John Frieda lightening spray - is it just "Sun In" repackaged

[WhollyGhost]

I'd love to lighten my hair again, but fear I'd never find time (or £££) to maintain highlights. I used sun in as a teenager to disastrous effect - has anyone tried the John Frieda stuff, or do you know if it is basically the same thing?

[CointreauVersial]

Sun-In! Memories of being 15 again. Made my hair go orange.

Haven't seen the John Frieda stuff, but I would fear the worst.

[sarimillie]

It's not too bad (I think!) on my dark blonde hair - but I do also use a purple John Frieda shampoo every so often to tone down any brassiness that develops. What colour is your hair?

[WhollyGhost]

My hair is dark blond, sun in made it go yellow and gave it a hay-like texture

Is the purple one the colour renew?

I might take a chance on it so..

[MayorNaze]

oh fantastic! does it smell of slightly burned lemons with a dash of nail polish remover mixed in??

[MissFoodie]

ooooh do let us know how it turns out!!!!!!!!!!!

[sarimillie]

Yes, the purple one is Colour Renew. They also do it in a conditioner, but I haven't tried that one. I usually spray smallish sections, rather than spray it all over. Hope it goes well!

[BuffyJ]

I've used it and got exactly the same results as Sun In when I was 15 i.e Ginger. It also caused a bit of a burning sensation on my skin.

[moragbellingham]

My thoughts exactly when I saw that one of the main ingredients was just plain old hydrogen peroxide!!!

[PinotLovesRonWeasley]

I don't recommend it - but my sons have enjoyed having blonde bits on their hair from it!

[TattyDevine]

I think if you are happy to spray hydrogen peroxide in your hair, why not do it "properly" and get a Scott Cornwall highlighting cap and some bleach, and do yourself some proper bleach highlights, which you can true tone to avoid the orange effect.

Or, save some money and get some toilet duck and just run that through your hair instead of sun-in!

What I'm saying is that you can home lighten properly with good effect if you know how - you don't have to be hairdresser or sun in, there is an affordable, doable in-between. Hell, if you are dark blonde, why not just get a high lift tint?

[WhollyGhost]

I lack time and inclination to pull strands of my very thick hair through a cap. I used always have highlights done professionally - but only with tin foil. I couldn't hope to do that at home. My hair is now 100% natural, and I want a change.

The teenage sun in disaster was admittedly only after a couple of years of using the stuff. I just kept going lighter until my hair turned to hay. I have the kind of hair that grows reasonably dark blonde but bleaches naturally in the sun.


What is a high lift tint? google is not helping with this one.

[JoleneJoleneJoleneJoleeene]

I wondered this

[TattyDevine]

Right, well if your hair is darkish blonde or even light brown, you can go blonde at home, but without sun-in. Just use a Nice n Easy or Loreal or whatever box dye.

Choose your "tone" - i.e warm blonde (strawberry/golden) or cool (ash) - slap it on, wait 30-45 minutes, done. Purple shampoo to tone if brassy.

If you don't want highlights, then that's the way to go blonde at home. If you do want highlights, do them yourself at home or go to the salon.

But sun-in or equivalent is just unnecessary. If you are naturally light enough that it makes you blonde enough, you'd be better off with a high lift tint, it would hurt your hair less and has the added bonus of toning it at the same time (adding pigment or toning as opposed to just bleaching). If you want to just bleach, well, why not just bleach it?

Sun in is for people who don't really know what they are doing. Find out what you are doing, or you risk ruining your hair.

[TattyDevine]

Check out the blondes in this shade chart.

103A natural medium blonde - and buy Lee Stafford "bleach blonde" shampoo and conditioner (purple) - you can't go too wrong if you are dark blonde.

Apply once, 45 minutes, then do your roots only in future, so, so much kinder on your hair than spraying hydrogen peroxide on it periodically that you then leave on your hair. Gah!

[TattyDevine]

PS: You could go lighter, possibly, though I'd want you to read the box in person and see what it says about your base shade first. Its great that you are all-natural - you are in a good position to do a home box dye, with no complication of existing colour etc. I suggest you do a "strand test" - to check what kind of lift and tone you get from your chosen colour.

