A QUEST FOR GINGER: NOW WITH 100% MORE ASTHMA

Poor bloggy, you've been somewhat neglected lately. Life's been hectic, but it's paying off - I've gone and got myself a new job! Hopefully once I'm settled in a routine with that, blogging will make a return to the foreground of my life again. But for now: HAIR.

THE PAST
Hairdye and myself have a somewhat turbulent history. My first foray started during the school holidays, aged 13, armed with a box of purple dye. Surprisingly my mother didn't object, and even more surprisingly it looked good - or at least I thought it did, but regardless I still look back on it fondly. I moved on to some 'subtle' streaks - turquoise, and later blue, which again I loved. Late high school and early college saw a return to brown, and an ongoing journey in red hair started around age 17.

Oh, red hair.. you and me have had some times. Some ups, some downs. Red hair is tough, because while it's a hard colour to maintain anyway, finding the right shade is more difficult than you'd anticipate. The pinnacle of my red haired adventures came during university, first year, when I started sporting the most startling postbox red barnet known to man. See posey Facebook profile picture of times gone by:

SHIT WAS RED YO.

Pictures don't do it justice, it was RED. I would never sport it again now, but it was obviously the look I was going for at the time and whatevz, I clearly loved it. Loved it so much that I kept dying it even though a concerningly large quantity of my hair dropped off my head. lolwhoops.

THE PRESENT

For that reason, the adventures stopped circa 2012, and since then I've been varying shades of light brown with distinctly ginger undertones. Following an extended period of my natural mousey brown and a really shitey "ombre" (never let your hairdresser charge you £50 for what is quite clearly a dip dye), red is making a return. Not so bright this time, but the more auburn end of matters. Hopefully, anyway - the start has been a rocky one. 

I opted for L'Oreal Feria in Mango Intense Copper (7.4) on the assumption that since my hair was darker in the roots and some of lengths, it wouldn't be quite as intensely copper as the box - because as anyone who's ever dabbled in hair dyes probably knows, the results are usually somewhat darker than the colour on the box.
LOL NO.
Yeah, to my dismay (and horror, really), this dye lifts reeeeeally well. On the downside, while my hair is light the colour is dull, so the result is me looking pretty washed out and icky sicky.

WHAT HAVE I DONE. The horrors of this outcome are not damped by the fact that I'm desperately overdue for a haircut. Ick, ick and thrice.. ick.

So what about the dye itself? It's not my fave. I'd always recommend the John Frieda Precision Foam Colour dyes because I feel that they're hassle free with pretty true to colour results, but unfortunately their range is limited. This L'Oreal offering seemed very well reviewed, so a whimmy trip to Boots commenced, and 30 minutes later I was back home slapping dye on willy nilly.

Consistency - weird. Runny, but a slightly jelly like texture?
Colour - Purpleish when it's first applied. DON'T PANIC! This is no reflection on the final colour.
Extras - Good conditioner. Shit gloves. I always use a separate pair of latex gloves because those freebie ones are like trying to work with mini bin bags on your hands.
Smell - On this basis alone, regardless of your desired colour, I would NOT recommend this dye. I'm well accustomed to the smell of dyes - that delicious waft of ammonia - but this BURNS. My eyes burnt, my nostrils burnt. I persevered but after about 20 minutes I had a lot of tightness in my chest, so grabbed my inhaler, popped a Piriton and washed that shit off. I have an inhaler anyway for some mild hayfever related asthma, but this was considerably worse than anything I've previously experienced, and unlike anything I've felt from other hair dyes. It was a little scary to be honest - a tight chest, palpitations and general panic all in all amounted to a fairly unpleasant hair dying experience. Weirdly, I didn't experience any tingling in my scalp which I find pretty common with most dyes - it is feeling distinctly itchy today however.

So, an unpleasant colour and an uncomfortable experience. I'll be colouring over it soon (following a patch test of course!) with some better researched colour options, so an update will be due in the near future hopefully.

Overall review: 0/10 NEVER AGAIN WOULD NOT TOUCH WITH A BARGEPOLE.