Advice needed on root touchup

[Krystal]

My hair is naturally a medium-dark brown maybe slightly on the ashy side. For years I have been getting it colored at a salon and dye it a shade darker in the brown range or sometimes a deep reddish brown. My regrowth at the roots isn't awful however I'm starting to get more grays at the roots. I get my hair touched up about every 8 weeks. My hair grows fast especially during the summer months and my greys start to show within 3-4 weeks. I use salon shampoo for color treated hair (Redken) and sometimes sulfate free shampoo. Wash my hair in lukewarm water and wash it every 2nd to third day.Plus use Redken conditioner.

I'm considering buying one of the those drugstore root touch up kits to use between salon visits. I think Clairol makes one? My friend also heard of Goldwell Colorance Soft Color. It's a mousse formula :: goldwell north america :: products :: color :: colorance :: colorance soft color :: . A colored mousse you apply to towel dried hair and comb through and let it sit for 5-15 minutes. If I used the Goldwell should I only apply to my roots or all over? Would the Clairol be better? Advice?

 

[Dragonfly]

A few things to consider:

Any colour that has a golden, reddish or even natural name - these cover grey the best.

Ash tones aren't that great.

Don't buy a retouch up kit - the amount of dye is about 1/3 that of a normal box of dye.

I think it's better to have too much than not enough.

And the prices are about the same.

I am not familiar with the goldwell - I usually use Nutrise or Nice and Easy, which ever is on sale.

My advise is never to apply dye on top of hair that was previously dyed.

My hair grows about 1/2 inch each month. I dye my roots every 4 weeks and leave the rest of the hair alone.

I find that it does not become dried out this way.

 

[horsienut]

According to the Goldwell link the Soft Color is a semi-permanent and it only lasts 6 - 8 shampoos... probably only 2 weeks if you're lucky, so you'd have to re-do it a few times between salon visits. And it says it only covers "minimal grey hairs" which makes me think it probably doesn't cover greys that well (?) If you were to use this you wouldn't want to apply it to your entire head because your ends are already colored and will be more porous than your roots, and therefore absorb the semi-permanent more that the roots will. This will result in ends that are darker than your roots. Plus, having semipermanent color in your hair can give unpredictable color results if permanent color is put on top of it when you go to the salon.

I'd suggest the Clairol root touchup because it's permanent so you'll probably only have to do it once between salon visits. Just make sure you get a color to match what your stylist uses (i.e. neutral brown, reddish brown, ash brown, etc).