I'm a huge fan of dying my hair. I love having new colors and feeling like I have fresh new hair. What I don't like is having to bleach my hair to get a bright color payoff. When I saw that Splat came out with a new line of hair dye specifically for brunettes, I was so excited. Splat is a hair dye line that mostly works with fantasy colors that work best on blonde or bleached hair, and I've always been jealous that I had to spend so much money on getting my hair done at a salon when blondes could just do it at home. But this new line of colors has the phrase "no bleach needed" right on the front, and I was sold right away. Right now, they only have three colors available: red, blue, and purple. All of them are understandably deeper in tone, you can't be a brunette and have pastel hair without bleaching first. I chose to try the red dye, called Midnight Ruby.

The application process is wonderfully easy. You don't need to mix anything like you do with other dyes, and it comes with another bottle to put the leftover dye in so that you can use it as a touch up.

This line is semi-permanent, meaning it will wash out over time. Splat approximates that the color will last for about six weeks, but it all depends on how often you wash your hair. The actual process is quite easy: open the dye bottle, put on the gloves, and apply the color where it's desired. However, a word of warning when applying, this color does its job and really dyes everything it touches. The box advises you don't rub it into your scalp because it will stain your scalp. With my hair being as short as it is, that wasn't really possible, so I now have a pink scalp. The good news is, it washes off with soap easily! So when the top of my forehead looked straight out of a horror movie, I was able to step out of the shower looking normal and clean. You leave the color on for 45 minutes to an hour to really let the color soak in.

When you're ready to rinse the dye out, make sure you have an old towel at the ready, because when you dry your hair, it does still stain a little bit. My shower looked like someone had been murdered in it while I was rinsing my hair, the color is really bright and went everywhere. But nothing stained the white tiles or tub, I rinsed the wall right away just to be sure. After you think you've rinsed it all out, you shampoo and condition like normal. Again, make sure your towel is old or one that you don't care about, but my pillowcase wasn't red at all after sleeping on it, so it only stains when wet and freshly dyed.

The color payoff is really wonderful. My hair without direct light looks like a nice dark auburn, but when it is in direct light the color is like a sparkling ruby red. I've used red hair dyes in the past and haven't gotten this kind of color out of it. It's less than ten dollars, which makes this so worth it to me.

If you want to have a pretty, jewel-like color in your hair and don't want the hassle of bleaching your hair, this line is a winner.