I blogged a few days ago about our DanTDM Hair Fail using L'Oreal Colorista Vivids Turquoise Washout over dark brown hair. My son loved the result, but in sunlight there was a weird green tinge, so we agreed to try to reset to his natural hair and wait until the summer when he can lighten his hair before colouring it.

Now L'Oreal Colorista do a Fader Shampoo, which should help wash out the dye quicker than using regular shampoo and waiting the 7-15 washes stated on the box. As Smix only washes his hair twice a week, and with school starting back in a week and a half, I had considered buying the Fader shampoo to do the job. However looking at reviews online people were saying it didn't do much more than a regular shampoo.

So with a little online research, my own experience with hair dye gone wrong, and a check in with the hair master, Clare from Vintage Rocks, I put together a concoction that in ONE WASH removed all blue and green tinges from his hair. This stuff is hairdye kryptonite, folks.

Before I used that we tried simply using Head and Shoulders last night, to see if that would pull out enough dye. Regular Head & Shoulders (we used Tesco own brand £1) is a nightmare for coloured hair, due to the chemicals used to prevent dandruff. So if you've just coloured your hair a beautiful plum, red or even turquoise, if you use an anti-dandruff shampoo you will lose a huge amount of colour with each wash. If you are trying to maintain a colour, especially a semi-permanent, never ever use Head & Shoulders. The best shampoo for keeping colour strong is Baby Shampoo, so says Clare from Vintage Rocks and she is the expert! So we tried just a shower with using Head & Shoulders in place of his regular shampoo and a lot of blue did come out. In fact last night we thought we had got the colour out, but this morning in daylight the green tinge remained.

The concoction had to go ahead. Here is the recipe for maximum colour washout.

In a bowl put enough Head & Shoulders to cover the whole hair like a conditioning hair mask would.
Add a 50p piece squirt of washing up liquid (dish soap)
Add a heaped tablespoon of baking soda (make sure it's definitely baking SODA not powder, we aren't making a cake here)
Gently mix together into a thick hair mask, then put all over the hair, scrubbing a little to bubble it slightly.
Leave on for fifteen minutes
Wash out in the shower using Head and Shoulders shampoo. The bubbles and water should now run clear, not blue.
Condition.

We then dried and styled his hair as normal. There is still a tiny amount of colour- you can tell it's been messed with, but there's no horrid green tinge to it.

If that doesn't work for you, you can always try adding crushed vitamin C to the mix. I could have done that if I hadn't not thought things through and bought my vitamin C in the form of those effervescent tablets you dissolve in water and drink. I realised my folly when I put the crushed up Vitamin C in the Head & Shoulders and it started to foam madly! But thankfully my recipe worked without the vitamin C part.

So we are back to his normal hair, and all this this week has made me decide I'm going to just go to Clare and let her professionally do his hair in the summer. We will share those results with you too- DanTDM hair Part Three!

P.S. If your kid wants Dan TDM blue hair there is a wash out spray also from L'Oreal Colorista that worked really well- read about our experience with that here.

Last half-term we blogged about L'Oreal Colorista One Day Spray in Turquoise, which was used to achieve pretty cool Instant DanTDM hair . It had great coverage and colour, but was messy if you left it in overnight. We concluded it was perfect for kids, but really needed shampooed out before bedtime to avoid morning mess.

Smix loved the Colorista spray, but for Easter he pleaded could he try a longer lasting colour change, so we returned to the L'Oreal range and one step up, the Washout, Vivid 2 Week Turquoise.

It promised to last 7-15 shampoos, and to be 'visible on all hair types'. I've said before I coloured my hair every shade of the rainbow in my twenties, and having dark brown hair like Smix, I couldn't help but be skeptical. I knew applying light or medium blue hair dye on our dark locks was basically a pointless endeavour, that pre-lightening was always needed, but Smix was resorting to begging in the aisle of Boots, so I gave in. The product was £6.99 and I thought it couldn't do any harm to try; hair colouring techniques will surely have changed in the ten years or so since I last went blue after bleaching my own hair.

We followed the Colorista Washout instructions and shampooed and dried his hair in preparation. Never apply conditioner before you next plan to dye your hair at home, it blocks the dyes, especially semipermanent ones.

Colorista Washout comes with two sets of gloves, which is very much appreciated- many times with bright unusual dyes you need to reapply and top up after the initial dye application, and I've had to fashion plastic bag and cling film gloves over the years!

The product is pleasant and very easy to apply, no scent, certainly no overpowering dye smell, and wipes off skin blissfully easily. Using blue or purple dyes in my youth used to be such a messy business, I would have green or grey necks for weeks at a time- this isn't like that. The shower and bath doesn't get dyed either- my Mum used to dread me coming home with a crazy colour back in the day!

We left the dye on the maximum 30 minutes, simply because with his dark hair I thought that might help. The hair with the product on wet looked dark blue, so we were both pretty confident we would get a nice result.

You wash the dye off, don't shampoo or condition, then dry and style. Unlike Colorista Spray, the hair doesn't feel stiff or unnatural, your hair just feels like your normal hair.

Unfortunately we were pretty disappointed with the colour result. In indoor lighting his hair just looks darker. Outside in the light there is a slight green/blue tint. It's disappointing because the packaging states, "visible on all hair types" and although it's sort of visible, it isn't a nice colour. It says, "vivid colour for brunette hair" and, "brunette? Instantly visible results!". There's also a little photo of how it should look, like a very dark denim, but Smix definitely has a weird green tinge.

So our second experiment with L'Oreal Colorista hasn't gone well. I do think with prelightening we can get a good result and eventually the look Smix wants, just like DanTDM's hair colour. You will have to wait until the end of June for that one, but it will be happening.

slight blue green tinge. Isn't great :-S

In the meantime, we will have to go buy the L'Oreal Colorista Fader Shampoo. Yes, they make a special shampoo to help wash their temporary colours out quicker! Lucky for us because I've a feeling the colour will only get weirder and grosser green as it fades. Oh well! We had to try!

CONCLUSION- L'Oreal Colorista Washout Vivid Turquoise whilst recommended for brunettes, won't give a good result on very dark hair without some prelightening. The other vivid colours or pastels would be good on lighter hair however, and the process of dying is quick, easy and very mess free compared to other dyes. Very little staining and minimal clean up operation needed. A 9/10 product, but just not suitable for very dark hair like Smix's. If you've used it and had a good result, gimme a shout on Twitter @rudedoodle and I will post your pictures here.