Clairol Nice’n Easy Permanent Hair Dye, 4 Dark Brown Hair Color, Pack of 3

UPDATED THOROUGH REVIEW OF MEDIUM COOL BROWN, 5C
Skip to 2nd paragraph if you want to review of the product. My edit/update is mostly about the allergic experience that I attributed to the salon semi-permanent color. On application and while “marinating”, my head itched. After a few sessions with the salon color, the itching was CONSTANT. I blamed it on the salon color, and kept using my new favorite shampoo, conditioner, etc. It took awhile before I realized that it was the OLAPLEX PRODUCT LINE THAT WAS CAUSING THE REACTION. By the time I realized it, I had lost a lot of hair! I’m just spreading the word about that product line. There’s a lawsuit, and they are refunding customers’ money, but that’s small consolation when your hair is ruined.This review is for the Medium Cool Brown, 5C.First: In my youth, I had very dark brown hair with coppery highlights in the sun. My hairdresser says that my hair is now 30-40% gray. (It’s not really gray; it’s white.)For several years, I’ve gone to the salon every 4 weeks. After 2 weeks, I’d touch up with Clairol Permanent Root Touch-Up, 4A Dark Ash Brown. It worked fine, but I hated the obvious new growth of white hair.So, about 6 months ago, my stylist and I decided to switch to a semi-permanent color, both in the salon and for my 2-week touch-ups. (The semi-permanent products I tried at home were Clairol Root Touch-Up Semi-Permanent Hair Color for Gray Coverage, 2A, Rich Dark Brown. The other was Clairol Permanent Root Touch-Up, 4A, Dark Ash Brown. The biggest difference between the two products is the application method. You can look at the product pages to see what I mean. Neither one lasted very long; my hair looked dull and washed out within a week.)Every time I got the salon dye job, my head itched for a couple of days. (I didn’t have the same problem with the at-home touch-ups.) But last month, my head, neck and shoulders itched HORRIBLY for almost 2 weeks. Took a lot of Benadryl and swore off the semi-permanent salon procedure. (As mentioned in 1st paragraph, all this was caused by the Olaplex products I had been using.)NOW, FOR THIS PRODUCT REVIEW:I did a skin test 48 hours before coloring my hair. (I never bothered doing this before, but the allergic reaction to the salon stuff made me wary.) I mixed a tiny bit of the color and developer, and used a Q-tip to put a dot on my inner arm. Unlike other at-home dyes I’ve used, this stuff mixed up white/translucent. Don’t worry. It turns color quickly. (Oops. Then I covered it with a band-aid because I’d made a dark brown splotch on my arm!)Buy a box of latex gloves! The gloves that come with these products are horrible, and for this particular product, I used 3 pairs. The 1st pair was for the initial root application. (The directions say to wait 20 min. from when you *begin* to apply the product.) The 2nd pair was for the next step, when I applied the color to comb through my shoulder-length hair. That step may not be necessary for future dye jobs, but this was a new color, and it claimed to have 3 different shades, so I wanted to apply all over. The 3rd pair of gloves was for rinsing and washing out the dye. The total time was 25 min., though in the past I’ve waited longer for better coverage. For the sake of research, I wanted to follow the instructions exactly.I used the conditioner that is supplied in the box. In theory, this MEDIUM cool brown is lighter than the touch-up products I’ve used in the past, both permanent and semi-permanent, all by Clairol. If we ever have a sunny day, I’ll find out if the color is significantly different from the various “dark brown” dyes. For now, right after doing my hair, it looks really good. When I update this review, I’ll let you know if the supposed 3-color highlights/lowlights thing is noticeable.Definitely an improvement over the semi-permanent products. I’ll let you know what happens to the towels after a few washes. (I try not to wash every day, just condition, but it’s summer and if I bike or swim, I have to shampoo.)MORE UPDATE: I am gradually moving to lighter shades of the same color. To go gradually lighter, change from 4 to 5 to 6 of the same color. Instead of using the touch-up versions, I’m just using the full boxes of dye. The range of colors is greater, and the difference in price is negligible. Eventually, the color will show up completely on the white hair that is growing in, and the still-not-gray will look fine. So the new growth of white hair is less noticeable than the demarcation line when I was using the darkest cool brown shades.

Lightens
I had some serious dark hair (like color1 if you know hair) and it’s Asian so it’s thick. I usually have to have dye on for about 2 hours. I wasn’t going to leave this on for that long but I was eating so it was on for an hour fourty minutes. I used 2 boxes of color 6, hoping it would come out to a dark brown. My hair hadn’t had anything done since years ago so it’s virgin. My hair went from 1 to 33. I was hoping for more of a 4-6. It came out much more red than I thought. So essencially, it lightened my hair from black to red but didn’t leave much brown at all. Left is under bathroom light and right is under natural sunlight.

Good coverage
Good gray coverage nice highlights

Harsher than other brands
I will not be purchasing this brand again. I’ve tried many brands of at home hair color and this one is very harsh. Both of the dye and conditioner are very strongly perfumed. It stains your skin super quickly, I was scrubbing. My scalp was warm and slightly burning, even though the dye color was dark brown. After rinsing out the dye, my hair had a greasy film on it that required me to use shampoo twice before the conditioner. I lost quite a bit of hair in the shower.

Doesn’t damage the hair but the shade runs darker than the chart

Very natural hair tone, I liked it !