John Frieda Precision Foam Colour: Lightest Cool Almond Brown 6.5PBN Review

Hope you all had an amazing festive holidy and a happy new year (extremely late I know).

Apologies for my absence because, being a final year student and all, I had a load of university work to do so I had little time to really write a detailed blog post. Luckily, since it is the beginning of a new semester, I do have time now to try my best to not only blog but edit videos!
Take note that this 'activeness' will probably only last for a few weeks more before I'm drowned in university deadlines again *groans*

I am going to kick start the first post of 2015 with one of my 2015 goals: darker hair.

No, I really am 22! (ft. spot patch, moustache mask, and Rilakkuma kigurumi bought from Japan)

For 5 years I've almost always had super light brown hair that sometimes bordered onto blonde. Being naturally black, I always had to use blonde dyes in order to get that light brown hair, which wasn't always great news for my hair since blonde dyes tend to have a higher percentage of peroxide which is what lightens it. Additionally, my hair is pretty thin. And going to Caribbean Bay in August made me realise how damaged my hair can be when exposed to chemicals like chlorine for a long period of time. My hair became so dry almost like hay that I was recommended some super intense treatment 2 days after at a hair salon in Edae. I wanted to get some soft waves (digital perm) added to my hair before leaving Korea but they said my hair was far too dry for it, so I ended up getting a basic cut.
I'm going off on a tangent, but in short I don't want to subject my hair to terribly strong chemicals anymore. I'm at the stage where I'm noticing that more hair is falling out! Or maybe it's just because my hair is so long... Regardless, I am aiming to perhaps get my hair back down to black or to some dark brown in the years to come, meaning less need for peroxide. This is obviously going to be difficult for me since I became so used to seeing myself with light brown hair, and I have friends who have never seen me with darker hair before, let alone my natural black. Hence why I am aiming to go for a slow gradual transition, I plan to have medium brown hair this year and perhaps darker the next. It all depends on how much I can get used to it without experiencing terrible light hair withdrawal symptoms. I might just chicken out this summer and go back to dark blonde dyes.

Before: that birthday make up
+ missing lipstick
+ cloudy sky

Before: them roots

Before: that yellow under warm artificial lighting

Anyway, I opted to get John Frieda's Lightest Cool Almond Brown (6.5PBN) foam dye a couple of weeks ago from Sainsburys since it was on offer for £6.50. I bought 2 boxes so I could just easily re-dye my hair again when I go back home in Easter.
It's in fact a shade darker than the colour I used previously (Dark Cool Pearl Blonde 7.5PBN), which I forgot to blog about! Let's just say I liked that colour too.
As you can see I'm aiming for cool toned dyes to avoid brassiness.

I won't bother detailing and reveiwing the solution and application process since I already wrote a blog post about it before. Instead I will be focusing more about the colour result in this post.

The colours will be reviewed under natural lighting. Pictures were often taken indoors near the window on days where there was a little bit of sun at the very least - UK is rarely sunny in the Winter.

After: no more roots!

After: even colour

After: you can still see my super faded pink tips that I had since July!

The colour came out as a nice medium cool brown, most particularly closer to my roots. Closer to the ends it looked more vibrant and warmer due to the previous light brown/blonde colour. The difference in colour wasn't noticeable unless you really examined it.

In the last 2 pictures you can see the pinks tips I got back in July 2014. They faded a lot since then, but the amazing thing is that they faded out to a really nice tint that still can be somewhat noticeable! The faded pink has survived past 2 full head dyes despite being temporary.
Note: I used Directions La Riche Carnation Pink for the tips.

After (1 wash): colour still intact

After (1 wash): no patches, so lines

After (1 wash): the sun changes the colour of old hair

After (1 wash): ends can still look light brown/blonde when light hits it

Even after one wash since I dyed my hair the colour hadn't really faded. Still the same hair colour as before. However, if the sun really hits the ends of my hair there is a noticeable difference in colour - it becomes lighter, but that is expected.
It may take some time to get an overall medium brown colour, either by subjecting it to more darker dyes to mask it or just chopping it off with future hair cuts.

3 weeks has almost passed since the dye job, and the colour still looks the same at the 'after 1 wash' pictures! Still experiencing lighter ends in certain lighting conditions.

I may dip dye my ends again when spring comes a bit closer, perhaps to a purple colour. But I'm more keen on pink since it works so well.