a Color & Co review

Monday, August 3, 2020

Nobody asked and 4 months ago I wouldn't have said I'd dying my hair at home anyway but... here we are!

Before 

What are we talking about: Color & Co Personal At-Home Haircolor by L'Oreal
Why: Because my roots are like, RIGHT THERE, aren't they? And also I'm not at the home haircut stage - yet.
How much is it? Varies I'm sure, I found a 25% off promo code (25COLOR) which pretty much paid for shipping so the total was $22.

I'm not going to lie to y'all, I'm sure this was a boredom purchase. And an anxiety induced purchase, since I am definitely that person who likes to get their hair done when they're unhappy. But since I never really got into the home cut phase (1. curly hair, and 2. generally that's much harder to come back from), hair dye it is.

All of these home hair dye sites that have popped up are very similar in that you answer a bunch of questions about your current state and where you want to be, which they then use to pop out a color recommendation. Except for the fact that the first question is gendered (boooo), what I liked about Color & Co was that as soon as I said had full highlights it immediately popped up with a message strongly urging me to talk to a stylist. I am nervous person and I appreciated that they were like, talk to a real person or don't blame us if you f*ck it up.

I ended up chatting with a very nice man named Paul, who talked me through all initial questions and what my options were once I said I wanted to go back to red. He got to see my natural hair, the dyed hair, all the highlights, and do that thing responsible people do like tell me to do a strand test. Also, I really appreciated the way the service would (apparently) immediately send out a new color with free shipping if I didn't like the way it came out, and that I could video chat with them again if I needed help during the actual application.


Ultimately we decided on a demi-permanent color that would dye my hair but not cover my highlights - thus keeping all the built in depth that my regular go-to gal Josephine (WHO I SO SO MISS) had done.

Four days after placing my order I got my kit, which again due to Paul's foresight, included two applications of color to tide me over until my renewal (which I could delay, but hey, who the hell knows where we're all be in 8 weeks).

(Don't judge these photos ok? I decided pretty late on in the real life process to take pictures for the blog, so eh lighting and cat hair is par for the course.)

 
(This onesie is sold out, but I found the same thing but with pants!)

I planned it out so that I could apply the dye post-workout, and according to their instructions, 20 min on my roots and then 20min all over. They send you one of those little brush things and while I can't tell you I have the best technique, I did a few parts in the back and front right at my roots on both sides of my head, applied dye, massaged, waited. After that I applied the rest of the bottle all over, massaged again, fanning the hair in my fingers, honestly just kind of copying what I remembered as typical when I got my hair done professionally. After that it got plopped in a bun on top of my head for 25 min (as per Paul, more time would potentially make the final affect darker, but since we weren't lightening my base color a little extra time wouldn't hurt).

BUT WHO CARES, YOU'RE REALLY JUST HERE FOR THE AFTER RIGHT?

Immediately post blow drying

After curling, because WTF right? It's gonna be braided in two days anyway. 
(Onesie link, but to be clear the one I'm wearing is shorts on the bottom. But for $10, it's kind of a bargain regardless.)

So in the end I have to say I'm happy with the results. Could it be redder? Absolutely, but that would involve permanent dye and I'm not sure I'm ready for that - though I may talk to a stylist about it. My roots are definitely tinted and the color took well throughout the ends without any patchiness. BUT. The best part about this result is that it built on the color I already had. I have always gone for heavy highlights because I prefer the depth that that look allows, and Color & Co benefited from the step up. I can't honestly say that my results are typical and I want to be clear about that. If your hair is lighter than me or has any sort of natural variations in color you'll probably be fine, but my roots are a dark brownish-black - my results are this red because of lifting done in a salon. 

Still I think Color & Co delivered on the promise of the box - you see the Light Burgundy Brown part up there, I think that's exactly what we got - and I would do it again. Some of the other competitor sites I looked at would allow me to upload a picture (but it never loaded) or other alternate options in case I was unsure, but this was the only one with a big red stop sign saying PLEASE TALK TO A PROFESSIONAL, which I definitely benefited by. Where else am I going to talk to a man that literally says "you've clearly put a lot of time and money into your hair, we don't wanna mess that up."

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