A Safer Way to Color Your Hair {with Madison Reed}

Let’s face it, getting gray hair stinks. And while I did my very best to embrace my early-gray transition, refusing to color my hair for over 3 years, I just HATED looking older than I needed to. I take great pride in NOT looking like someone born in 1977 (that’s the polite way of saying REALLY close to the big 4-0).

Eating a healthy diet, staying hydrated and taking care of my skin, has kept me looking much younger than my peers. My decision to color my hair wasn’t one that I made lightly, I spent countless hours researching the different natural hair color options, and perhaps even more time experimenting with my own hair using several different methods.

And I have to admit, much of my experimentation ended in giant messes, alligator tears and less than optimal results.

My Safer Hair Color Failures

Henna and Herbal Based Hair Dyes are one of the safest options available, no doubt. And when I first decided to color my hair, like most people I was solely focused on finding the perfect natural solution. However, in reality I found that henna and herbal hair colors completely and totally suck. Not only are they are very messy to apply and must stay on your hair for a very long time, they are even messier to rinse.

And that’s AFTER you struggle to find your perfect color match. For me (my hair extremely dark brown, but not quite black hair) these perfectly natural options barely covered my resistant grays and faded very quickly.

I did my best to accept a lifestyle where every 3-4 weeks I’d be spending an entire day coloring my hair (and spending nearly $400 a year), but even though I hated my gray hair I hated henna and herbal hair colors even more. Even though henna and herbal based hair dyes weren’t for me, they may work great for you. THIS is the henna based color that I found to be the best of the ones that I tried and would recommend.

Next, I started experimenting with less time consuming options. For nearly a year I was ALMOST happy using THIS Natural Organic Hair Color in soft black for roughly $20 a box. The ingredients were really clean, it only took an hour to apply but it was still messy and my covered gray faded rather quickly into copper/red highlights after just 2 weeks.

Then I heard of a 100% non-toxic hair color option that doesn’t dye your hair it restores your hair to it’s natural color. Yes, sounds like voodoo and pretty much felt like it too. This product involved a 3 step ‘color’ process, which took roughly 2 hours of time.. Imagine coloring your hair with black hair dye 3 times in a row, yielding roughly 75% gray coverage.

The mess was overwhelming for me. Color, Rinse, Color, Rinse, Color, Rinse. The 2nd & 3rd steps were applied to wet hair that turned into a matted, knotty mess of straw. I found myself hating this process even more than henna.

While henna was messy and took forever, at least it didn’t immediately dye everything black it came into contact with.  The last time I used this product, I spent then last step crying because I was so exhausted. I decided to paint my bathroom wall to cover the dye splatters and never-ever use it again.

There I was, frustrated and my gray roots were growing in. $39 every 4 weeks, hating the process and fast fading coverage weren’t working for me. I’d honestly had enough and contemplated giving up again and letting nature run it’s course – then I found Madison Reed.

A Safer Way to Color Your Hair, That Actually Works!

It sounds so cliche, but an ad for Madison Reed popped up in my Facebook feed claiming to make luxurious, at-home hair color with ingredients you can feel good about.

Much like my favorite beauty brand Beautycounter, Madison Reed didn’t claim to be 100% natural or organic, but they did promise to be a safer hair color option.

We are a company built on integrity, innovation, and love—for you and for your hair color. We believe in a better way and we believe in beautiful naturally healthy-looking hair color and that all women deserve it.

  

From color-matching and caring for your color, to step-by-step guidance of your at-home hair color experience…our personalized approach to service ensures you can color with total confidence.

Crafted with care

We’ve partnered with honest and transparent manufacturers in Italy, just outside of Milan—operating under strict EU regulations—to curate a high-performance quality collection of hair color products including our color and gloss.

At the forefront of innovation, we created the first ever Smart 6-Free permanent hair color: Free of ammonia, parabens, resorcinol, PPD, phthalates, and gluten. And we added hair-loving nutrients including keratin, argan oil, and ginseng root extract to protect and pamper hair.

From our professional colorists, our community, and the entire Madison Reed team… we thrive on listening, understanding, and creating beautiful lasting relationships (and very good hair days). Our expert colorists are here to answer all of your hair color questions from start to finish—call, email or chat.

We represent progress, innovation, and an entirely enjoyable 360° experience. An ingenious approach to hair color…Madison Reed is color with a serious conscience.

My Madison Reed Hair Color Experience

I’ve been using Madison Reed’s POSITANO BLACK (3NNA Black with hints of deep cool brown) for the past 6+ months. To put it simply, I fell in love with Madison Reed the minute I opened my first color kit.

WOW is the only way to sum it up.

Here’s the thing, when I used to use chemical color (way before I became crunchy) and even when purchasing natural coloring options, the kits were always painfully basic. But not with Madison Reed.

