Coloring your hair at home can be a complete nightmare. After you do the 'hold-the-box-up-to-my-head-in-front-of-a-mirror-at-the-drugstore' color-matching technique, you take it home and hope that your hair doesn't turn green. Sometimes it does. In which case, you then march yourself to your local salon where you will pay $100 and up to have the color corrected.
In the hair coloring marketplace, these are essentially your two choices: the drugstore or the salon. Amy Errett, the CEO and co-founder of just-launched home hair color brand Madison Reed, hopes that her service will be a viable alternative to the two current modalities.
'I went on a mission to figure out whether or not we could reinvent both the product and the application process,' Errett said. As part of her research, she and her colleagues watched 55 women color their hair at home and then asked them what they would like to be able to do differently. Women wanted someone to help them choose their color and an intuitive application process, and they wanted it at a decent price point and without the inconvenience of going to a salon.
Madison Reed, which is an online service, offers 27 different hair colors which are all ammonia, resorcinol, and paraben-free. While a lot of drugstore brands can boast this claim, too, there are definitely still a few on shelves that contain those undesirables. Madison Reed also added keratin, argan oil and ginseng root extract to protect and strengthen the hair. The colors are all mixed in Italy (Errett refers to them as 'artisanal') and are multi-tonal, rather than the flat color that boxes often deliver.
The big news here, though, is the service. Errett, a former venture capitalist and entrepreneur, likens Madison Reed to E*Trade, where she was a member of the senior management. 'E*Trade is analogous to this in a lot of ways. It was a category that had very little innovation. Most people had their money and assets handled by someone else,' Errett said. 'We're looking to disrupt [a product] that only sees two channels. And we're using tech to do it.'
When you go online to choose your hair color, you have a few different options. If there's a box color you're using that you like, you can enter it into the 'Color Translator,' which will select the Madison Reed color that is closest to your current shade. If you have no clue, you can use a 'Color Advisor' service which asks you questions about your current color and your skin tone and will then offer up some potential options. If you need even more hand-holding, you can upload a picture and get live feedback from an actual colorist. (And speaking of actual colorists, Sally Hershberger is loaning her expertise to the brand in the role of advisor.)
A coloring kit costs $29.95, and it includes the color, developer, gloves, shampoo and conditioner, barrier cream and a cap. There's also an auto-renew option if you want the color delivered at a predetermined interval so you don't have to think about it when you need a touch-up.
Once you get the color, there are how-to videos on the website, or you can download a voice-activated app that makes the process essentially idiot-proof. The app includes instructions and a timer, and even plays you music while your color is developing. The company is also testing out a house call service in its native San Francisco, which they hope to roll out to other markets. If you sign up for an auto-renew service, you are entitled to a one-time home visit by a colorist who will help you out.
Time will tell whether or not this concept will be successful. According to Errett, in just a week and a half Madison Reed has amassed 'thousands' of customers. While there's nothing comparable in the hair color space, beloved '80s and '90s makeup brand Prescriptives has been successfully providing custom foundations online for the past year or so. I'd argue that matching color for foundation online is much more difficult than recommending a hair color. The price point may cause some consumers, who are used to paying about half the amount at the drugstore, to balk. But I suspect the upside - better quality of color, colorist recommendations, price compared to a salon and an 'assisted' application process - will be attractive to a lot of women.
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