Review: Clairol Natural Instincts

Soooooooooo I guess its about time for my 1st review =) unplanned but I figured since I tried it I might as well share my experience. In hopes that one day it may help someone because I had a hard time finding reviews of this product on natural Afro hair. Now, I had been thinking of coloring my hair for quite some time now. I said that after my 1st year natural I would do so to give me some time to see what my natural hair could...you know reach its full potential without any chemicals in it BUT I couldnt take it anymore so I went to my local Wal-Mart and picked up a bottle of Clairol's Natural Instinct in Auburn. I was going for a red / burgundy color and this was the closest I could find to it. I had read color reviews that said if you were doing at home color, you should really try Clairol products because they had been doing this the longest and had spent alot of money on research of hair color so that really pushed me in that direction. The product has no ammonia, so I felt it would be pretty safe and it also washes out after 28 washes so if I didnt like the color it wasnt forever. The kit comes nicely packaged with hair color, color activator, decent quality gloves (even though mine had a hole in one), and a post conditoner (which I must admit was bomb! I wish they sold it by itself).  The application was fairly easy and there wasnt a mess but I have to say I just about ran out of color for my hair. I wish there was a little more in the package and for those that have hair longer than mine I doubt that it would seriously work to color their entire head. Now the directions said to leave it on for 10 mins but if youre natural you can leave it on a little longere but no more than 20 minutes. I had did a strand test before I started so I knew 10 wouldnt work, so I set my trusty timer for 20, washed out, used the kick ass conditioner, and voila! No color LOL. Checked in the light...no color. Finally my sister came over and what'd ya know? She notices color =)

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Eventually I did too but I do have to say it was more of a tint than a color for my naturally black hair. I thought I would have more color but this just doesn't work so Im going to have to try a permanent next time. I keep debating on going to a professional or not but the last time I had my hair professionally colored, it broke off soooo bad and I didnt even have full color, just highlights at the top. Every strand that was color popped at almost the touch, so I figured if Im going to get my hair colored I might as well do it myself. But I digress, I dont think I will be using this color again as long as my hair is this dark. It may work better on lighter colored hair if your going darker, but if your darker going a little brighter the color doesnt really work well IMO. I also noticed that since coloring Sunday, after using Cantu Shea Butter (which flakes in my hair if Im using other products) the red is combining with the Cantu leaving small color bits on my shirt. Which is no bueno. So Clairol gets a slight thumbs down!