They give you EVERYTHING you need, for a fool-proof & less messy hair color application:

• Not just 1 BUT 2 pairs of real rubber gloves not those cheap-o plastic produce bags in the shape of a glove stuck to an instruction sheet. The gloves are the thick black kind that you can reuse, they don’t leak and you won’t push your fingers through them.
• Disposable Cap to put on overtop of your color, so you don’t make a big mess while your waiting. (incase you haven’t realized I hate hair color messes)
• Packets of both Barrier Cream to put on to protect your ears and hair line AND a Cleansing Wipe to early clean up messes!
• Ample sized Color Protecting Shampoo and Conditioners to use following your coloring.
• They also give you a Sample of Root Touch Up Makeup for Hair, which initially I thought was silly, but this little sample has helped me extend my time between colorings to nearly 2 months!

The Madison Reed Hair Color process is pretty much exactly what you would expect. Mix the tube into bottle, shake well. Apply to hair and set your timer. The entire process for my hair takes roughly 45 minutes, including root application, end application, rinsing and washing/conditioning.

Madison Reed’s coverage is completely flawless. No exceptionally messy application processes, no all day swamp-head and perfect coverage of my VERY resistant grays. My hair is glossy, smooth, shiny with depth/highlights like I’ve never found in boxed hair color before. In fact, I feel that overall my color match is better than I’ve ever found even from a salon, since my natural color is very unique. And – just to be sure it wasn’t just my opinion I get only the best feedback from my friend AnnMarie who cuts (and previously colored) my hair.

Every time I see her I’m pestering her for her opinion on my hair color and she’s VERY picky. Madison Reed gets her thumbs up too! The first few times I colored my hair with Madison Reed, I was retouching my roots every 4-5 weeks because the process was so easy.

But even after nearly 7 weeks my grays are still 90% covered with only very minor fading. And while I have about 1/2 inch of new gray growth, their Root Touch Up Makeup for Hair has has been a game changer.

With my first kit I enjoyed the sample so much that I purchased the full size product – then use the samples I get with my kits for travel. Today, while writing this post I’m actually coloring my hair…. in real time, like as I’m typing…

Taking a little me-time today for a charcoal mask and hair color ?later I’ll be sharing A safer way to color your hair on my blog – after taking current after photos for you to see ❤#beautymadesafe #saferhaircolor #non-toxic #charcoalmask

A photo posted by Hayley Ryczek (@healthstartsinthekitchen) on Oct 23, 2016 at 11:06am PDT

Resistant Gray Tip: Always applying color on your normal part area and around your face, basically whatever is most obvious grays, apply color to first so it has the longest to color. Then attack the rest of your roots..

I leave mine on my roots for 30 minutes then apply all over for another 5 minutes. The rinse really well. Wash and condition with the samples included in your kit, which are really fabulous and pretty safe as well. Style as usual and celebrate saying good-bye to your grays!

Here’s my Before & After from 10-23-2016 (again real time, as I’m typing this post)

There is a SAFER way to color your hair AND it doesn’t have to be all-day-swamp-hair-henna! After years of research and experimenting I’m excited to share my secret on my blog today. #saferhaircolor #nontoxic #beauty #byebyegrayhair #rootsbegone #grayhairsucks #brunette #browneyes #nofilter #selfiesunday #selfie #beforeandafter

A photo posted by Hayley Ryczek (@healthstartsinthekitchen) on Oct 23, 2016 at 12:38pm PDT

Madison Reed is Safe AND Affordable

My first order was $42.50 – including the basic kit + an extra tube of color for my long hair + upgraded pro color bowl and brush. Admittedly, I felt that was a little more expensive than I wanted to spend.

HOWEVER, the only reason it was expensive was the add-ons that I added and strongly suggest them as a one time upgrade.

Madison Reed offers a convenient Auto Ship program where you select the shipment frequency and each color kit is only $25 with shipping.

The best part for me is that I’m not left scrambling – rushing to order a new hair color kit when a special occasion pops up and I realize my roots are a mess – I always have a kit ready to color my hair every 4-6 weeks!

Currently, I am coloring my hair every 6-7 weeks (which is when my regrowth is very noticeable) which will cost me roughly $200 per year. Totally affordable compared to the other options I’ve used and especially in comparison to salon hair coloring services.

How to Get Started with Madison Reed

Getting started with Madison Reed Hair Color couldn’t be simpler since they help you pick the prefect shade.  If you still need additional assistance Madison Reed is always available for individualized help via email and even chat – you can also send them your photo and they will make a personalized color recommendation!

I also strongly recommend adding the Pro Coloring Bowl/Brush Kit and Coloring Accessory Kit to make your hair coloring experience salon quality and the least messy. These are one time additions but you will thank me.