L'Oreal HiColor HiLights/HiColor Review

I've been wanting to dye my hair red for a veeeeery long time. So long, that I never thought I would really do it unless I was drunk. BUT, I finally grew a stronger vagina and went for it. It's still not a super bright red like Rihanna's hair color or just bright red like most people have done with these hair colors but I like it and maybe it will fade to a brighter red. I think after a few times of dying my hair, it just won't dye brighter as much as other people's hair has. There's red halfway down my hair but it's still pretty dark, even after a second dye. Pretty let down by how dark it is. But it could be due to the a couple of factors. I oiled my hair like crazy after I rinsed out the dye (shown in the pic directly below) or it could be because I mixed colors rather than just dye it straight up one red color like others.
I wanted a dark red color that was bright. I got that color...I just want a bit more bright in there, especially halfway down my hair. It's still pretty dark. Almost like a dark, dark cherry red.

Because it wasn't as bright as I wanted but is still the best dye I have ever used, I would give this a 4 rose rating.

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I HIGHLY RECOMMEND L'Oreal HiLights and this way of achieving red from dark hair colors. I DID NOT WANT TO BLEACH MY HAIR. This is a great and successful way of getting from brown to red without that much damage. The dye does contain some bleaching components but not so much to where your hair feels like hay (I regretted bleaching my hair years ago). It is also said that this way is more true to its color. You shouldn't get a brassy color, or fade to a brassy or orangey color like how you would if you pre-bleached your hair.

Anyways, here's my results from the second attempt (and sorry for the no make-up):

So from the pic you can see that halfway up my hair, it looks great. That's the bright I wanted throughout the whole hair but it didn't turn out that way. Again, I don't know if it's because I heavily oiled my hair or if it's really that dark. I again, do still recommend this method for achieving red hair from black or just dark hair though. I would keep using this hair dye for future red dying.

READER DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL AT ALL, WHATSOEVER.

All of the information in here, I learned from reading articles, blog posts and experiences and viewed a few videos. I will post the Youtube videos I liked and viewed at the bottom of this whole post.

So overall, this was a messy and somewhat expensive experience. It was expensive because some of my choices and the fact that I had to buy EVERYTHING. It cost me about $60 for everything in the list below. It can cost you less if you buy other things that I can list after my bought list. 

What I bought:

Salon Care 30 Developer (16 oz. bottle) $3.69

Salon Care 20 Developer (16 oz. bottle) $3.69

L'Oreal HiLights (Red Hot) $6.49

L'Oreal HiLights (Magenta) $6.49

L'Oreal HiLights (Magenta) $6.49

L'Oreal HiLights (Red) $6.49

Ion Color Sealer Conditioner (bottle/tube not small packet) $6.99

Colorful Professional Protein Filler (Red Red) $5.29

Clear Tinting Brush (Large) $.99

Clear Tinting Brush (Large) $.99

Sally's Clear X-Large Bowl $2.00

Sally's Clear X-Large Bowl $2.00

Sally's Black and White Hair Clips $2.39

Tax $2.97

TOTAL $59.27

I bought two different numbered developers, 20 for my roots and 30 for the rest of my hair since root dye faster and much better and brighter. In the end result, you see that my roots are super bright. Well, that's my mistake because I got lazy and just put 30 on it rather than 20 like in my first attempt. It probably would've come out all even if I did 20 but it's soooo much work. I also bought reusable gloves because I dye my hair a lot and I know I would like this dye enough to keep using it after reading a viewing videos of reviews of the L'Oreal HiLights dyes. I bought two bowls and brushes, one for my roots and the other for the rest of my hair. I also bought the big tube bottle of Ion conditioner rather than just the separate individual packets because I know I will want to use the conditioner later on, maybe once or twice a week to keep the color in longer. I got large brushes because I have long, frizzy...and a lot of hair so I thought a bigger brush would fasten my dying process. I also needed clips because I had none, I only have fat scrunchies to tie my hair up and I didn't want to have to use those to hold my hair up with red dye everywhere. 

NOTE: Do not use a metal bowl and do not use clips that have a lot of metal. The clips I bought had metal on the top part of the clip but was not going to touch my hair. I bought the protein filler because it seemed like a good idea. I wanted thorough color, even when it starts to fade, I don't want blotches later on and you can also use it for touch-ups. And I bought four hair dye boxes for two applications. Two for each application to mix because I didn't want super bright Ariel red hair...at least not for my first try. I needed to see how red would even look on me, so I wanted to go bold just not Courage the Cowardly Dog Muriel's-In-Trouble Bold/Brave. 

If you already have hair dying supplies, such as the bowls and brushes, then your cost would just be the developers and dyes. The developers, will last you both applications! And the 20 will be plentiful for any touch-ups in the future and future dye job. I bought the big bottle because I didn't think the small one would completely do the job. I wish they had an inbetween bottle but there's only small, big, and gallon size (I think it's a gallon). You also don't need to mix colors like I did. Red, Red Hot and Magenta are beautiful by themselves. BUT you will still need two tubes of dye for TWO applications. If you have dark hair that has been dyed previously, you will definitely need two applications. If you have virgin black hair, you probably only need to do one application with 30 developer. You can also just use one developer for all of your hair rather than do roots and rest of your hair separately.

