Bleach London: Pink Semi-Permanent Hair Dye

As we are experiencing this unusual and tedious time of a pandemic, one trend that has become somewhat "in vogue" in order to fulfil empty time is dying your own hair! Yes, I was also sucked into the idea of DIY hair which took me back to secondary school days where I used to experiment with drugstore bleach and box dye. However, this time was different as I decided to purchase professional products. My roots had grown out so I decided to balayage my own hair with Schwarzkopf Blonde Me powder mixed with 2:1 ratio of Schwarzkopf Blonde Me 30 volume developer which I had purchased from amazon. The next bit is where I may have created a pickle of a situation. I decided to purchase a drugstore pink dye rather than professional hair dye as it was easily accessible and I couldn't be bothered to pay for delivery. Without further or do, before you decide to purchase Bleach London and bring out your wild side, I would like to offer you my experience with it.

Who is Bleach London?

The idea of the brand originated from Alex Brownsell and her best friend Sam Teasdale who opened their own Bleach London hair salon. Their prominent focus was on the idea of colouring rather than styling of the hair. Bleach London products were created and sold around the world in 2013.

Product details

I had purchased the ROSÉ SUPER COOL COLOUR, SEMI PERMANENT HAIR COLOUR CREAM which is available from Boots, Superdrug, Sainsburys and Amazon in the UK.

How to use

As with any semi permanent hair dye, it must be applied to shampooed and towel dried hair. I have long, thick (up to my waist) hair and one bottle was enough to cover the whole head. I combed the product through to avoid patchiness and left it to develop for over an hour even though it says thirty minutes. Make sure before using the dye you carry out a strand test and don't be naive like me. Oh, and remember to wear gloves unless you want hands like Patrick from SpongeBob which is not trendy (lol). Conditioners are not necessary however if you do choose to use one make sure it is a colour protecting one.

Diving deep into the details

I will start by mentioning the pros of this product.

• The dye is easy to use as you simply slap it on your head (don't hurt yourself) and comb it through and then wash out after development time.

• There is surprisingly a lot of dye included in the product which is usually rare in terms of drugstore dyes as my hair usually needs two or three boxes.

• The formula had a thick and creamy consistency thus, it was a non-drip formula so it did not make a mess everywhere and coated the hair strands thoroughly.

• It left my hair soft and not in anyway contributed towards the damaged made prior by bleaching.

• Bleach London is easily accessible in the UK and affordable as its prices are similar to other brands offered at drugstores.

• Bleach London offer a satisfactory range of colours to choose from including all the colours you can find in the rainbow plus more. There are alternative rose colours ranging from SMOKY ROSÉ SUPER COOL COLOUR and ROSE GOLD SUPER COOL COLOUR.

• The ROSÉ SUPER COOL COLOUR came out how I expected and imagined it to be. It was a lovely pink, candy floss colour. It wasn't a fuchsia pink which I had feared it would be (which reminds me of school days) and it wasn't too light that the blonde would show through.

• The brand is also vegan and cruelty free which is an extra bonus. They are also sustainable as all their bottles can be recycled!

Unfortunately, for me the quality of the product was not apparent. The cons then:

• A big one to mention... the dye faded the next day. Yes you heard me, the N E X T day (insert sad face). So, I paid £6.50 to have a candy floss head last one day. I was so disappointed and wanted the vibrancy of the colour to last at least a week considering it says it washes out after 2-10 washes. I didn't even get a chance to wash my hair. Here is where it may have went wrong. I curled my hair after having dyed it but re-curled my hair the next day. I did not use a heat or colour protectant (yes maybe it is my fault it faded) so that's where the situation became sticky. So, for anyone who uses Bleach London, in order to keep the vibrancy PLEASE use a heat protectant if you are planning on using heat on your hair.

To be honest, the only con I have for the product is the idea in which it faded super quick even before washing it. Bleach London however do have a ROSÉ SHAMPOO and CONDITIONER TONING DUO in order to maintain the colour of the hair. I must note they only have this shampoo and conditioner for the Rose collection and not for any of the other hair colours. One confusion I had stumbled across was how there is a ROSÉ TONER KIT. Toners are used to tone blonde hair (bleach or natural) in order to banish orange or yellow tones and apply a hue of colour. It does not lift the hair but rather adds a tone to the hair. On the Bleach London website it claims to last sixteen washes which is longer than the semi permanent dye. With my hair being freshly bleached could it have possibly been better for me to use the toner rather than the dye to achieve a longer lasting candy floss pink? Let me know what you think by commenting under the Bleach London post on my Instagram page @kritiquewithkim.

Kritique rating: 3/5.

Day 1

Day 2