I first dyed my hair at the age of eleven, before my first day at secondary school. Possibly one of the worst ideas I have ever had, armed with a tube of pillarbox red, no experience and enlisting the help of no-one.

Que a murder scene esque bathroom, a very angry mother and a dark gingery mess upon my previously ashy blonde hair.

Seven years on, and the addiction for changing my hair colour still ceases to be defeated. My thirteen year old self thought brunette hair with thick blonde highlights was cute, it really wasn’t. My sixteen year old self thought near jet black hair with pale skin was a good look, funnily enough it wasn’t either. The only colours that I have liked on myself since I first touched my hair with a dye brush have been blonde, and a warm light brunette.

Being as indecisive as I am, I started last year off as a bleach blonde, and by the end of summer was back to dark brunette. The colour build up on the ends of my hair was atrocious and after seeing one too many drunken photos of me simply looking like a ghost wearing a black wig, I decided to do something about it and go back lighter.

I couldn’t put my hair back through being bleached, so went on the search for another kind of product… Pacing the hair care isle, I came across a product called Colour B4 Extra Strength. The box had a picture of a woman going from black hair to blonde on the box, with the words ‘No Ammonia or Bleach’ printed across the bottom. Perfect, but too good to be true definitely sprung to mind. I sceptically surveyed the box for a while before realising I’d been stood in Tesco for maybe a tad too long, so grabbed a couple of boxes (£9.99 each) and headed home.

Following the easy instructions, and mixing up the bottles like a standard dye solution, I really wasn’t expecting much. Aside from the eggy smell that it produced, cruelly you cannot open your window whilst using either as it needs warmth to develop, the mixture was a good thickness and went pretty far in my hair. Strategically holding a mirror in one hand, standing in front of another mirror, with a tint brush in the other hand; I applied the first bottle to my roots and mid sections and the second bottle to the length and ends.

Wrapping my hair up in clingfilm, I sat down for the next hour of developing time to watch the Kardashian’s and Snapchat people pictures of how said clingfilm made me look very bald. After the hour was up, the removal of the clingfilm revealed a definite colour change in my hair but it was still wet with solution. The next step was to rinse for ten minutes, then apply a buffer before rinsing for a further five minutes. My hair is about four inches below my shoulders and thick, but two boxes was plenty.

Stepping out the shower, the first thing I noticed was how light my locks were, even though they were still sopping wet. Grabbing my trusty argan oil and smothering it on, one downside to Colour B4 was that the buffer made my tresses extremely dry, I set to blow drying. My mouth, no word of a lie, literally fell open when I realised the colour change.

Yes I will not deny, it has turned me a shade of ginger: BUT it is a bearable tone that I will describe as dark strawberry blonde. My hair is soft any shiny, and now ready for an application of blonde which will eradicate the brassiness and get me to my lighter hair goal! And most importantly, the dreaded colour build up has been banished from the lengths of my locks!

So girls, and boys too, if you ever find yourself in the dreaded position of colour gone wrong or you have too many layers of dye built up, head out and buy yourself Colour B4!

So save yourself the expensive hairdressing bills and get your beautiful barnet back, what more could you want?