Monday, January 30, 2012

L'oreal Sublime Mousse

A few months ago I embarked on a mission to grow out the dye in my hair and get highlights once all my natural hair had grown back (I didn't want to damage it too much by dying it straight away, and the idea seemed to fit perfectly with the ombre hair trend going around). That ended about two weeks ago when I realized that I needed a change from my dark black roots and that the end of this project was no where in sight. 
I never stray too far from my natural hair color, but I wanted a cool toned light brown color. I picked out the L'oreal sublime mousse in light chestnut brown, admittedly because of the packaging. The reviews about this were on either end of the spectrum, you either love it or hate it, but I figured my hair is dark and there is usually a good amount of leeway for it when it comes to color. L'oreal usually make good at-home dyes and  as a mousse, it hopefully meant that it would be easy to do myself. 
Inside it comes with the usual suspects - the color, a developer, a deep conditioner, a pair of gloves and instructions - as well as an interesting mousse pump. 
The mousse formula was so easy to work with and allowed for precise application with no dripping. Surprisingly, it didn't stain anything, which got me a little worried, because it probably meant that it wouldn't dye my hair very well either. 
After rinsing it out and blow drying, I got the results I was kind of expecting - a very subtle tinge of brown that shines through in the sunlight. 
{It is very hard to capture on camera} 
Naturally black hair is very hard to lighten or color, especially with an at-home dye. I wasn't expecting it to do anything drastic, mostly just lighten up my roots, so for that I am quite pleased with it. It is definitely not as harsh as some of the other box dyes I've tried in the past. It doesn't sting when it gets on your skin and it doesn't make your hair feel stripped afterwards. I actually love the way my hair feels now - a little thicker, less flat and oily from the coating of dye on the strands and still very healthy. 
Looking back at the directions, it seems that I missed the part about massaging the hair in circular motions until it is completely saturated, which might have meant more drastic results if I had actually done this properly =I. Also a little tip, if you slightly wet the glove with water it makes the dye really foam up and distribute in your hair. With this added experience I would love to get another box and try it again in the future. 
All in all I think this is good for first time box dyers, and those with dark hair who want a subtle easy to use dye. I've never gotten my hair colored at a salon and although I want to, I'm kind of scared to see what I would look like with a full on color that actually turns out the way it looks in the tube. For now I will stick with the subtle, albeit somewhat unexpected, color that I get from drugstore box dyes. 

Do you guys dye your hair at home or have suggestions about getting it dyed at a salon? 
~Vida

20 comments:

  1. The color looks pretty and natural on you. I'm afraid I don't have very much hair dyeing experience though it's something I really want to try.

    ReplyDelete
  2. what camera do you use. love the pictures captured!

    ReplyDelete
  3. cool- thanx for the review. I am at the same stage as you were. wanna get highlights but I can't on top of natural color roots & dyed hair...it looks so awful & un-even if I do it myself! anyway, it has been really hard to not dye my hair. I like to go darker because when I try to go lighter without bleach it basically doesn't do anything. maybe i should try this mousse out if im thinking of going a tad bit lighter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yea, I couldn't wait any longer. This one is really good if your doing it by yourself because it is easy to work with and you can flip your hair over and get into all the roots without worrying about it dripping.

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. Thank you! It is very subtle, but I love how it looks in daylight

      Delete
  5. Gotta love mousse, especially because my hair is flat as a pancake! =p

    pinkchampagnefashion.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. it looks so pretty! i've heard such good things about using mousse dyes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I hadn't heard anything about them, but it seems like a lot of other brands are doing them too

      Delete
  7. Your hair looks incredible. The color is very pretty! :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have black hair too and it's so hard to dye. Most of the time you don't notice it until I'm standing directly under some light source. In my past experience of dying my hair, I would check the "before and after" photos on the side panel of the dye box and that is the actual color I want to achieve. But for my hair to actually be that color on the box, I would have to pick two shades lighter which can seem scary but don't worry, if your hair isn't bleached, it will never go blonde.

    I used to go to the salon but they can't really do anything about it unless I bleach my hair, use a toner to get the brassiness/orangey look out and then dye it the actual shade I want. But that's just way too much work and damage for my hair.

    I also found that prior to dying my hair, I make sure that it hasn't been washed the same day. I would do it the day after or the third day to dye my hair so that the dye would hold better. Washing my hair prior to dying it, with a build-up removal shampoo gives better results since the dye would penetrate my hair a lot better.

    Hope this helps! :)

    Patricia Ann
    www.theshapesofthings.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha yea I hadn't dyed my hair in a while so I didn't want to go too light, but next time I am def going for something a few shades lighter. Thanks for the tips, I will keep them in mind!

      Delete
  9. lovely! i actually used to use revlon hair dye all the time, but i let my natural dark brown grow out, then i bleached my tips to the 'ombre-esque' style myself at home :) oh, *note* i'm 1/2 japanese and 1/2 white, so i happened to pull the white side when it comes to my hair -- but my mama (japanese) with black hair also does at home touch-ups with regular colors out of the box -- so i think you should be fine with at-home dye. no need to spend all that extra $$ at the salon

    xo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yes, I don't think I'm in any position to be spending at a salon to get my hair colored so I will prob stick to box dyes for now

      Delete
  10. I've been trying to grow out my natural hair for so long and I'm tempted to dye it to even it out. The mousse dye seems slot easier to use than the ones we used to use. Wanna see how ur hair turned out!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I always dye it at home since it's much cheaper and its easier to get it the way I want, at least sometimes, when I don't fail ha ha :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I ended up here when I was looking for pictures of L'oreal Sublime Mousse painted hair on google.

    Your name is beautiful. Did you know it means "Life" in portuguese? :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting!