Bigen Permanent Powder Hair Color 47 Medium Chestnut, 0.21 Ounce (1)

This stuff is LEGIT. Covers well. No stinky smell. Long lasting. I love it.

Bigen is the absolute best hair color dye. It’s easy to mix and you don’t have to mix the whole bottle if you don’t need it. It doesn’t have a bad smell. It covers my gray hair and leaves my hair soft. The hair dye has no harsh chemicals and is easy to apply to my hair. Clean up with soap and water. My color last a long time.

I've been using this for five years, so I thought I'd share some observations. I know products work differently on different kinds of hair, so it might be useful for you know that I'm a white woman with fine, straight medium-brown hair that's been processed (body wave), about 75% gray which I try to cover completely.1. Bigen permanent powder doesn't contain peroxide (unlike most drugstore bottled haircolor brands). Why would haircolor contain peroxide, you might ask? Peroxide, in different volumes, lightens your hair slightly and then the drugstore haircolor deposits color on the lightened hair. The peroxide ALSO roughs up the cuticle of your hair, making it more receptive to the color. Bigen permanent powder just deposits color - no lightening or peroxide unless you add it yourself.2. Bigen colors are dark. If you have pale hair (lighter than medium brown), it'll probably darken it more than your natural color. OTOH, if you like deep, powerful colors that stay awhile, this may be your hair product.3. All hair colors contain powerful chemicals and many can be irritating. Everyone is different, and allergies can arise suddenly, even after you've been using something a long time. Follow instructions: do a strand test every time. If you fail to do this and experience a allergic reaction to ANY haircolor, or if you use this to dye things you're instructed not to do (like eyebrows and eyelashes), my heart goes out to you. We've all had these beauty disasters and they totally suck.4. The ends of my hair grab color quickly but my roots are gray and very resistant to color. I've been using Bigen with Wella GrayAway on the roots (along with 10 volume peroxide per the instructions) and have had good experiences getting my roots to grab the color. I let the combination sit for 30 minutes on my roots and then do the rest of my hair for about 10 minutes.5. Bigen permanent powder haircolor is NOT metallic and it DOES NOT contain peroxide, in spite of what some people have said in their reviews.6. As other people have pointed out, Bigen powder isn't a complete kit. Get yourself a ceramic bowl, a hairdresser's color application comb/brush, plastic gloves, disposable shower cap, and wear an old shirt while you apply. Keep towels and bath mats away because this stuff stains. I wash it out in the kitchen sink because the sink allows me to really target my hair and not get residue all over the shower curtain and tub.7. I've used Wella's GrayAway (to increase grab) and RedOut (to eliminate brassy tones) successfully with this color with good results. These additives are inexpensive and easy to find at beauty stores or amazon.7. After you color, don't shampoo, Rinse thoroughly, using the tips of your fingers to make sure you've got all the color out of your hair and off your scalp. Your hair will feel dry and porous. You might want to give your hair a dose of deep conditioner, which you can also work into your scalp.. If you leave too much of the color on your scalp, it may itch the next day.It costs me $80 every six weeks to get my hair colored professionally. Bigen has made it much more convenient and less expensive to do the same thing at home.

It took me a long time to figure out which color to purchase. I have highlighted hair and my base color is dark brown. Thanks to all the warnings in the reviews, I went with a lighter color because 1) an overwhelming majority said that the color is darker than pictured 2) since this is deposit only (which means it can't lighten your hair, but only take you darker/cover greys), I didn't want it to darken my base or my highlights (even though I was somewhat careful to not get it on my highlighted hair). So with that background, I went with the "light chestnut" color. My greys are scattered and there aren't a ton of them, but they're in very visible areas (I'd say I'm about 15% grey). I mixed about half the bottle directly in the plastic container it came with (this ended up being too much, so heads up folks, if you're 15-20% grey, you don't need to use that much). I love that you don't have to use the whole box by the way! Anyway, back to the process...Since I have these scattered greys, I took a latisse brush (which is basically a very small paint brush) and used that to apply the color. It took me longer to apply the color since it was such a small brush, but also allowed for more precision. The chemical smell was pretty overwhelming. I didn't expect that. Once I finished (took me about 20 minutes to go through all my greys with this tiny little brush), I let it sit for another 30 minutes, which is longer than recommended. I did that anyway because a) My greys tent to be stubborn and b) I wanted to make sure that the last painted areas would get the needed time. I washed it out (no mess, didn't stain my tub or face at all and I didn't use vaseline on my forehead as recommended. I did have a few specks of it in my bathroom sink so try to keep the area covered, even though you can clean it off), and voila every single grey strand was gone. I was amazed. My non-greys did turn about 1-2 shades darker, which I was not happy about, however with every wash, it seems to be getting better, which is a relief. It was my own fault for leaving it longer than needed (they did warn you on the box that the color would go darker if left on too long). Here's my takeaway from the whole experience broken down into pros and cons.Pros: it's not pricey, didn't damage my hair, hair was left shiny with dimensional color, it's deposit only, greys weren't as dark as the rest of my hair giving a nice subtle highlighted look, you don't have to use the whole box,and it takes up very little room when storing.Cons: strong chemical smell (gave me a bit of a headache), it's a learning curve to figure out the right color, colors tend to run darkEdit: You can also use a mascara brush to cover small bits of hair. Works pretty well. Also, I am still using the lightest color (light chestnut) on my dark brown hair and by the time it covers the greys, my hair ends up darker than my base (comes out very very dark brown). I didn't think it was that obvious until others pointed it out in my hair. I am docking a star for that. They should really come out with lighter shades and it's also pretty insane that I have to go so many shades down from my actual hair color.

Reasonably priced if used as instructed the product works well. The roots of my hair is gray about 2 inches and this product covers the gray very well.