Splat Hair Dye Review
About Splat
Get the hair of your wildest dreams with Splat’s expressive, semi-permanent and temporary hues. Offered in complete kits, single-serve pouches, and natural formulas, the paraben-free hair dye boasts long-lasting color and ultra-vibrant results.
As the official Warner Bros. hair color, Splat signed on with the pictures group in 2020 to be used in Birds of Prey and the newest Suicide Squad film.
Need more color? More volume? You may have found the product to do it. Before you start dreaming of neon-pink bangs and bright blue ombrés, take a peek at this Splat Hair Dye Review.
We’ll dig into information about the brand and their bestsellers, provide customer feedback, compare it with a top-selling competitor, and so much more to help you color with confidence.
Overview of Splat
Self-expression is important. Our world has come so far in terms of exploration and acceptance, and showing who you truly are through makeup, clothing, and hair color is now part of the norm.
But even though fabulous, colorful hair has become more common, the results are always unique. Your one-of-a-kind face and personal hairstyle and texture, mixed with the limitless options of color blends and designs are what make the world of hair so incredibly fascinating.
Splat was developed in 1991 by Ann and Dave Agrey in Southern California. With a mission to offer affordable, vibrant hair color to the world, it’s no wonder that the brand is the #1 bold hair color company on the market.
Offering an extensive range of shades, formulas, and methods, Splat is known for their complete kits that offer everything from bleach and color to aftercare and gloves.
Before we get into some more important details about the brand’s expressive product lineup, this Splat Hair Dye review will give you a rundown of their pros and cons:
Pros
- 23 Original colors to choose from
- Available in a variety of formats: natural, 1-wash, 10-wash, Splat Hair Chalk, and more
- Customers can return a product at any time even if it’s been used
- Affordable prices
- Accessible – sold in many big and small retailers
- Good promotions & discounts offered
- Free shipping on orders over $35
- Ships internationally
Cons
- Products may irritate skin and bleed when wet for as long as 2 weeks after dyeing
Bleach is tough on hair. There’s just no way around it. Do you want vibrant colors? Bleach is the key.
Though it takes from your hair, what you put back into the follicle is crucial, so that’s why Splat’s formula is packed with nourishing ingredients like Baobab seed oil and quinoa extract.
After your color deposit is complete, Splat recommends using a conditioning treatment, and if you’ve chosen one of its Original Complete Kits, then you’re in luck because they include a great one.
Kits aren’t the only thing the brand has to offer. On their website, you’ll find a broad selection of temporary and semi-permanent hair colors, as well as natural formulas and a la carte packets that let you easily mix and match colors.
In all of Splat’s formulas, you’re getting paraben-free, sulfate-free, PPDs-free, and Ammonia-free color that despite what it lacks, certainly doesn’t skimp on vibrancy.
In the next section of this Splat Hair Dye review, we’ll walk you through some of the brand’s most popular colors.
Splat Semi-Permanent Hair Dye Review
Splat shades promise high payouts and long-lasting results – up to 4-6 weeks. Not sure about a color? Use Splat’s Virtual Try On to see your hair transformed before your eyes.
To see the results shown in your try on, remember you’ll need to bleach your hair first. That’s precisely why the brand offers complete kits like the one we’ll start with next in this Splat Hair Dye review.
Splat Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Neon Green Review
For a truly punky style, Neon Green is the way to go. It delivers an electric herbaceous green color, sort of like Poison Ivy’s venom in Batman, back in the days when Tim Burton was still the director and it was super imaginative.
Anyway, this potent shade of Splat green hair dye promises eye-raising results, whether it’s just on your tips or covering your full head.
Add a little venom to your look with a 3 oz Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Neon Green for $13.
It’s important to note that all of the complete kits come with hair color, lightening bleach, gloves, and Splat hair dye instructions.
Splat Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Blue Envy Review
If you’re bored of regular dark hair colors like basic brown or black, try Blue Envy. It’s a deep, mysterious shade that has some edge yet remains pretty subtle.
