Gong Xi Fa Cai!! As we all know, the Lunar New Year is fast approaching. So a few weeks back I started thinking to myself, "To celebrate the entrance of the Year of the Monkey, why not I do something cheeky and mischevious?" 

Of course, being the scheming strategist good girl that I am, you wouldn't expect me to do something extreme like clubbing late into the night and returning home drunk. Instead, I decided to dye my hair just one more time. 

At this point of time, many might be confused.


Well, that's because my mother never fails to sigh and shake her head in disapproval every time I mention dyeing my hair some funky colour. Heck, I really wanted purple hair after graduating from high school! But I never got to it primarily because of the price + I'm not the kind who would go against my parents on purpose. #guaikia I know. 

So that's why my idea of doing something cheeky like a monkey was to slip a box of Liese Bubble Hair Dye into the shopping cart when my mom wasn't noticing, and that's exactly what I did tonight while doing some last-minute shopping for CNY goods at Giant Hypermarket.

Very obviously, my sharp-eyed mother caught sight of it right before paying for the items and she did the classic 'I-am-disappointed-in-you-but-I-will-let-this-go-because-I-love-you' face. Is there even an emoji for this particular expression? I find myself doing it all the time. My mother even refused payment when I offered to return her the $16.80 for the hair dye, so you could say that the Monkey God has blessed me for my cheeky-monkey act.


Anyhow, this is what Maple Red is supposed to look like on light colour hair (note the caption right under the picture) - It looks mainly brown with a pinkish red tinge to it, and sadly not what I would exactly call maple red. Nevertheless I'd always wanted to try the new colour ever since it came out, because it's the closest I can get to burgundy-ish hair.


If you see right here, the red colour isn't expected to come out very well on dark hair. I still hold good faith however, because my previous experience with Liese Jewel Pink was not too bad.

The usual flatlay of the box contents

I usually find this quite redundant, but I'll go through the basic steps for those who haven't used Liese before:

1) Open Bottle #1 and empty its contents into Bottle #2. Re-secure the cap onto Bottle #2 tightly.
2) LIGHTLY tilt Bottle #2 upside down and back, around 5 times, so as to achieve a homogeneous solution. Be careful NOT TO SHAKE IT.
3) Remove the cap on Bottle #2 and screw on the pink nozzle cap.
4) Put on the gloves which can be found in the small plastic pack that also contains the instruction leaflet.
5) Squeeze the middle of Bottle #2 lightly to dispense the foam and lather into hair
6) Wait 20-30 minutes for the dye to take its effect (I like to wait 30-45 minutes because my natural hair colour is jet black and hence harder to dye)
7) Wash off and use the after-colour conditioner. DO NOT SHAMPOO YOUR HAIR.
8) Dry and admire!

You are highly encouraged to do an allergy test before actually using the dye, but I'm lazy and garang enough to take the risk so I never actually do these tests. If you are one who know you will shrivel up and die aka you are a sensitive person, literally, then I suggest you do the test. So far I've not experienced anything akin to that of an allergic reaction, so it's good for me.

All gloved up and ready to go!

Oh, and do remember to use a shirt that you do not mind getting dirty. Rub lotion along your hairline and outer areas of the ears to prevent the dye from staining your skin!

If my hair looks weird to you, it's because it is. My hair is really thick, so for the purposes of convenience I decided to part my hair into a top and bottom half. I heard the hair on top is easier to dye, so I started on my bottom half first.

Foam!!!

If there's something I absolutely dislike about Liese Creamy Bubble Colour, it's the smell. I'm not one to be extremely sensitive to scents but the ammonia smell from this dye is simply putrid. Good thing I have ventilation, otherwise I'd choke to death before even getting my dye to later.

I've been searching for online reviews of Maple Red, but so far I don't think anyone has done a review on it. I'm humbled to be the first if it is, so I'll try to provide as comprehensive a review as possible.

Of course, you'll have to withstand all my blabbering like above.

Moving on...

For people who would like to know my history of dyeing hair, here it is to the best of my knowledge:

November 2014 - Garnier Olia in Burgundy
January 2015 - Liese Creamy Bubble Colour in Jewel Pink
May 2015 - Silky Girl Colour Shine Hair Dye in Mystic Plum
October 2015 - Revlon Colour Silk in Burgundy + Revlon Luminista in Red

As you can see I do colour my hair regularly around every 4-5 months, and while I wouldn't say these hair dyes were particularly good, the current hair colour that I have now is closest to the Liese Jewel Pink that I had dyed almost a year ago now. Which probably means the Liese has been the best so far, although I am inclined to believe that the brownish colour of my hair right now is due to gradual bleaching through the dyes.

I'm one who wouldn't be satisfied with reading a review if there wasn't a visual representation of before and after, so here are my before-pictures for your reference:

Taken from Instagram

This is what my hair looks like under indoor lighting. You can tell that it's brown, although the colour is not exactly even on all ends. This photo was taken around November 2015.


My hair continued to lighten, to the extent that my friends would ask if I had dyed my hair again after a period of not seeing them. This was my hair under natural lighting outdoors, around December 2015.



My uneven streaks are most obvious in closeups with flash as seen in this photo, which was taken on New Year's at the stroke of midnight.

So is my hair dark? Absolutely. Not under sunlight, but definitely dark in normal circumstances. The colour I'd expect out of this hair dye would definitely be the darkest tone shown on the box, just to keep my hopes suppressed for a bit.

Note: I'm using present tense in this post because I'm actually writing it while waiting for my dye to take effect. Having said this, I'm going to rinse the dye off right now. Be right back!

I'm back after rinsing and drying my hair, and I must say that as of now I am rather disappointed with the results.

My roots look covered under indoor lighting, but under flash they show up again, which kind of beats the purpose of me dyeing my hair. Colour-wise, here's a clumsily-taken photo using my Snapchat camera with flash:




It definitely has a redder tinge than before, albeit really slight and leaning more towards copper tones. I won't say I'm satisfied, but as I do with all dyes, I usually let it rest for a night before checking my hair in the morning and waiting around 2 weeks for the full result to show. It happens all the time with box dyes! The first time I dyed my hair with the Garnier Olia, the colour difference was so slight I was really disappointed. Two weeks down the road though, it began lightening and my friends liked the gradual progression from black to brown :) so hopefully I'll be able to progress from a dark brown to a copper red colour. Come on, Monkey God! Bless me with nice red hair on 初一!

I will be updating this post for the next few weeks to let you guys see how my hair lightens.

Update 07/02/2016: The reddish tinge does come out under natural sunlight. My black roots however are still very obvious but I cannot complain much because I should have used two boxes for my thick and long hair. Still, I remember concentrating a great deal on my roots.....



I'm pleased with this shade, but considering that I was expecting a red colour, I would say that the hair dye did not do as good a job as it should.



I'm still quite upset about my roots. Maybe I'll grab a SILKYGIRL Color Shine to touch up my roots soon!

I'll continue updating this post as my hair gradually lightens and hopefully the red shows up more :)

UPDATE 30/03/16: I have indeed grabbed a SILKYGIRL Color Shine to touch up my roots - check out the review here! I will be updating the colour of my hair on that entry instead, as the dye turned out to be better than I expected so I will be using more of #42 Crimson Cherry for now.

xoxo
Valerie