I used to love playing with my hair colour when I was about twenty, but then I grew up and not alot of people dyed their hair weird colours. Until, that is, Bleach London came on the scene and with the addition of 'grunge' to fashion, having crazy colours became cool again. And everyone could do it! The past few months i've seen anyone from fourteen to sixty-odd year olds with anything from a streak of colour to a whole head of colour. Personally I think it's bloody brilliant! I've heard quite good things about Bleach London and they do quite a few products starting from a home bleaching kit to shampoos and condioners to enhance your blonde. The dyes are really condioning too and smell yummy!
So, back to what I was saying. I thought I'd give this Bleach London a go. After all it was temporary and is a fun way to get ready for the weekend or a night out!
So this is what my hair looked like pre-colour...
pre-make up too! :P
So as you can see my hair is pretty light. Not exactly blonde, but I thought i'd give it a try. The instructions say to wash your hair with shampoo ONLY (no conditioner - this is VERY important) then towel dry hair, apply colour and wait for fifteen minutes. After this you can rinse out. I tried the Sea Punk and it didn't show up at all on my hair. A bit miffed, I had this excellent idea to dip dye my hair. Yup, I reckoned it would be pretty straight forward. So i jumped in my car and zoomed off to said Chemist, discount card in hand and purchased the Bleach London DIY Dip Dye.
I read the instructions carefully and then read them again. I hadn't bleached my hair in about 6 years so didn't want to mess up! Included in the pack is everything you need: gloves, bleach powder, pre-lightener, blending lotion, brush for application, a wee tub and a wee tube of their awesome Reincarnation Mask.
Reading the instructions, it seemed pretty straight forward; put on the blending lotion to where you want the dip dye to start then apply bleach. BOY WAS I WRONG! It was super footery and by the end of it I just wanted to chuck everything out the window and cry. Not really cry, but it was really messy and by the end of it, there was bleach and blending lotion everywhere (good job I put a ton of towels and plastic bags down - i'm super messy!).
It took a good while to develop and even then it felt like it wasn't as light as I was expecting...
So a few days later, I went out and bought another dip dye kit. This time I used L'Oreal Preference Wild Ombres No2 Dip Dye Hair Kit. Compared to the Bleach London stuff this was waaaaay easier. It had a wee plastic brush that you just brushed on the bleach and it just blended in with your hair. Luckily, I already had a guideline thanks to the other kit. This seemed to lift that little bit quicker and gave me the colour I was looking for. After washing and conditioning, I dried my hair then applied Washed Up Mermaid to my bleached bits. The Bleach London dyes contain a conditioner too so, as you're dying your hair, you're giving it a little bit more condition - perfect after a lot of bleaching!
Et Voila!
There's obviously still some bits that didn't pick up the dye but I kind of like it as it merges well with my hair colour and doesn't look too blocky. I would definitely recommend applying the colour to dry hair first to get a better effect!
The pinks and purples tend to wash out easier than the blues and green (they tend to have staying power) but to get rid of them easier Bleach London have a Washing Out Shampoo for that (which is probably similar to Vosene or Head & Shoulders). Another thing I learned with getting rid of the green tinge is to apply the Rose dye over it and it tones out the green.
I also recently stumbled upon the Rose Shampoo and Rose Conditoner. This is great for keeping the pinky tones in your hair. Like the dye, it work a little on wet hair. I apply the shampoo to my dry ends before I get in the shower then wash out and you're left with a lovely pale pink colour. This is ideal if you haven't got time to apply the pink dye in your hair and you want a wee touch of colour. They also do a Silver Shampoo and Silver Conditoner for toning out the yellow in your hair.
I would definitely recommend the colours as I think they're great for adding a light touch of colour to hair without being overly bright. I'd advise to apply it to dry hair though, to get the best out of your colour. As for the dip dye it definitely worked, however just not enough. Either I should have left it a wee bit longer (which I was scared to do) or it's quite a weak bleach. It did give me that blended colour though which is what I was looking for.
Bleach London seems to have hit the nail on the head with it's array of hair care products. The packaging looks bright, attractive and catches your eye. It's also really easy to get a hold of them. Their hair care products are really good as well. Most of their products price around £6-7 and Boots tend to include them on their 3 for 2. So you can get a dye, shampoo and conditioner for a reasonable price.
Now excuse me while I go try out Awkard Peach...
Check out the Bleach Bible
