Review: L'Oreal Preference Lightest Cool Ash Blonde Mega Blonde

So since my friend wanted to dye her hair, I decided to do mine too, especially with all the unevenness and it bothered me how I have to many inches of black hair at my roots. I dyed it two weeks ago on the 7th.

 Before

After

I went to Sally's in the morning to pick up the dye. I was almost tempted to buy Palty, but they tend to always turn out the same for me (color-wise) no matter which color I actually use and never seemed as brown/blonde as the box. For some reason, I feel like my hair is always orangey. In the end, I went to Sally's next door to find a dye.

I heard nice things about their Mega Reds like a year or two ago and read similar things about the Mega line in general, so I decided to give that a shot. I was expecting something from their Mega Browns series, but they were all too dark to my liking, so I opted for a blonde dye. I know my hair is too dark to actually get blonde out of a blonde dye anyways, so I wasn't expecting much but some lightening. They promise, "Lifts up to 4 levels, no pre-lightening required."

I bought my dye in MB8 Lightest Cool Ash Brown. I was debating between MB8 and another shade (Lightest Cool Beige Blonde?) but I opted for MB8 because it was blue based...and (unless I'm wrong,) if you have orange undertones, you should be using a blue based dye to neutralize the undertones. Mega Blondes also require you to buy their Mega Blondes Cream Developer (30 volume) so if you buy their dye, then make sure to get the matching developer too. I'm not sure if other 30 volume developers would work for it, but I wouldn't risk it if you're just trying to save like a dollar or two by getting another one or even if you have a developer that works really well for you. They say "Use only with Mega Blondes Developer" and they don't do that for the Mega Browns or Mega Reds, so I don't think it's really like a market scheme.

I finally got a Sally's Beauty Club card... If you have it then you get discounted prices for their items. It's only $5 for one year and you get a $5 off coupon for your next purchase (no minimum) so it basically cancels out. It's also $5 to renew it and when you do it online you get a $5 coupon again, soo.. it's worth it if you know you're going to come to Sally's again within the year or even if you're making a big purchase. I already saved $3 on the spot, so $5 well spent :)

L'Oreal Preference Mega Blondes MB8 Lightest Cool Ash Brown ($5.69) + Developer ($3.69)

Mixing bowl ($2.29) + brush ($1.59)

Ion Effective Care Treatment ($0.99)

So you're going to need a bowl for this, you can probably use any, but I'm not going to use the ones I eat with lol... and if you know you'll be dying your hair again, it's reusable and makes application way easier than the bottle applicator.

First I dumped all the developer into the bowl and then put in the dye. I mixed it for about 2 minutes or so, and you can tell if it's not mixed well because you'll see the yellow dye, so make sure to mix until all the color is even. Then my friend helped me apply it all over starting from the bottom most layer and leaving about an inch or two to do my roots later on. If you put it on your roots and scalp in the beginning and without waiting then it's going to turn out wayyyy lighter than the rest of your head!

I waited about 30-40 minutes before applying to my roots. After that was done, instead of just sitting there doing nothing for the next 20 minutes, I helped my friend apply her dye. She used L'Oreal Preference in Light Brown... she had virgin black hair and indoors after dying it, you can't really see a difference, but in the sun, it has a hint of brown, so if you have naturally dark hair, it's good if you want a subtle change that can only be seen in the sun..otherwise, you'll be lucky if you look a shade lighter indoors.

The process of applying her dye took longer than expected and at that point it's been well over half an hour since I applied the dye at my roots and I began to worry that my roots are going to become way lighter. Finally after I finished applying her dye, I went to go wash it off. The instructions on the bottle of dye said to use shampoo, so I did, otherwise normally I'd just skip it and go straight to conditioner. I used the the Ion Effective Care Treatment for my conditioner and it worked really nicely through my hair. All my hair was lumped together after shampooing, and I could really feel a big difference while applying the conditioner. I kept it on for a few minutes and washed it off.

I finished applying the rest of the dye onto my friend's roots and by then my hair was beginning to dry and all I saw was like super light roots and dark hair everywhere else D: But once it dried up everything looked more even...waaaaayy more even, especially on the top! Here are photos in different lights/angles...

To be honest I don't even know what color my hair is anymore... it looks like a orangey/reddish brown to me, but when I ask others they said it's like a light orange color.. and in photos it looks red at times, orange at times, and light brown at times. But I think it's probably just a light orange.

Other pics:

I don't think the roots are that uneven, so it might just be the angle that the pic was taken in.

 Orange-y... this is probably how my hair really is.

And light brown looking lol

Conclusion?
Cost: ★★★★★
It costs about $10, so it's not that bad..and everything was enough to cover my whole head, considering my hair is thick and long, that's really good. I was initially worried about whether it'd be enough even though I know American brands usually have a good amount, but my hair is long, so it did cross my mind.

Color: ★★★☆☆
Uhh... I don't think I'm even close to blonde, but I'm sure it'll work for someone who has lighter hair lol.

Coverage: ★★★★☆
My hair is pretty even now :) There are some parts that are lighter than some but that was because it was like black in the first place and compared to my lighter hair color elsewhere, there's no way everything can magically become the same shade.

Application: ★★★★☆
My friend applied it, but I would assume it wasn't that hard lol. It was a bit drippy and wet, so just watch out for that, but other than that just brush it onto the hair.

Overall: ★★★★☆
I liked it and I'm happy with my results. Like I said, I wasn't expecting to turn out blonde (okay, maybe just a little but not the shade that they intend it to be) and I didn't, so I can't comment on whether it'll work out or not, but if you're looking to lighten your hair, then give this a shot. I don't think most of my hair was really lightened that much, but on my roots there's definitely a change.