Best bargain at-home haircolor: Prettia

Another off-topic post I just wanted to share. I have a love/hate relationship with October. Namely chilly weather/baseball play-offs. Tonight DH wanted to watch the Yankees game, so I did the only thing I could think of: nap through half, dye my hair through the other half.

I haven't done an at-home dye job in about a year (and before that, years), when Fekkai's box color came out. I had really high hopes for that, but I found it was just as good/normal as Feria (my old college stand-by), although the packaging is sleeker and the little bowl/brush combo makes it more fun to apply (guess that is where a good % of your $30 goes). A while ago, my friend, going through economically-challenged times as a MBA student, raved about Prettia, a Japanese at-home hair color. So I had to try it. One word: brilliant.

It made sense to me. When the Japanese get really OCD about something (see: Japanese square watermelons), they do it right. The obsession with hair is impressive, just look at anime. Japanese girls spend hours doing their hair every morning. Prettia lives up to their standard and totally blew away my expectations. The big, huge winning point: it washes out completely. Whenever I do color at home, I have to use dark towels for a few days because I can never get the color out the first time, even after a solid 20 minutes of rinsing. With Prettia, it is all out in about 5-7 minutes, which is great news for my knees too.

The application is a foam, which prevents errant drips and spray. You don't even have to worry about the language barrier. Although the instructions are totally in Japanese, the pictures are as good as airplane evacuation brochures -- very easily understood. (There are also photos on their website.) The only one I couldn't figure out was 2 images showing the do/don't method of massaging the foam. They really looked the same to me, but I suppose one is telling us not to mash into our scalps.

Essentially, this kicks the PANTS off American box color kits. If you are ok with brassier colors, I would highly recommend checking this out. I got my box of Prettia at Sunrise Mart in St. Marks Place. It was about $15, and I think, for the price and the ease of use, I might stop calling my colorist completely!