Wanting to know why boxed dye is worse than salon dye? Boxed dyes are cheap as they use harmful chemicals like lead acetates or ammonia that damage your hair. It also has the same formula for all hair types, which does not work.
Why Colorists Hate Boxed Dye
It does not matter if your hair is thick, thin, rough, dark, light has been dyed on before or has had any previous chemical process done on it before, the formula of boxed dye is the same. Furthermore, it’s harder for the color to fade since the concentration is much stronger. It is also known that it consists of cheap, potentially harmful ingredients for your skin.
On the other hand, salon dye consists of molecules that enable them to color the hair strands and are relatively easy to remove when compared to boxed dyes.
A boxed dye is cost-effective and potentially, much more efficient in terms of time and thus, seems like a better idea but colorists think otherwise.
Louis Licari, a hair colorist working at Mizu in New York, said that:
In order to make the final product works great, the process needs to be done effectively, thus meaning that “fine-grained details” need to be observed and taken into consideration. However, these details might not be obvious to the individual’s eyes.
These details incorporate the type(s) of products which the individual potentially wants to use in order to derive the ideal results they want alongside the amount of dye needed and the duration needed to keep it on to obtain the expected results.
Individuals who are not professionally trained in the area of hair are not expected to know these things.
Christine Arndt, who works as a professional hair colorist at Baja Studio in New York City, also commented,
The final product usually results in a splotching and uneven spread of hair color in the hair, thus leading to a much more cheap look.
Arndt also states that when individuals apply more than the appropriate amount of the dye alongside keeping it on their hair for longer periods of time, the final product results in a significantly darker look, inky, dull, dry, and damaged.
Disadvantages of boxed dye:
Not fit for all hair types:
One of the main reasons why boxed dye is not as good as salon dye is due to the fact that it functions on the basis that it has the same formula throughout. But many elements need to be taken into consideration when creating the formula of hair dyes, such as the type of hair and its condition, natural color, medications (if any), allergies, if it was dyed before or not, and much more!
Hence, if you are looking for medium brown hair, it is best not to buy a boxed dye which says medium brown and use it on your hair, because you probably will not expect the medium brown color you want.
They are usually progressive dyes:
Before we start on why boxed dyes are usually progressive dyes, we need to understand what progressive dye is in the first place. Basically, the pigment will build on itself and grow dark and dark every time you use the color. This usually occurs due to henna additives or metallic salts.
On the other hand, salon dyes are not considered to be progressive dye since they do not have henna or metallic salts that have a tendency to attach itself onto the keratin (the main protein your hair is made out of).
Awful for the health and texture of your hair:
Although dyeing, whether done by salon dyes or boxed dyes, overall is not good when it comes to the health of your hair, boxed dyes are way worse than salon dyes. They contain a significantly high amount of ammonia, PPD, nitro dyes, metallic salts, and henna, which is why manufacturers lower the cost.
All these chemicals can be extremely harmful to your hair and might potentially lead to reactions, especially to sensitive skin, and allergies. Furthermore, when you used boxed dye, the hair color change is usually permanent since it is challenging to take the dye off, and it probably will not come out unless you cut your hair. These harsh chemicals are also the leading factor as to why your hair may feel stiff or like a straw.
Color correction will cost significantly more after using boxed dyes:
The primary reason why people use boxed dye over is due to how cheap it is. However, using boxed dye also means that the color will most probably not be expected at the end. Hence, you do need to come to the salon for hair color correction.
These corrective color service prices are usually significantly higher than the price of a salon dye or highlights, as the corrective color service process requires much more time and effort to make your hair look healthy and in its normal state again.
These are just a few disadvantages for boxed dye. Nonetheless, one of the major reasons why stylists dislike boxed dye with a strong passion is because unless they are a professional colorist and do not expect anyone to color hair to their desired color.
Professional stylists have to study and obtain a license to even come near their client’s hair. When stylists or certified hair colorists dye their clients’ hair, they have their significantly higher quality hair products than non-professionalists.
A boxed dye can be found in convenience stores, drug stores, beauty supplies, or discount stores. It consists of a strong, concentrate formulation of the dye because the main purpose of boxed dye is to work on anyone’s hair. They usually used additives for the best result, which reduces breakages as well as conditioning treatments.