ClairolNatural Instincts Demi-Permanent Hair Dye, 5A Medium Cool Brown Hair Color, Pack of 3

Covers solid white nicely. You can see in one photo very gray wild hair, another where white hair frames my face. The orange sweatshirt is immediately after coloring and black shirt photo was taken a week and a half post-coloring. Two boxes of color every 3-4 weeks and the job is done. The color I use most often is Brown #5 and does a great job covering the white if the color solution is left on long enough… I have a lot of hair and one box just wasn’t cutting it.Gray came early for me and white soon followed… at 53 years old I just got tired of the white and needed a change. Sooooo… 35 minutes on the roots for box 1 and then the second box on the remainder of my hair for another 15 minutes. Done. When I followed the advised time on the box, my hair ended up very red… that’s always been how my hair holds color… red first. So I leave in much longer and it works perfectly ending up with a rich brown.The color does take a couple of washes before it looks just right to me but I get a lot of compliments from those who know me and also from those who don’t know my hair is actually white.Aside from adding extra time, the directions are simple. Put the gloves on and mix one bottle into the other bottle, give it a shake apply it to the roots first. Set your timer. It can be messy so watch out for that. Be sure to have towels at the ready for cleanup. Sometimes I use a Q-tip and put color on my eyebrows but I don’t always love the results.What I do love is that overall the process is easy and straightforward. The color treatment and conditioner give me shiny healthy hair and it smells nice. I like that it fades a little over the 3 weeks and doesn’t have a hard line where the new growth is. The color never fades all the way on the full length of my hair it just lightens.This option is much better than my friends and colleagues who pay a ton of money to get their “hair did” at the salon and have a white skunk stripe down their part while waiting for next appointment… waaaaay cheaper, better coverage, and more available, as in Amazon delivers and it’s easy peasy salon hour at my kitchen sink.Note that the color still saturates differently throughout the hair because of the different shades of gray and white that is applied to. So there’s still a natural depth in the color.Lessons learned: if you’re experimenting with leaving the color on longer, the main thing is each time write down or keep track of how long you leave the color on the roots plus then the extra time on the rest of your hair… It has never harmed my hair to leave it on longer, but since I want the roots to be darker than the rest of my hair I just experiment a little bit. So try until you get the time right.When you’re doing a touchup on your roots, you definitely still want to put some through your hair at the very end of the time…don’t skip that even if it is just 5 min. If you don’t, the rest of your hair will be dull and lackluster. And during root touch-ups you definitely also do not want to leave the color on alllll of your hair the whole time that you have it on the roots. It will get super super dark, and the roots will be lighter where the color has only been once… unless that’s what you want.I’m not sure how it’s possible with two boxes of color, but I always find a way to miss a few random strands of silver.Watch the forehead and temple hairline color also and it will help the results look more natural.I keep experimenting/adjusting the time (mostly because I’m impatient) and am very very happy with the color every time.

I only have some greying around the hairline but I think this would still blend with more greying. I put it on my roots and hairline first for 10 minutes then apply the rest. The box says do 20 minutes, but I leave on for 30 mins because I really want to make sure those greys are getting soaked to the max. Use your judgement depending how porous your hair is. If I were to get stinging, I would wash it off sooner. For me, the color feels really gentle and no stinging or discomfort. It smells nice. I have been using Natural Instincts color for many years, doing the fun colors as a teen sometimes. I don't do the fun colors as often now mainly because with my greying it's such a delicate balance, like redoing the roots and all then i have pink hair with brown and grey roots.. don't always feel up to the increased maintenance.If anything, I think the formula has gotten even better and gentler/more natural over the years. The color I got was 6C which is a neutral light brown. My natural color has lots of gold in it so I offset it by doing neutral or cooler shades of brown, as inevitably my natural gold tones will start to show thru as the color fades. For this brand, the neutral and cool shades truly remove my brassiness and the greys are blended into a light brownish or highlight looking, for about 5-6 weeks. Sadly, my greys don't always 100% absorb the color, sometimes I still have some greys but they are blended into highlighted tones. It takes more intensive work to fully color the greys, more intense than semi-permanent color.During the summer I do a warmer shade like the light caramel brown, I like to rotate out seasonally with slight color changes. It looks even better when out in the sun as the sun naturally lightens it.Over the past 6 months I experimented with color depositing shampoos. They actually cover my grey better, like near 100%, BUT it absolutely destroyed and dried out my hair to the point I suffered significant hair loss. Natural Instincts never has been harsh like that for my thinner porous hair, from now on I am sticking to this and similar gentle brands.

This works great as long as you know what to expect from this product.* It will NOT lighten your hair. If you want to lighten your hair significantly, you have to have it professionally colored at a salon.* It doesn't darken gray hair completely, it blends it, which means that those strands of hair will be darker than gray but not as dark as your regular hair color. It creates more of a highlighting effect. So if your hair is dark brown, the grays will be colored a lighter brown and will blend into your other hair. If you want your hair all one color including the grays, go with a semi-permanent hair color instead of this product.* After I used semi-permanent dye, my hair always felt dry, damaged, and rough. After using this, my hair feels normal and soft.* The dye doesn't stink like many hair dyes do. The conditioner they provide is in a tube so it can be resealed and it contains several uses. The conditioner smells nice and works quite well.* This stuff really stains so be extremely careful with your clothes, counter tops, floors - anything it may come into contact with. If semi-permanent hair dye stains your skin, be sure to apply petroleum jelly around your hair line and always use gloves. Double check everything after you apply it because once the stain sets in, it is likely permanent.This product is easy to use though I find I have to leave it on for about 30-35 minutes for it to fully cover gray. Overall, this is a good product at a reasonable price and there are plenty of colors to choose from.

This has been my favorite at home hair dye for years. It’s extremely easy to use and rinse off from areas it’s not meant to be. I’m 36 and have been using this on and off since high school, it never dies out my hair and always looks great!