Avon Advance Techniques Professional Hair Color + Tips & Tricks for dying your hair at home!

I have been dying my hair for over 8 years, whether it's been box color from a department store or professional grade color from a beauty store; I've tried numerous hair dye brands - in many colors, from red to blue, to purple to orange and more! Since I've started selling Avon products I decided why not try Avon's new hair dye? This is my review on a product that I was not sure I would like, turns out I love it!

Lately my hair has been a reddish-brown color, I decided to go to a dark brown (of course with my signature panel streak in the back which is currently blue). From Avon's colors I chose "Darkest Brown". Each kit cost 10.99$ +tax (you may find it on sale sometimes) and includes the following: pre-treatment cream, developer lotion, crème colorant, post treatment cream and vinyl gloves (2). I was surprised by the pre-treatment cream, most boxed dyes do not include this. This cream is supposed to be applied mainly to your ends to help protect them from being damaged. To create the dye you mix the developer lotion and crème colorant together in a typical hair dye bottle, however, it had one feature I have never seen before - a screw off tip! Most of the time you have to cut the tip of the bottle, this can be annoying and messy. Avon's bottle's feature a handy screw off tip (you have no idea how excited I was about this). Make sure to wear gloves while mixing the dye and applying it. After you've applied the hair dye for the directed amount, you wash it out and apply the post-treatment cream, it recommends keeping this cream in for 2 minutes then washing it out.

This is what comes in the kit:

(Picture is missing a glove, my sister had it on)

I followed the directions and was surprised how well my hair turned out. It is pretty much identical to the color featured on the box and was not dry nor did my hair feel damaged as it does after some boxed dyes. After two shampoo's there has been no fading at all - some boxed dyes wash out so fast, but Avon's color seems to be staying true!

Over the years I have picked up tips on dying hair, from friends in hair school, my hair dresser and the internet! Here are my tips to get the best hair color for your money!

1. Wash your hair with shampoo in hot water - let dry. Your hair probably won't feel great but the shampoo + hot water will help your hair absorb the color better.

2. Put gloves on! - I was surprised at how good of quality Avon's gloves are, normally gloves in boxed dyes are bad quality and annoying, I found Avon's were good quality and did not annoy my hands.

3. Apply Avon's pre-treatment cream according to directions, then apply the hair dye for the directed time (it is normally fine if you go a few minutes over) typical time is 30 minutes, sometimes longer. DO NOT MASSAGE HAIR DYE INTO SCALP! This can damage your scalp, cause a burning sensation and can leave your scalp dyed. If you are not sure all of your hair is covered take an old comb and comb the color through.

*I do not recommend dying your eyebrows, if you insist on doing this be EXTREMELY careful!

4. Rinse hair dye out of hair - use as cold of water as you can stand. After it is rinsed out apply post-treatment cream (this is basically conditioner) wait recommended time, rinse in cold water. From my experience I recommend not shampooing your hair for at least 24 hours - dry shampoo spray is fine. 

*If the hair color is too dark (make sure you dry it before judging the color and look in a properly lit area) you can use shampoo before the 24 hour mark, using shampoo and hot water will help your hair become lighter, faster. Remember to always condition after shampooing to help keep your hair healthy!

5. After 24 hours shampoo and condition as regular. If you want your color to last shampoo every other hair washing and use shampoo for dyed hair or baby shampoo. 

*If you find that not shampooing every hair washing causes your hair to become greasy, try a dry shampoo spray.

As time passes I will post another update on how my hair color is lasting. Also, if you have a darker hair color (brown or black) and want to become blonde I recommend spending the money to get it professionally done. Otherwise you will most likely have to dye your hair multiple times with bleach to get the correct blonde you want which will harm your hair if you dye it too much in a short amount of time. Normally when brunette or black hair is dyed with box dye the first attempt comes out a bronze/orange kind of color, to get that nice blonde you may have to dye your hair 1-3 more times which will damage your hair a lot and you end up spending almost the same amount of money as you would at a salon anyway.

My Hair Currently (after 2 shampoos):

This is in direct sunlight which picks up natural highlights.

* Remember, using boxed dye may not always give you the results you want!

If you are interested in Avon Advance Techniques hair color but not sure how much to order, it's the same as you would buy boxed dye. I use one department store box dye and ordered one Avon Hair Dye and it was the same amount. So if you typically use two boxes, order two boxes of Avon Hair Dye. To order this product find an Avon Representative in your area. 

Here are Avon's Colors