Non-permanent haircolor

I've been coloring my hair with this stuff from Sally Beauty and it seemed worth talking about. They've been in the process of changing the packaging but I believe this is the old packaging:

You buy most of the bits and pieces for this separately, which is weird for those of us who are used to the little kits from Clairol or L'Oreal. This is the color that I got, it's Burgundy Brown.

I used to use a Feria color years ago called Chocolate Cherry which I really liked and which was sort of similar, so this one seemed like a good bet. (I don't think a real auburn would be flattering on me but the ones with red-violet tones seem to do well.) Right after I used this the first time, I thought I was going to hate it, but then when I washed it the first time it lightened up some and after that I thought it was perfect. It lasts for 20 shampoos, which is a good while if you don't wash your hair every day. My experience was that it fades very gradually and unobtrusively.

I used Feria (which is L'Oreal) when I first started coloring my hair, probably 15 years ago or more now - I started getting noticeable gray when I was still in my 30s. Then for a while I got it done in the salon, and then (in the time when I was unemployed) I started doing it at home again, and I tried a number of different things, Nice & Easy and the boxed brands like that. I'd let it grow out for a while and it would always start annoying me eventually and so I'd eventually color it again. Then one day last year I let the hairstylist talk me into getting a "gloss" or demi-permanent color - I'd always had permanent color before. "Gloss" for haircolor turns out to be a trademark owned by Redken, but I did really like it, so later on I went in Sally's and asked whether they had something similar and this is what they steered me to.

I bought a kit with the applicators and the little pan (and gloves, which were really awful ones but did the job) and then you buy the developer separately and the "sealer" to put on afterward. It's all amazingly cheap if you're used to salon prices, and I'm pretty sure it's at least as cheap as the boxed stuff in the end. It seems much quicker than doing permanent color, and it's much easier on your hair, because it has fewer chemicals. If anything it seems to make your hair easier to handle. (I assume I'm not the only person around whose graying hair has become much more troublesome - so anything that helps with that is wonderful.)

Since it's easier to deal with overall than permanent color, and the results so far have been great, I'm really sold on this.