My Hair Dye Experience with Dark and Lovely Color Intensity Magic Plum.

Hey guys. How’s the rainy weather going for you all?  I personally have been having this love hate relationship with it because sometimes, I actually like the cool atmosphere the rain brings but at the same time, I hate that I sometimes have to carefully choose my hair styles as I don’t know if it would rain or not. And when it does and I’m not fully armed, my bantu knot outs and twists outs come out looking like a hot mess just after an hour getting outside. But oh well it’s all good.

Just before I digress into how unpredictable my hair is, let’s talk about my hair goals. The one I put up somewhere in my 2 Years Natural Hair Anniversary!! feat. My Length Check, Short Term Hair Goals and A little Hair Secret. post. Yup. So far so good, I haven’t accomplished much as regards to fulfilling my goals. And trust me, It kills me, I just want to punch my face anytime I remember that I haven’t really fulfilled any of my goals but hey guess what? I actually fulfilled the dye job I wanted to get. And of course you can tell from the title of the post that that’s what I’m going to talk about today…so yay! Let’s get on with that shall we?

I have been wearing my hair out for more than two weeks and I felt like I was getting too bores with it. So what to do? I decided to purchase 2 packs of dark and lovely colour intensity magic plum hair dye.

The Hair Prep:

Prior to colouring my hair, I washed my hair with VO5 coconut island shampoo and deep conditioned with a homemade conditioning cocktail because I’m out of my Vitale hair mayonnaise. I had read from most hair resources that your hair has to be properly conditioned and dry before you apply colour. Though some professional stylists have argued that the ideal condition of the hair should be moisturized and slightly damp. Anyway, there wasn’t enough time to air-dry my hair and a blow drying session is the last thing I needed at the moment, so I wrapped my hair with a cotton shirt and proceeded to burn some extra 15 minutes. And fifteen minutes later, my hair was slightly damp and I decided to part it in four equal sections.  Then I proceeded to band the length of each section since I was going for an ombre look.

Dye Prep:

Each pack of dye comes with a 40ml colour cream, 60ml colour developer, a set of gloves and an instruction sheet.  I used just one pack and the other for my weave.

The colour cream contains:

1) Ammonia; helps open up the cuticle and develop the dye.

2) Resorcinol: a chemical/ composition of chemicals that readily react with the developer to achieve a permanent colour. Main cause of Allergic reactions to hair dyes.

3) Phenylenediamines: a synthetic hair dye.

And the colour developer contains:

1. Hydrogen Peroxide: An acidic solution that allows the dye to penetrate into the hair. Without dye, simply putting developer in your hair won’t do anything. The amount of peroxide in developers isn’t a lot.

I’m going to try as much as possible to paint a detailed picture of my experience from start to finish. I read the instruction left behind and then proceeded to protect the surrounding area by placing newspapers on the floor. I grabbed my tools which includes:

A small plastic cup

A colouring brush

A processing cap

A fine tooth comb

A plastic shawl

I poured the contents of the cream and develop into the cup and mixed until an even consistency was achieved. At first the mixture is white but after a few turns, it goes from white to lilac to deep purple. Plus did I mention that this thing SMELLLS TERRIBLE. It smells of Ammonia, one kain ‘urine-ish’ smelling gas. It made me remember those titration practical I used to do back in secondary school.

Application:

With my damp hair, I proceeded to colour my hair. I wanted to form professional so I began by applying a huge scoop of dye with a colouring brush but at some point I gave up on the brush and started to use my fingers to apply. It obviously did a better job. This allowed me coated every strand with dye since I was practically raking through my hair with my fingers. I applied the dye to the portion of hair beneath the rubber bands of course. It took me 20 minutes or less to apply. After I applied the dye, combed out each section with a fine tooth comb to ensure I wasn’t missing nay area. I also made sure to be extra careful so I won’t get to my eyes or nose!

Afterwards, I twisted each coloured ponytail and covered with a plastic bag. Then another plastic bag on my overall head. After two hours, I rinsed off the dye and conditioned my hair. My hair still felt super soft! Thank God!

