Hair dye salon or box?

[ClaireEclair]

Hello. My hair is pretty grey. Almost all over. I grew out the dye a few years ago but wasn't happy with how it looked so went back to dye. I go to a hair salon and it's £73 for regrowth. I have to get it done every month (the greys start to appear after a week) and I find the whole process expensive and annoying. It only ever looks good the first two weeks really.

I'm thinking of going to box dye instead but are they really as bad as people claim? Is there a range that's better than others?

God I feel your pain and am in a similar situation. In my experience, box dye looks fine when it goes on but fades more quickly. After repeated use you can end up with a slightly striped effect. I guess it also depends on your hair colour - mine is v dark brown so greys are obvious and the box dyed section tends to go a slightly paler/ redder colour than the end section of my hair.

I use NiceNEasy as it is easy to apply and the colour match is good but again might depend on your hair colour for getting a good match.

Good luck! I am toying with just going grey but not sure…

And by striped I mean:
Hair closest to head is grey
Next stripe down (box dyed) is one colour (faded)
Final stripe (salon colour) is the colour you were going for

They're fine if you're ok with an all over colour. The main gripe hairdressers seem to have with them (apart from the loss of business of course) is that they say you don't know what's in the box but they're all marked in my experience with the strength of developer so most permanent colours will have the developer marked with 6% which is 20 volume.

I buy the Derma V10 permanent colour (6%/20 vol developer in the bottle) but then pour out half the developer and replace it with conditioner to make 10 vol/3% as I find that strong enough to cover my mostly grey hair and it's obviously less damaging.

You can even buy exactly what your hairdresser uses (if they'll tell you) on somewhere like Sally's beauty supply.

Just colour your roots, don't cover your whole head every time as the box says as you'll build up the colour.

As doing it yourself is so much cheaper you can afford to do your roots more often too which is nice.

I always use a box. They are really good. I always leave mine on for a few minutes longer than it says on the packet
I've never been disappointed

Daniel Field Water Colour is fab, as long as you are going darker, i.e. it's fine for blending in white hair, but no good if you want to go from dark to blonde. It doesn't damage your hair, so I can touch up my roots every two weeks without a problem. Miracle product that I happily recommend!

I always had a good experience with L'Oréal Casting Creme Gloss in various shades of mid- or dark brown. Used them for over 25 years. Am letting my grey grow out now, but that's not due to a bad time with home dyeing - just know that it's now the right thing for me personally.

Thanks everyone! My hair is balagye at the moment but I'm not loving it. It look over processed. I think I might do one more hair appointment and do an all over colour (and cut the bleached bits) and then look into the Daniel Field or Casting Creme. Thanks again! All very helpful :) And I do think a lot of the time hairdressers just don't want to lose your business (although I think I would be pretty rubbish at applying dye).

Why don't you just grow your greys out? My old hairdresser is embracing her natural greys and letting them grow, it actually looks beautiful
Also, I find box dyes to be fine if it's just one colour

My natural hair was very dark but now at least 50% white, so “salt and pepper” naturally.

I have balayage too and it costs me about £80 to have my roots done, a few extra blonde bits added and a trim. Or £20 for roots only. It’s not ridiculous but like you say it needs doing every couple of weeks really as the Greys start showing then. Stringing it out for 6 weeks just means I hate my hair for 4 out of 6 weeks!

I’ve just started buying a dark blonde box dye, which dyes the ‘salt’ blonde and lightens the ‘pepper’ to mid/light brown. Not as good as the salon finish but for £5 a go, I can do it at least every 4 weeks, just putting in on the roots. I know my hairdresser will tell me off next time I see her for using a permanent one (she said semi was ok!) but honestly I can’t afford to keep paying her prices so I’ll just have to keep using this I think.

That's very expensive!
I use box dyes myself all the time. I really enjoy my little routine now with a coffee and Mumsnet while it develops ☕
The only problem I find is that I can't manage to only cover the roots without it covering the entire hair length ( fairly short and I am useless at clipping it up and sectioning)
Does anyone have any genius ideas how to block the colour from the rest of the hair? I don't have much of a colour build up, but It definitely ruins the quality of my hair..

I'm using semi permanent, and it blends nicely without giving be a bad root regrowth line.

One thing though, I have by now 11 tubes of conditioner, the one that comes in the box, piling up in my bathroom. What the fuck do I do with them?

@ChardonnaysPetDragon I'd donate the conditioner bottles to a local food bank. I'm sure someone would appreciate them.

@RoyKentsChestHair I’m the same as you! I only like my hair for half the month lol! I would actually love to shave it all off and never enter a salon again but my DH would be horrified 🤣

I did actually do that once - my XH even helped me

If you go to your local branch of salon services, the assistant will advise which colours are designed to cover white hair (most brands have a particular range targeted at white hair) and which developer to use. They also have shade charts and will help you find a match.

Dying your own hair is easy, convenient and cheap, if you're just going for one colour and retouching your roots.

I’ve had to start going to a salon after years of box dying. Honestly no difference bar the price.

I do my own roots of a mix of the two colours and developer to top up my salon base colour and add a semi permanent to the mid to ends to give it the vibrancy ( I’m red). My hairdresser knows this and supported me in providing info. I go to get twice a year for the full redo (£116). Can you find a compromise in doing this?

Until lockdown, I'd always gone to the salon. But I started using a box dye when the salons were closed. Tbh, apart from the fact it's all one colour, I've not noticed a difference (except the price!)

I use a box dye semi-permanent, and have done for years. It’s fine. No regrowth with hard edges. I tend to use Casting but will use whatever is on offer

Nice n Easy here. I do my roots every 2-3 weeks but literally just a cm round my temples and parting- I squirt a small amount of colour and developer into a bowl and mix/apply with a brush. Screw the lids straight back in and you get several applications out of one pack. Then every few months if it’s looking a bit uneven i do an all over colour.

I have also used Just For Men beard dye for my roots (!) which is even easier but tends to go too dark on me.

To those of you who've grown out their grey, have you thought of going blonde instead of going back to a dark colour? I did that years ago and am delighted. I experimented with different box dyes and now fluctuate between Josh Wood and L'Oréal - buy the most expensive you can afford as it does make a difference. The regrowth isn't noticeable and I just mix up a bit and daub it on the roots most months. The lighter colour also suits me now I'm older as your face goes a bit meh to match the grey! If you're more pepper-and-salt you might need some salon advice to get you started but I'm delighted with mine and get lots of compliments.

I use Natural Instincts light brown on my mid brown grey-sprinkled hair. It works really well to cover the grey without looking obvious, and as it's a semi permanent, there's no lines.
I tried Daniel Field watercolour, but didn't rate it. It didn't take very well, and I wasn't thrilled with either the colour or condition of my hair. Horses for courses.

The lockdowns were a blessing in disguise for me, in a way. Tried Nice n' Easy and haven't gone back! It's quite gentle potion, at least it feels that way and I have the colour I want! Had the final 3 inches chopped of from the ends recently to get rid of the remnants of highlights and really like the results! Do root colour every 5-6 weeks, have over 1/2" regrowth then and use Batiste blonde dry shampoo in the last week to camouflage the roots a bit.

I did the opposite, went from regular box dyes to salon colours and my hair looks much better and healthier for it.
The build up made my hair lifeless and I hated the block colour.
My hair stylist is one of my favourite people.