Product Review - Clairol Foaming Hair Color

My mom says that her Grandma always used to say, "Even an old barn deserves a new coat of paint sometimes!"

So true, right?! Back before I was married and had more disposable income, I would go to my stylist and have her highlight my hair. $50? Sure, no big deal! Yeah, not so much anymore. The highlights I had done for my wedding (5 years ago now) was the last time! But over those 5 years, I've accumulated a few gray hairs. Okay, more than a few. I'm not graying yet, but I had enough gray hairs popping up to make me feel uncomfortable and insecure. 26 year old women shouldn't be struggling with gray hairs! It was time to color my hair, but I didn't have the money to go to a salon and have it done.

But, I'm also not a professional. I color my mom's hair on a regular basis, but it's a totally different thing when you're trying to do your own. I wanted something easy to apply, something that I could do myself, and also that wouldn't be messy. And there really wasn't anything like that on the market until Clairol introduced their Foaming Hair Color! A while ago (around the time it was introduced), Clairol ran a promotion on their Facebook page giving away free bottles, so you can be sure I snatched up one of those!

I was incredibly nervous about it. I had only done highlights - never my entire head of hair. I didn't want to wind up with orange or green hair! So, even after I got my free bottle, I still waited almost another 2 months to use it. Eventually the grays started to get a little depressing and I knew I just had to go for it. And it did. And it turned out great!

I don't have any pictures of the process or any before or after shots, but I can you that I had no more gray hairs! I didn't pick any crazy or completely different shades. I wasn't looking for a huge change and I didn't want to be stuck with HAVING to color my hair in a few weeks when my roots started to show. Basically I didn't want much difference between my natural color and the color I was using.

It was a fairly easy process though. I wasn't too impressed with the bottle. I was expecting a foaming pump, which I still think would be better. Instead you have to squeeze the bottle to get it to foam and come out. It also wasn't completely drip free, but the drips I got could have very well been my own newbieness. But you just pour, shake, then squeeze it onto your hair and rub it in. As their website claims, it was similar to using shampoo.

All in all, this really is a very useful product. I love the idea of being able to color my own hair at home - and no one has to know! In fact, the shade I chose was so close to my own hair color that my husband didn't even notice. I finally said something about it after a couple of days and he was quite impressed. It also easily covered my grays and left me feeling much more confident. It's the small things in life (like not having any noticeable grays)!

Since using the Clairol Foaming Hair Color, I have used the traditional squeeze bottle hair color. I had my mom color my hair and I think I really like the foaming stuff better. My mom did a great job, but it was just so much easier to do it myself!! The foaming stuff only took about 10 minutes to apply as opposed to the 25 or 30 minutes for the traditional hair color.

The Clairol Foaming Hair Color is available at most grocery and drug stores - I've seen it at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Smith's, etc. It runs between $7.97 and $9.99, I believe. Even better, P&G often has coupons for it - sometimes as much as $3.00 off 1! I can afford $5 for easy hair color I can at home by myself!!

Have you tried this (or any of the other foaming hair colors)? How do you think they compare to the traditional squeeze bottles?

(I was not compensated for this post. I did score a free bottle during Clairol's Facebook promotion, but Clairol did not ask me to write this post. I just thought all you wonderful ladies would like to hear my opinion. And this post is exactly that - my honest, truthful, and unpaid opinion!)