Now then... I reserved last night for dying my hair. I had a 20% off any one item coupon from Ulta, so I decided to pick up my hair dye. I normally use Feria Power Reds in True Red, and Ulta had a deal with Feria hair color, buy one get 50% off of a Loreal Ever Pure product of your choice. I also use Ever Pure products, so it was a good deal. Unfortunately, Ulta was out of my precious red, so that was a no go. But then I noticed that Garnier had come out with a new line of color, and they had a red that looked fantastic. Plus, if you bought a Garnier hair color then you got 50% off on any Garnier Fructis hair care product. Score. I've never really used any of their products since their initial shampoo launch when I was in college years ago, so I decided to give it a go.
I picked up the Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color in R3-Light Intense Auburn, and for my 50% off product I decided to try the Garnier Fructis Style Sleek and Shine Flat Iron Perfector Straightening Mist, which I will review in a later post. With the half off on the Straightening Mist, and the 20% off coupon, I spent about $11 after tax, which is about what I'd pay for just a box of my Feria by itself.
The dying instructions were the same as usual: Apply to roots, process for 20 minutes, apply to the rest of hair and process for another 5-10 minutes. Pretty straight forward. I did my roots first and let it sit for 20 minutes then did the rest of my hair, which I actually left on for about 25 minutes for a total processing time of 45 minutes. Then the instructions said to rinse the hair until the rinse water ran clear, then condition with the intensive conditioning packet included with the dye. The Feria dye that I normally use is very much the same, except it also comes with a tube of shampoo that's supposed to add to the highlights provided by the color, and the shampoo makes my hair super soft too. Most stylists will tell you to never wash your hair right after dying it because it will make the color fade faster. While this is true with most colors, especially red, I usually wash it any way just to get any excess dye out so it doesn't end up bleeding on my pillow cases. Since the Garnier didn't come with a shampoo, I used a couple drops of Dr. Bronner's to do a quick wash before applying the conditioner. It worked exactly as I wished, removing the excess dye, but with out interfering with the brightness of the color. The conditioner included with the color was nice. An avocado based formula, it provided needed moisture to my now processed hair. I do have to say though, I prefer the conditioner that comes with the Feria color. It's much thicker, more like a hair mask and, in addition to a good deep conditioning treatment, it de-tangles my poor fried hair to provide more manageability after I'm done with the whole process. Plus, Feria provides you with a tube of the stuff that you can use later too, as opposed to a one time use packet.
One thing to be aware of with the Garnier product is that it is designed for use on dark hair colors, and it will lift your dark hair and deposit a vivid red color. I have black streaks in my hair, and the color of my streaks is now more of a burgundy tone. Not a big deal for me, but I didn't expect it, and now I need to get my streaks touched up (I needed to any way :p).
In the end, I'm really happy with the color and texture and shine of the finished product. My hair turns out softer with the Feria, but when I can't find the right color, I now have a good fall back product.
I need to dye my hair badly. My grey is poking through. Do you know how the Feria and/or Garnier perform for grey coverage?
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