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