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.

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!