At Home Hair Color - You Too Can Have Gorgeous Hair for a Fraction of the Price!

It's official ladies - you really can have hair color now without the expense of the salon. If I can do it as a blonde, you can definitely do it as a brunette. The days of basic hair color that burned the heck out of your hair are gone! The days of not picking the right shade are gone! For $10 - $20, you can have that perfect shade. And, if you just can't cheat on your stylist, you can at least save some money by limiting the number of times per year that you see her. You can do a home job every 2 to 3 months and go in for formal highlighting and lowlighting every 6 months.

About 6 - 8 weeks ago, I tried the Clairol Perfect 10 based on these phenomenal reviews I kept reading about the product. The color is squeezed out of this patented multi-tooth comb that really helps saturated the hair, but also gives texture to the color when you have highlights/lowlights already. It goes through the root to tip with relative ease, coating each strand. It gives you high gloss hair color in half the time and boy is that true! The Perfect 10 Conditioner is better than any boxed hair color conditioner I've used before and it lasts forever. More importantly, no hours spent in the salon. It only takes 10 minutes to process, once you have it on your head. And seriously - that was it! And are you ready for this? It smelled FANTASTIC! Totally floral and fruity (like the website says) ... from the second you open the box until the second you dry your hair. Totally no yucky salon smell. This is a Daily Sample Must Have! Note the addition to the list! I suggest paying the $13 at Ulta so you can get your free samples and use your $3.50 off coupon. Just go to ulta.com and the promo code pops up. I did buy mine at Target for $11.49 because they were giving away a free $5 Target gift card to try it. However, that promo is over.

So, the roots were starting to appear, despite the excellent coloring shampoos and conditioners, so I decided to color again before a meeting on Tuesday. This time, I tried Fekkai Salon Color for Blondes, new at Sephora and other high end skin, hair and makeup dealers. Of course, this one was $30 for the privilege. Let's start with the similarities: this one too was a creme color instead of a liquid/oily color. Also, it smelled quite good, though not all products smelled as nice as the Clairol brand. The differences are nearly 3 times the price, plus Fekkai's comes with a pre-color serum that you apply to your dry hair before the coloring process. Fekkai also gives you an official looking (and feeling) coloring brush and a plastic mixing dish - just like at the salon. However, I don't think the hair mask for post-coloring was as good as the Perfect 10 and, because of the brush on technique, the whole hair is colored one solid color, as opposed to allowing any highlights or lowlights. I also think my hair was definitely silkier and softer with the Clairol. For $30, I think you are basically getting what you would get from a hit or miss Supercuts - definitely NOT a good comparison. Now, I like that I feel I have a good blonde base color to start with for some highlighting or re-do of the Perfect 10, but I won't be buying this one again for the price and the results. Bonus note though - the brush is so good (helps to better saturate your hair than just your fingers) that you might want to clean it up and save it for the next time you do a bottle job if you aren't using Perfect 10.

Now, remember the basic rules of home hair coloring - you CANNOT go beyond two shades lighter or darker than your normal color. That is something you have to leave to the professionals. It's best if you are working on "dirty hair" as opposed to hair that was washed in the last 2 days or so. Also, put a conditioner around the line of your forehead (and your ears if you have big ol' Dumbo ears like mine) to avoid discoloration, which then just ticks you off and you think it is the product's fault inside of the applier of the product. And don't forget - allowing the color to stay on your hair longer than recommended will not achieve better results. Follow the instructions to the letter!

And a quick shout out to a product that my mom will looooooveeee! After my shower tonight I tried a new sample (in a tube so I can send it to mom with plenty left!) of Origins Shedonism Deeply Hydrating Butter Cream. It's thick and creamy but, most importantly for my mom, smells like a Hawaiian lei, which means it must have Tuberose in it. AND ... the smell does NOT fade. I've had it on for over 2 hours and can still catch the scent of a special night in Maui. In reality, the product features the aroma of Tahitian Tiare (I've never been to Tahiti and now I want to go - well I wanted to go anyway, but whatever!), Jasmine, Petitigrain Mandarin, Bergamot and Basil. If you want a great moisturizer with this type of floral smell, I highly recommend Shedonism.

Lastly, Dr. Brandt Oil Free Hydrator is an awesome moisturizer, for day or night, to help repair acne/blemish prone skin. It felt fantastic and allegedly added a purity shield to protect against breakouts. I need that a bit right now, as I have been using some retinol to repair my chin area. If I were having a breakout, this is definitely the moisturizer I would use.