La Riche Directions - Alpine Green Hair Dye - Review

Opps, I did it again. My hair is now green!!

After multiple attempts at maintaining bright orange hair, I gave up and next on my very long list of alternative hair colours was green!!

Again I returned to my very trust worthy hair colourant brand La Riche Directions and this time I chose the colour Alpine Green.

I buy all my La Riche Directions dyes from Ebay. I usually find that the more you buy, the cheaper they get, however the most you'll pay for a single tub is around £3.50 which is a great price.


I started by stripping my hair with Scott Cornwall Decolour Hair Stripper which removed all natural and artifificial colour in my hair and left me with blonde locks!! I then used Scott Cornwall Colour Restore Ice Platinum Toner to make my hair as white/platinum as possible.


This colour dye comes in the standard La Riche Directions 88ml tubs and is a nice thick consistency which means drips are less likely. You may need more than one tub for hair longer than shoulder length or if your hair is fairly thick.

  

 

Above is an image of the dye in the pot. As you can see its a very rich, forest green colour. I apply this dye to dry clean hair to get the best results colour wise as well as fade resistance wise. The dye smells really pleasant, not chemically or overpowering at all.

 

As you may know from my previous La Riche Directions reviews, the dye is semi permanent and is what us hair dye junkies call a veggie dye meaning there are no damaging chemicals in the dye. The instructions state to leave the dye in for just 20 minutes however as the dye is veggie, I choose to leave the dye on for as long as possible by sleeping in it, (apply the dye, wrap your head in cling film and cover pillows with an old/dark towel) and this will do zero damage to your hair... in fact it conditions hair as it colours.

 

 

Down to the results!!

 

This is the first dye that I have had a mix of results with.

 

Lets start with my natural hair.

So as I mentioned above, I chose to use a toner on my hair to make the hair as white as possible. This move has meant that the hair has picked up the blue tones within the dye and my natural hair is a deep turquoise colour. I really like this colour, however it is far too blue for my liking.

After rinsing the toner from my hair I tried again with the dye and again, my hair is still slightly turquoise but the blue tones aren't as harsh.

Note to all; DO NOT TONE YOUR HAIR BEFORE USING THIS COLOUR DYE... unless you want your hair more blue than green. (the yellow tones of your hair before toning will balance out the blue tones within the dye - think primary school paint mixing logic).

 

Here's the colour of the dye on my natural, toned hair;

 

  

 

 

As you can see, its very blue toned. There are slight green tones, but nowhere near as green as I wanted it to be.

 

After dying a second time round, the dye is still a greenish turquoise however still fairly blue toned as a small amount of the toner was still present in my hair.

 

I have noticed that when washing, the yellow tones within the dye wash out much quicker which of course leaves your hair bluer.

 

The more you dye your hair with the dye, the greener it does get however if you're after a very pure green colour this dye is not the one to choose.

 

 

 

My platinum blonde (no toner was used so slight yellow tones are present) extensions however are very much green... but again not quite the green that I was hoping for. I can only describe the colour as somewhere around the forest green colour I was looking for but much lighter.

Again, I do like the colour however I wanted it to be much darker and much richer.

 

Here are the results of my platinum blonde extensions;

 

 

 

 

 

The dye on both my natural and extension hair lasts ages!! I'm only having to dye it every 2-3 weeks which is really good for a semi permanent dye. It does transfer onto clothing/pillows/surfaces but washes out/off really easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So overall I'm a fan of this dye. Both colours achieved are gorgeous however very different from each other and now I'm stuck with a dilemma as to how I'm going to get my extensions the same as my natural hair. As I said above, my advice to anybody using this dye is to not use a toner before hand if you are looking for forest green results.

 

 

The plan from here is to try to achieve the colour of my natural hair with my extensions by mixing a blue/turquoise veggie dye with the Alpine Green. Wish me luck!!

 

 

 

Final scores:

 

Price: 5/5
Packaging/Bottles: 5/5
Colour: 3/5

Colour fade: 5/5
Handling/Ease of use: 5/5