Why I Will Never Color My Hair at Home Again.

Why will I never color my hair at home again? For a quick answer, look at the pictures. Then read on for the whole story.

First, I must say that I have gone back and forth in deciding if I should write this post or not. I am all about pointing out the best in beauty, and luckily have had very few situations when a product just hasn't worked for me. Well, this hair color not only did not work for me, it basically ruined my hair and I thought that important enough to write about. The fact that I have reached out to the company through it's website on their contact form, an email to them, a phone call to their customer service phone number and publicists with no response, (except for we will get back to you, which was over 5 weeks ago) makes it even more evident that this post needs to be written.

I need to preface the story with the fact that I color my hair. I have been coloring my own hair at home for over 25 years. I consider myself an at-home pro, as I often help friends and family color their hair too. I have lightened hair color, darkened hair color, frosted hair, highlighted and low-lighted. I love to experiment. I have never, ever had a reaction to any hair coloring products, nor have I ever had a disastrous result. Sure, my hair might have been a little more gold or brassy, a bit lighter or darker than I expected, but nothing that I have never been able to fix or pull off until now.

This at-home hair coloring disaster started back on Labor Day weekend, as I was getting ready to go to New York Fashion week. My few grays needed to be covered and overall, my hair needed a bit of "toning down" as it was quite blonde from the Summer. Couture Colour had sent me their new hair color, LUXEBLEND Creme Hair Colour ($30) earlier in the season. I thought this was a perfect time to put it to the test. The publicists for the brand sent me the LUXEBLEND Creme Hair Colour in Light Golden Blonde. After looking over their website and seeing that it was actually the lightest color in their range, and the fact that I usually select a light or medium golden blonde shade when I color my hair, I thought I would be fine with the color selection.

photo credit: Sephora.com

I mixed the color, developer and their hair oil into a bowl. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I ignore any color that comes from mixing a hair color. They are never indicative of a result, so nothing set off any alarms.  I applied the color using the brush-on technique (which I am very familiar with) as described in the instructions, applying it for all-over color, as directed per the instructions in the box. I set my alarm for 30 minutes as I started to get some things ready for my upcoming trip to New York City. My husband came into my room at one point and mentioned something about my hair being very dark. I quickly glanced in the mirror and didn't pay any attention to it. Again, I have colored my hair for over 25 years, and I know that hair looks much darker when wet and during the coloring process than it actually is. After my alarm went off, I rinsed my hair in the sink, and used a bit of conditioner. I towel dried my hair. When I took off the towel and looked in the mirror, I wanted to cry. As I blew my hair dry, I did cry. In looking in the pictures above, you can see how dark my hair became. What you cannot see (as I pulled my bangs back because I thought maybe if I just got my bangs color-corrected, I would be okay) was that my bangs were orange. As in a pumpkin. The overall tone of the dark, dark brown hair was orange too.

Because I had this trip coming up and time was short, I decided to do nothing. It looked beyond my expertise and knew I would just have to make an appointment with the salon owner (of a very reputable local salon who cuts my hair) on Tuesday. Luckily, Oksana took me in that morning to try and color correct. She first lightened the shade.  It turned my hair bright orange. Not blonde. She was concerned.  She toned it down. She added on another lighter color, toned it and deep conditioned it, which I think she did 3 times during the process. She did another hair color process, where she painted on different colors to try and color correct all of the different and stubborn colors in my hair. She highlighted and low-lighted. I spent over seven hours at the salon and spent several hundred dollars. Finally, Oksana had to cut off some of my hair that was beginning to gum up as we went along and decided she needed to stop before damaging my hair even further.  You see the end result. My hair was a very white, almost gray color. It was awful. I was miserable.

I contacted the publicists. Being that the product was sent to me to test, I did not want to make a big deal out of it from the start. I thought, someone will get back to me right away and help me figure out what went wrong and make this right. I thought that they would want to know about my experience and learn from it. I wanted my questions answered. I never heard back. When I was pitched THREE TIMES about the product and asked if I could tell my readers that they would be selling on the Home Shopping Network (basically asking me for a free ad) I responded with, "did you get my previous email? I was told "Yes! I am sorry. We have forwarded it along and are checking into it.".  Like I said, I never heard back. That is when I contacted the company though the various ways I listed above, and still have heard nothing. From anyone.

Was the wrong color put in the box? Did I get a bad batch of color? Was there a problem in the formula itself?  A light golden blonde color should not color a hair that shade of brown. It never has on me and I honestly do not know what happened. I do not have answers. Because I do not know what happened and because of the subsequent damaged caused, I will never color my hair at home again.

I know many people do color their hair and home and I look forward to bringing you expert tips to help make this process as easy as possible, so that you may never have to endure the results I had. I thought about the average woman who colors her hair at home. She probably does not have the time or money to go to a salon, or even access to a fine salon. It then had me think that many of these same women probably would not have the extra several hundred dollars or time to go get color-corrected.  I never want any one of you to go through anything remotely as bad as this experience.

I need to thank those publicists from other hair color brands and brands that did come forward to me offering advice, help and free services to me (which I did not take) when they read about my hair disaster on twitter. They are true professional brand representatives and have great customer service, which Couture Colour obviously did not.

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John Frieda Precision Foam Colour.

I color my hair at home. I have for years, and looking back, I have tried many different brands and types of hair color. I have used gels, creams and the latest entry into the home hair color market - the foam. This is one of those such entries, foam, and it is actually a first in an at-home hair color for John Frieda. Introducing John Frieda Precision Foam Colour.

Precision Foam Colour boasts a full range of shades, as it includes 20. With an array of options for blondes, brunettes and redheads, the collection brings a full salon shade spectrum home. The colors were developed in conjunction with the John Frieda Creative Colour Director, and sought-after U.K. colourist, Nicola Clarke, who is responsible for some of the most iconic hair colours in Hollywood.  No mess, no drips, no stains—just gorgeous hair from every angle. Just what you want from a hair color, right?

This foam is very easy to apply. The formula spreads evenly through hair, saturating every strand completely—even the back of the head, roots and hairline. From a look at the mixture, I thought that there was not enough product to apply, but as it works into a foam through a squeeze of a bottle, there was more than enough product to more than saturate my shoulder length hair.   I left the foam on for 30 minutes to insure all of my grays were taken care of, then I rinsed, conditioned with the very hydrating conditioner that is included in the kit, and was finished. 

The result was a nice, even color.  I used a very light blonde shade, 9N, and it actually darkened my blonde shade a bit, but the color was beautiful, don't get me wrong, and very vibrant.  All of the shades can be found through their interactive online shade selector.  Just from my experience, I would suggest going a shade lighter than you normally would use, especially if you are a blonde.

Precision Foam Colour can be found at drugstores and mass retailers for $12.99.