Best brown home hair dye?

I'm toying with the idea of shampoo-in color to cover my natural color, which is about 10 percent gray. I have medium brown hair with a lot of chestnut and the wrong shade will turn my hair orange. Any suggestions for products to use? Should I vary the amount of developer or blend two colors? What's the word on Robert Craig's colors?

I have medium brown hair with chestnut highlights. I use Clairol's Natural Instincts in Tweed. The box says it's a cool, ashy medium brown. I don't know why, but on me, it comes out chestnut. Maybe the answer is to use the cool tone of a color.

Consumer Reports tested haircolor, and they used a brown shade for their tests. The color they chose as giving the most natural looking results was Hydrience I believe. If you're only 10% grey though I would use something like Castings to see if that will cover your grey, and give you a color you like. Also look into Robert Craigs color at robertcraig.com as it's very gentle. If that doesn't cover enough I would use a milder color such as Open, or Lumia which is gentler on the hair. If that still doesn't work, then try a permanent such as Hydrience. The first coloring options will be gentler on the hair, and be easier to maintain with a less visible root line.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 'Where lipstick is concerned, the important thing is not color, but to accept God's final word on where your lips end.'

The only worry for me with Hydrience is if the color will be what the box says it will be. I ended up with black hair instead of dark brown with Sable Cove. Now I know sable means black. But I do agree with the report - it is gentle.

Castings is great. I've used dark brown - Espresso. Also gentle.

I've used and liked Open, never tried Lumia. The only hair color I would *not* recommend is L'Oreal's Feria. I think it's extremely harsh and very drying to the hair, and it stained my skin and bathroom counter badly.

I've used both. I used the Borealis shade of Open. I really liked the color, but it dried my hair out too much, so I won't use it again. I used Lumia #50 Natural Brown exactly a week ago; I thought I made a big mistake with that color, as it came out too dark. However, a week later, the color has lifted nicely, and I like it better. Lumia has not dried my hair out at all.

I've never tried Feria, and I doubt I will. A good friend of mine had a haircoloring disaster with it. Plus, I color my hair only because I need to cover grays, so I like a more natural look. AFAIK, Feria's shades tend to be on the 'edgier' side, right?

What about Preference by L'oreal? I hate those dopey Heather Locklear commercials, but I saw a shade of this that I just have to have.

Is it drying? Does it stink horribly? How does it last?

BTW, I've got dark brown hair that I'd be dyeing to a medium golden brown. (Always the contrarian, I know most people go darker for fall.)

Wendy

'Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:/Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!'

Maladicta, I also have medium brown hair, about the same amount of grey, not as much chestnut. I highly recommend the L'Oreal Open line. There's no ammonia, no stink and the color is beautifully vibrant. It also lasts on the grays. I use Aurora, a red-brown, which is I know is not what you're looking for. You might want to check out Atlantis, a natural medium brown, or Borealis, a cool medium brown.

I've blended colors in the past...sometimes successfully, other times not. You might get just the right shade if, say, you blended the Atlantis with the Borealis.

I've tried almost every haircolor on the shelf in the last 12 years (always staying within a two-shade range of medium browns or brown-reds), and IMO, Open is the easiest and most pleasant to use by far.........Laurie B.

Thanks for the great advice.

I have no experience with browns, but I am so in love with herbal essences color. It makes my hair so soft (the conditioner is wonderful). My only complaint is that there is barely enough product to cover my hair (which is just below shoulder length).

Yep, personally I don't find Feria colors to be natural colors. I did Ginger Zing and ended up with a weird burgundy - not attractive to me. All I'm doing now is covering silver hairs so I use dark brown, which is my natural color. I even got a brush from Sally's Beauty Supply to brush the color on my roots, then comb the color through the rest of my hair at the end of the coloring time. I just figure my ends don't need the full time every time I color it. I'm nervous to do it though in case it ends up blotchy, uneven, or just weird looking.

I need to get a brush like that for my root touch-ups. I missed a spot in my latest color job, at my hairline right above my ear. Actually, I think what happened was I wiped the color away so that my skin wouldn't get stained. Now I have a silver patch right there. >