- Share This Post
- submit
- 5
-
Sparkle (0)
If you've bought drug store hair color lately, you've probably seen the latest addition to Clairol's hair color family: Nice 'n' Easy Root Touch-up.
(Can I say "hair color family" without sounding like I drank the hair dye? OK, then!)
For years I used Clairol's Natural Instincts, which is a semi-permanent color. I was thrilled with it. The color looked great, it was easy to use, it smelled nice, and the conditioner that came with it was fabulous.
But after a while, I had to give Natural Instincts the "it's not you, it's me" speech. The product was great, but my hair had gotten grayer. Semi-permanent color didn't cover my gray any more, and my hair started to look faded and all-one-shade. So I bit the bullet and started getting my color done at the salon.
I love the results. My colorist is a genius. I get a base color, highlights, low-lights, and a glaze. When she's done, I look 23 years old--at least from the roots up.
But it's incredibly expensive. And inconvenient. I really don't enjoy spa treatments and salon services. All that sitting around listening to bad pop music and talking about television shows drives me crazy. And on hair-touch-up day, I'm in the salon for over two hours. I seriously resent the expenditure of time and money.
Also, the grayer your hair gets, the more obvious the roots are. And sometimes, when life intervenes, and I'm traveling or up to my ears in volunteer stuff (or just have a ton of laundry to do) I don't seem to be able to find the time to get to the salon.
This was my situation last March, when--what with life being frantic--I found myself on spring break with an inch of roots. I was 900 miles from my colorist. I had to do something.
I bought a box of Root Touch-up in a shade that promised to match any Light Golden Brown, which--according to the tiny swatches of Barbie doll hair in the store--is my shade.
I mixed the color with the developer in the (extremely flimsy) small blue pan that comes in the box. I used their special brush to apply the color along my hair line and on both sides of my part and waited 10 minutes for the color to process.
(Truth be told, I used the 10 minutes to bleach my moustache with Jolen bleach--but that's another BlogHer Beauty Hacks post.)
I climbed into the shower to rinse out the color. And then, in fear and trembling, approached the bathroom mirror to peer at my roots.
THEY LOOKED FABULOUS.
So! Two very enthusiastic thumbs up to Clairol. For the price of a couple of magazines, my hair looked great and passed muster with pretty much everyone. There was no need to wear a hat when I was around anyone over 5 foot 7. And the color match was uncanny--especially considering that with the high- and low-lights, my hair is several different shades.
And when I crept back into the salon to make my full confession to Priscilla the hair coloring genius? She approved.
Do I recommend Root Touch-Up? If you have salon-colored hair, definitely. You could probably save yourself a few salon sessions a year by using it, and that could add up to a lot of money. It's also excellent if you're time-pressed. They really mean it when they say it takes ten minutes.
However, if you have short hair or use another drugstore hair color, it might not be worth the $6.99. Under those circumstances, it's probably not worth it to buy a just-for-roots products.
However, I have long, time-consuming hair and a very full schedule. And three boxes of Nice 'n Easy Root Touch-Up stashed in the linen closet.
