Which box hair dye do you swear by?

[Anonymous]

And why? I usually use Nutrisse but it's lousy at covering my grays. My hair is dark brown with 40% grays.

[Anonymous]

loreal excellence is my favorite.

[Anonymous]

Esalon

The only thing that has come (very!) close to salon color for me and so easy to use

[Anonymous]

Naturtint

[Anonymous]

Ion from Sally’s Beauty. My hairdresser recommended this over the box.

[Anonymous]

Herbatint

[Anonymous]

Madison Reed

[Anonymous]

I like Madison Reed and I think it turns out better than most of the at-home dyes. It’s a little more expensive though. I’ve also used L’Oréal Excellence.

[Anonymous]

How do you use these? Just shampoo, leave-in, then rinse?

[Anonymous]

Clairol Natural Instincts.
I like that it’s semi-permanent so it doesn’t look as weird when the roots grow out. I use the dark warm brown and always leave it on longer than the box recommends.

[Anonymous]

L'oreal Excellence.

I tried Madison Reed once and did not like it as much. Maybe because I've been using L'oreal for 10 years and would need to get used to MR, but after trying once, I didn't see the need to continue paying more when I'm happy with L'oreal.

[Anonymous]

Loreal Excellence or Simply Color from Schwarzkopf

[Anonymous]

I've used every box dye under the sun, plus had my hair professionally dyed, highlighted, dual process bleach and tint, you name it. Here is my list of best box dyes based on color and what you want to do:

L'oreal Excellence offers best gray coverage if you are relying only on box dye (so no highlights to help blend the grays away). Something to keep in mind with gray coverage is that if you are just relying on color-depositing dye (so not lightening), you will need to do it pretty frequently because gray hair just doesn't hold color well. This is why so many people go lighter as they get older -- if you lighten your base shade, the contrast with the grays is lesser and you can get away with less frequent dying. But lightening is also harder on your hair.

Madison Reed offers best color saturation for browns and reds. It really is a pretty high quality dye more akin to salon color. However, their gray coverage is not great and I think you have to be careful with these dyes because they saturate so well that it can easily look too dark and a little unnatural, especially right after you dye. This is also a risk with salon color, for the record -- back when I was dying my hair red, I ran into this issue and learned I either had to do it myself where I could control the application and time on my hair, or pay for someone very skilled because inexperienced colorists would give me clown hair that was very a rich looking color but too dark for my complexion and did not look right.

It's a cliche but it's true: box hair is really only for when you are sticking within a couple shades of your natural color. You will never get good results with box dyes if you are looking for a drastic change unless you are pretty skilled and have a relatively high risk tolerance with your hair (as in, would you feel comfortable using bleach at home, and would you be comfortable needing to take a few tries to correct unexpected issues with lightening your hair or will you freak out if your hair looks orange for a few days?).

[Anonymous]

Another vote for L'Oreal Excellence but no box hair dye compares to a well done salon dye.

[Anonymous]

12:19, I did notice that Madison Reed made my hair very dark for the first 2 weeks after I did it before fading a little and looking more natural. I guess it’s just something to consider if you have an event coming up or pictures etc. where you might not want a darker shade than you’re used to.