I’ve never, ever in my life colored my hair at home. (Well, other than a momentary dalliance with lemon juice in the eighth grade, which we won’t count because it did exactly nothing.) But I think I’d like to try it.

I’m obviously in a bit of a switch-it-up mood, but guess how long my red-streaks experiment (above) lasted? About five minutes. I didn’t know salon color could wash out (or at least I didn’t know it could happen that quickly), but apparently it did. And so what all that amounted to was a very expensive two-week dalliance with the shade.

I’d like to try doing something different with my hair, but am in the mood to a) spend a little (or a lot) less than usual, because it’s the holidays and my money is in a steady outgoing stream at the moment, and b) try something new, both in terms of look and technique. Basically…I’m in the mood to have a little fun.

But the problem with home hair-coloring – or at least as I understand it – is that you sort of just slap on the color, which results in a flat, dull overall effect. Conversely, in-salon hair color is great because technicians tailor their approach to the needs of various parts of the hair. Last time I was in the salon I asked my colorist why professional color is so much better, and the secret is apparently that they treat roots and lengths differently in order to achieve a natural effect, with lots of different depths and tones (because the lengths of hair are porous, they absorb color much more readily). And I would very much like this rich, natural effect as opposed to…well, the opposite. What would be ideal would be if there were a way to use at-home color to treat lengths and roots separately, like in salons.