Post Application

And then I went straight to the mirror in the bathroom and then…Bam!!! No colour! I’m like ehn? Where’s the colour???!!!! Then I went to well lighted room and actually saw the colour. It was subtle and not too shouting. I was very happy with the results. Then later, it occurred to me that the reason I didn’t see any colour difference was due to the poor lightening in the bathroom. I began to wonder what my hair would look like under direct sunlight but it was too late and dark to know. So I moisturized my hair, seal, twisted up and hit the sacks.

Come Saturday morning. I dashed out to the balcony and Voila!!!! Colour!!!! Lots of Colour and dryness!!! I was actually glad to know that my hair gave out this brilliant colour under bright light but then I was also a bit worried because the coloured portion of my hair felt like dry, raggedy, untrimmed ends! At that moment, it started to dawn on me that I really have to take good care of my hair and up my moisture game if I wanted my hair to not all break away from my head.  So I conducted a length check (10 inches baby!) remositurized my hair and braided this time around considering the fact that my hair retains moisture better in braids. From that moment, I knew my hair routine would never be the same again.

The Journey so far.

It’s been two weeks since I died my hair now. So I’m just going to shed some light on how my hair has been responding to far.

My hair gets dry quickly, say every day or two, I have to remoisturize. When I don’t have time to braid, I twist and put it in Bantu knots. It’s another great way to retain moisture.

My hair has just begun to respond well and was finally getting used to the braiding and Bantu knotting routines.

During the day I either wear a Bantu knot out, or a puff or a twist out. My braid out becomes too frizzy so I just turn it to a puff.

My hair felt really dry and the colour ‘bled’ the first few days.

Also, in a span of two weeks after colouring, the colour began to fade, from the initial wine-ish purple to wine, to reddish brown and finally to brown. I really don’t know why it faded like that. I’m still puzzled. I’m finally I feeling it was probably due to the fact that it didn’t sit long on my hair. I don’t know. I felt two hours was enough?

If anyone has an idea of what could have happened, please feel free to share so I won’t repeat the same mistake again.

What I’m loving so far….

I’m so loving the fact that I changed my hair colour…I mean really I have always wanted to do this and considering the crazy outcome. I’m loving the hair colour and I have no regrets whatsoever.

I’m also loving the fact that it has added new dimensions to my hair styles. My twists outs, my bantu knot out, My puff, my pompadour, etc. It’s really fun and exciting. I can’t wait to try out more colours.

I have not noticed any changes in my hair texture… For now. If I notice anything else, I’ll be sure to let you guys now.

What I’m not so loving…

Let’s be honest, my hair is now drier. Even when moisturized. I have to remoisturize like every two days or so. It’s annoying and it sucks… lol… And it hurts!!! I might be sounding a bit dramatic and all but it actually hurts to know that my hair may never be the same the same again.

I’m hair is more porous now. Sliding my fingers up and down the shaft, I could feel the resistance. This is the obvious reason why I’m having dry hair.

My opinion on hair colouring?

Err… I really love hair colouring. I feel it really wakens up your natural hair and hairstyles.

Yeah, it may take a toll on your hair but with consistent conditioning, you hair should be just fine.

You should only colour your hair if you really want to.

You probably visit a professional if you know nothing about hair colouring.

Do sufficient research before you finally colour your hair

Expect the unexpected because you just might get disappointed

Permanent hair colouring is requires a lot of commitment. Be ready to care for it.

I would never recommend or apply bleach to my hair for the sake of hair colouring; that would be too much damage.

My Weave Colouring Results

I hope you recall me mentioning that I bought two packs and used just one pack for my hair. I used the other pack for the tips of my weave. The tips were initially blonde.

Taken with Lumia Selfie

I guess this is most of what I have for you guys on my hair colouring experience. I reside in Lagos and there aren’t much hair colour brands in this part of the world. If anyone knows places in Lagos I can get other brands from, please let me know because I hope to experiment more with hair colour in the future. I’m also looking forward to straightening my hair in October. Any recommendations here in Lagos with good straightening services would be appreciated.

If you have every coloured your hair, please feel free to share your experience. If you are considering colouring your hair, please chime in as well!

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Until next time,

Nafisat.