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Thu Aug 04, 2005 6:17 am  |
I posted this info in the "Products You Dislike" thread, but I thought it was important enough to merit it's own product review since I know I'm not the only out there who colors my hair at home....
| bkurant wrote: |
GARNIER - hair color - the absoulute worst, most horrible hair product. some posted good reviews on mua which makes me wonder, what kind of hair do they have. mine is dry and very thick, still this incredibly bad product managed to do some damage  |
If you live in the following countries:
• Canada
• Germany
• Japan
• Mexico
• UK
• USA
And color your hair at home, I seriously recommend that you take a trip down to your local Sallys Beauty and buy yourself some of the Wella Color Charm hair dyes. They're not sold in all-in-one kits like at the drug store, so the first time you buy the supplies it's about a $20 investment, but after that it's like $3.99 to buy additional tubes or bottles of dye.
It’s been my experience that manufacturers pretty much try to “idiot-proof” those all-in-one hairdye kits you buy at the drugstore so that the person can’t screw it up, or at least screw it up beyond all repair! If you're a neophyte to the world of home hair coloring, then you should probably stick to these all-in-one kits that have everything assembled along with detailed instructions. But if you’re a hair-dye veteran, you already know all the tricks so you really need to try Color Charm at least once. Honestly -- if you color your hair, I can’t recommend this enough!
The great thing about Color Charm is the results. I have tried every single DIY drugstore home hairdye kits and never ever got as good of results as I got with the Color Charm. Color Charm gives the most long lasting results I have ever experienced from any DIY haircolor and it’s very shiny and natural looking too. In fact, I love it so much that I actually posted a glowing review of the Color Charm line on MUA several months ago if you want to check it out further info....
So anyway, the first time you use the Color Charm stuff, you need to buy the following items:
• (1) plastic mixing/application bottle - up to $3.99 depending on the one you choose, you want to make sure you buy one that has hash-marks on it that show the measurements in ounces or milliliters or whatever your country's unit of liquid measure is;
• (1) pair of plastic gloves - not the cheapo disposable gloves, but a thick pair that you can rinse off and reuse each time, cost $3.99;
• (1) 32-oz bottle of color developer (this is the stuff that “activates” the dye) - $4.99, and you can choose if you need a 10%, 20% or 30% version based on your natural hair color and/or how light or dark you’re trying to go. The higher the percentage, the stronger it is;
• (1) bottle or tube of the actual hair dye - $3.99 and you can choose from semi-, demi- or permanent hair color. Personally, I buy like three different colors so I can custom-mix the shade I end up with.
I’m a natural redhead, but I have been giving Mother Nature a helping hand for the past 20 years or so, but only because my own hair started turning grey when I was 15 (don’t ask!!). I buy 2-3 tubes of various Color Charm shades to custom-blend my own color. I use “Light Auburn” and “Dark Auburn” which I mix to make the perfect “Medium Auburn,” but then I add a dash of a medium golden-coppery-red called "Copper Sun" just to make things interesting. 
ETA – This is the ratio for mixing your colorant with the developer:
• Ratio is 1:2 - one part colorant to two parts developer
So if you’ve got medium length or longer hair and you need to make 9-oz of hair-dye mixture, you would add 3 ounces of colorant and 6 ounces of developer to your mixing/application bottle.
If your hair is chin-length or shorter, you probably only need about 6-oz of hair-dye mixture, so it would be 2 ounces of colorant and 4 ounces of developer in your mixing/application bottle.
So here's the exact ratio for CareKate's custom-blended medium auburn:
• 1 oz. Color Charm Liquid in Dark Auburn
• 1/2 oz. Color Charm Liquid in Light Auburn
• 1/2 oz. Color Charm in Copper Sun
• 4 oz. Color Charm 20% Developer
You mix all this up in your mixing/application bottle, slap on your gloves and go to town! If I may, I'd like to share this little helpful hint: they say that you should put a coat of vaseline around your hairline to keep the dye from bleeding over on your skin, but I hate to do that because it makes a helluva mess and it's hard to remove it afterward. Instead, after I apply the colorant to my hair, I take a paper towel or a wad of tissue and saturate it with (cheap!!) shampoo and just swipe it all around my hairline, around (and into) my ears, down the back of my neck and shoulders -- basically, anywhere that the dye might possibly drip. This both removes any dye spills that have already occured, but it also prevents any further drips from penetrating and staining your skin. The best part is that the shampoo rinses clean away from your skin when you're rinsing the dye from your hair! I wouldn't recommend that you use your most prized, high dollar shampoo for this, though, so you might want to keep a cheapo bottle of White Rain or Sauve or whatever to perform this little task.
So anyway, I reiterate that Wella Color Charm is the best hair color I’ve ever used. The colors are true and there are dozens of shades to choose from and probably hundreds of color combinations that you can achieve by mixing different shades. Another thing that I really like is the fact that they tell you what color-family each shade belongs to, so you can’t accidentally end up with burgundy-red hair if you really wanted a coppery-red. The shades are labeled “violet-red,” “red-red,” “orange-red,” “ash-blonde,” “yellow-blonde,” “nuetral-blonde,” etc. so you can really pin-point the shade you’re going to end up with. The colors are super shiny and healthy looking (not “flat” and fake-looking like some DIY haircolors can be) and the color lasts much longer than any other permanent color, although – as I said – Color Charm has permanent, semi-permanent and demi-permanent formulas to choose from. In addition, they also have liquid formulations and gel formulations.
I hope this info is helpful to some who have been intimidated by the aisle containing all the colorants and developers at Sally's, overwhelmed and unsure of exactly what you need to buy in order to get started....
Your ever faithful guinea pig,
Carrie |
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Über-oily,semi-sensitive, warm/fair-skinned redhead, 38...Will swap/shop for members outside U.S. and/or make homemade skincare products upon demand-PM me for details. |
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