Snooker Goths

*** DISCLAIMER: This post is in no way sponsored by Lime Crime or any affiliates. The product used was bought with my own money and all opinions are my own. ***

Purple here. As can be evidenced by our travels and non-scripted television appearances, Red and I are fans of our non-natural hair colours. She sticks to the same each time (that’s Special Effects’ Nuclear Red, tip fans), whereas I like to chop and change my colour every couple of months, usually sticking to something in the region of purple (of course). Lime Crime, the US-based cosmetics company, had been threatening to bring out their range of hair dyes for years now, and finally, FINALLY they are on the market. We placed a shipping order of LC stuff of late, including a tub of ‘Unicorn Hair’ in the shade ‘Pony’, which is their purpliest purple, for me. NOTE: If you’re in the UK or anywhere other than the US, basically, it is worth waiting until LC have a sale or shipping promotion, because shipping can be quite costly.

The Unicorn Hair tub comes in at 200ml, more than double Directions’ 88ml tub.

After getting my hair bleached and having a bit of a disaster with my previous lilac hair that faded to white within about two washes, I decided to give the Pony a go.

First impressions: No word of a lie, this stuff is EXPENSIVE. I believe that, at the then exchange rate, my tub cost around £12.75. However, the tub is a lot bigger than you might expect. If you think you’re going to get something around the size of a Directions dye tub, think again – this is at least twice the size. The dye is 100% vegan and cruelty-free, which is ace. It’s very prettily packaged, too, with holographic fonts and the like, but the most important thing is how it performs…

Upon opening the well-sealed tub, the first thing that struck me was how nice the dye smelled. No chemical smells; more something vaguely sweet. As I applied the dye, the smell lingered, and was far nicer than any other dye I’ve used. With Unicorn Hair, a little goes a long, long way, and I found that it only took me about a third of the tub to cover my currently just-past-shoulder-length hair. I did hit a snag when my trusty old tail comb snapped in my hair, meaning I had to comb the back of my hair through with my fingers, but we shall come to that later.

Then, it was sit-and-wait time. Manufacturer instructions for semi-permanent dyes recommend leaving it on for about half an hour, but my hair takes FOREVER to take, so I left it on for nearer, er, six hours. NOTE: I have been dyeing my hair for the past 22 years, and have found that that’s how long semi-permanent hair dye takes to develop on my hair. Beginners should go for the recommended timings!

Complimentary photo of me with a shower cap on.

After spending a happy afternoon making myself a pair of punky trousers, I washed the dye off. The results were… mixed. The front, where I had been able to comb the dye through properly, had taken extremely well at the roots, but the ends were slightly more muted where the dye had emulsified a little too quickly while being combed through. (I put this down to the fact that my hair wasn’t completely dry before I dyed it.) The back of my hair was quite patchy where I had only been able to comb it through with my fingers. TIP: you need to really saturate your hair in this stuff for it to take evenly! And COMB THROUGH as much as you can, adding dye to places where it looks like it’s emulsifying too quickly.

The initial result – patchier in real life than it looks here.

So, was I impressed? On the whole, yes – the colour is gorgeous. It’s a bit of a change for me, as I tend to veer more towards blueish-purples. However, I think this pinkish one suits my colouring a bit more, and is a bit less harsh-looking. At present, I am sitting with a bit more of the dye developing on the patchy places (which were my fault, not the dye), and have my fingers crossed for a more even overall result.

A couple of points to add:
1) After rinsing, my hair felt in nice condition and very smooth.
2) I usually have so much hassle getting residual dye off my skin and surrounding surfaces. This stuff was so easy to clean off!

OVERALL VERDICT
Colour: 9/10
Coverage: 7/10 (partly my fault)
Smell: 9/10
Value for money: 7/10
Ethics: 10/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Would I use again: YES. And I still have half a tub to do so!

EDIT:
I went over the patches that were a little less colourful than the rest. Loving the result!

The colour is even richer now. Yummy!