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.

When I spied the new L'Oreal Colorista Spray range in Superdrug last week, I knew Smix would be up for trying the turquoise wash out spray to look like one of his favourite Youtubers DanTDM.

Dan has dark blue, turquoise hair, and the spray I chose looked exactly like his on the can. Smix has very dark brown hair, so to have any other colour product show up would require pre-lightening, something most parents don't want to get into with natural kid hair.

Sprays can be a good alternative, as they coat the dark hair strands rather than colour them, so it shows up better. I was really impressed with the L'Oreal spray. It looked more like the strands were actually dyed rather than coated.

The colour went on pretty easily. Just cover your clothes with a towel and use the precision spray. The shade wasn't quite what we expected, and was more royal blue than the Dan TDM turquoise, but Smix was still impressed and happy with the result.

It was easy to apply to short hair, but may be trickier to get coverage on longer girl's hair. Any mess on the skin was simple to remove with a baby wipe.

As you can see the coverage and result is pretty impressive. Colorista spray is definitely the next generation of wash out sprays. It looks more like a proper dye job and less like a fancy dress after thought. Superdrug currently has the range on offer for £6, which is a good price for the results.

UPDATE: I said I would add in how the dye lasted and the mess potential of sleeping with it on. I wish I wasn't having to share the truth about how it went, cause it's not good news, but at least if you read this review you'll be warned and be prepared to wash it out that night and not let yourself or your kid sleep on it like we did.

Smix washed his hair on Sunday morning and I sprayed the Colorista Turquoise One Day Spray onto his freshly shampooed and dried hair, giving a great result. Monday morning his friend Connie was coming round to play and we didn't have time to get him showered to clean up what disaster we were faced with when he woke up.

His hair looked like he had been dragged through a hedge backwards. The texture with the spray coating the strands is crispy and tricky to comb through into shape. While sweating during his sleep, a lot of blue had transferred onto his pillow and duvet. Now this wasn't the end of the world. The transfer onto the bed cloths was slight and looks like it'll be easy to get off, I'll just be careful to wash it separately from clothing.

The bad part was Smix's face, neck and hands. He had turned a weird green grey which now wouldn't shift with the baby wipes. We had used a baby wipe to clean up any spray that got on his forehead during application, but this ingrained stain wouldn't move at all. To clean the hands we just had him wash the colour off in the sink using shampoo instead of soap, which worked a treat. So I then used a little bit of shampoo on a baby wipe to clean his face and neck.

To be honest the result wasn't great, so I was glad he and a Connie were playing indoors that day! That night he had a shower but even after two instensive shampoos with Pantene, the hair was still a strange shade and texture. It's now Thursday and he's had two showers since the Colorista one day spray and his hair still isn't back to normal.

So my advice would be if you use the one day spray, try to wash it off before you go to bed.

CONCLUSION:

L'Oreal One Day Spray is well priced and does a decent job, but it's messy and hard to get off. The Turquoise wasn't quite the shade we hoped.

During the summer we plan on using Colorista Washout, maybe with a Sun-In type pre-lightener, but not a bleach. Age nine is still too young for bleaching hair I think, but if he wants some blue hair, who am I to judge? I've had my hair every colour of the rainbow over the years.

UPDATE: At Easter we went a step further and tried the L'Oreal Colorista Washout Vivid Turquoise which is a semi-permanent dye made for brunette hair. It's part of the range pictured above and should last 7-15 washes. Read our review (it was a bit of a fail) then if you need to, read our review of how to remove blue or green dye from your hair in one wash- yes that's how badly it went!

There will be another update when we dye his hair properly with pre-lightening at the end of June, but after that disaster I'm contemplating visiting my own hairdresser to get her to do it!