Bleach London I Saw Red Review

Having such bright hair is a commitment and I do put a lot of effort into picking out the right products and maintaining my hair. I think its worth the effort, but I’m always on the look out for products which can make it a bit easier. One of the main products I use on my hair is temporary dye mixed with conditioner to help keep my colour looking fresh.

I picked up this bottle of I Saw Red by Bleach London on a 3 for 2 offer in Boots, along with some other hair care products. The dye is usually £5 a bottle. I intended to use it for the conditioner trick, but as I had a job interview and not enough roots to want to use permanent dye, I decided to revamp it with this instead for a quick fix.

Above is what the dye looks like squeezed out the bottle. As you can see, its really thick and quite vivid in colour, both of which are great for temporary dye. One small issue is that its quite difficult to get the last of the product out of the bottle, as the plastic is fairly firm and the dye so thick! A tub like Directions or Manic Panic use is better, as it allows you to get all the product out without wastage.

What drew me to this colour is that it looks very pure in tone and is neither pink or orange looking. I find a lot of temporary red dyes actually make my hair go pink due to the base colour in them.

The bottle said to apply the dye to damp hair and leave for 15 mins. I consider myself experienced enough at dying my hair to know when to ignore (or not to ignore) the instructions. In the case of these vegetable based dyes, there is no lightening agent in them, so they aren’t harmful to your hair. In fact, they can often be quite conditioning. I therefore decided to apply it to dry hair, as I find it easier to section and get even application and left it on for an hour. Applying to wet hair does help colour to sink in, as your hair is more porous, but these kinds of dyes usually say to apply to dry hair, so I stuck to that. If you’re worried that leaving this on for an hour is way to long, it really only depends on how much you want the dye to stain your hair. If you wanted a pale or pastel shade, an hour would be too long, but for a bright shade like mine, I knew it would be better left longer to sink in a bit more.

I have to say, I am impressed that one bottle covered my whole head, as my hair is quite thick. As for staining, this didn’t stain the shower like Crazy Color has in the past (that stuff stains like crazy! Basically left my whole bathroom bright pink from a red dye).

Sorry for the bad lighting in the top photos, I took them right before dying my hair in the evening. I made sure to get some daylight photos for the after photos so you can see the colour properly! In the top, my hair is looking a bit patchy and kinda pinky/brown. This is because of the old bleach and purple dye in my hair. But in the bottom photos, you can see that the Bleach London dye has done a really great job of evening out the colour, leaving it looking fresh and vibrant. My hair felt lovely and soft after – no damage done at all!

I did this a few weeks ago now and it’s slightly hard to talk about the longevity of the colour as I did my usual dye in the conditioner trick to help keep it looking fresh for as long as possible. However, I did notice more colour fade when washing my hair using this compared to the permanent dye I have been using, although I did expect this. I would say that the dye lasted around a week and a half to two weeks using this, which is fairly standard for creme dyes.

Overall, I would use this again if I felt I needed to even out my colour, but didn’t need to do my roots. The pigmentation and colour result are well worth the price, which is more affordable than some other creme dyes on the market.