If you don't already have the supplies, here's how you can lessen your cost:

Disposable Non-resuable gloves $1

Sally's Clear X-Large Bowl $2.39 (It was $2 each in my transaction because it was 2 for $5. Other bowls were a bit more expensive by a few cents)

Clear Tinting Brush (Medium) $.89

Ion Color Sealer Conditioner (Packet) $2.39

L'Oreal HiLights (Color of Choice, Red, Hot Red, or Magenta) $6.49

L'Oreal HiLights (Color of Choice, Red, Hot Red, or Magenta) $6.49

Salon Care 30 Developer (16 oz.) $3.69

TOTAL $23.34 (not including tax)

Prices will range from store to store but should be all around the same price. This is for BUDGET-CONSCIOUS people. If you have some more money to spare, I would suggest to buy the color filler, it's recommended by a lot of hair dyers. I also would buy one more Ion Conditioner packet if you have long hair. Two packets could probably last 3 applications, using up most of one and still have enough in that packet and the second packet for another. And if you dye your hair a lot, I would suggest reusable gloves. But you can always buy the gloves later when you have more money. Same with the Ion conditioner, you can always buy more packets or a bottle later on when you get more money. 

As a FOREWARNING: Red hair is a lot of money and suffering! So much care and moolah to spill out of our life!

~You will have to care for your hair in cold water. I'm not looking forward to it, but I really want to try red. So you need to shampoo and rinse in cold water! After you're done with shampooing and conditioning, you can always turn your shower back to warm or hot, not saying you need to completely shower in cold water. 

~Red will stain EVERYTHING. Make sure to rinse out your tub, walls and shower curtains after a shower. And your red hair will always bleed in the shower and when it's wet. So shampooing often,wet hair and rain will be your enemy. I got a bottle of dry shampoo to use so I only have to shampoo my hair every other day or two days. And for certain times, you will want to blow dry your hair. I hate blow-drying my hair but right after I rinsed my dyes after each of the two applications, I blew dry it since the dye is still "fresh". 

~I've heard red can rub off onto your light shirts on the back of your neck. DON'T WEAR LIGHT-COLORED SHIRTS WHEN YOUR HAIR IS WET. If you like to dry your hair naturally, either wear a shirt you don't care about or wear black. 

~Towels would have to be black, purple or red, or something you don't care about. 

~I heard you have to touch-up your red hair more often than other dyes. So it fades faster than other dyes. I dyed my hair red burgundy before and it bled for like a month or two. BUT the color stayed in for about 2-3 months. Then it starting showing the faded color by turning brown. When I dyed my hair black or light brown, it bled for a few days and stayed in my hair for almost ever. This can be done with dyes like Manic Panic and such. But I will be reviewing more videos and posts for touch-ups and post what I found and have done.

Now onto before and after pics:

Before the Red Dye Job. It looks kind of reddish, but it's a brown with a little tiny, teensy bit of red.

After the first application:

It came out pretty well. For this first application, I mixed Magenta with Red Hot. Despite the Red Hot name, Red Hot is actually a darker red than just Red. So I did this mix because I was too scared that it would turn out too bright. I would actually LOVED this color but I wanted brighter!! Remember to mix 1 part dye and 2 parts developer. So there was a lot more developer than what you see in videos on Youtube since I used two tubes rather than one. There was enough to cover all of my hair and to top it off after I done with my whole head. What I did different from Youtube videos (I will post a link at the end of this blog to which ones I viewed) was that each section of hair, I combed, brushed on dye (20 on the roots and 30 for the rest) then combed it again and brushed it with dye again. It was a long process but I got overall same color results. After I was done with all of my hair, I literally dunked some fingers in the rest of my dye and just slapped it on the hair below my roots then just piled my hair ontop of my head and covered my head with a plastic shower cap. I also blew dry my ends and halfway up for a couple of min. I waited 30 min or so then went to go rinse it out. I did not shampoo it like how it said, just rinsed in cold water and conditioned. I wanted the color to stay on for a day longer before shampooing. After showering, I HEAVILY oiled my hair with Garnier Fructisse Triple Hair Oil Spray (which I regretted buying because it made my hair too greasy but now it's useful) then blew dry it.

In flourescent light. It's a dark magenta with red higlights.

In natural lighting

The very next day, I did the same thing but I did not use 20 on my roots (damn my laziness, I wish I did). I also did a mix of Magenta and Red (not Red Hot). I did the Red instead of Red Hot because I wanted it Magenta with brighter red highlights (or color in the sun). I also didn't blow dry it while I was waiting for the dye to process...I wish I did. I waited 30 min or so, rinsed in cold water (no shampooing still), conditioned then out of the shower, I heavily oiled it and blew dry my hair. I think the red is lighter in my hair than in the pictures because the pictures show my hair heavily oiled (which makes my hair look wet). 

Second attempt:

I will take more pictures and do another post once I shampoo it tomorrow and it's dry to see the real results. The oiling made it darker and I'm sure that not shampooing, left a lot of red in my hair. The color reminds me of a vintage-style red...almost like the Moira from American Horror Story?

After the dyes, my hair does feel a bit frizzier, but I'm not sure that's due to my blow drying or the dye job. The Ion conditioner is amazing though. It makes your hair feel super soft and amazing. It also helped detangle my hair after the rinse. Even with the comb jobs, once you start rinsing, it turns back into chaos so thank goodness for the conditioner. I recommend heavily hair oiling to help repair your hair from the dying stress. My hair doesn't feel so damaged, not like when I used box dyes so that's a plus! And from my transaction from Sally's you should be able to tell that this was my first time ever dying my hair this way. I have ALWAYS used box dyes but, man, you cannot (or at least I can't) get results like this with a box dye. Now I don't feel so afraid to dye my hair this way. It's not different from the box dye, just that you have to measure stuff out yourself (which I actually just eye-balled). 

Youtube videos I watched: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifo9bEwVSLA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xctzIvdxcRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtS3WMJJvYs

So! I guess that's it? I will make a new post for my results after I shampoo and dry my hair! I hope it's brighter but if not, I can always re-dye it to a brighter color later, once my roots start getting too long (like in my before pics) or once it starts fading.