Are you looking for a hair color change but don’t want anything too drastic? Are you a color commitment-phobe? Are you worried about damaging your hair? Do you want shinier hair? (Uh, who doesn’t?) If you’ve answered “yes” to any of the questions, then a hair gloss could be just the product for you.
Hair glosses give you shinier, healthier-looking hair without using the strong chemicals found in most permanent hair dyes. They are demi or semi-permanent and last for a few washes before they fade out. There’s no need to worry about visible roots. You can use them or natural hair or color-treated hair. You can choose a colored gloss to enhance the tones in your hair or you can opt for a clear one if you just want to pump up the shine.
Pastel glosses have had a recent surge in popularity thanks to the rainbow hair trend. They are a natural next step for people who have bleached their hair white blonde and are looking for a change, but there are glosses for dark hair too. You can get the treatment at the salon or you can do it at home. As a fairly new DIY hair color fan, I decided to test an at-home gloss out. [Insert your own Gloss hair gloss joke here.]
I recently dyed my hair pink using Manic Panic’s Semi-Permanent High Voltage Classic Color Cream Formula Hair Color in Fuschia Shock. The pink has faded out so I wanted to try something new.
I went with Madison Reed’s Semi-Permanent Gloss in Barolo, $19.95. It was recommended by Chelsea and Felicia from the Madison Reed Color Team. It is described as “Vibrant copper-red to revive bright or deep shades of cool auburn.” The gloss comes in six other different shades and a clear version.
Take a look at the results:
Before
You can see that the glorious fuchsia is gone out of my hair and it’s back to brown. I applied the Barolo gloss to dry hair for 35 minutes, then rinsed it out.
After
Sorry if you were expecting Sansa Stark red but remember this is a gloss, not dye. It’s not a dramatic before and after but the gloss brought out the red tones in my hair and it didn’t dry it out. Here’s a close-up shot:
Here’s a close-up comparison shot so you can get a better idea of the change:
The tube says you can get two applications out of it if you have shoulder-length hair. My hair is slightly longer but there was enough for two applications for me. The gloss is supposed to last for 6 to 8 washes. Now, I just have to figure out what I’m going to do with my hair when this fades out…
Makeup Expert & Manicurists, Contributing Editor
Jessica is a writer who feels it is a job requirement to own every shade of nail polish. She thinks any bad day can be improved by a trip to Sephora–provided there aren’t 10 people giving themselves makeovers, in front of the new lipsticks.