A good pick for those who want to experiment with color but want something a little less bright, this Splat blue hair dye is a great cool shade to mix with black hair or add dimension and depth to lighter colors like lilac.
Push your limits with the 3 oz Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Blue Envy for $13.
Splat Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Crimson Obsession Review
Red is a popular Splat hair color, probably because it’s a safe choice as it’s not too far off the spectrum of natural hair. It also looks rockin’ on pretty much every skin tone imaginable!
Splat hair dye Crimson Obsession is a deep, blood-red color that doesn’t lack in the drama department. On longer hair, this Splat red hair dye definitely has a mermaid-ish look, and you might say that it’s got the heart of Ariel but the soul of a siren.
Bringing the heat to short hairstyles as well, those with a crop can play around with some putty or wax and create a totally fiery do’.
Turn up the drama with the 3 oz Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Crimson Obsession for $13.
Splat Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Purple Desire Review
Though red hair will make you look like Ariel, Splat Purple hair dye screams mermaid hair. It has an aquatic presence to it, a fun yet serious quality that looks great on tips or faded down into an ombré.
For true mermaid hair, add oceanic variation to your hair by combining it with Blue Envy. Take your hair to new depths with the Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Purple Desire for $13.
Splat Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Pink Fetish Review
There’s nothing prettier than pink. But pink has a dangerous side too. Inherently innocent, Splat gives the delicate shade an edgy makeover with the bright and fierce Pink Fetish.
Apply this popping Splat pink hair dye shade to brightly bleached hair for a bubblegum look or add in like balayage for subtle but punky, fun strands.
Show them your sweet side with the 3 oz Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Pink Fetish for $13.
Splat Semi-Permanent Liquid Hair Color – Orange Fireballs Review
Think: sunset hair or melting rainbow. Use this 1.5 oz pack of Orange Fireballs to create warm peach tones that fade into pinks and become a bright, summer sky. Orange is such a happy color and a playful choice for hair color.
When used sparingly, it has a more pastel hue. In high doses, flames emerge. Add a couple of drops with the Splat pink hair color to create dreamy peach tones, or mix it up with yellow to make a unique marigold hue.
It’s your hair; play around with it! Get the Semi-Permanent Liquid Hair Color – Orange Fireballs for $5.
Splat Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Sinful Silver Review
Move over, grey hair. The grey trend is cute, but sometimes you end up looking more like a senior than you do a trendy 20-something. Sinful Silver glimmers, giving a totally metal look that can be adjusted to lighter or darker tones.
Use Splat hair bleach to lighten your hair to a medium blonde to reach a dark metallic shade or opt for bright aluminum by first bleaching to completely blonde strands.
Add some edge to your look with the Original Complete Kit with Bleach and Semi-Permanent Hair Color – Sinful Silver for $13.
Splat Midnight, No Bleach, Semi-Permanent Hair Color Kit Review
Don’t want to bleach? No problem. The Midnight, No Bleach, Semi-Permanent Hair Color Kit has your hair covered. It works best on medium brown to lighter shades of hair, but you won’t need bleach to see saturated color.
Midnight Magenta is a totally bad girl shade. It seems sweet, but you know it’s got some attitude. This darker shade is more subtle than other Splat pinks and though it doesn’t require bleach to work, it delivers the same bold color.
The kit includes:
- Midnight Magenta 6 fl oz
- Deep Reconstructor Conditioner 75 fl oz
- Gloves
- Instructions
Get vibrant color without the bleach for $13.
Does Splat Damage Your Hair?
It’s not Splat that does damage to hair. In fact, the colors are infused with baobab seed oil and quinoa seed oil to nourish and protect it from UV rays. The issue with any bold hair color is that to get big color payoffs, you’ll need to bleach your hair first.
Bleaching hair strips it of color, of course, but also removes moisture that can leave it super dry and brittle. Splat tries to combat this moisture loss by including its Deep Reconstructor Conditioner with each of their kits.
Who Is Splat For?
