How Madison Reed Saved My Hair

Last November, I spent half a day in a hair salon with my head in a stainless steel shampoo-bowl sink. After 6 hours of an itchy scalp and staring at the ceiling, I walked out the door with platinum blonde roots and a really sore neck. I paid a whopping 500 dollars for the treatment.

Since then, I decided never to step foot in a salon again. That’s in large part because I found Madison Reed.

Madison Reed is an online hair color company that makes health and wellness the cornerstone of their product offering. Madison Reed has built a number of innovative solutions that make it simple for anyone to find their perfect shade, all without having to spend time in a salon. Furthermore, Madison Reed has invested in ingredients you can feel good about that allow you to dye your hair and achieve results, without the usual chemicals that most hair products use such as PPD and ammonia.

With Madison Reed, I’ve learned that gorgeous hair color and having ingredients I can feel good about doesn’t have to be an oxymoron—their cruelty-free products create gorgeous color without having to ingredients such as PPD and ammonia.

Here are three reasons I fell in love with Madison Reed:

Dying your hair at home is hard work. I’ve been up one too many nights experimenting with various dyes in my own bathroom. The odor of chemicals and fumes of ammonia that comes with most hair products is sickening, and the entire process is tiring—especially when I get less than desired results.

Madison Reed’s ingredients, on the other hand, are free of ammonia, parabens, resorcinol, PPD, and phthalates. So while most hair products dry my hair out, Madison Reed’s products do not. Their products include ingredients such as argan oil, keratin, and ginseng root extract to keep my hair strong and healthy and keep me feeling the same.

At a salon, I often feel rushed to choose a color or pressured into making my decisions based on what the stylist thinks is best. Madison Reed’s color-matching process is just the opposite. Madison Reed offers a number of online tools to help me visualize and find the right hair color for me.

Beyond their online tools, Madison Reed offers a community of hair color specialists that you can speak with at any time. Madison Reed’s specialists are available via phone, email, or chat, so whether picking a new color or trying the product for the first time, I never feel rushed.

And best of all, although I have yet to experience this particular offering, Madison Reed offers in-person Color Bars (“un-salons”) in New York (my hometown) and San Francisco. If I ever want to try something a bit more creative, I know I can talk to a color specialist in-person and get their expert opinion. With Madison Reed, there really is no need to go to a salon again.

When I received my first box from Madison Reed, I felt relieved to smell a botanical aroma rather than the usual chemical fumes you smell when opening a hair styling box from the convenience store. Madison Reed’s box came with radiant cream color, conditioning color activator, barrier cream, color protecting shampoo, color protecting conditioner, a pair of gloves, cap, and cleansing wipes. After using the product, within 35 minutes I saw a color more vibrant than I could have imagined. I knew from first color, Madison Reed was a keeper.

I truly put my money and conscience at ease by choosing Madison Reed.

Madison Reed’s professional expertise speaks for itself in the color and gloss of my hair. Wherever I go, I get the highest compliments on my shade. I feel empowered when people ask me how much I paid or for the name of my salon. When I respond “I did it myself,” I feel the woman in me beaming with confidence.