Lately I’ve been toying with the idea of making  more noticeable change to my hair color. I have very dark brown hair, but I had been wondering about whether or not I could pull off a lighter, more golden brown.

So I reached out to the fantastic new home hair coloring kit company called Madison Reed for some advice. Have you heard of them? They offer salon quality hair dye products that are completely free of amonia and that have a multi-tonal feel so that your end result isn’t flat and one dimensional (which, in my opinion, is how boxed hair color always looks). They also offer professional color consultations for free! I submitted a photo of myself and asked for some feedback about color options that would work for me.

Here’s what my hair looked like before. Notice the gray that I have coming in. That was another reason I was looking for a new hair dye…the gray is getting more noticeable day by day, it seems. 🙁

My hair had been dyed before (many times, actually, but the last time was 6 months ago, and I did use a permanent color). The color professional’s advice wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I know she led me in the right direction. Since Madison Reed’s products are amonia-free, they are not designed to provide major hair color changes on already dyed-hair. She said I could really only expect to lift the shade one level. She also said that I would have the best results if I would shampoo my hair with a clarifying shampoo for a few weeks before using the hair color. Clarifying shampoos tend to strip out hair color, FYI.

I followed her advice for 2 full weeks, and then I broke out my hair coloring kit in the color she recommended, Venezia Brown – 4NGV. It is still a deep brown, but it has a more golden hue.

Here’s what the box contains. Highlights for me included the very cool barrier cream that you apply where your skin and your hair meet to help prevent dyeing your scalp. And on the negative side, my gloves broke when putting them on, so that made it harder, in fact, impossible, to dye my hair without also dyeing my hand a bit. Fortunately the dye on my hands was all gone in 3 days. But still…bummer.

To be fair, the box actually contained 2 pairs of gloves (a second pair is offered to use while washing out the hair color). I actually didn’t notice it until I reached that part of the instructions. Had I realized, I would have used that pair during the dyeing process. Learn from my mistake!

The box is beautiful and made me feel much more pampered than any box hair color I have ever used. And the results? While darker than I wanted, I think the end result did look nice. Here’s a shiny pic so you can see how much more vibrant my hair looks:

And here’s an after shot in a more natural light:

The color makes my green eyes pop, which is exactly what the color specialist thought it would do. It looks nice, and I’m very glad to give my hair color a bit of a lift.

I also like that you can set up your home deliveries of your favorite hair color for as often as you’d like. I have started to notice the color fading a bit after 2 weeks, and that is with me washing my hair every other day. Obviously, results will vary based on how frequently you wash your hair. Overall, I think that the personalized service and the great advice offered by the crew at Madison-Reed really sets this brand apart from the pack. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to others. If your hair needs a bit of a lift, give them a try!

Madison Reed hair color is available for $24.95. If you use coupon NEWYOU at checkout, you get 20% off and free shipping for your first order! Woo hoo!