Thinking Outside the Box...

... Results in something different going into the box! In this case the box of DIY hair colour.

And frankly it's about time too - whenever I think of dying my hair at home, I immediately start formulating a "plan of attack", involving a stack of old towels, making sure I have an old tracksuit I don't mind spattering with ammonia, and the next two days off work just in case I end up having a mis-hap and dye the back of my neck or half my face, whilst missing out a chunk of hair somewhere and having to;
a)Re-do that bit, and
b)Scrub the dye off the bathroom tiles, clean the grout and make it up to the mister for turing the bathroom into dead ringer for a scene from Dexter (the less family suitable scenes), not warning him and giving him a near cardiac arrest.

Lets be honest, even when the dye is on, you are never far from danger... There's always the sneaking dread that you'll feel the dreaded trickle of doom as dye gathers at the crown and slides down the back of your scalp eeking it's way ever closer to your neck. 

Picture sourced HERE.

Its such hard work. And the end result is never quite perfect - I live in a different city to my mum, sister and friends, so it's difficult to entice them to come over and slap on a box of dye on for me. Having dyed other people's hair, I can appreciate that too - no one wants the blame if/when it looks wrong. 

So when I was reecently invited to an event to find out about a new type of home hair dye from John Frieda, I expected something along the lines of a shorter acting formula, or a wider range of colours or something. So I was surprised to find this product genuinely offering something different, and if it lives up to it's claims, it could actually reduce the amount of sheer hassle we have to go through to home colour.

There are 20 shades in the range - from blonde throught to almost black, and with a couple of reds thrown in for good measure (John Frieda has that Blonde-Brunette-Redhead thing goin on!). Results are permanent.

Inside each box there is a bottle of developer, a colourant solution a conditioner and a pair of gloves. So far so standard?

The final piece of the puzzle comes in the form of a special applicator which you screw into the bottle when the colour is mixed (a far less arduous process involving tipping the bottle a few times rather than shaking it for five minutes to mix.) When the dye bottle is squeezed the colourant is dispensed in the form of a foam.

The foam is dispensed easily through the hair, and expands as you massage it in with fingertips so you are apparently less likely to get a patchy result. 

During the event, the John Frieda peeps used a willing victim lovely model to demonstrate application and the result - she applied it herself to demonstrate ease of use.

I have to say it looked a lot easier than the home dyes I am used to - it spread through quickly and easily, and she was able to work the product into the back of her head easily too. And dye applied to the skin in error was also easily removed because the mousse formula was easier to deal with in general.  

Another thing that appealed to me about the product was how much it spreads - I have fine hair but lots of it, and I always need two boxes of dye - the 80mls of dye which results from mixing expands to give 2 litres of foam which would be enough for the majority of people. So although this is going to retail at £9.99 which is pricy for a box-dye, it'll hopefully be cheaper in the long run as I won't need to double up.

I have been given a sample of this product to try which I am hoping to do in the next couple of days, so I'll report back with my thoughts!

This will be available from Mid November in all the usual places - Boots, Superdrug, and Tesco's and priced at £9.99.

Apparently the mousse technology in these dyes has already been trialled in the Asian market with great results so fingers crossed!

Will you be trying this?