These days anything goes when colouring your hair. A quick Google shows hair stylists one-upping each other with rainbow-coloured, glow-in-the-dark, ombré creations.
But if the salon is too expensive, then the local supermarket has multiple DIY hair products available.
But how effective are these hair products, and what kind of results should we expect?
Nine-year-old Sophia Purcell told her mum Jo she wanted to colour her hair hot pink.
"I wasn't too excited about it that's for sure,” Jo Purcell said.
But Purcell found a box dye that she believed would give Sophia the colour she was looking for, without damaging her hair. It was semi-permanent ‘shocking pink’ from Schwarzkopf's Live Colour Ultra Brights brand.
"It was going to wash out in 10 washes, and it would give her that bit of fun with the bright colour that she can try,” said Purcell.
But the results on Sophia's hair were shockingly poor.
"You could barely notice the pink. I mean, I couldn't even really see it at all,” Sophia said.
They tried again with the same brand, this time with a bright green colour.
"This time I tried hard not to rinse it so thoroughly,” Purcell said.
But Sophia was left with just a slight tinge of green on strands of her hair.
"As soon as Sophia had a bath, it turned the bath green.”
Skill and experience
But there's more to hair colouring than one might think. Kirsty Ryan, who is the beauty lead at WITT Te Pūkenga New Plymouth Campus, said colouring hair takes a lot of skill and experience.
"The hair actually has three layers, so it’s got the cuticle on the outside layer - that's where a semi-permanent hair colour sits, then inside the hair there's the cortex and that's where the permanent colour gets trapped,” she said.
What Purcell used on her daughter was a semi-permanent colour, which contains larger molecules and no ammonia.
So, the molecules sit on the outside of the hair follicle, and some colour comes out every time the hair is washed - which could explain why the colour didn't work on Sophia.
But Ryan said there are so many other factors to consider when choosing the right type of colour for a specific type of hair.
"There's the porosity of the hair, so that's how much the hair can absorb and soak up a product,” she said.
"There's also the texture of hair, so if the hair is fine and you're going a darker colour, it can appear darker on fine hair, whereas on coarse hair that same colour might look a little bit lighter.”
A spokesperson for Henkel - Schwarzkopf's parent company - told Fair Go that its product does provide information on what to do to achieve the best results. Henkel recommended pre-bleaching hair for optimal results.
Purcell said she didn't want to bleach Sophia's hair in case it got damaged.
"I also didn't want to do something permanent to her hair, because the hair colour was always going to be washed off, but she'd still have the bleached hair.”
The hair colour box itself also has a colour table that indicated which natural hair colour is best suited to the box colour.
Henkel also said the table is a guide only, and that a strand test is recommended. The darker your natural hair colour, the less vibrant the result will be, and Henkel recommended that those who have thick hair use two packs of colour.
Inside the box there is a more detailed leaflet showing the level of vibrancy consumers can expect from each colour in the Ultra Brights brand line.
For the colours that Sophia used - ‘shocking pink’ and ‘sea mermaid green’ - show up best on pre-bleached, very light blonde, light blonde and medium blonde natural hair.
Purcell had read through these instructions before using. She said while Sophia doesn't have blonde hair, it's not dark either so she thought some colour would show up.
"I didn't expect it to look like the box, but I did expect to get some sort of a result. It doesn't say you have to bleach the hair it just says best results,” she said.
Henkel said its product is not recommended for children under 12. It says the cuticle layer of young people's hair sits very flat or is closed, meaning the colour doesn't permeate and washes off.
This is quite helpful information in Sophia's case, but the age recommendation is nowhere to be found on the product.
Henkel also thanked Jo for her feedback and encouraged her to get in touch for more information.
Ryan said to avoid disappointment, head to a professional. She said will cost more than a DIY job, but the investment is worth it.
In the meantime, Sophia and her mum hope to find a product that works for them.
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