Elumen?

[Anksa Na]

Anyone use this? Thought about it?
Used it once over henna'd hair that was to orange. Felt and looked fabulous.
http://www.elumen-haircolor.com/

[iris]

I have thought about it, I've read a lot about it and it looks very interesting. Non-damaging and reversible, what more could you want eh?

From what I've read, I have a few concerns though. One is that the potential for getting the stuff out when you're sick of it (with the 'return' stuff which seems to be some sort of solvent) seems to vary a lot from person to person. I've read that the red shades especially can be very stubborn and not come out. Having just spent over a year trying to get rid of henna... I'm really not ready at all to potentially go through something like that again.

The other thing I wonder about is what it makes your hair feel like. I sort of get the impression that it may be some sort of coated feeling, maybe a bit 'cone-like? What is your experience with that?

Did you have it done in a salon, or did you do it yourself? How did you go about selecting a shade?

Iris

[<She>]

Hi Anksa Na, what a coincidence, I was just about to post the same question today I was also very curios about the price and if it is worth it? I rather like RV@all from the Pure shades.

[nellen]

I've used Elumen to get rid off the yellow tones in my blond hair. I mix tones AB@9 and AB@6 to achieve the desired look. In my experience and what I've read from another hair community the dark (blacks and browns), the shock (blues and greens) and the red Elumen colors are the shades that stick to hair, blonds tend to wear out faster.

Elumen is a non-damaging, oxidant-free hair color that is easy to use at home too. It gives hair a very shiny finish and a nice feel. The color itself contains one 'cone but I don't think that is enough to create a really coated feeling for a long time. I wouldn't even compare it to the feeling you get after washing your hair with a really 'cone-saturated conditioner. The feeling after Elumen is silky, sturdy and very bouncy.

The color also contains drying alcohol so it can dry the scalp a bit. Coloring with Elumen several times consecutively makes the color remain in your hair better. This is why many redheads love Elumen: the color lasts long looking vibrant and the more you color, the more the color sticks to the hair.

That is also the reason why Elumen is tricky to remove from the hair completely. The Return that supposedly reverses the color does not work as good as it should work and Elumen users have been forced to use hair bleachers to get rid off the remaining color.

Another problem with Elumen is the coloring process itself as you have to be extra careful not to let the color on to your skin or bathroom surfaces because it will stain skin and bathroom materials. The color stains on skin wear off eventually but the stains may not wash out off tiles, tile grout etc.

Furthermore, Elumen tends to stick to damaged hair better than to virgin hair. That's why many Elumen users might use normal hair color on the roots and Elumen on the lengths because Elumen might wash out from the roots in a few washes. But again, after coloring a few consecutive times with Elumen the color begins to stick even to the roots.

I would recommend Elumen hair color to people who have decided to stay in a certain color permanently and do not like to experiment with different shades.

[iris]

Wow, thank you for all that information, nellen!

Toning down brassiness is one of the things I was thinking about using elumen for - I've bleached out the henna on my length with household peroxide, and I'm left with a mish-mash of yellow and orange tones there. I use a blue/violet deposit-only dye to tone it to a more believable shade of dark blond/light brown, which works well except that the blue/violet stays for a week or two max. So I'm interested in finding a more permanent solution for that. Sounds like the AB@6 may be worth a shot.

Do you use the lock? Does it help a lot to make the color more permanent?

I also wonder about the gray coverage - not really for myself, but out of general interest. I've read that while elumen is not recommended to cover gray, it *can* cover gray but it depends on the shade or something? Can you shed more light on that? I imagine that it not sticking well to roots would pose a problem for gray coverage, too. It's just not really clear to me why goldwell advices against using it to cover gray, exactly.

It seems that all the forums I find through google that discuss elumen are in Finnish . Is the forum you frequent in English?

So many new questions! You've already shared more information than I've been able to find through hours of googling, - thank you!

Iris

[nellen]

Toning down unwanted brassiness with Elumen AB@6 sounds good as the color is very dark violet. It does not cause blue hair (side effect of some oxidant-free hair colors) but a little purplish shade can be seen for a few washes.

iris, what is your current shade of hair color? I think mine is between 7 or 8 so it's a typical dark blond. I found that the mix of 1 part of AB@9 and 2 parts of AB@6 was a bit on the dark side for my taste so when/if your start coloring with Elumen I recommend a strand test before toning to whole head.

I don't use Lock because the main purpose of Lock is to wash out any extra color that is deposited in/on the hair. It does not in any way lock the color in place, with the help of powerful alcohols it just washes out the extra color that usually washes away naturally in the next few washes anyway. But especially redheads may use Lock because the red color tends to run more to bed sheets and clothes so they wash the extra color away with Lock. So if you just use light colors, I wouldn't recommend buying a bottle of Lock at all.

