There has never been such a huge variety of permanent and semi-permanent hair color lines to consider as there is now. It can get pretty overwhelming with all these companies vying for your attention and assuring you they’re the best for your needs, so it's important that you take a step back and actually consider what you need.
What Kind of Coloring Do You Do?
Are you mostly coloring gray hair, or do get a lot of young trendy clients looking for vivid and fantasy colors? Do you work with a lot of blondes, or are you pretty much exclusively styling level 10 hair?
Every company can do color but some are better suited to other hair types than others. For example, a color with a high ammonia ratio probably isn't great for fine, light hair, but if a lot of your clients have thick webs of brunette locks wanting to go lighter, then you might be looking for something fairly strong. Which gives us a great opportunity to talk about where that strength might be coming from.
Chemicals in Hair Colors
Take note of this: ammonia-free doesn't mean damage free. There is no combination of ingredients in the world that will make a hair color or developer damage free. But there are plenty that will smell better and mitigate the damage.
The two big bad guys you often hear about are ammonia and peroxide, but ammonia really isn't as harmful as most people think, and while peroxide does dry hair out, it’s not going harm any client’s skin without an allergic reaction. Ammonia is often the culprit behind the irritating smells in hair colors. When you see a box that says ammonia-free you can probably count on a pleasant fragrance. But if it's hair health you want, look through the ingredients to find some kind of oil that will help restore moisture to the cuticles.
Price point
This is often the deciding factor for many stylists. How much of a cream do you have to use in your formulas to get your colors and how much are you charging to give your clients that color?
One thing to consider is the strength of pigment in the colors of a line, because those are not the same in all brands.
One of the reasons so many stylists use Fanola now is not only because their tubes are larger and cost less, but because many of their colors have a very strong pigment so you don't need to use as much to get stronger color intensities. That also means you have to be more careful when you mix, but once you get the formula down you'll end up with a much more cost effective color without compromising quality.
Relationship and Education
Before you dedicate yourself to a line, you should always check into the company itself. Browse around their website to see how much information the provide about the creation and content of their products, and if they make an effort to educate stylists about mixing ratios and color pigment. Some companies will hold classes specifically for training colorists in how to use their product, and are often very open to giving samples for you to experiment with.