Too scared to change your hair colour? Try these temporary hair colouring products!

Changing your hair colour is one of the most stressful, scary and time-consuming things you could do; most of the time it’s rare that it gets done all in one day and after months of slowly bleaching, stripping and dying your hair, the final result can sometimes not be the dazzling, goddess-like hair you envisioned. VIVA have tested three different temporary hair colouring products on light and dark hair, to see if you can have a new look without the permanent hassle.

the hair we’re going to test on

COLORSMASH Hairspray in pink

COLORSMASH Color Kissed Hairspray is said to give temporary translucent, vibrant colour without the commitment or damage that permanent hair colouring does. COLORSMASH claims to have flexible hold and a nutrient enriched formula that conditions hair, leaving it healthy and hydrated. It’s said to work on light and dark hair; just layer on the spray and brush through for a natural feel, but does it actually work?

Testing the Indigo coloured spray on blonde hair, it took five layers to get the colour achieved. Unfortunately, as it’s a spray we were unable to get full and even coverage – but the colour was extremely vibrant.

Indigo spray brushed through blonde hair

Testing the pink coloured spray on black hair, it took the entire can and an extensive amount of layering to get a slight visible pink tint. Another downside to this product is that it is also a hairspray; imagine spraying a whole can of hairspray onto your hair and then having to brush through it all – ouch. It took an extremely painful half an hour to brush the product through our hair which resulted in a loss of pigment (and hair), but also brought the natural feel of our hair back.

before and after brushing the pink through

The blonde hair managed to keep the indigo colour, but the pink tint in the black hair became near invisible; was all that pain really worth it? As the spray is only temporary, both colours came out pretty much straight away; the blonde hair took three shampoos, the black hair took one. COLORSMASH Color Kissed Hairspray is available to buy from colorsmash.co.uk in Indigo, Violet or Pink, in either a 130ml (£16.94) or 29.5ml (£8.34) can. If you want to try it out for yourself be warned, COLORSMASH stains so make sure you’re wearing clothes you don’t mind getting ruined and if you have a white bathroom…well, good luck.

JOICO Color Butter in blue

Next, we tested out JOICO Color Intensity Color Butter. JOICO claim that the butters are a mixture of a conditioning, moisturising formula with a pop of colour, to revamp any existing colour on your hair or to add new ones. The butters come in a variety of colours; Blue, Green, Titanium, Purple, Red and Pink. JOICO claims its butters are perfect for pre-lightened hair and are easy to apply; just coat your hair in the butter, wait five minutes, and rinse out!

The butters worked well on blonde hair

On the blonde hair, the butters were perfect. We tested the red colour butter on blonde hair and as you can see, it really did its job. Although the red quickly faded into a pink, the pigment stayed in the blonde hair and lasted for weeks. JOICO say the colour butters can last up to a staggering 10 shampoos! On the black hair, we tested the red and the blue colour butter. Suspecting that the black hair might be a bit of an obstacle for the butter, it was left on for 20 minutes before it was rinsed out. Unfortunately, not a single shimmer or hint of blue or red was visible; the butter was no match for the stubborn dark hair. Unlike the COLORSMASH Spray, the colour butters don’t transfer onto your clothes when dry and it won’t stain your bathroom; however, it will stain your clothes while it’s being applied and will stain your hands – so make sure you wear gloves and some old painting clothes! JOICO Color Intensity Color Butter is currently available at lookfantastic.com for £12.20

JIOCO Instatint in light purple

Saving the best for last, we tried another JOICO product. JOICO Instatint Temporary Color Shimmer Spray is a non-permanent hair tint that lasts for three days, but will wash out in one go. JOICO say the instatints are suitable for all hair colours, textures and lengths – so all you dark haired ladies can breathe a sigh of relief, because this one actually does work!

We really did put these sprays to the test, using four different colours on both blonde and black hair; Titanium, Coral Red, Hot Pink and Light purple. The blonde hair instantly took to all the colours, the titanium looked more like a dirty grey/blue but other than that everyone was incredibly pleased. The black hair had put up a fight, but it looked as if JOICO Instatints had won, with the red and the pink colours being clearly visible, and the titanium and purple being quite faint, but still visible. Like expected, once brushed through the pigments became less vibrant.

Before and after the instatints were brushed through

The titanium colour became a lot subtler and grey once brushed out of the blonde hair, and in the black hair it became no more than a grey shimmer. All the colours remained vibrant and beautiful in the blonde hair. Once brushed through the black hair, the red and pink were still visible and pigmented, but the colour was clearly unevenly distributed. Even though the colours were less vibrant and obvious, and the distribution was a bit patchy, we couldn’t be more surprised that the colours were noticeable on jet black hair! As the cans are only 50ml, the coverage was understandable – as we did run out of colour for every single can. We recommend buying two cans if you’re fair-haired, and at least three if you have dark hair (this is if you want a dip dyed look) and if you have thick hair, you might want to add an extra one to your cart. JOICO Instatint Temporary Color Shimmer Spray is currently available from lookfantastic.com for only £4.04