Thursday, December 29, 2011

Hair Coloring Nightmare

I usually don't talk about products on here unless it's a book review, however, I had an experience today that I had to share. 

I'm at that age where I color my hair to cover the gray.  Now, I've enjoyed coloring my hair for years, trying one color or the next until about a year ago when I settled on Dark Ash Brown.  Lovely color that really fits me perfectly. 

I decided, after seeing a commercial featuring "Angela" from The Office, to try a different product.  It looked intriguing - after all, who wouldn't want less mess by using a pump and the "tones and highlights" promised sounded wonderful.  So I bought this Clairol Nice n Easy Colorblend Foam.  I bought it in my standard color and had high hopes in how it would turn out. 

My high hopes were dashed.  First of all, the pump works by you squeezing the bottle.  The "foam" that comes out is simply bubbles and do you know how long it takes to color your hair with bubbles?  A long time, folks! I followed the directions and started at the gray areas, went on to the rest of the hair, then came back and re-applied to the gray areas again.  Then I waited 25 minutes, during which time I cleaned my sink, vanity and toilet.  It's a good time to clean up when you've got hair coloring in your hair.  When said 25 minutes were up, I rinsed my hair and the very first thing I noticed was that my hair felt like straw.  I knew this wasn't good.  After putting the creme rinse on, it got better, but my hair still feels damaged.  Now for the worst part - there are NO tones and highlights and the ash brown on the package is not what I got.  My hair is almost black!! The absolute worst part is the staining I had on my skin! It's really bad - so bad, I'm not sure how long it will end up being there. So much for wearing my hair pulled back!  You can even see the staining on my scalp! To make matters worse?  It didn't cover all the gray!! Bleah!!

I am actually  L'Oreal girl.  I use a lot of their products including make-up, hair products and always their hair coloring.  It is superb!! I have used both of these products and love them both!


They both give me the color I expect, I do get those tones and highlights, and my hair definitely doesn't feel like straw! My gray is always covered, too. I just love the L'Oreal products and I wish I had never strayed.  Believe me when I tell you that the couple of bucks you'll save using other products just isn't worth it!

I am horrified by my hair.  It looks like I dyed it! It has an over-all one color look and the very dark color is just not what I wanted or what the box promised.  I don't know how soon I will be able to fix this, but I'm going to wait awhile.  My hair feels damaged and I don't want to do more damage. 

When I do color my hair again?  Believe me - I'll be using my trusted and wonderful L'Oreal products!! They really are the best!

Blessings - Julie

7 comments:

  1. That is such a bummer. I know you'd pay more, but would you be able to see a hairdresser to help with it? I used Loreal excellence creme for many years and was very satisfied. I decided to go ahead and let my hair do it's natural thing without completely covering it anymore. I do have a great gal who is working with me on low-lights as I get more of the 'inevitable'.
    Hope you can get it fixed.

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  2. Oh, how terrible! It makes you wonder how they stay in business if their products are so lousy! I hope your hair can be fixed soon. Maybe wear a fun hat for the next few weeks?

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  3. So glad you posted this...I am a L'Oreal fan too. Now I will never switch! I recently used the one with the comb-type applicator for the bottle top and liked it very much. Fast and not messy.

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  4. Did you know that "Nice and Easy" hair color made it on the list of the top 12 cancer causing products?!

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  5. I also only use L'Oreal excellence creme. I quit using it about a year ago. I started getting a blonde spray on and just spraying bits here and there to cover the gray and give a little highlight to my hair. It washes or combs out, so there's nothing to worry about.

    I'm sorry you had trouble. Hopefully you can get it fixed soon.
    Blessings!

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  6. I have had my share of hair coloring nightmares....my hair has turned lavender, pink and color crayon grey. My last disaster was much like yours. First let me say I use Loreal Feria or Excellence...have for many years. My friend told me about John Frieda's new color, which is also a pump but not bubbles...it is a foam. I loved how it went on and my hair felt so good as I was rinsing it out. Sadly, it turned my hair 3 shades darker with streaks of color crayon grey running through it. I called John Frieda, and she told me to use Dawn on my hair. I shampooed it 3 times and the grey went away and the shade lightened up a little. I waited 1 week...which is what you should wait before coloring again...and colored with my Feria. All was good except my hair felt damaged. I went to the salon and had a conditioning treatment put in. I was telling the girl there about my experience and she said, "I refuse to color anyone's hair that uses Loreal products." I was shocked...she explained that Loreal puts something in their color that only chemically works with THEIR OWN color. So, if you use a different brand on top of your Loreal, it is likely you will get a bad outcome. You can mix Loreal products, but even a professional color will not come out right. She told me the chemical, and it has the word salt in it...I forget now... was not so much hurtful to the body (no more than any other color) but it would produce a chemical reaction with other colors without that chemical. I found that interesting. I guess we will stay with Loreal whether we want to or not! LOL

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  7. Oh my! I hope you can get it fixed soon.

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