Elumen?

[trollkjerring]

My Elumen arrived yesterday and of course I had to experiment immedialtelly.

I did a test strand with - eyeballed - 2/5 of AB @ 6, 2/5 BV @ 6 and 1/5 BB @ all, let it sit for one hour. My bright henna orange length is not orange anymore, that I can say for sure. After the test strand I used that mix allover, except my virgin roots (medium ashblond with a few silver strands).

I followed with Lock, didn't use shampoo or conditioner afterwards, just rinsed with lots of water.

My hair felt the same as when I used henna in the past, lots of volume and no slip at all. It took about six hours to dry, comparted to normally three hours and my hair was big this morning and a little bit dry. It was easy to comb and twist up.

The color blends very nice with my roots, at least without sunlight. In the sun the red still comes through but at least not orange anymore, so I am happy. This afternoon I plan to do a few strands just with the blue, I still want more red to go.

And I can't wait to wash my hair, I am afraid the rinsing didn't wash out all the products.

So far I am happy that I found Elumen, if this means I don't pixie my hair cause I can't stand the twocolored hair anymore, thanks for posting about it here!

trollkjerring

[Zombiekins]

Ok, I'm resurrecting this thread for a few questions... Firstly, do any of you Elumen users have pictures you could post? I wondered if elumen covered the same as henna (in that the color isn't flat and identical all the way around, but perhaps following your natural highlights?) and realized I've never seen a picture of someone with "elumen-ed hair."

Second, how's it holding up? We all know how permanent henna is, is the elumen fading out at all (and when was the last time you use it)?

Last, what kind of shampoos are you using: CO, sulfates, bars, gentle surfactants, etc?

[trollkjerring]

Since my last entry I used Elumen again, this time pure blue. It turned my orange hair into a darker shade of ash, difficult to describe. I liked it a lot - now the color is long gone, it faded gradually.

The product doesn't seem to damage the hair, it gives great shine and volume and doesn't look uniform like other chemical dyes. One bottle lasts me a long time, I think I will do it again sometimes, when my twotoned hair starts to bother me again.

I wash my hair every day with diluted shampoo and the color lasted about three weeks.

Sorry, but I don't have pictures, I am so lazy these days...
trollkjerring

[Zombiekins]

Since my last entry I used Elumen again, this time pure blue. It turned my orange hair into a darker shade of ash, difficult to describe. I liked it a lot - now the color is long gone, it faded gradually.

The product doesn't seem to damage the hair, it gives great shine and volume and doesn't look uniform like other chemical dyes. One bottle lasts me a long time, I think I will do it again sometimes, when my twotoned hair starts to bother me again.

I wash my hair every day with diluted shampoo and the color lasted about three weeks.

Sorry, but I don't have pictures, I am so lazy these days...
trollkjerring

Thanks, Trollkjerring! I've asked about the permanency a bajillion times in different threads on different forums and no one was ever able to answer the question. I appreciate you clearing up everything I wanted to know!

[iris]

Ok, I'm resurrecting this thread for a few questions... Firstly, do any of you Elumen users have pictures you could post? I wondered if elumen covered the same as henna (in that the color isn't flat and identical all the way around, but perhaps following your natural highlights?) and realized I've never seen a picture of someone with "elumen-ed hair."

Second, how's it holding up? We all know how permanent henna is, is the elumen fading out at all (and when was the last time you use it)?

Last, what kind of shampoos are you using: CO, sulfates, bars, gentle surfactants, etc?

I'll give my experience too:

Permanence: for me BR@6 seems to be holding up a lot better than AB@6 and/or AB@9. I colored about 5-6 weeks ago. I used a mixture of AB and BR on my virgin roots (1 1/2 year's worth of naturally dark ash blonde, some light blonde streaks, about 2% coarse whites), and the reddish tint is still there. I was shooting for a subtle color, just a touch of color on the whites and not too much change to my natural darker color, so it's hard to tell, but I don't think it has faded much at all. I see the regrowth quite clearly on my whites especially. The color may have faded a bit from the first 1/2 inch or so of the roots - either that or my hair has grown more quickly than it usually does.

I use sulfates to wash, and I wash every day. Also I was in pretty brutal sunshine for about two hours a day every day for the past four weeks, and swimming in the sea etc, so these were hardly conditions suitable for preserving color in general. I was expecting it to fade much more than it did.

