I'm what most hair colorists would call a challenging client. I have long, thick hair that's almost 100 percent gray, and there's a snow-white streak at my crown. The challenge? I want my (very) resistant grays to be a medium ashy-brown shade, but I like to keep the streak at my crown its natural white color. My hair also grows fast, so my roots are visible about a week after coloring. On top of that, I don't want to go to a salon more than once a month, so I do that thing many hair colorists hate: I touch up my roots at home in between salon visits. Like I said: challenging.
So I wasn't sure what to expect on my first visit to the flagship Madison Reed Hair Color Bar in New York City's Flatiron neighborhood. I sat down in the chair of colorist and general manager Jacquetta Taborn, and before I could launch into my usual apologetic rant, she looked at me in the mirror and said, "I love your white streak." We were off to a good start.
Taborn explained that Madison Reed does things differently than most salons. They're all about making life easier for clients, with time-saving products and services and better ingredient formulas, whether you're in the salon or at home. In fact, she told me, Madison Reed's "back bar" formulas (i.e., the ones the colorists mix and use in the salon) are the same as the products it sells online and in stores. That means clients like me can choose how often we want to dye at home versus in the salon and know that our color will be consistent.
Since I was a Madison Reed Hair Color Bar newbie, Taborn walked me through the services available: highlights, allover color, roots, glosses, and any combination of those that I might want. (Something I learned later: The service options are consistent across all the Hair Color Bars, and the prices are always spelled out up front — very refreshing in the notoriously confusing and secretive world of professional salons!) I told Taborn I'd like to keep my streak white and touch up my roots so they blended with the rest of my (previously dyed) hair. She asked if I had any other concerns. Well, come to think of it, I did: Looking in the mirror, I thought my ends seemed dull and slightly warmer and more faded than the hair closer to my gray roots.
Taborn nodded knowingly and told me she had a good idea of the permanent hair-color shade that she wanted to use on my roots and that a clear, color-reviving gloss would fix up my ends. At that point, I figured she'd disappear into the back of the salon to mix up some magical combination of dyes I'd never be able to replicate at home, let alone explain to any other colorist I saw in the future. Instead, she pulled out a tablet to take me through a personalized hair-color consultation and explain everything she planned to do. "We want the process to be open and collaborative," she said. She snapped some photos of my hair and uploaded them to the program, then she asked me about my texture and how long my hair usually took to dye. When she was done with the consultation, she showed me the result on the screen: My root color was Dosolo Brown, a medium neutral brown for resistant grays.
"Is that what you thought it would be?" I asked.
"Of course," she said, laughing. "I've been coloring hair for years!"
From the way she confidently lifted sections of my hair to assess the shade under the lights to her warm smile and reassuring nods, Taborn was clearly an expert, so I would have trusted her without the photos and consultation. But I love that Madison Reed doesn't leave things to chance. You know that no matter what location you go to (there are more than 75) or which colorist you see, you're going to get consistent results.
When the consultation was done, Taborn mixed my hair color, pinned up my white streak, dabbed some barrier cream along my hairline (to prevent the dye from staining my skin), then sectioned my hair and got to work. She was a pro, keeping the dye on my gray roots, exactly where it needed to be. When I told her I'd never be able to do it as well at home, she said not to worry. Madison Reed formulas are ammonia free and process for a maximum of 35 to 45 minutes, so they're designed not to overcolor any previously dyed hair (though you should still be careful not to overlap color if you can). After she finished applying the root color, she coated my midlengths and ends with the gloss and then left me to relax for 35 minutes. I expected to sit in a cloud of fumes, but the dye didn't have that chemical smell I'd come to expect from traditional color.
When my processing time was up, Taborn took me to the sink to shampoo out the color. Back at the chair, when she started to blow-dry my hair, I knew right away that the color was spot-on. My roots blended flawlessly and were the perfect shade of brunette — neutral, with a dark-chocolaty undertone that didn't look reddish or inky and purple under the lights. When she was done blow-drying, I was surprised to see that my lengths looked much better, too, somehow less brassy and much richer and shinier. "That's the gloss," Taborn said. Then she took out her tablet and snapped a few after photos to upload to my Madison Reed account. “This will help us keep track of your color and make sure you're always happy with the results.”
I told her I already knew I loved it, but as much as I enjoyed the experience, I only wanted to be going to the salon once a month. She took me over to a wall of products and pointed out exactly what she had used: Madison Reed Permanent Hair Color in Dosolo Brown (5.5NNA); Color Reviving Gloss in Glassa; and the ColorSolve Daily Moisture Shampoo + Conditioner Set. The permanent formula is the same one found in the Root Touch Up Bundle, which includes the award-winning Root Touch Up Kit and The Great Cover Up Root Touch Up + Brow Filler. She also suggested I do the Pura Color Therapy Hair Mask, a colorless conditioning treatment, once a week to keep everything shiny and hydrated, and then she walked me through how to do it all at home. It was like getting my hair dyed with a pro-color lesson thrown in for free!
Start to finish, the color and blow-dry took about an hour and a half and was super relaxing — I never felt rushed or confused. I told Taborn I was weirdly excited to try it all at home two weeks later. She just smiled and nodded, a hair-color sage, initiating another pupil into the ways of Madison Reed. "I told you we do things differently," she said.
