I have been on a months-long quest to achieve unicorn hair on my dark natural afro.
When Lime Crime dropped its unicorn hair dye meant for dark hair, I was sold! Our Revelist beauty team tried the dye and it didn't work on any of us.
Out of us three, I was the most disappointed since I had never dyed my hair and was looking forward to wearing the cool colors I grew up wanting to try for the first time.
As you can imagine, finding a temporary dye that gives bold color without frying my hair to hell isn't the easiest challenge.
But onward! I discovered these Dark and Lovely Go Intense color sprays ($7) in the Target aisle and was immediately ready to continue my search for temp unicorn hair.
The sprays ($6.99, Target) promise to make "vibrant color that POPS on dark hair" and "rinse out in one shampoo."
Digging it! I *had* to grab Bombshell Blue and Lucky Lavender and put these babies to the test.
With my towel wig-clipped and my edges secured with a scarf — I prepared to go in.
Since I learned my lesson about high expectations and hurt feelings from Lime Crime — I went in emotionally and physically prepared this go 'round.
I started with the blue. I followed the directions and sprayed "4 - 6 inches away" from my hair — but saw nothing. So I went against the label and did close-up spurts instead, which gave the color a *bit* more visibility.
Sometimes you gotta disobey in the name of color. Thankfully, I knew the color sprays are supposed to easily rinse out.
After about 10 minutes of spraying I saw a hint of blue, so the super close spurts worked.
It still wasn't the bold blue hue I was hoping for. The grey patches you see are, yes, meant to be the blue and lavender sprays I used.
What I did love was the spray bottle dispenser. It was long and super skinny which made directing the dye super easy. I got NONE of the dye on my clothes, walls, or sink.
Dark and Lovely ($7, Target) definitely get points for a clean process. The goal was unicorn hair, not unicorn walls.
I sprayed both bottles and my wrists complained way before my eyes saw the color I desired.
Grrr.
After spraying until my wrists complained, this was the final result.
WHERE'S MY UNICORN HAIR!?
OK, I'm being dramatic. In all fairness, you *could* see my color IRL. When I stood in the light. And turned around a full 360 degrees so the human eye could catch the blue and lavender colors at subtle angles.
It wasn't what I was going for, but I accepted this "makeup for hair" look as the closest thing to a rinse I've ever had.
I felt cool just to be a unicorn's half-sister at this point.
But mission SO NOT over. I was DETERMINED to get these Dark & Lovely unicorn sprays working. I stretched my 'fro over the weekend and put it into two space buns – determined to start my week off with a Unicorn Hair Monday.
I admit it with zero shame: I was getting desperate and trying to avoid having Part 2 of my Lime Crime temper tantrum.
I threw on my Aaliyah sweatshirt and dark blue lipstick to match the blue and purple thing I was determined to have going on with my hair.
First things first, I knew I needed a friend to help me.
At this point, I was putting a fresh round of the Dark and Lovely Color Intense sprays ($6.99, Target) ON TOP of the spray I'd added this weekend. I did not rinse it out because, well, there wasn't much color showing to begin with.
No worries. I fully plan to deep condition TF out of my hair this week to reverse all this product I've packed into it.
Smelly, fun fact: This spray lingers in the air A LOT.
I recommend you try doing this outside (summer DIY project?) OR somewhere in your home that has a window.
Luckily, the excess spray doesn't stain anything. No sweatshirts were harmed during the shooting of this excess color spraying session.
Here's the final result.
HOORAY!
This is the closest to unicorn hair I have EVER gotten. The lavender and blue sprays are actually SHOWING! Baby steps, right?
But would I recommend the Dark and Lovely color sprays? That answer's not so simple.
Since the spray bottles are only $6.99, I would definitely try the other colors in the line. If Dark and Lovely ever releases a hair chalk or anything similar, I would also experiment with it.
Ultimately, I do feel it took me too many sprays and TWO too many days to achieve the final look. Luckily, the Color Intense sprays only dropped in October 2017, so the brand still has lots of time and room to improve the spray's formula. I'm still hopeful.
In the meantime, the search for the best temporary hair dye for dark hair continues!
