Clairol Root Touch-Up vs L'Oreal Root Rescue

Unlike the woman in today's NYT Style section, I am not ready to go grey--or white.  I'm fighting, rather than embracing, aging.  But I also don't like having my hair dyed, so I've started trying root touch-up products (after months of resisting them).  I wrote in early May about L'Oreal's Root Rescue--excellent results, but very toxic product.   As good as the results were, I'm afraid to try Root Rescue again--the smell lingered for hours, and my scalp itched for weeks.  I'd say the results lasted about 6 weeks--which seems pretty good.  I waited a few weeks until I got up the nerve to try another root touch up.

Yesterday morning I tried Clairol's Root Touch-Up.  The main plusses are that it didn't stink and my scalp doesn't itch.  It clearly is milder, because the instructions didn't even say to keep the gloves on when you washed out the product--and they said you didn't need to shampoo.  (But "feel free to use your daily conditioner".)  But the results aren't as good--I can still see some grey (white?).  The dark blonde color seems fine; blends well with the rest of my hair.

Root Touch-Up is much messier to work with than Root Rescue--you have to mix the ingredients in a small plastic bin; of course, the stuff spilled over the edges onto the sink counter while I was trying to "mix thoroughly".  And I found the brush it comes with difficult to work with--it was hard to keep the goop from getting on other parts of my hair besides the roots, and from there to my face.

The last time I had my hair dyed in a salon was March 4th--less than 3 months ago and I've already done two root touch-ups.  I think the next time my roots start showing, I'll go to the salon--because I see whitish hair near the ends of my hair, where root touch ups aren't designed to work.  And I just don't have the nerve to color my hair myself--I've seen too many weird results from home colorings.

Too bad there isn't a product with the convenience and results of Root Rescue without the toxicity.  But then it's probably the strong ingredients that make it work.  Reminds me of when I asked my doctor why there wasn't a product that was as effective as valium but not addictive--and she explained that the ingredient that makes valium effective (diazepam) is also what makes it addictive.