I succumbed to the ad for Madison Reed because I started coloring my own hair rather than do the salon thing. I had been using John Frieda Precision Foam--easy as pie to apply and I got a nice color based on their website (Almond Brown.) I need an ash tone (no red, no yellow, more violet or blue based) and any color person will tell you, drugstore box color usually doesn't have a blue or violet base because you can screw it up more easily.
I was getting more and more brassy tones from the John Frieda, so I tried the Madison Reed site. It's more than twice what I was paying (JF costs me about $9 a box and this is $24 unless you have a coupon, in which case it's about $16. )
I ordered a bowl and flat brush on a whim, no time to stop in Sally's but it turned out, this was a very good move.
I went through the color match system for my hair consistency: I have straight-wavy hair with 50-90pct grey, the grey are somewhat resistant (they color, but they fade faster.) I knew I wanted ash tone and my normal color is a dark brunette but I try to go a shade lighter sometimes. I ended up with Siena Brown which is a level 6 (NAV neutral Ash Violet). That seemed correct. The pictures are of a medium brunette.
The kit comes with 2 pairs of gloves, a shower type cap, developer in a plastic flask, color in a sealed metal tube, blocking cream, cleansing wipe and a shampoo and conditioner for after processing. Very detailed instructions, are you covering grey, did you already color your hair? Refreshing color? Or changing?
When I put the color into the developer flask, it did NOT mix well. The color is very thick, heavier than conditioner. Like toothpaste. It did not want to mix well in that flask, so I squeezed it out into the coloring bowl and mixed with the flat brush. That was a good move. It make application way easier. I divided up the hair after blocking my hairline and pushed color into the roots, then over the hair closest scalp. After loading it up, I moved the color to the ends by blending it down by hand (a trick I learned: don't apply color directly to your ends. They HAVE color already. And they are more worn, so they color faster. If you drag it down by hand like shampooing, it will be a lot more natural.)
Put on the cap and decided to cut the coloring time shorter than they recommend for various reasons. I did 20 min when they said 35. Good move. After washing out and shampooing and conditioning, I had very dark color, darker than the illustration (but I'm a dark brunette naturally) and it was a gorgeous, ashy tone with a vague violet-red highlight that looked very like my original color (ashy dark dark brunette.) My hair was super shiny and didn't have that plasticy feel that you can get with some color.
All grey covered--except two small patches at temple where I got too close with the blocking cream. Next time, be more careful with that stuff.
Now the wait: how long will this last? So far, I'm very pleased. The color looks completely professional and I was able to do an ash brunette, which you can't even buy in the drugstore.
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