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!
You are having a reaction to madison reed because it is full of bad chemicals.
Instead look at some alternative like ecocolors. I have used that for years with no reaction.
MY experience with Madison Reed Hair Product was that my 60 years of Beautiful, Silky, baby fine, shiny hair, and “lots of it” fell OUT leaving me with HUGE bald spots and a VERY Burnt Scalp. I thought the “thinning” was due to the stress of my best friend dying….oh no! The night I last used the Genova Red, I was crying because my SCALP was Burnt and the product was only left on for less than Five Minutes. Over the course of the next few months, EVERY Strand with the Madison Reed Color on it fell out of my chemically burnt scalp, in fact, I was totally BALD on the top of my head where their product burnt my scalp. I get physically ILL when I see all these wonderous comments about this product. This experience was one of THE WORST experiences of my entire life, and it did Great Harm to me in all ways. This “Journey”, especially the “Promises” unfufilled by the Company itself….lends me to cry “CAUTION, LADIES”!!!! I only wish this on the very people who KNOW about these Toxic Reactions, and did NOT Pull it off of the Market!! I will post photographs of these experience upon request. I tell only the absolute Truth here.
My scalp also had a burning sensation. I did he patch test, and it was fine 48 hours later. So I used the dye. But you are supposed to leave it on 60 minutes. I was not able to make the whole 60 minutes. My scalp started burning, so I had to shampoo the dye out after about 30 minutes. I have to say, I liked the results but the harsh burning was awful. I have used another brand EchoColors and it is a bit messy, and you have to apply heat with a blow dryer, but it has no PPD and my scalp did not burn. I am switching back to EcoColors.
Oh wow. So sorry this happened. I’ve been toying with Madison Reed for a while now. Now I think I will pass. Thanks.
Glad to read this — I have just started coloring my hair since my grays have gotten really noticeable (I couldn’t even see any in your photo above, but when I got my JLC board photo back, I was like HELLO old lady). My normal hairstylist used a semipermanent color the first time, and attempted to match my natural color, but it was about two shades darker than I wanted. And they grays were totally back about 5 weeks later. I might try this product as an in-between fix! Curious if you try a different color, if your results are any closer to what you wanted.
I think it is definitely worth a shot: since it isn’t permanent, there’s not too much risk! 🙂 If your hair is 2 shades darker than you want, then this is a good one to try to see if it can take you back up one shade. Since there is dye in your hair, they will tell you that one shade lighter is all it will be able to do.
I’d definitely like to try a different (lighter) color, but I’m not sure when I can try it. The last time I used permanent dye on my hair was 6 months ago, but I think the truth is that all that dye is attached to my hair (faded, though it may be) until it all grows out. And what I heard from Madison Reed was that if your hair has permanent dye on it at all, you should only try one shade lighter. So hmph….might be a while!