Your Hair Really Can Feel as Good as Your Conscience

Advanced Cosmetic Technologies permanent hair coloring kit is “the only PPD-free, 100% plant-based permanent hair color available. Providing you with the highest quality hair coloring products while avoiding harmful ingredients is what we strive for…Made from renewable and sustainable ingredients our coloring kits have an ultra-low environmental impact…”

PPD (paraphenylene diamine) has been linked to cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia, to name a few—not to mention severe allergic reactions that have lead to death. And yet since it has not been officially labeled as a carcinogen, hair dyes and other PPD-infused products continue to saturate the market. This is scary news for someone like me as I have dyed my hair at least three times a year for the last decade.

So, as you can imagine, if this product had been even half as effective as its PPD-filled counterpart, I would have made the switch and never looked back because I am officially scared out of my wits of dying my hair using traditional methods. However, Advanced Cosmetic Technologies has come through in a huge way. The hair color works perfectly, the gray coverage is fantastic, and it holds up to daily washings very well. Oh, and the color on the chart is exactly the color you get, and it looks natural and even. There is a wide variety of shades, and I am confident that anyone can find one that matches (or surpasses, which is what happened in my case) what she currently uses. After I rinsed and washed my hair, I didn’t feel as if I’d just dyed my hair. This is a vast improvement over any other home coloring kit I have tried. The whole “style as usual” bit of the directions was a joke in the past because I think we all know how our hair normally responds to being subjected to harsh chemical dye jobs—it became coarse, unruly, and either frizzy or flat or both. My hair also did not smell like I’d just dyed it either since Advanced Cosmetic does not use ammonia. Now that alone makes this product invaluable.

The process is more labor-intensive than you’ll find with other brands (the color requires several 5-minute intervals under the blast of a hairdryer in order to work properly), but as I mentioned before, I’m more than happy to put in a bit more effort to avoid being exposed to harmful toxins. If you are a bit weak in the arms, enlist the help of a friend.

Helpful tips (this is the part where having a test subject—i.e. me—comes in handy):

1. Use the stain guard. I mean, really use it. The kit comes with a good-sized bottle. Slather it on.
2. Do not put your ears under the cap. Otherwise, stain guard or no stain guard, your ears WILL be dyed the color of your hair. Trust me on this one, there isn’t a substance in your arsenal that will remove the ring of color from ‘round your ears, and if you have a pixie cut or other ear-baring style, you are simply out of luck if you mess up on this step. Good thing I have a habit of buying hats even though I rarely wear them. They’ve certainly gotten good use this week.
3. Have extra gloves handy or rinse off the ones provided since you need them again when you rinse your hair.
4. Wash and condition your hair with color-safe products during the rinsing stage. Have it handy when you are doing the rinse because if you drip as you dash across the house in search of your shampoo, you run the risk of staining carpet.

Honestly, the learning experience of using this product the first time was well worth it. Even though I had to walk around with brown-tipped ears for a couple days, the benefits of a successful coloring experience and the peace of mind that comes from using an eco-friendly, non-toxic product far outweigh the technical difficulties I experienced (the difficulties resulting from user error, of course, not from any flaw with the product).

The permanent hair color kits cost $29.99, and if you order before July 30, you get 30% off your order. I tested their dark natural brown (4N) and am completely satisfied. Another great bonus is if you have short hair like I do, you can get two uses out of one kit. Any unmixed product can be saved. I have received compliments way above and beyond what I’d normally get, which is the true test of a color’s success. My hair stylist who knows I am naturally a lighter shade of brunette with more than a few grays said if she didn’t know better, she would assume this is my natural hair color. She said my hair is healthy, shiny, and gorgeous.

I am recommending Advanced Cosmetic Technologies to everyone I know. I am so confident that others will recognize what a superior product this is to others on the market that I plan to gift the appropriate shade to friends who are chronic at-home colorists. I’ll even volunteer to hold the hairdryer for them. Advanced Cosmetic proves that a girl can be eco-conscious and toxin-free while still maintaining a high standard in her beauty products.