[TattyDevine]

Sorry last post I promise, but some brands are "higher lift" than others (on the topic of high lift tints). I like Clairol becaue of their no-nonsense shade labelling. You always know what level of lift (or darkness) and shade (ash, warm, natural, etc) and it makes it fool proof.

But Loreal do some good high lift tints that are designed to get quite brown hair up to a respectable blonde without pre-lightening, (I think they are marketed "Blondismes" or something) and Shwarzkoft (?) XXL do one that is "ultra lightening". So do Ferria, I think.

You need a good browse in a big Booots or Superdrug where you really peruse the box and see what shades they recommend use on.

[WhollyGhost]

Thank you so much! The Clairol one looks like what I'm aiming for! I'll head to my local boots today and invest in some box dye.

I'll post before and after pictures too

[TattyDevine]

No worries! Sorry, I sound all arsey in my earlier posts, they weren't meant to come out like that, more tongue-in-cheek. Yes, the dark/dirty/muddy/mousey blondes are very lucky people in terms of home coloring because they can pretty much get any effect at home without (generally) disasterous effects - you are not having to "lift" so much that you need bleach for pre-lightening so its really just a case of finding the right box dye.

[WhollyGhost]

Okay, so I loved the look of the model on the 103A box, that is the hair colour I want. I bought the box and did a strand test, but even after 45 minutes, there is no noticable difference in colour.

Does that mean I should abandon 103A and "go a shade braver" to get a noticable difference in colour? Or is it worth using the box I have to at least cover greys and improve the condition?

I am wondering if it would affect the condition of my hair or prevent me getting highlights done...


Thank you again, so much for your help.

[Naetha]

Fyi I used this stuff (it is just sun-in) and it made my hair go a little lighter which was just what I wanted :)

[TattyDevine]

Right, in that case I'd be inclined to try the 100 Natural Pale blonde, or even the 87 Natural Ultra Light blonde (if you feel you need extra lift)

I know you feel you've wasted a box, but its a nice "safety measure" to have at home in case you ever have a "disaster" and are too embarrased to leave the house - at least you know it is pretty close to your natural colour, tonally and in darkness.

You will need to do a strand test on new hair, not the hair you have already coloured during your first strand test, because you are going lighter and you need to know how it will react on virgin hair. So you need to sacrifice another whisp of hair!

It is worth this faff in the long run, trust me - get your shade right and you can have the hair you want for £5 a month for the rest of your life! Get it wrong and you have various hassles and expense getting it right before you can carry on. It would almost be worth buying 2 more shades and doing 2 different strand tests to really be spoilt for choice. You are in an enviable position of having all-natural hair - its much harder to change colours and mess about when you have some of it dyed because it reacts differently to the natural hair at the root, and you get root glow, and all sorts of problems so take the time to get it right now.

Try not to focus too much on the models on the box - bet they haven't used the dye on previously natural hair anyway - you want to focus on how light, and what tone. So what you have is the right tone but not light enough. So you want that natural tone (not too ash, not too gold, somewhere in the middle) but lighter than a medium blonde

[TattyDevine]

Sorry that posted before I had finished waffling on (!) so yes, one shade up but still in the "natural" tone is the Natural Pale Blonde 100, and a shade up from that is the Natural Ultra Light blonde 87. So that "natural" tone (a good mix of ash and warmth to make a natural, belivable middle range tone which is a good match for your hair) but a few shades lighter.

Good luck! Let us know how you get on.

[GeetTallBird]

Turned my hair orange.
Why cant John Frieda bring back the beach blonde bleaching gel!
Now that was a superb, guaranteed no brassiness product :)

[WhollyGhost]

Thank you! I will buy another box today and let you know how I get on! As you say, finding the right shade will be worth it in the long run.

One more question, if you can't use box dyes to lighten dyed hair, am I better going for the lighter colour (87), knowing I can use the box I have to get it back to my natural colour if I hate it?

[TattyDevine]

Yes WhollyGhost - you are actually better to start lighter, this is always the case even if you are going brunette. You can always go darker, but you can't go lighter with a box dye so start light. If you end up "too blonde" its much easier to go down a shade or two than the other way round.

Go a shade braver!

Tallbird is that the stuff that people started using on their teeth and they had to withdraw it? I might be wrong.