Minds Often Wander

Thursday, August 30, 2012

eSalon

Late last week I was pointed to the general direction of a website service called eSalon, which fundamentally is hair color sent directly to your home, it's better than box and a hell of a lot cheaper than a salon. I should know, I've worked in a few.

So, I wanted to give it a try and just see how it worked, how good the product is, and if I'd recommend it to friends. Please bear in mind I have a very CRAPPY cell phone camera [It's one of the original droids] so my photos are not the best, but I will try to make this as comprehensive as possible.

My hair coloring was a little complex so that's why I wanted to test it out so bad. My hair is pre-lightened and in order to get a darker result like what I wanted, I had to do a color fill, to replace pigments lost in lightening. The hair color profile on their site also recognized this and suggested a demi-permanent.


It comes nicely packaged. Everything basically has your name on it, the color bottles and the instructions, and they're very easy to follow! I was quite pleased. Although I'm a licensed stylist it had very comprehensive instructions and it's packaged nicely. 


Down inside the box that was in the middle were some safety instructions, stain guard [which I didn't use], stain remover, conditioner and two packages of gloves, as I had two application processes to go through since my hair is so light. 

Here are some before shots, one close up one so you can see the dimension in my hair and then a farther out one, again bear in mind, crappy cell phone camera. 



The product was easy to mix, I decided to start out with a bowl and their brush to see how it applied. It mixed similar to a box color but it wasn't a pure liquid color, but it did have a slightly thicker than liquid consistency. Relatively easy to work with but the brush size is small so it caused me to work slower. 



This was after I rinsed out their color fill, I didn't notice too much of a difference but I figured to keep going since I wanted to finish what I started, and you know that whole not judging a book by its cover type of thing.


For the second application I decided to keep it in the bottle. Again it mixed well, and the top was already pre-done so I didn't have to worry about cutting off the top or anything. I was really quite pleased with that. I had a brush and bowl on standby if I decided I couldn't do it with just the bottle. 


The mostly, end result. It's still wet but I did blow dry it some. I am pretty pleased with the end result. 

In all, it was a very easy to use product, with great instructions and everything. The times of processing aren't long [5 & 15 minutes] Though I do recommend it's easier to have someone else apply the colors for you. 

Of course it does have it's own restrictions because they can't do lightening but if you want to maintain your color, or go darker it's a fantastic service. 


I do defiantly recommend it though. Happy coloring!


EDIT [9/5/12 @ 6:51PM] I realized I never posted photos of a better final result. Without further adieu, I present the final color, dried, and after a few shampoos, the color is still vibrant, and it honestly made my hair feel fantastic. This is the best that my hair has EVER felt after coloring [especially after two step services] and I have gotten a LOT of compliments on the color.


A far out shot of my color, again after a few days & a few shampoos.


A close up shot of my hair color showing how well it covered, plus the shine it added [not from the flash].