Hair, Currently: Directions Fire and Elgon Decolor Anti-Yellow Blueberry Bleach from Italy
A few days ago Berbiedolls sent me a new bleach and a bunch of dyes to try out!
I was AMAZED at how fast this bleach worked. It had a sticky meringue consistency similar to Loreal’s Quick Blue so I became an instant fan!
It also emulsified really rapidly, though, so I had to apply it as fast as I could! When it was lifting underneath a plastic bag, I couldn’t help but notice how hot it got on my scalp. The other bleaches I’ve used were uncomfortably warm at best, but this bleach got legit hot. That was a little worrisome to me, but it never got to a point where I couldn’t stand it anymore. When the heat dissipated, it also stopped most of the major lightening.
Long story short, this is the fastest bleach I have ever used. It is slightly faster than Loreal Quick Blue, but honestly it is hard to tell the difference between their results. When mixed with oxidizer, Decolor Blueberry bleach is purple and Quick blue is well, blue. I do notice that the Elgon bleach lifted quite a lot from the roots compared to the Loreal Quick Blue.
Using Elgon Decolor Bleach (which seems to be an Italian brand?) I bleached virgin black hair and it got me 7 levels lighter in about 30 minutes. After trying on some pretty cruddy bleaches (hi Bremod and china-china bleaches), results like that are nothing short of heaven-sent imho.
LEFT half: Black virgin hair after only one bleaching session.
RIGHT HALF: recently applied Directions Fire full strength
The next day I had a Berbiedolls video shoot and I was too lazy to bleach more than once, so I wanted a color that would take full advantage of the neon yellow/orange you inevitably get with a single bleaching.
Enter Directions Fire.
The brassy base actually helps make this orange-based red even more fiery. So if you’re looking for a color that doesn’t require multiple bleaching, Fire is one of those forgiving pigmented dyes that has incredible coverage. It can be put right on top of a first bleaching. Similar holy-grail type colors I’ve tried are Cerise, Rose Red, and a lot of the dark red/pink colors in the Directions range.
When I was applying Directions Fire it was a little unnerving because it looks like bright red congealing blood in the tub! Halfway through dye application I looked like Halloween went very, very wrong for me. :/
After covering my entire head of thick chest-length hair, I used up about 3/4 of the entire tub. This dye sure goes a long way. If I had diluted it the way I usually do with conditioner, I’m sure this tub would have lasted me at least 4-5 applications. Directions Fire is a true red with no pink undertones. So it works really well with a yellowish base, but take note if your hair is very yellow like mine, it’ll take on a more orange-red tinge. On perfectly white hair, this would be a balanced medium red.
Here’s a screencap of the video shoot:
And a photo of me scarfing down Carbonara by @dzaneena before we started. I’d only had 2 hours of sleep!
On my ipad camera, sometimes it takes on a more raspberry tone:
And sometimes the orange takes over.
This is a gorgeous, bright, in-your-face color that is sure to turn heads. I dyed my hair this color for the shoot and it looked amazing in on video, but I ended up toning it down a few days later as I prefer cooler tones and it caused too much of a commotion every time I went to the mall lol. I had so much fun wearing it, though. Let me know if you give this color a try!