Mommy What's Wrong with Your Hair? (Naturtint Hair Dye Review) - The Kentologist

New Year, New Me?
This wasn't one of those "new year, new me" moves. This was actually one of my impulsive, "I want this and I want it now" incidents.  Lee, *bless his heart*, knows this all too well. This past Saturday, I decided to add some color to my baby locs.  I knew I wanted a natural-looking color, something that would just lighten up my hair just a bit to give me a subtle change.  I haven't stepped foot into a salon in a while and due to my urgent need for change, I didn't mind doing it myself.

Research
I'd done some searching online the past couple of weeks on different color systems.  I definitely didn't want anything harsh, because I struggle with dry hair as it is.  Shea Moisture offers an ammonia-free and sulfate-free hair care system that has a plethora of YouTube reviews.  Only problem? They didn't carry them in my Target store. And let me remind you, that I was already impatient about coloring my hair.  Then, I stumbled upon a brand called Naturtint, which was also a healthier alternative.  Naturtint is plant-based and boasts many other less harmful features than your average dye.  I set off to YouTube to see what reviews and results other people had.  Unfortunately, there weren't as many videos from folks with dark, kinky, afro-textured hair, like mine, so the few that were uploaded would have to do.  I watched MiaMor's video, Naturtint Natural Hair Dye on Natural Spiral Hair - Review. She used one of the brightest colors offered by the brand, 10N Light Dawn Blonde, and achieved a very nice color that was very subtle and even.

Perfect! Just what I was looking for.  Better yet, I could pick it up from Whole Foods, which is only 5 minutes from where I live. It was a done deal.


Application
I was getting pretty excited about adding the color to my hair. Lee agreed to help me apply it, so we were just waiting on Kent to fall asleep (and stay asleep) before we got started. But since that was taking longer than usual, I started to get the process rolling.  Here are the contents of the box:

The 5-step instructions were very simple. I'm not sure if that's standard; this was my first time doing an at-home color job, but having seen aluminum foil and all kinds of other craziness in other hair coloring tutorials, this seemed to be a cake walk.
Mistake #1: I didn't take note of what time I started applying the dye.
I started with the front of my head, because that was the area that I wanted to focus on with the new color anyway.  I did not want to color the very back of my head...I don't know...just wanted to hold onto some of the darkness, I guess.

Ignore that blob of product on my forehead

I noticed a distinct smell from the mixture, but it wasn't horrible.  I made sure to really get my roots and my lovely thick sideburns (that's a family trademark...they're staying).  Eyebrow coloring was out of the question. The box even says to refrain from coloring eyebrows, although I've seen some videos where others have and turned out fine. After about 15-20 minutes (I assume), I started to see a more dramatic difference.  I should have stopped there, because this was the color I wanted.  But I continued on, wanting to at least get 40 minutes into the development, as suggested.

Mistake #2: I probably used way more product than I needed.
My hair is short and I covered my hair sufficiently only using about half of the bottle.  The instructions said to discard the remaining contents, but I'm very frugal and I throw little to nothing away without optimizing use. I kept adding more. And more. And more. (You should be shaking   your head ferociously right about now.)

Forty minutes AFTER I finished drowning my hair in color, I had Lee come and wash it out.  His initial reaction was to the above pic..."I like it!" *with a smile*. To my overzealous coloring  situation, we both got big-eyed. It was still doable, but I'm fairly conservative when it comes to my face and hair and anything that doesn't change daily.

Shampoo & Conditioning
This part was done solely by Lee. This was the first time he washed my hair and did a fine job. I think I'll keep him.  The conditioning was my favorite part. The smell of the Naturtint Multiplier, as its called, was very tropical-like.  Lee said that it instantly made my dry hair soft.

Retwist Time
It was done. My hair was at least 7 shades lighter on my imaginary hair color scale.  I was a little spooked, at first, to be honest. I sent a picture to my sister and a couple of my friends for some initial reactions. They have me some reassuring feedback.

My reaction when I looked in the mirror

Last step now was  for me Lee to retwist my baby locs.

This lighting is really bad, so you definitely don't see the full vibrancy of the color

Hi, Lee

Crazy lol

Final Thoughts?

I still love it even though I feel like I was deceived (kidding).  I read the instructions and chose not to follow them, so I get what I get and I don't pitch a fit! The new color is very vibrant and edgy, not adjectives I'd typically use to describe myself. But new year, new me right? ....Nah...haha. I'm really looking forward to using the color as an indication of the growth of my locs.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the title of this blog, see Kent's reaction to my new hair color here!

Let me know your thoughts!