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So, I know I was planning to review this in my “Try It Tuesday“, but I decided that this needs a post of its own. I randomly picked up a box of Clairol Natural Instincts Vibrant at CVS one morning. It took me about two minutes to pick out the color (Vibrant 5, Coffee Boost, Medium Brown) and with only $7.99 gone out of my pocket, I was out the door.
Although dying my own hair doesn’t really scare me, I do make sure I do it when I know there will be someone around to fix it that day / the next day, just in case. And I would never do it right before an important event or if I was going someplace the next day I would be embarrassed to walk around looking all crazy at. Â I did one dye my hair black. Not on purpose of course. I wanted it to be dark brown and then just left the dye on longer than recommended to make sure it got nice and dark. Â FAIL.
So the other evening, with nothing to distract me and no where to be the next day, I decided it was time.
Although my hair color doesn’t look too crazy in this picture, I assure you it was. It was looking pretty gross. Lots of dark roots and just dull and icky. And sort of greenish.
I read the instructions (briefly, but I read them) and decided they were the easiest instructions ever and got right to work.
Although the directions look super long, they are so not. Â They are in 3 different languages so they just look intimadating. Â Like the instructions said, I mixed up the color (I felt like a real stylist) and applied the bottle to my dry hair, roots first.
It looks pretty good huh? Clearly I have no internet shame. Â That should be obvious by now since I post picture pictures of myself make-up free all the time. Â I waited the 10 minutes (and not a second longer) and rinsed the stuff out of my hair (until the water turned clear). Â That took forever and was probably the hardest part of the entire process. The next step was to put a color setting conditioner on it for two minutes and then rinse it again. Â That was super easy. Â I will admit though, that I was getting pretty nervous about this time since my hair just kept coming out. Â Like I feared I may end up with no hair after I was done. Â After a few sweaty minutes, I realized all was well and it just looked like a lot of hair. Â Phew.
I was pretty pleased with the results. Â Dark brown hair with a few shades of other colors in there (from my previous highlites). Â I couldn’t have been more happier. Â And for $7.99, this gets a total thumbs up from me! Â I would have spent $200+ at the salon and 2 hours for my girl at the salon do do this. Â And I spent <$10 and 30 minutes total! Â Oh, and the package also came with some Color Boost that I need to use in 2 weeks to keep my color free. Â I would for sure use this stuff again. Â No question.
A final before and after. Â Such a change!
Have you ever dyed your own hair? Â How did it work out? Â Any horror stories out there?
Looks great! Wish I could dye my own hair but blonde is super temperamental. It can turn orange super easy (I know from past experience LOL) so I leave it to the pros. But I am super envious of you girls who can bust out a great color for $8!! I bought a root touch up kit the other day and tested it on a piece underneath… NADA. nothing happened lol. I counted my blessings and moved on HAHA.
I know. That is the upside of having dark hair!
I also just used this for my own first-ever hair coloring session. I used Medium brown and loved the results. Your hair looks great! FYI, the color boost is hard to rinse out (I stood there forever rinsing and finally gave up, but it didn’t come off on the towel). The color looked a little different after, but I got compliments for “my new highlights” from a friend. 🙂
I will keep that in mind. I thought the color was hard to wash off, this boost must be a total pain. Did you post before and after pictures???
I love it! You look so pretty!
xo
Kelly
Aww, thanks Kelly!
In only 10 minutes?? That’s awesome! I love coloring my own hair. The last few times I did go to a salon because I wanted highlights. Love the results, just not the time or money spent. I am about due to color again, will definatley give this one a try 🙂 I love the color you went with, I like dark colors for myself 🙂
Ohh, try it! I can’t wait to see what you end up with! Since I had highlites prior to this, I ended up with a few different dark shades and I am very pleased because it kind of looks like I have a few highlights!
OH I love it!!! It looks great! I may try that next time I do mine!
Thanks!!
I tried the 10 minute one once, but parts of my hair got too dark. I have so much damn hair that by time I got done, it had already set on my roots for more than 10 minutes. So the 10 minute color is not for me, lol.
I’ve always had success coloring my hair myself, both back when I was blonde and now with dark auburn hair. EXCEPT when I tried to go from blonde to red by myself. I knew better, but tried it anyway. Horrible, horrible idea. I ended up with Bozo-the-Clown orange. Truly awful. Fortunately, my beautician got me in the next day and didn’t laugh at me too much.
Yeah, I could see that as a problem. I think at home dye works well when you go from light to dark. Or dark to darker. I would never try to go lighter either since I know I too would end up looking like a clown.
It looks great! I SO want to try dying my own hair but I am terrified that my hair will turn orange. My hair tends to pick up red tones. My hair girl has been pissing me off lately so now would be a good time for me to try….. Did you put the dye all over your hair or just the roots? Again, it looks great!
PS ~ I love your blog!
Thanks! I put it all over, but started with the roots. Good luck!
I wish I’d seen this post before I colored. I know it’s been a couple of years and perhaps Clairol doesn’t make that color, but your after shot is amazing. That’s like the perfect rich, deep brown I’m aiming for. I just tried Natural Instincts, 28 Dark Brown and it came out really nice, but I definitely want to try the vibrant shades now! Here’s a bit on my results: http://samanthareview.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-favorite-dark-brown-hair-color-brand.html
I’ll be on the lookout at the store for the coffee boost color. Thanks for sharing!