Experiment 2: Box Red VS. Professional Red

I had a request on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LisaF.Hair to do an experiment with red. Keep in mind that here in Texas, I can't get the brand of color that I am used to unless I wanna go on a really long drive. So this is kind of an experiment with new professional color as well as box color. This was our goal....

I am a huge fan of red hair and I always wish that I had naturally red hair. Anyway, I thought this color was beautiful (plus, I am a huge fan of the cut) and I thought that we would try it. This time, we are working on the back of Suzie-Kins head because the front has already been played with. The left side will be the side with box color and the right side is the one with my professional stuff.

So once again, I have a few things to consider.

-What is the condition of her hair? Dry and pretty damaged

-How many levels lighter will I need to go? I want to take her about two levels lighter

-Is there any gray hair? Just a couple

-Has she colored her hair before? Not yet

-If yes, how long has it been since she has colored her hair? This is so important to know if a client comes in with colored hair

-Is her hair resistant to color? Yes. Although it's real hair, mannequins are very resistant to color. 

And once again, the box color can't do any thinking for itself. It has been formulated to work on any kind of hair because there is no saying who will put it on their hair. However, I have not seen many good results from a box... something always goes wrong!

Here is Suzie-Kins with the color on her hair. Once again, the left side is the box color (bottle in the picture) and the right side is the professional color (the bowl). I was tempted to spice up the color and do a balayage but I decided to just let it be the one color (so the box color wouldn't feel so bad when it failed again :))

The instructions on the box said to leave the color on for 30 minutes and 10 extra minutes for gray coverage. I left it on the full 40 minutes just because I know that the hair is resistant and needed extra time with the color on. On the professional side, I left it on the same amount of time. Do you see the middle piece? That is the section of hair that I left the same so that it can be compared to the new colors. It is untouched by color. At the end of 40 minutes and a lot of rinsing (plus shampoo and condition), this is what I came out with...

I wish I was a better photographer! It's actually just a tad bit darker all around in real life but I had to have the flash on cause there was not enough light in my house today (storm clouds have it pretty dark here in Plano). That is the direct shot of the back of her head. You can see a tiny bit of a red lift on the left side, my piece that was not colored down the middle and then the dramatic difference of the red from my professional color. Looks like Ariel hair to me!

Just the professional side (the red looked really cool mixed in with the blonde).

This is the Box color side. Like I said, you can see just a hint of red but it's not much. In the end, I got much better results with the red than I did with the blonde! At least it did something:)

I hope these little experiments have helped everyone understand why it's so important not to color your hair from a box. Not only does it smell terrible but it is so unpredictable. I know that I feel so much better about myself when I love my hair and I know I'm not the only one, so please, please, PLEASE don't ruin your hair with box stuff.

Once again, Suzie-Kins is much happier with the red that I did with my professional color. 

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