It was time to colour my roots again today, oh come on, I’m 42 and going grey, I can’t help it - that’s life!
Anyway, walking down my local supermarket aisle, I realised they did not have my usual colour of the brand I use in stock. I usually use L’Oreal Excellence, and the colour called Natural Brown. They were offering 50p off the product too. Drat, I thought. No way was I going to use Dark Brown, that is too dark, almost black.
I scanned the other products and spotted Nice n’ Easy. I had used it before, quite a while back, so I looked to see if they had my colour. Medium Brown. That will do, I thought and put it in my trolley. It was £4.49, which wasn’t bad, in fact, cheaper than my usual brand.
The box contains a 60ml bottle of colorant, a 60ml bottle of developer, a 12ml sachet of conditioner, plastic gloves and instructions. These are cheap plastic gloves which are attached to the instructions. My usual product has surgical type gloves.
A tip on use of the gloves: blow them open with your mouth and insert some talc, or put talc on your hands before inserting your hands into the gloves. Then they won’t be hard to pull off while you are waiting for colorant to take.
It also asks you to use an old towel, but I have some old T-shirts that I use, so don’t throw your old ones away. This will stop the hassle of the towel slipping off your shoulders. If you have had your hair permed, wait a week before applying any colour.
Have you done your strand test? What do you mean, what strand test? If this is the first time you have used this particular product, or the first time you have coloured your hair, then you need to do a strand test. It is done to make sure that you will receive the desired colour, and that your skin is not sensitive towards the product. Full instructions on a strand test are enclosed.
Mixing is pretty easy. Put on gloves first. Open both bottles, and pour the developing lotion into the hair colorant bottle. Replace the lid, snap off the end, place finger over end, and shake well. It seems to me that snapping the end off after the bottle has been shook sounds a better idea, but that’s what they say, so I did it.
I put the empty bottle straight back into the empty box.
One box is enough to re touch the roots and cover shortish hair all over, but if you have longer hair, then you will probably need 2 boxes.
Apply to hair as directed, and leave to develop. No plastic hoods to wrap around your head.
When the desired developing time is up, put gloves back on and add some water to your hair, mix into a lather. Then rinse off until the water runs clear. Now you can remove and discard the gloves.
You then open your sachet of conditioner, and put on your hair, leave for 2 minutes. This is where I start to rub away all the stains around my forehead and ears. Applying vaseline before using the colorant will help you remove those dark stains. Use an old flannel. There is enough for one use, unlike my usual product which gives you a small bottle, containing enough for 6 washes.
Rinse and style.
I’m pleased with the result. It is the desired colour and my hair feels nice and silky. It’s OK for a substitute, but my usual product contains the better quality contents. Not much mess, but the bath did get splashed with colour during the rinse.