Box hair dyes that don’t look rubbish

[Glamgwen]

So I’ve had to stop getting salon highlights due to cost. I’ve spent a year growing my highlights out & have tried to embrace my natural grey hair, but I hate it. It’s dull & I feel it’s really aging me. I’ve always been put off box dyes because they tend to look really flat & one dimensional. Is there such a thing as a home hair dye that looks natural & muli-tonal? My natural hair colour is mid-brown streaked with grey.

Was going to post the same thing! I had mouse coloured hair now grey. Anything described as “gold” leaves an awful brassy red residue of colour. Now only go for “ash” and it fades really well.

I have mid brown hair with some grey and I use a dark ash blonde semi. It doesnt lighten my hair so really just darkens the greys which keeps the dimension in the colour.

thanks, will try. I am a great fan of Swartzkopf and get their Vital from Savers for years, but I am "dark blonde" (euphemism for mouse) heavily mixed with grey, and they have stopped doing the colours I need. Their Country Colours semi was great for variable tones, but only in bigger Branches of Savers. I also tried Clairol and it turned my roots a pinky colour where it took at all - what a mess. Savers Derma brand would be OK for the 30 somethings with a smatter of grey, but not that good a cover.

I just wanted to say thank you so much for this tip.

It never even occurred to me to use part of the hair dye box so I've been doing the full works every 4 weeks. I was on the verge of giving up.

Today I tested a new method by using half the Casting as a root touch up. Poured it out into a bowl, mixed the developer and dye, used the root touch up brush, and just did the roots.

This is life changing!!! It's so much less of a faff. I think I can manage this every month.

Also on this thread, I learned that everyone's hair takes dye differently. My fine hair takes demi-permanent colours almost permanently, they never wash out fully. So I probably only need to dye the roots and maybe a centimetre more, giving them two dyes and then leave it.

My hair has never been in better condition and so glossy!

Naturtint - permanent hair dye - no amonia been using for over 20 years - always get compliments at the hairdressers on my colour 🤣

@anon666 that's made my eve, happy to have helped!

I use Nice and Easy permanent colour.

I use semis, nice n easy. The fade out is better than the block growth out.

My other tip, I use the castings dye to tint my eyebrows to match too.

Again, this saves a small fortune as I have fair brows.

Hope this helps someone else!

Really dangerous. Every dye says keep away from eyes

It's not near my eyes / lashes. Only my brows. Been doing it for years. As long as you don't let it drip in your eyes, I can't see the issue. Same risk as when dying my headhair not to get it in my eyes. I tip my head toward so there's no way it could drip upwards into my eye. Works for me & not really any different to dylure brow dye application I also have used at times, except using hair dye matches my hair perfectly.

Whats that new one on tv recently? Looks like a round box?

MiMiChuna

I use an eyebrow dye kit, it costs about £6 for 10 uses.

Another vote for Castings, but stick with cool tones unless you want red hair.

Another vote for Josh Wood( no ammonia)plus shade shots which lifts the colour and gives hair multi-tonal shades. Other top tip is to purchase a dye-mixing plastic bowl & brushes, just like colourists use, makes dye much easier to apply rather than squirting from a nozzle.

Other top tip is to purchase a dye-mixing plastic bowl & brushes, just like colourists use, makes dye much easier to apply rather than squirting from a nozzle
I use Nice and Easy and it come with a little container and brush.

Why don't you just buy the salon colour and DIY

You can buy it on Amazon.

Just buy the tube of colour and the stuff to mix it with.

How is it listed on amazon?

I use Nice n Easy Medium Ash Brown. It doesn't go brassy, look flat and is actually a medium brown. I've had so many dyes that go much darker than the box but this one doesn't. I use the permanent one and ot covers greys perfectly

I used oils so no ammonia. My hair is almost completely grey now but it still seems to create a nice variation that looks very un box dye like. Even my hairdresser comments on it.

I’ve found cheap and cheerful Polycolor £1.99 from B&M brilliant for me . But I use the Aussie moisture hair mask afterwards and it shines like glass!

Poly colour is great. Not many shades to choose from but they are fab - better than some of the more expensive ones