Review - L'oreal Excellence HiColor Reds for Dark Hair Only -- Shade H9 RED HOT

Hello again!

So, it's that "time of the month" again for me as in I have to re-dye my hair! Because of my awful roots that are starting to show again! As you all know, I dye my hair red continuously, so I don't change my color like some people who go from brown, to blonde, to red, to black and then they freak out because they can't get rid of the black.

You have probably seen my other previous posts, I did a transparent dye treatment which is basically a cellophane hair gloss treatment meant to give shine and somewhat "tone" down your intense shades if they are too intense for you. Also, they help to prolong your colour too. 

So I am going to show you how I go from this:

To this:

Before I begin, let me tell you about the "history" of my hair! I'm going to be using a shade that I used a lot a while ago when I went from my golden brown hair colour, to using "golden brown" henna (which made my hair red) and then to a somewhat brownish-red colour to match the faded henna colour, and then to the red hot which I have used after. If you all know, that COLOUR DOES NOT LIFT COLOUR! And I found that out the hard way because my roots I had dyed with the brownish red colour I bought from Shoppers Drug Mart, and then when i dyed my hair with the red hot shade from the l'oreal excellence brand from Sally's (more higher end dye) it didn't lighten the already dyed hair so I basically had to keep on re-dying it over and over again, month after month and now it's been about a year? Maybe less, and my the dark patches have now faded, and the red is starting to really take over. It was either bleach it out which probably would have been worse since I had hennaed my hair, or just keep on dying it over and over like what I did now a days.

Okay! So let me tell you what you will need if you want to achieve the desired shade!

note: applying this dye on virgin hair (never before dyed hair) will result in a more uniform colour than dying it over previously coloured hair.)

You will need:

- Shade H9 RED HOT from L'Oreal (you can buy it at sally's)

- Gloves

- 30 or 40 vol. developer (I personally use 30 vol because I don't want to kill my hair)

- Mixing Bowl

- Applicator Brush

- Plastic shopping bag OR a disposable plastic head wrap, or cellophane (saran wrap) to 

   help keep the heat in your hair, and to get the colour to come out better.

- Vaseline or petroleum jelly. Trust me you will want to put this on your hairline and 

   anywhere where you think the dye will touch your skin! With reds, they stain! And will 

   take a few days to wash out of your skin!

- A good shampoo and conditioner

- Heat protectant

- Hair Oils

Optional!

Old T-Shirt

Hair dying cape

I personally just use an old t-shirt, or I just do it with nothing on me, and the dye would be touching my bare back...  

So basically I just took the cap, punctured the seal on the tube and squeezed it out. As you can see from the picture below, I already squeezed out the dye and I have another tube of which I will be squeezing out again.

Caution - this stuff smells really weird!

So I didn't show the picture of me squeezing out the red intensifier that came with the tube, it's a .10 fl oz tube of pure red pigment which I added to make the red more "intense" so to say, and then I measured 5 fl oz of the ion sensitive scalp developer and poured it into my mixing bowl, and then I mixed it all up! 

So basically the end result is this! very red dye!!

 

So I wasn't able to document me putting the dye onto my roots because when your hands are covered in blood red dye, it's kind of hard to take pictures with your phone without worrying about it getting dirty, messed up etc.

I basically started to put my hair into a half up half down kind of style, and I started from the very bottom of my head, focusing on the roots mainly, and then sectioning again, and putting the colour mainly on the roots! I did this all the way from bottom to top! It was somewhat grueling because I started to sweat a lot, and I had to constantly wipe my face which i didn't like to do too much but it was worth it!

I also combed each section after I finished dying just so the dye can spread out a bit more, and then when I was done colouring my roots, I gently combed through with my wide tooth comb again, and used my fingers (with gloves on of course) and then after that I just put a plastic bag on top of my head, and let the heat do its magic! 

Personally, I just use the bag that I got from sally's beauty supply, you can use a plastic hair cap, or cellophane/saran wrap, but I just use whatever is easy for me. And then I let my hair develop for about 20 minutes! 

After having the colour develop on my head for 20 minutes, I then took the remaining dye that was left in my mixing bowl, and distributed it all over the length of my hair! Then I left it on for about... 10-20 more minutes, and this is what the final result is!

I just used the same pic above haha. But this time i turned on the flash because it was getting dark outside, plus the colour takes a few hours to really show its true colour! Well, on my hair it does anyways . . . 

I know the next day, it will be a lot brighter and when I wash it in a few days, it will look a lot brighter too!

Overall, this product is amazing and I do love how it's very nice and intense looking! I personally prefer the "red" shade from the L'Oreal HiColor HiLights one because it looks SO much more of the nice rich red that I like, but who knows maybe this shade will be somewhat like the red shade that I used before too! We'll just have to wait and see! I'll definitely make an update around next week.

With so much hype about this product, and that it is actually true to its shade, I will def have to give this product a 5/5! It's a little pricey, about $7-$8 CAD depending on if you have the beauty club card or not, but in the end it is well worth it!