Splat is for adults who love experimenting with their hair color. It’s safe to use on kids too, but they’ll need an adult to help make the magic work.
Because Splat semi permanent hair dye colors are highly pigmented, the colors come out more vibrantly on lighter hair, but those with darker hair may see some color difference as well, just more subtly.
If you do have darker hair and want high color payoff, pre-lighten the strands you wish to color or buy one of the Original Complete Kits.
Comparison: Splat vs. Manic Panic
Expressive hair colors are more popular than ever. Though some bright hair color brands have been around for years, others are popping up on the scene and adding their own twist to vivid color.
In this section of our Splat Hair Dye review, we’ll be doing a quick comparison between our featured brand and competitor, Manic Panic.
Like Splat, Manic Panic hair dye is vegan and cruelty-free. The brand has been around since 1977 and is celebrated for their spectrum of powerful shades that deliver saturated color.
Manic Panic has a huge collection of hair dye, from pastels to semi-permanent to high voltage and even a professional line. They offer hair care products, tools, cosmetics, and even lifestyle items like cutesy apparel and snappy shoes.
Unlike our featured brand, Manic Panic doesn’t sell their colors in kits. If you want bleach, you’ll have to pay for it separately. As for the formulas themselves, the colors are set in a fortified cream conditioning base. The Classic line offers 40 shades, while Splat has only 23.
Our features brand has more options when it comes to formats though, offering color that’s designed for 1 or 10 washes, along with ombré kits, and the Splat Midnight hair color line.
Manic Panic Classic colors last for 4-6 weeks, but the brand also has an Amplified line that lasts 30% longer.
For the sake of similarity, we’ll be checking out the formulas for our competitor’s Classic line and Splat’s Original Singles – as our featured brand doesn’t sell single jars of color.
One 1.5 oz packet of Splat color is $5, whereas one 4 oz jar of Manic Panic is $14. When doing the math, these two formulas check out to be around the same price. So what’s the difference? Not a ton. But it looks like our competitor offers more color options.
If you need to lighten your hair and are looking for a 3-in-1 product, then Splat would be your best bet. Their complete kits contain bleach, color, and conditioning treatment in one. If you’re into large tubs of dye or a greater range of shades, Manic Panic is a solid choice.
Splat Reviews: What Do Customers Think?
It’s one thing to see how hair color looks on models, but another entirely to try it yourself. If you want to know what Splat is really like, then you’ve come to the right place.
In this part of the Splat Hair Dye review, we’ve rounded up customer comments from various sources around the web that shed some light on the quality and results of the brand’s highly pigmented dye.
Hitting up the official website first, we got a feel for how Splat colors are enjoyed by users. You’ll find a few of their bestsellers listed below along with their ratings:
- Original Complete Kits (all colors) – 3.9/5 stars, 1,725 ratings
- Naturals (all colors) – 4.4/5 stars, 448 ratings
- Splat Temporary Hair Dye (1 wash) – 4.4/5 stars, 48 ratings
- 10 Wash Temporary Hair Color – 3.9/5 stars, 86 ratings
- Midnight, No Bleach, Semi-Permanent Hair Color – 4/5 stars, 932 ratings
We were quite intrigued by the Midnight line, so we chose to take a closer look at what customers had to say about it.
77% of users said they’d recommend this product to a friend. Here are some of its main highlights:
- 319 users said it has Great Color
- 292 customers reported it was Easy To Use
- 93 revealed it was Long Lasting
In terms of color payoff, one Splat Hair Dye review noted, “Usually if I put a color like this on my brown hair it would barely show up but it wasn’t the case with this. It was very vibrant.” Good to know, as we were afraid it wouldn’t hold up on darker bases.
As for the negatives, here’s a list of common customer concerns:
- 287 buyers reported it was Messy
- 97 users said that it Didn’t Last
- 94 shoppers found that it was Difficult To Wash Out
The majority of complaints are with regards to the damage it does to hair. A few buyers said that it damaged their hair worse than bleach did. This may be because it lightens and deposits in one step, although this result isn’t reported by everyone.
