Salon dye or box dye

Check out Avon box dyes. £3.50 and excellent. Pre and post treatment included.

make nape

titan titian

For decades I dyed my chestnut brown hair . It's been all shades of chocolate, iced coffee, reddish brown, mahogany, titan red, auburn, dark blonde, platinum blonde and many others but not black.
I usually used Garnier Nutrisse permanent colour.
The thing is that it builds up into a block colour which is unnatural as normal hair is a melange of many tones, mostly unseen to the naked eye.
Last year I got fed up of the messing about with hair dyes and the 'block colour' effect so I went to a local multi-award winning salon and had a consultation. My hair is mostly grey except at the back from crown to make. She showed me what could be successfully achieved to lighten my hair in stages, from the deep reddish brown of home dyeing to a conker brown with subtle lighter flashes of copper on top and sides. There is a world of difference and I have the roots done every 5/6 weeks and flashes redone every 10 weeks besides having a complete re-style in the beginning.
I recommend going to a good salon and having a chat with their senior colourist.
They are the professionals who will know what can be achieved with your present colour and type of hair.
Good luck.

Highlights, salon every time. It is expensive and I have them done every other visit so about 3 months. Every now and then I think I really can't be bothered but I am carrying on for the time being. It looks natural and blends in with existing hair colour and greys.

Salon dye for me. A good colourist will be able to mix shades to suit you. Follow their advice. If like me, your hair is far from perfect, a good, "natural" colour boosts your morale. Try close to your own, current hair colour to start with and change gradually. Good luck!

I go to a salon and have blonde highlights to blend in with the grey. My stylist is sooooo good people think it’s my natural hair colour. I now just have my roots touched up every 6-8 weeks

I have been experimenting in recent months with some of the huge range of colours in places like super drug. As you can see my cut is a rather chaotic non style but I am enjoying the fun with colours

I am 56 and, when I leave my dye to grow out, my hair is pure silver. However, I have just used a blond Schwarzkopf box dye and it has covered perfectly.

Winterwhite the latest home colours are very easy to use, don't drip and don't stain.

Nice n’ Easy every time for me. I love the way that it’s tonal, ie you get high and low tones throughout your hair. Don’t go for dramatic change, I use Medium Honey Blonde (8G), and don’t EVER go darker than your natural colour as it will drain all the colour from your face. Having said all that I’m presently growing mine out after dying my hair for all of my adult life, and I’m quite excited about the lovely tonal greys that are revealing themselves! ?

Nice and Easy permanent is brilliant, have used a dark blonde to cover my almost grey hair for years. Get loads of compliments and its multi-tones look very natural. Agree with the poster who said going to the hairdressers is like a trip to the dentist. I actually prefer going to the dentist and save myself a load of cash!

A lot of enthusiastic home colourists here! Clearly gives good results. But how do you get it off without dyeing the whole shower?

I stopped colouring my hair a few years ago, but after reading the above I'm tempted to start again,
I hate hairdressers, and can't afford them anyway, so I might buy one or the other of those mentioned above.

Gilly, like you I prefer to use Garner Belle Colour and
also get it from Wilko, as you say it’s very reasonable.
I sometimes have to order it online and then pick it up at my local Wilko.
I use the 4.3 natural dark golden brown, which is a very natural colour.

I have used Garnier Belle Colour for years and always had good, natural looking results. I differ between 9.3 a golden or honey blonde and 9 light blonde, but lately the 9 doesn’t seem to cover my grey so well, especially the hair at the temples. Superdrug doesn’t sell it, but Wilko usually stocks it and is very reasonable! I’m too mean to have it coloured at the salon!

Thanks for all your thoughts. I’ve tried salon colour at four different salons. Took photos in of the colour I wanted, but been dissapointed every time. The coverage has been better, but as it’s never the colour I wanted, it seems silly to keep paying salon prices.

As it’s cheaper I think I’ll stick with box dyes. That way I’m still dissapointed but haven’t spent a fortune to feel that way
?

Professional colourist every time. If I try to do it myself the roots aren’t fully covered and my hair goes too red. I would live on baked beans in order to be able to afford a proper cut and colour.

Hairdresser every six weeks or so and I use Root touch up in between times ,I hate roots showing through .Its sort of light brown with blonde highlights now but I change the colour quite often ,its been every colour of the rainbow and a few more over the years.I'm happy with it for now though so wouldn't risk dying it myself

Nice and Easy for me too, it's one of the only box dyes that hasn't made my scalp sting. I choose one of the lightest blonde shades so that any grey hair blends in naturally. I used to have highlights done in a salon but it became too expensive every six weeks and I'm quite pleased with how my hair looks now anyway

I hate going to the hairdressers too.
Its akin to a trip to the dentist for me.

You are very hard on yourself gb. but know what you mean (I look in the mirror and am very critical of what I see). I like a salon do because I am vain but feel very out of the loop as they are all so young.They think I am funny but don't know whether that is humorous or peculiar.

For me a visit to the hairdressers equals torture, besides I couldn’t afford a salon colour/dye.

I use Nice and Easy at home, it might not be perfect (far from it) but at least I don’t have to stare at my ugly face for over an hour.

Had my hair dyed once (salon) hated it.

So now stick with highlights (salon)
Blonde and carmel.
The sun bleaches my hair in summer so I have more carmel highlights to compensate.
My hair darkens in winter so I have more lighter highlights and less caramel.

I like the flexibility of highlights.

I've coloured my hair at home and had good results but I prefer to have it done at the salon because you get less mess and I enjoy a trip to the hairdressers.