair while you have it. I never want to see the colour turquoise again.
You can watch the full test on the DailyEdge Instagram account.