Unfortunately I can't help with the gray hair problem. I suppose Elumen would appear to be a kind of a shock color if one uses for example a red Elumen on totally gray (white) hair strands. The lighter the base for Elumen, the brighter the end result so maybe that is why Goldwell doesn't encourage the use of Elumen on gray hair.

I am a regular in a Finnish speaking hair forum and my guess would be that you have stumbled upon our hair forum when searching information on Elumen as we have a really good thread about the color and where to buy it online. So ask away if you have any further questions.

I recommend a deep cleansing before toning with Elumen and avoiding any 'cone products before applying the jello-like color. The instructions say that Elumen should be applied to dry hair but I and many others have noticed that it doesn't make a difference on the end result if you apply it to towel dried, just deep cleansed hair. After applying the Elumen color, one should protect hair and the color from drying with a shower cap or something else. After leaving the color in for about 30 minutes to an hour just one shampoo wash is quite enough to wash away any extra color. I found that a deep treatment after Elumen color is necessary since the color contains denaturated alcohol which might dry hair a bit.

As I mentioned before the color is jello-like gel that is a bit tricky to get on hair without splashing it all over the place but once you get use to the consistency applying the color to hair carefully should be easy.

Glad to be of help, please do ask if you have anymore questions .

[iris]

Thanks for the heads-up on the Lock - that does make sense that it works the way you describe it but I never would have guessed - no Lock for me then. Sounds like the Clean may be a good idea though . How do you apply the color, just with a tint brush? Or do you use the fancy elumen comb-bottle thingy?

And you don't use heat to make it more permanent?

I'm not really sure what level I'm at. My natural color is called dark blond over here, but it's not actually all that light, it just has some white blond streaks in about a level 6 (?) base. I have about 8" of roots now.

The previously hennaed length that I want to tone over to (more or less) match the roots is a mish-mash of all kinds of levels - there are some light fluorescent yellow parts and some darker parts with an orange tone. I'll have to do the toning strand by strand - it's how I do it now with the Stargazer dye too - it'll just take some trial and error to learn how well the elumen takes compared to the Stargazer. Getting both the AB@9 and the AB@6 sounds like a good plan to me.

I'm glad to hear the AB@6 is more violet than blue, because that's what I need - I mainly want to get rid of the yellow tones, I don't mind if some red survives.

Iris

[nellen]

I've just dumped the color on my head in appropriate amounts with gloved hands and tried to get it everywhere carefully with my fingers. I haven't bothered with a tint brush nor the Elumen comb-bottle thingy since my fingers have done the job just fine. You just have to be careful when applying the color as it tends to splash a bit. I have applied heat by going to the sauna for a while but if you have one of those really handy heated caps, it would do the trick quite nicely.

In my opinion you should try the mix of 1 part AB@6 and two parts of AB@9 if your hair is about 8 since this mixture darkened my hair quite a bit. If you want a darker color just add a bit more AB@6 to the mix when you color the next time. At first I colored my hair once in two weeks to really make the color to stick. So you don't have to suffer very long if the color turns out to be not quite right in the first coloring time as you can color the hair again quickly and change the mixture to a more appropriate direction.

[iris]

That all sounds good. Cool! I just ordered some (from this ebay seller) - I'll post how I get along with it here. Thanks again for all your help nellen!

Iris

[iris]

My elumen arrived today. Everything went exactly as nellen had already described, so I'm not sure what more to say about it. I found it quite easy to apply - of course I compare it to henna which is probably the worst for applying you can get. I thinned the gelly-like consistency out with a little bit of water, and used a tint brush, hardly splattered at all. It didn't stain my sink or tiles at all, but it leave a purple stain on a can of shaving cream that was on the counter. Depends on the material apparently. I tried it out on a bit of wool first and the wool it stained sort of a gray color, not purple at all.

It doesn't smell much like anything, which is a big in my book - I was expecting an overpowering 'salon product' perfumy smell but it was fine.

My hair was indeed a bit dry afterwards, but that was easily fixed with some oil. It feels very strong though. Not coated, not 'coney, but stronger than before.

I did two applications in a row - first one with mostly AB@9, which was too light, second one with the mix of 1/3 AB@6 and 2/3 AB@9 that nellen suggested, which was good. The henna still peaks out in the sun but that's what henna does - in less bright light it does fully cover the henna, color looks very natural too and matches my roots. I was a bit sloppy applying it to the midlength so I'll have to go over that area again.

I'm curious to see how long this first application will hold up. So far I think it's a very interesting product.

Iris