To see how the product held up outside of the brand’s website, we headed over to Amazon to read about the Original Complete Kit in Pink Fetish. It has a rating of 4.5/5 stars awarded by 558 shoppers.
Have a peek at the rating snapshot below if you’d like to see how that score was calculated:
- 5 stars: 78%
- 4 stars: 7%
- 3 stars: 4%
- 2 stars: 6%
- 1 star: 5%
Speaking of the quality, one Amazon Splat Hair Dye review reveals, “I’ve been using SPLAT for over 2 years! By far the BEST color I’ve used and doesn’t fade for me.”
The user says they’ve tried a ton of other brands too, but this one is the best. The review, with pictures attached, showed vibrant, soft-looking hair.
So if it’s good quality, what could be bad about it? Mostly the bleeding, it seems.
One comment reads, “Mine won’t stop bleeding! No matter how much I try to wash any access crap that’s stuck to my scalp it just continues to bleed out. And I’m over two weeks into having it.” This would certainly be frustrating as it could ruin shirts and possibly carpets.
To see if we could get a little more information to back up these statements, we consulted Chick Advisor. The review site showed a 4/5 star rating for the brand from 23 reviews.
Apparently, 83% of chicks dig it, saying it provides “lasting coverage,” and is of “good value.” But just like the comments on Amazon, a ton of negative reviews consist of angry comments about how the color bleeds – even two weeks after use.
From our research, it looks like Splat hair dye gives a bold color, but it bleeds for quite some time. The formulas are effective, but some appear to be better than others.
Is Splat Worth It?
This Splat Hair Dye review believes the brand’s colors are of great value. The complete kits contain bleach, dye, and a conditioning treatment for the full experience.
If bleach isn’t your thing, you can buy the Midnight line or single packs for a low price, and if natural is more your speed, they have a line for that too.
The brand’s products are also extremely accessible, meaning you can most likely find a few of them at your local Walmart.
The Original formula is said to bleed, but if high color payoff and long-lasting results for a low price are what you’re after, color bleeding can be dealt with by being super careful when your hair gets wet. It’s safe to say that we wholeheartedly recommend the brand,
Splat Promotions & Discounts
Splat colors are already available at super low prices, but we know a little discount here and there never hurts! After combing the brand’s website, here’s what we discovered:
- Get a Gloss Masque for just $5 when you buy two Natural colors
- Buy $35+ worth of products to get free shipping
Where to Buy Splat
As a super-accessible brand, you can find Splat at any of these following major retailers and more:
- Walmart
- Walgreens
- CVS
- Amazon
…and of course at splathaircolor.com!
FAQ
Where Is Splat Made?
Splat hair dye colors are made in the USA in sunny California.
Is Splat Vegan And Cruelty-Free?
Yes! None of the brand’s formulas contain any animal-derived ingredients and are at no time tested on them.
What is Splat’s Shipping Policy?
Splat ships all over the world. Orders are processed in 72 hours and will take about 7-10 business days to arrive at your door.
Of course, some locations may take more or less depending on how far away they are from the brand’s warehouse. All shipping costs are calculated at checkout.
What is Splat’s Return Policy?
Because Splat products are sold at a ton of different retailers, if you bought from anywhere outside of splathaircolor.com, be sure to return your products to that specific store.
For all returns of purchases made on the brand’s website, email customercare@SplatHairColor.com and let them know what’s up. They’ll give you instructions on what to do next.
Since there is no information about whether it’s ok or not to return used products and how long their return policy is valid for, if you’ve used yours and need to make a return, go ahead and give them a call anyway.
How to Contact Splat
If you need any other information that wasn’t included in this Splat Hair Dye review, use any of the two methods below to get in touch with the brand:
- Email: customercare@SplatHairColor.com
- Phone: (951)738-8595
Splat customer service hours are Monday – Friday 8 am – 5 pm PST.
Not totally convinced by Splat? Check out our review for Color&Co, which offers a revamped at-home hair coloring system
