After I colored my hair two times with natural henna color, I decided to use permanent hair dye again because I just don’t like that I have to use henna often because it washes out quickly and the entire process takes a long time. I have to sit for hours with the concoction on my hair and it doesn’t smell nice, plus I have to be careful to use it when the hair is clean and then wait 48 hours before I can wash it again. Yes, the hair looks great, but it’s too time consuming for me to maintain the color and I’m bothered by the few grey hairs that I have.

This time, I opted for a Romanian brand, Loncolor, because I like to support local brands. I don’t think that Loncolor is available in other countries, so sorry to my international readers because maybe this won’t be that helpful for you.

Loncolor was founded in 1992, so they’ve been on the market for quite some time. I remember I used some of their hair dye a while back when I wanted to go blonde, but doing it at home, especially when you have dark hair is just a bad idea. I managed to burn my hair and the color was rather orange than blonde. For that reason, I was turned off my Loncolor products, but now I know that it wasn’t the brand’s fault, I just didn’t know what the heck I was doing.

I chose the color 4.25 Purple Chestnut I was almost ready to chalk it up as a fail but luckily I decided to wait some time before I give my final opinion.

Packaging:

Since this is a hair dye that can be used at home, the box contains everything you need: a tube with the dye (50 ml), a bottle with the oxidant (50 ml), a hair and scalp mask (10 ml) and a pair of disposable gloves. Everything is mixed in a plastic bowl and you apply it with a brush. I have the bowl and brush already because I bought the necessary utensils to dye my hair at home a while ago.

Ingredients:

Hair dye: Aqua,Cetearyl Alcohol,Cetyl Palmitate,octyldodecanol,Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate,Propylene Glycol,Ammonium Hydroxide,Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil,Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil,P-Phenylenediamine,Sodium Sulfite,Parfum,Tetrasodium Edta,M-Aminophenol,Ascorbic Acid,Resorcinol,Benzyl Salicylate,2,4-Diaminophenoxyethanol Hcl,Divinyldimethicone/Dimethicone Copolymer,C12-13 Pareth-23,C12-13 Pareth-3.

Oxidant: Aqua, Hydrogen Peroxide, Cetearyl Alcohol, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Dimethicone, Tetrasodium Edta, Phosphoric Acid, Sodium Stannate, Methylparaben.

Hair mask: Aqua, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Lactic Acid, Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis Seed Oil, Isopropyl Alcohol, Citrus Limon Peel Extract, Hydrolyzed Ceratonia Siliqua Seed Extract, Saccharum Officinarum Extract, Chlorella Vulgaris/Lupinus Albus Protein Ferment, Zea Mays Starch, Glycerin, Ethoxydiglycol, Phenoxyethanol, Polyquaternium-22, Malic Acid, Glyceryl Laurate, Citric Acid, Parfum, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate Alergeni: Benzyl salicylate

Honestly, I don’t know much about hair dyes so I don’t know how good the formula is, but permanent hair dyes are not healthy, that much I know. You use them at your own risk. The hair dyes contains hemp seed oil and jojoba seed oil, so at least there are some good ingredients in there to nurture the hair.

Price and accessibility:

Loncolor products are widely available in Romania, from supermarkets and pharmacies to beauty stores and online shops. I got mine from the Dr. Max pharmacy online shop for about 4 euros, so it’s a cheap hair dye.

My overall opinion:

The good thing is that it doesn’t irritate my scalp and it the hair looks good (I do use a hair mask for the ends of my hair once or twice a week). The bad thing is that I almost chalked this up as a fail because the color I got was a regular dark brown, not the purple shade that was promised on the box.

But, I do have to take in consideration that I had my hair colored with henna so it wasn’t a natural color, but after a few washes, now I see some nice purple reflexes in the light and the hair doesn’t have any reddish subtones like most brown hair dyes and I love that. I always wanted a cool toned hair color, but most of them were dark brown, black or blue black. This one really looks nice and I think that in time, I can get to that beautiful purple color on the box.

Overall, I’m happy with the hair dye especially at the price because it doesn’t destroy my hair and I have to be objective since purple is hard to obtain even at the salon. Also, the grey hairs are fully covered, so everything is good regarding this aspect.