After I recently got my hair dyed red at the lovely Tommy’s Hair Salon (see post HERE), my hair was finally starting to fade, look a bit lacklustre and generally need a bit of a colour boost. However due to recent changes in my personal circumstances, I can no longer afford swish salon dye jobs. I figurered that since the staff at Tommy’s did a little bleach wash on my hair prior to the last dye, a vivid box dye would probably take better now anyway… Enter Schwartzkopf Live XXL in shade 35 “Real Red”…

Prior to application my hair looked like this… very wishy washy I think you’ll agree…

As you can see, the old dye had pretty mush faded completely, leaving a wish washy paled down brown in its wake…

I have to say, I still prefer the ease of application of the foam dyes, especially the John Frieda one, but they just don’t come in vivid enough colours for me to get the red I’m craving.

The box contains the following; instructions, gloves, developer, creme colour, and conditioner.

So the usual application and leaving on for thirty minutes took place (together with copious amounts of scrubbing dribbly bits of dye from my ears, neck, arms, back, etc… and this was the result (I used two boxes of the dye);

Overall I’m pretty pleased with the result – from what I can tell it looks pretty even, and my hair still looks pretty shiny and healthy, as well as being a step further along the road to pillarbox red. I have a feeling that with repeat applications the colour will possibly become more intense.

If you’re a fan of the XXL live range, then get to Superdrug now, as they are on offer there – you can get two boxes for £7.99, or three for £9.99.