This is not a sponsored product review. These are merely my own opinions on the matter.

I was given Madison Reed as a Christmas present in the shade of rimini garnet (or is it Rimini Garnet?). Initially, I couldn’t choose between that and volterra amethyst (Volterra Amethyst?), but the red shade won out because I’d read reviews on the amethyst one and saw that several people who had dyed their hair that color had the amethyst portion of it wash out really quickly. As an asthmatic, and as someone with… a weird immune system, to put it bluntly, the last time that I actually dyed my hair was probably more than ten years ago. I just gave up on it. But I’d heard a lot of good things about Madison Reed, wanted to try them out for myself at some point, and hoped that I wouldn’t adversely react to any of it. I react to, well, a lot of things.

First of all, there’s no bad smell with this hair dye like there is so many others out there. All you have to do is put on the barrier cream that they give you so the dye doesn’t stain your ears or forehead, put on the gloves, and mix the colorant in the activator bottle that they give you. It’s surprisingly simple. What was not quite as simple was me covering all of my hair with the colorant because I have thick, wavy hair. There is more hair on my head than it looks at first glance. Another thing that I like(d?) about Madison Reed is the fact that it doesn’t stain the shower when you rinse it all out, and it doesn’t even stain your hands that badly. Using Splat, I was guaranteed to stain the shower and my hands for at least a week, and generally longer, heh…

The shampoo and conditioner that they provide also leaves your hair extremely soft, which I really liked.

After this, to maximize how long my hair stays colored, I think I’m going to start on the “no poo” (no shampoo/conditioner, just water to clean it) method. I’ve heard that part of getting over the hurdle until your scalp produces the proper amounts of oil is to brush your hair a lot, which I’ve started doing in advance.

All in all, Madison Reed is a lot better than all of the other dyes that I’ve tried in the past. I like it a lot.