Review on John Frieda Precision Foam Color Blue Black 2A - Nourishing Permanent Hair Color Kit For Deep Color Saturation & 100% Grey Coverage by Don Merritt

I'm not a fan of dying my hair at home. It is messy, and it is not that easy to cover everything if you have long hair. I'm OK paying $80+ at a salon, but the problem is that I never found a consistent colorist I liked. Either the color was off or I was left with a visible line between my roots and the rest of the hair. Also, I experienced dripping dye, strong chemical smell and a sloppy job overall. I tried several colorists before I gave up, (no, I was not willing to pay over $100 for going from brown to red as I don't consider it to be a complicated task).Now, with John Frieda "Radiant Reds" I get the best red color ever. It is so good that many people at the salon I go to for my haircuts comment on how beautiful my color is. They don't even suspect that I do it myself at home.I can see how many people who are trying to go from dark to light may end up being unhappy - it is way more complicated process and usually requires the use of pretty harsh chemicals. If you pay attention to the color charts, you will see that John Frieda does not advise you to use light colors if your own hair is more than 2-3 shades darker than the color you're trying to achieve. They know it will not work. Honestly, if your own hair is dark and you want to be a beautiful blond, it is almost impossible to do it at home. You will have to find a good hair colorist. It s expensive to be a blond, especially if you want it to look somewhat natural and not bleached out and over-processed.Also, I know it has been repeated everywhere but people still do the same mistake - do not attempt to change your color if your last coloring job happened less than 3 weeks ago. The results will be unpredictable and in the worst case scenario you may end up being pink, green or blue. Don't blame John Frieda - it is not their fault.I used many different brands before, but as soon as I discovered this dye a few years ago I never tried anything else. As many people mentioned, foam concept is so much better than a regular dye. I think I tried pretty much all shades of radiant red they have and they all were pretty - just depends on what exactly you want to achieve as the end result. I'll be honest, looking at the box, e.g 3VR and 4R it is almost impossible to see the difference and predict how exactly it will look on you, but if you're willing to play around a little bit with shades of red, you will find the one you like the most.A few tips:- wear some old black T-shirt because now you can concentrate on dyeing your hair instead of worrying about ruining your clothes- pull out face tissues and cotton balls beforehand as during the procedure your hands will be covered with dye (in my case bright red) and you will stain everything you touch- find a bottle of cream you don't care about and generously apply it around your face, close to the hairline but not touching your hair (this hair dye is not that difficult to remove but after 25 minutes can stain you pretty nicely, and if you don't have a lot of time to spend in a bathroom afterwards, applying any cream will save you some time)- brush your hair thoroughly and start from roots slowly moving towards your ends, especially if you are retouching - by doing this I never had any visible difference between previously dyed hair and grown roots- do not shampoo your hair afterwards, just use the conditioner they provided (I understand this step is from the manual but I know quite a few people who are impatient and end up not reading it till the last step)- take a snapshot of the box before you throw it out because you may forget in a month which # you used.Good luck to everyone! I hope your hair will end up looking gorgeous and healthy!