Now and again a girl feels the need for a bit of a change of image and one thing I find gives me a bit of a boost when feeling like this is changing the colour of my hair. Nothing drastic, just a slight change of shade and I can guarantee it will be left looking in great condition with an amazing shine. I do this by using L’Oreal’s Feria Color.
L’Oreal Feria Color usually costs between £6 and £7 and is available from most chemists and supermarkets. It is a permanent gel colourant and comes in a good variety of shades. Just recently I coloured my hair with shade number 36, which is called Chocolate Cherry, and it is a dark burgundy brown.
The Feria range of hair colourants come in a silver box with models on the front displaying the shade. On the back of the packaging, a ‘colour result table’ displays what hair colour types should use the product and besides this it shows the colour you can expect your hair to be after using the product. From my experience, these tables are fairly accurate.
Feria Color claims to give you ‘multi-faceted shimmering colour’. ‘Light–reflecting colour that accentuates natural contrasts between light and shade’. No more flat colour!
Feria Color also contains a deep–conditioning after–colour treatment with a UV filter that protects the hair shaft from drying out.
The side of the box displays what I think are some very important safety instructions. The first here is to always perform a skin sensitivity test 48 hours before using the product and not to use it if you have already experienced a reaction to hair colourants or if you have a sensitive, itchy or damaged scalp. The colourant must not be used to dye eyelashes or eyebrows, nor should it be used on bleach or straightened hair, or if your hair has been previously coloured with henna.
Inside the box of Feria colour, you’ll find the following, one pair of plastic gloves – these should be worn when applying colour to hair and when rinsing. Also in the box is a bottle of developer gel, a bottle of the colourant gel, a bottle of conditioner and of course the instruction leaflet.
Following a successful result from the skin sensitivity test, its time to colour the hair. Preparing the mixture is easy and involves unscrewing and removing the cap from the colorant bottle. The applicator bottle is then to be placed on top of this and applying a bit of pressure and twisting until you hear a click will join the two together. You then turn this upside down and the colourant runs into the applicator bottle. Once all the colourant has run through, you then have to shake vigorously to ensure an even mixture and then breaking off the snap-off top you’ll be ready to apply.
Here comes the messy bit.
When ready to apply, hair should be wet but towel dried, you can then part your hair into sections and gently apply the mixture until the whole head is covered in the colour. Massaging the mixture well into the hair will then ensure thorough and even coverage. Now you can go and have a brew, a cigarette, watch a bit of TV or whatever it is you like to do to kill a bit of time. I find it sometimes safer just to stay in the bathroom and read a magazine as with longer hair that holds a lot of water you can get the occasional drip and a bright red drip on the carpet isn’t very welcomed.
Thirty minutes later and the hair should then be ready to rinse. It’s a good idea to firstly wet the hair only a little and work it up into a lather before rinsing. Hair should then be rinsed until the colour runs clear. The conditioner contained in the pack is then to be applied and left on for two minutes and then you can dry and style your hair as desired.
Dying your own hair can be tricky and definitely messy, just the last time my bath was bright red and it took me a lot of scrubbing to clean it up afterwards, I have found though that every time I colour my hair I do get a bit better at it and learn to splash less of it all over the bathroom.
Being a permanent hair colour, the colour does cling for quite some time to the skin. To prevent this, I’ve found that rubbing moisturiser around the edge of the hair before application protects the skin a little and whilst waiting for the colour to develop, I also ensure that I gently wipe around the edge of my hair line with a little moisturiser and warm water to remove any colour that may be slowly developing.
Fragrancing hair colour isn’t easy due to the hydrogen peroxide and ammonia contained within it. Much work has gone into the development of fragrancing hair colourants but there are few fragrance materials that are stable in it and probably none that can actually cover the smell of ammonia. The fragrance contained in the Feria Color is perceptible whilst colouring the hair. The ammonia smell is still there and it may make your eyes water as it does with me but I’m sure without the fragrance that is contained in the product, the ammonia would appear to be a lot more harsh.
After I have died my hair using Feria colour I find it takes a good 5 minutes at least to rinse out all of the colourant. The hair however already feels to be in quite a good condition at this stage and free of knots. The conditioner I find spreads well through the hair and instantly makes my hair feel very soft. The fragrance contained in the last one I used I remember was very pleasant and was a sweet floral, I could smell notes of rose and powdery violet and it was very reminiscent of Paris by YSL.
After completely rinsing out the conditioner and drying my hair I’m left with extremely soft, very shiny and healthy looking hair. The hair shines more than with any hair conditioner I’ve ever used.
Naturally, I have quite dark brown hair and using the Chocolate Cherry hair colour left me with a dark shiny burgundy. I’ve found that this range of hair colours do not fade as some colourants can. But by the time I can noticeably see where new hair has grown, I’m usually in the mood for another change so will try another colour in the range which in turn covers the last one without a problem.
A few other colours in the Feria range are Copper Shimmer, Ruby Fusion, Sparkling Amber, Hot Ginger and Deep Currant. They have a good selection of colours to suit any taste but the Feria range of colours should not be used if you have more than 30% grey hair and instead, L’Oreal recommend you use a colour from their ‘Recital’ or ‘Excellence’ ranges.
If you want to know more about L’Oreal products or have any questions or comments you can ‘contact the experts’ by telephoning +44 845 399 1939 or visiting www.lorealparis.com
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