Hairdressers - why are box dyes considered "bad"?

[Iamnotausername]

Most hairdressers seem very anti box dye. I have read about hairdressers who refuse to colour the hair of anyone who might have any box dye ever on it.

I know box dyes contain bleach which professional colours might not but I don't see hairdressers saying they won't colour previously bleached hair.

I also don't understand the "I don't know what was in your box dye and it might react" argument. Every hairdresser uses a different dye brand so even if the client knows the brand their previous hairdresser used (doubtful), the hairdresser probably won't know the ingrediants. I think most branded box dyes are pretty much of a muchness.

Uneven application of home dye could be an argument I guess but why is that different to having different professional colours in eg balayage or roots?

So I'm wondering why are box dyes so bad?

(I'm tempted by an esalon colour because I can't get to the Hairdressers for a while.)

🤣 lol'ing at Julien!

Because customers can buy and apply them without the help of a salon.

‘Metal salts’, eh? What, like sodium metabisulphate and titanium dioxide? Both of which feature in many ‘professional’ hair colours used in salons?

I get my hair coloured professionally because I can’t be arsed doing it myself and I can afford it. If either of those things changed, you bet I’d be using a box dye! I can’t believe that they are much different in chemical composition to salon dyes.

Me too! Beauregard de la Mode!🤣

I am too skint to have my hair dyed at the salon, and discovered in lockdown that I can do a great job with a box dye. My hairdresser never says anything, the junior said the colour was lovely.

I think there's an aspect of this but I'm not a hairdresser and for years have only ever used professional dyes. You can buy them on Amazon for £8 each (so not even THAT more expensive than box dyes really once you have a big bottle of developer) and the difference really is night and day imo.

I believe the reasons hairdressers don't like them is partly to do with the developer. Did anyone manage to fry their hair with bleach when they were a teen (or have teens themselves who've done it)? Well the problem with bleaching at home especially if like me you went to boots and loaded up on the Jerome Russell B Blonde stuff is the level of developer used. It's not actually the bleach that fries your hair, it's the 30 or 40vol developer. The % volume is what actually strips or lifts the pigment in your hair and causes all of the damage. So 10vol is about what you need to deposit pigment, then the higher you go the more is stripped out of your hair. To change the TONE of your hair (i.e not going lighter) you'd only need about 3vol or 6vol.

So the problem with box dyes is that A) you don't actually know what % developer is in them and therefor how far through the red - yellow phase your hair has been "bleached" underneath the brown or whatever colour dye on top, and B) it's probably 40vol. 6 weeks later people also tend to carefully cover their roots then just dump it all on their head and massage it in like shampoo or conditioner, so they're essentially going in with this 40vol again and again.

So to summarise I would never pay a hairdresser £60(?) to dye my hair professionally because it just not necessary, and I've been every colour under the sun. But I definitely use professional products and either just buy them from Amazon or a trade store. I'm a big fan of Wella Koleston and it's literally the same as box dye, you mix the colour with the developer and put it on your head. The only difference is you use a bowl and brush instead of a bottle.

Sorry meant to quote this in my response!

I think a lot depends on the persons hair. A friend does her blonde hair with box dye and its flawless. No way could anyone tell the difference. I've thin wiry hair with lots of grey that grows really quickly and I need a salon. I used to use box dyes when I was younger and I found the re growth always seemed to appear quicker and was very obvious and my hair was horrific during covid despite trying to cover my roots with box dye. I think the dyes have improved a lot but I think the salon snobbery probably comes from the horrors that they have been presented with.