We all have an at-home hair color horror story.
There was the time I tried to go a pretty shade of caramel but ended up a strange shade of brass. When I tried to cover up my mistake with dark brown I inadvertently ended up with Marilyn Manson-black hair. Take my word for it, at-home coloring can be a tricky business.
But at-home hair coloring just got a little bit easier.
Color at Home with Madison Reed
Up until now we’ve had two choices: take a risk with box dye, or pay the steep price for salon quality color.
As a consumer, you have to wonder why there aren’t better options out there? Amy Errett did.
“We stood in over 60 women’s bathrooms, watching them color their hair at home with a variety of different products. We took a look at what was the current state of the products out there and the various challenges these women had.”
With that insight Amy set out to transform the at-home hair color experience in Madison Reed, from the way you buy the product – online, delivered straight to your door – all the way to after-care products which contain keratin, ginseng root and argan oil.
What’s the difference between at-home hair color and the salon?
You probably know that your natural hair is not all one shade, so that one-dimensional color (ie my Marilyn Manson hair”> is one of the telltale signs of an at-home dye job.
“When you go to a salon, you trust that they know what they’re doing and they mix a number of colors together for you,” Amy explains, “so what we’ve done is translate that methodology into our multi tonal colors.”
That one color solution is usually the biggest difference between what you get at a salon and what you can achieve at home.
Will it harm my curls?
Our curly community is a well-informed, ingredient label-reading group of women. So we asked Amy about the ingredients they put in Madison Reed color and more importantly, what they left out.
“We’re free of ammonia, resorcinol, and parabens. In over half our shades there is no PPD, and the rest of them will be totally PPD free this year. I don’t believe anyone else has that combination.”
Low chemical profile? Check. Reparative nutrients? Check.
You’ll notice the difference straight away, “it’s subtle but once you’ve experienced it it’s real: because there’s no ammonia there’s not that ‘open your window’ kind of chemical smell.”
Top tip for salon color at home?
It’s all in how you apply it.
Amy says that “many people when they color their hair color it the exact same way, they saturate their hair with color from the roots to the ends,” ok, we admit to being guilty of this too.
Your application will depend on whether you’re coloring your hair for the first time, or if you already had colored hair.
“On the second time what we tell you is to color your roots first, wait 15 minutes, and then color the rest of your hair, pulling it from mid length down.”
“If you keep on coloring the parts that have color you will have bands and it will look super saturated in places and not saturated in others.” Why didn’t anyone tell us this before!
You can have Madison Reed determine a match for your current hair color, or help you identify a new color you’ve seen in a photo or magazine with the help of their online, professional colorists. And once you’ve picked your perfect shade? They’ll deliver it to your door for $29.95 including shipping.
Had I known about multi-tonal colors and the danger of oversaturation I would have avoided many a bad dye job. So we’re happy to welcome a new face to the at-home color scene!
This post is sponsored by Madison Reed
