What Box Dyes Really Do To Your Hair

It seems so easy to go to your nearest drugstore and pick up a cheap box dye when you’re feeling spontaneous and just have to have that pastel color right away. Unfortunately, you’re in for a real treat when you find out that your hair turns out nothing like you wanted or imagined. Here is a list of outcomes that actually happens to your hair when you use that awful box dye.

1.       One Size Does Not Fit All

Box color is formulated so everyone and anyone can use it. However, not everyone’s hair type, condition, or color are even remotely the same. In fact, most box dyes are formulated with maximum amounts of pigment and ammonia, so it’s able to work on most people. This unnecessary overload of ingredients wreak havoc on hair health and increase your likelihood of allergic reactions. Customization is key to achieving your healthiest, happiest hair.

2.       Unpredictable Results

Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10 your hair color will not look like what you see on the box. C’mon, did you really think Eva Longoria slapped on some $8 box dye and called it a day? No, she went to her stylist before L’Oreal paid her for that photo shoot. Not only does the average person not understand differences in color levels, they are also usually unable to select the right developer. Fortunately, that’s why attending cosmetology school and to be licensed to work with hair is recommended, but if that isn’t for you – go to a professional salon. Box color is more like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. 

3.       Straw Hat or Hair?

Just like on the cover of the box, you see a beautiful girl with luscious, shiny, and healthy hair. Unfortunately, if you’re looking for those kinds of results, you won’t find it at the end of that box dye. It will typically leave your hair dry, brittle, and live in split-end city. If you want straw hair, choose the box. Now if you want strong and healthy hair, book an appointment at your hair salon.

4.       Affordable Now? Sure. Later on? Not really.

In the case, you spend about $10 on coloring your hair using a box dye and it comes out disastrous, it won’t seem so cheap when you spend $300 on a color correction. Save your hair and your wallet the trouble and get it done at a salon instead.

5.       Prepare For An Unwanted New Haircut

When you use a box dye or even get a color correction, your hair may never be the same. It will be full of split ends, and feel dead and lifeless. The easiest way to get rid of that is to simply cut it all off. Yes – all of it. If you want to keep your lovely locks, I suggest ditching the drugstore box dyes and head to your nearest salon!

6.       No Dimension

After purchasing that awful box dye, don’t expect any dimension in the hair. One color all over won’t give you celebrity-like hair including the body, volume, and shine.

7.       Science Behind Those Awful Boxes

Box dyes can have something called metallic salts in them, and they’re very hard to get out of your hair. All box colors lie to you! They are not conditioning to your hair! Most box dyes will come with a “conditioning packet” for after you wash the color out. Those conditioning packets contain petroleum based ingredients that coat your hair fooling you into thinking that your hair is not damaged or dry from the coloring process. Those ingredients have wax in them leaving your hair completely coated in it, and while it is soft to the touch, it is completely masking what is really going on underneath.

When you’re beginning to feel that spontaneous desire to change your hair color, do it right and call up your nearest hair salon. You will save money in the long run and your hair’s health. I promise you’ll be glad you did.

• cheap
• colors
• drugstore
• hair
• Hair Color
• Liz Jacobson
• salon
• UW Stout