I have been coloring my hair since I was 16, and I've used a variety of brands. I rarely go to a salon and choose to color at home instead, mostly because of the time factor. That said, I think I have a lot of experience with 30+ years of hair coloring. I jumped at the chance to join the eSalon campaign because I was intrigued by the idea of custom coloring. I signed up, put up my picture, did all that I had to do, and had no issues whatsoever with getting the kit from eSalon. That part was very easy.
My kit arrived in an impressive box, with custom bottles and a boat load of instructions. The extra free products were a nice bonus, too. First impression of the kit: this is very professional. First impression of the instructions: this is going to be a lot of work. I get the stain guard, but seriously, doesn't everyone know to use petroleum jelly at this point? I also use baby wipes to clean up any minor skin staining, so the stain wipes seemed to be a bit of overkill.
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| The eSalon Kit |
They gave me some additional products for free, so I received a bottle of conditioner and a tube of leave-in conditioner. Both are thinner than the products I currently use.
I decided to try everything out last night. The first thing I noticed is that the scent is very strong. I wasn't pleased with that. It was much too strong. I've used salon dyes that I get at the beauty supply store, and I've had my hair dyed in salons. I don't strip my hair so that strong of a scent worried me.
The process was a bit more complicated than a regular home dye kit. You mix up bottle one, do your roots, then do your hair, then mix up the glosser and put that on. You can use the stain guard on your skin and use the stain wiping cloth if anything bleeds. I suggest using them because this is a very liquid dye, not creamy at all, and it runs. This dye stains heavily. I get that you want saturated coverage, but this was too much. I normally dye my hair red or reddish blonde. I have naturally light brown hair which turns red when it lightens, and I have about 10% gray hair at this point. I try for even coverage with a natural-looking color result.
As soon as I put it on my hair turned Bozo the Clown orange, and I was a bit scared that the color wouldn't be what I wanted. As I said, the dye is very liquid and it does run, so be careful of your surroundings. I had just painted my bathroom last weekend and didn't want any mistakes. I set the timer and waited. Then it was time to rinse. They suggest rinsing in the shower rather than in the sink because it takes a lot to rinse this out. I was annoyed by how long it took to rinse, and I was wishing I had a high-powered sprayer to help it along. They give you Shampoo and Conditioner to use when cleaning it out, and I found that surprising because you usually can lather and rinse the dye and then just condition it.
Speaking of the shampoo and conditioner, I think they fell down on their salon job when supplying those. I have dry, curly hair and indicated that. The shampoo and conditioner that were sent had alcohol listed as the second ingredient. No salon worth their salt will use anything with alcohol. Even Supercuts told my kid to stop using alcohol based shampoos because they strip the hair.
I shampooed, conditioned, and towel-dried my hair. My hair didn't feel as sleek as it does when I use one of my favorite home dye kits. It was dry and didn't detangle as easily. The color was very, very red. Too vibrant, too false for my liking. I use some pretty torrid reds (I love L'Oreal's reds) but this was a bit much.
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| Close Up of Root area |
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| At work, color is brighter than this, but the lighting is bad |
I put in my leave-in conditioner and let it air dry, and noticed it didn't curl as much as it usually does. I got up this morning and washed my hair again, this time using my own shampoo and conditioner. More color came out, even though I had rinsed for an extremely long time the night before and did wait for the water to run clear. It wasn't much but there was a definite red tint to the water. I used my leave-in conditioner again and came to work. When I got to work I took a picture of the completed result. It's not bad. Slightly more red than I would have liked, and the color didn't hold well at the temples. Still, I've received compliments on it here at work.
My summation:
Pros: Great variety of color
Helpful customer service
Very quick shipping
personalized service
hair color is vibrant
Cons:
Too liquid for my taste, I prefer a creme to prevent running,
I felt this was messy
Scent was too strong
Having to mix two different bottles took extra time.
The shampoo and conditioner contained alcohol, which dries out hair.
The dye was very hard to rinse out.
Verdict: I am getting compliments on the color at work, and I loved the personalized service but I think this would be an optional purchase.
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