Reviewing Clairol Natural Instincts Semi-permanent Hair Color

Trying to Eliminate Gray Hair

I am getting along in age now, and the gray roots are starting to become too numerous for my comfort level. In the past, I have used henna to color my hair. My hair has always been a natural auburn color, so henna was a perfect choice for a little oomph every once in awhile. The problem is that henna doesn't cover gray hair very well. Because of henna's limitations, I have been shopping for a new type of haircoloring to hide those awful gray strands. And I wanted to do it myself, because I am just too cheap to pay for a salon treatment.

I have used other permanent hair color products before. But I decided against permanent hair coloring because I always hate that skunk look when your roots start to grow out. My hair grows pretty quickly, so I didn't want to be messing with coloring my hair every three or four weeks. I also was afraid of the damage it may cause if I used permanent hair coloring that often.

My other two choices were temporary and semi-permanent hair coloring.

Temporary hair color coats the hair shaft and washes out in 1 - 3 shampoos. There are different formulas available for temporary hair color, but the most popular ones are either a rinse or a shampoo type.

The other type is somewhere in between permanent hair coloring and temporary hair coloring. Semi-permanent hair color doesn't just coat the hair like temporary hair coloring. It actually penetrates the hair shaft, similar to the way a permanent hair color does, just not as deeply. They last about 20 - 30 shampoos. For me, that would last about six weeks.

I opted for the semi-permanent because it lasted for a reasonably long time, and the color is supposed to gradually fade away. This prevents the common 'skunk stripe' seen with permanent hair coloring.

Next I needed to find a semi-permanent hair color brand that would cover gray. I found "Clairol Natural Instincts". On the box, it claimed to cover up to 50 percent gray hair- looks like I found a winner.

Other reasons I chose Clairol Natural Instincts were the claims that it contained no ammonia, low peroxide, included an aloe weekly deep conditioner, and some of the hair color ingredients were aloe, chamomile, and ginseng.