That's the BR on virgin hair.

My length is a different story - my length was hennaed through and through for years to a very dark auburn, then peroxided to a fluorescent yellow around last Christmas. I used a mixture of AB@6 and AB@9 on it to tone down the yellow about 5-6 weeks ago. This AB is now about 80% gone. I couldn't say if it's the sun that faded it or if it just washed out. I don't use shampoo on my length BTW.

Flatness: my experience with henna is actually that it does turn out flat over time, because henna works like a sunblock. My first hennas were not flat in color, because I was hennaing over virgin hair that had lighter streaks in it from the sun. Over the years it did get to be a uniform color though, because henna acts like a sunblock, so the new growth didn't get lightened by the sun anymore.

I was absolutely ecstatic to find that this summer, my unhennaed elumed roots did get lightened by the sun in streaks even when they were covered by the elumen. The elumen BR color is still there, but the hair underneath it did get lightened by the sun in parts. So the elumen doesn't seem to work like a sunblock.

Granted, I used to henna as dark as I could, and I'm trying to be a whole lot more subtle with the elumen now, so it could still be that more thorough elumening would also block out sun lightening just like henna does - I can't be sure. I was pretty thrilled about it though. Love my sun streaks!

Iris

[Anksa Na]

WOuld lik eto save some $ Safe to purchase Elumen on-line? and where?

Thank you!!! :-)

[maryva]

Hi everyone,

Does elumen lighten hair or only deposit color? Does anyone have pics of their "elumened" hair? How long does it cover grey hair? Thanks so much!

[iris]

maryva, it only deposits color. No lightening.

It covers my grays permanently I'd say (well, I've only been using it for 4 months but in that time I haven't had any fading on the grays). I also have some super coarse wirey white hairs, I think the color fades a bit more from those.

Of course, the whites turn out lighter than the rest of the hair, which is an effect I like a lot. I hate one-dimensional color.

The elumen does tend to fade from my roots. Goldwell recommends that you color your roots with an oxidative dye matching your elumen shade, for this reason I guess. Within two weeks after elumening, I'll have about half an inch of roots, and I know that my hair doesn't grow that fast, so some of that rootage must be due to fading. I'm experimenting now with a color-protecting shampoo to see if that prevents the root fadage.

Other than root fadage, the color is sticking pretty well for me.

I can't take a picture right now, as my hair is wet, but I can try later. What exactly is it that you want to see in the pic though? Gray coverage? Condition? I'm thinking it may be better to snap a pic of my roots sometimes. I mean, you can't really tell anything from a picture unless you have something to compare it to. (And other than roots, the only comparison I could give you would be a comparison with my hair when it was hennaed, which would be pointless).

[maryva]

Thanks so much Iris! I guess I was just hoping to see how the color looked, if it looked natural, etc. But no big deal if you can't take a picture. Do you find that it is better to go with a lighter shade to blend the grays, since the elumen doesn't lighten hair? I'm really excited about trying this. Have you tried the clear, and is it worth the $? The only place I've been able to find it is ebay for about $30 a bottle. Does one bottle last for more than one application? Sorry for all the questions!

[iris]

Thanks so much Iris! I guess I was just hoping to see how the color looked, if it looked natural, etc. But no big deal if you can't take a picture. Do you find that it is better to go with a lighter shade to blend the grays, since the elumen doesn't lighten hair?

It really depends on what you want. Whether you use a lighter or a darker color, the general effect will just be that the whites will show up lighter than the rest.

I'm really excited about trying this. Have you tried the clear, and is it worth the $? The only place I've been able to find it is ebay for about $30 a bottle. Does one bottle last for more than one application? Sorry for all the questions!

The clear is just for mixing lighter colors. Personally I wouldn't use it for anything else (so, not like a gloss treatment for instance), because it is a little drying (due to the alcohol). So if you want just the conditioning, no color, then I'd just use a deep treatment full of cones to get the same effect but without the bit of dryness that elumen gives.

One bottle lasts many applications. About 6 full treatments on my hair (I'm about BSL, 4 inch ponytail circumference), and many many more root applications. It's not really expensive to use. Just an investment to buy those first few bottles.

What kind of color are you hoping to get?