I had a hair-mare this weekend. This is not the first time I had a hair-mare…but it began when I decided to throw caution to the wind and try the new Clairol Easy Blend foam dye in Dark Brown…
A small picture because I don’t like you.
I wanted to go dark because my hair was starting to look a bit brassy. I thought it’d calm down the overall ‘lunatic’ look I was sporting too.
I am a long time devotee of foam hair dyes. This is my first foray into a Western foam dye.
Clairol’s comes in the standard pack with your conditioner, dye, gloves.
Can I just say the gloves are rubbish? Japanese hair dyes give you a super duper cow birthing pair of thick rubber gloves. The Clairol ones ripped on my as I put them on. Second thing I noticed was the smell – it reminded me of soy sauce. It’s not gross but it’s not ideal either – most unusual.
The texture of this stuff is super liquid – yes I get that it produces foam, it it’s sort of like fairy liquid foam. It dissolves easily and this was just too runny it was a bit too easy to spill or get everywhere. Which I did – got it everywhere.
A truly good foam dye produces a truly rich, cream foam which will stay like a foam for the 20 minutes – not become a liquid that drips everywhere. You can feel how creamy soft a good foam dye is, it spreads evenly and there is always enough product.
The Clairol bottle was fine – at least you get could right to the bottom of it, which you can’t seem to with Japanese ones although the pump nozzle is a bit tricky to press. I’ve seen better mechanisms, such as a easier to press pump OR where you can just squeeze the bottle to get the product out.
I applied this dye as I apply all dye – with abandon. Mess everywhere – this does NOT happen with the Japanese ones I use. It also stains so quickly! I had a stain on my wrist, on the side of my head and also on my chest which was a nightmare to get off – a bit old school that, it’s been a long time since a hair dye managed to dye my skin.
I was surprised how little product there was – I just about had enough – when I use something like the Prettia, it goes a lot further.
Results
Hurrrmmmm.
Hurrrmmmmmm.
This is supposed to be dark brown. What did I end up with? DARK BLACK. Dark lego black. With brown roots. Trust me I got my roots covered but they’re brown and the rest is black.
Is this a disaster? Oh yes. I spend my life avoiding lego hair and there it was – about a trillion shades darker than advertised.
The shade:
My hair:
I know it doesn’t ‘look bad’ but trust be it’s a hideous black in real life, devoid of any tones or subtleties. Who do they test these dyes on, witches?
To be honest I would never consider a Clairol hair dye, I’ve been using Japanese hair dye for years with minimal problems. I only tried this because of the foam element and I feel conned, like I went in for a massage and came out with a tit job.
If you tried this dye let me know what you think. If you really want to try a foam dye I suggest you get yourself on Adambeauty.com and buy yourself a Prettia dye, it’s easy to use and there’s lots of lovely colours.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Have never yet read anything good about the Clairol foam dye. I used the John Freida one which I was really pleased, with pretty box accurate I think too in terms of colour, def much better texture than this one as it didn’t dribble, but the choice of shades weren’t really fab for me so I went back to using Perfect 10, which isn’t mousse but is quick and easy! Such a mare when shades come out way darker than they are supposed to, hope you have been able to fix it!
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D’oh! Did you manage to track down some rusk eliminate in the end?
…and to think I almost bought this dye a week ago. :/
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Errrrrrr…*throws box of Clairol foam dye bought last week out of the window at a passing ruffian*…might be giving this a miss now!
x
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i think i’ll stick with loreal feria or garnier fruit, never fail me ^^ (the jap brands cant cover whites)
xoxo elle
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Oh dear. I dye my hair what I would call a medium to dark brown and to do it I use….casting creme gloss in dark blonde. Yes blonde. Hideous experience in my teens taught me never to expect anything but dark, dark, dark from any hair dye. I’ve used my last box up now though and it is increasinglybhard to get hold of in ‘my’ shade so I’m going to try salon highlights this summer. I’m a bit nervous about it to tell the truth!
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Ahhh wish I would have know you was going to put the dark brown on, I could have told you not too! I was going to buy the dark brown myself and my very wise cousin, told me not to. She said it would go black. Shes a hair dye expert you see. Anyway, I opted for the shade below, which was Medium Ash Brown I think and it came out totally dark brown just what I wanted. I now know if I would have put the dark brown on, it would have indeed gone black.
I had no problem though with the actual dye myself. I really liked it and found just one box done all of my hair with ease.
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Oh, my gosh, Row! Thank you, thank you! I was going to try this stuff… I guess I’ll stick to my Revlon Colorsilk #42 which I’m always seeing 2-for-$5. It fades in just a couple of weeks but at least I love it until then.
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Have you tried the Superdrug Own Brand Semi Permanent colours? I love them! The dark brown is really lovely and my hair is in really good condition having been using it for a while. Best of all they’re uber cheap and cruelty free! Yay! R x
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omg this is the EXACT same hair dye I bought a month ago with the intention of turning my black hair to more of a rich brown shade…I’m glad you wrote this review before that ended in disaster! I think I might just leave it to the professionals, I’m actually contemplating ombre hair now!
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