RazMaTaz-Girl: #24: Dye My Hair (How To: Ombré Hair)

I have wanted to dye my hair since I was 14. Three years on and I still had the same colour hair.

I have never been my hairs number one fan but then I also didn't want to risk making it worse and absolutely hating it. The word permanent strikes fear in me; if it all goes wrong, there's no going back. Hair is such an important thing and I have seen many people get it so very wrong and I didn't really fancy being another in the list of hair failures.

However, I decided to bite the bullet and just go for it. I mean, if after three years I still wanted to dye my hair then the likelihood of me regretting it is pretty low. Of course I still had doubts but decided to ease myself into the whole hair dye thing by only doing the ends of my hair in a more ombré style.

Ombré is where the ends of the hair is dyed a different colour to create a graduated look. Unlike dip-dye where the hair is clearly two separate colours, ombré aims to subtly blend the two colours for a more natural look. I'm sure most of you know as it's a pretty popular trend but for those of you who are a little unsure what ombré actually is, I hope this clears up any confusion.

Making a mess of the bathroom.

As far as I'm aware, there is only one specific ombré home dye kit available in Britain which is the L'Oreal Paris Wild Ombrés. I picked up in shade no.1 in boots the other week as that shade is designed for light to dark brunettes i.e my hair colour. They also had more out there colours such a red but I was quite keen to keep my hair looking fairly natural, well as natural as two toned hair can be.

As I am a complete novice with dye and my Mum has a fair bit of experience in this field, my Mum very kindly agreed to dying it for me but, judging by tutorials, the kit is very simple to use by yourself. The first step is to mix up your dye. You start by pouring the lightening powder into the developing liquid then place the flat cap (which was not included in my box so we just made do with the original lid) and shake. Then squeeze in all the lightening creme into the developing solution, replace cap (tutorials I've seen had a flat cap so I'm a little unsure why mine didn't include one but oh well) and shake to mix. Then replace flat cap with applicator (original) lid and you are ready to go.

The dye works really quickly, this is just after about 10 miutes
(just after the whole hair had been completely covered!)

Next is application. It's pretty easy, all you have to do is squeeze the solution onto the brush applicator included with the set and just brush it on. If you start from the bottom and brush on small sections at a time, gradual building up the product on the hair, you get a more gradual lightening affect. We pinned up the top half of my hair to do it in two sections which I would definitely recommend to make sure all your hair is evenly dyed. Once your hair is completely covered leave it for a while, the recommend amount of time is twenty-five, and check how much the hair has lightened. If not satisfied, like I was, reapply over that section and leave until you have the desired colour without exceeding forty-five minutes on the hair.

My face is terrible today but you can see how subtle changes of lighting changes the look of the colour.

Then, rinse the product off with warm water and apply the conditioner that came with the pack. Finally, dry your hair to unveil the final results!

Overall, I'm happy with the look. Okay, so there are a few sections that look a little blocky and it does look a tad ginger in some lightings but it looks natural and was exactly what I was going for. Personally, I do change my opinion on my hair every five minutes and I think its just going to take a me awhile to get used to it for me to truly love it but it is exactly what I was hoping for and, right this second, I'm loving it! Although my Mum did struggle with the applicator bottle, it was relatively quick and easy to achieve the look and I'm not surprised that the product has been given such great reviews.