Madison Reed Hair Review

No matter how much we repeat to ourselves that appearances do not matter, most of us still try to look our best on almost any occasion. And it’s no wonder why – research shows that there is a clear connection between looking good and feeling good. And when it comes to looking our best, virtually nothing matters as much as having the right hairstyle. A great haircut and a glossy, vibrant hair color can do wonders for our self-esteem and take our fashion style to a whole new level. Unfortunately, hair dyes eventually end up stripping the moisture out of our hair, leaving it frizzy and matt-looking. Well, most dyes do anyway. Madison Reed though? It seems to be an exception.

Free from harsh chemicals and packed with hair-nourishing ingredients, Madison Reed promises to color your hair in a healthy and gentle way while leaving it with a salon-like multi-dimensional color with zero grays. Sounds a bit too good to be true, doesn’t it? To check if Madison Reed is really as great as it seems, we take a close look at the brand, its popular products, ingredients and how it can affect hair health long-term. Our Madison Reed review also includes lots of customer feedback, so read on!

What Is Madison Reed?

Madison Reed is an American hair color brand that focuses on one simple mission: to provide the most luxurious hair color made with ingredients that users can actually feel good about. To achieve just that, the company has partnered with honest and transparent manufacturers in Italy which are operating under strict EU laws and regulations.

The brand was created by Amy Reed and named after her daughter as a way to emphasize the integrity value of the brand. The company aims to empower women with its high-performance hair care products that add gloss and shine as no drugstore product can. In fact, Madison Reed sets itself as a body empowering brand with the motto “Confident is the new beautiful”. Of course, confidence is more than skin-deep – or should we say hair-deep – but no one can deny that great-looking locks help boost self-esteem!

Madison Reed Hair Color Review

Madison Reed brings women permanent, sophisticated, salon-level hair color with 100% grey coverage while playing on complex tonal color and superior condition and shine. Although Madison Reed is mostly targeted at women, they also offer hair color products for men in their Madison Reed Mr. Hair Color for Men range.

The Madison Reed hair dye seems to be a great product to care for hair health with their Smart 8-free hair color formula. This innovative formula is free of:

• ammonia
• PPD
• resorcinol
• parabens
• phthalates
• gluten
• SLS

With more than 55 colors in the range, all made with gentle ingredients, Madison Reed seems to cater to women and men of practically all styles and ages.

Permanent Hair Color

The Madison Reed Hair Color Kit is created at the forefront of innovation with a caring formula and more than 55 shades in the range.

The company’s first-ever Smart 8-Free Permanent Hair Color was formulated as a fully harmless product and seems very appealing for folks who’d like to hide the effects of age on their greying hair, as well as people who’d like to amp up their style with brand new glossy hair color.

Because care about hair health as well, we like that Madison Reed goes a step farther than most hair dye brands, thoughtfully infusing hair-nourishing ingredients in their permanent hair colors like keratin, argan oil, and ginseng root extract.

Root Reboot

For when greying roots reappear, Madison Reed has just the perfect product: Root Reboot, a hair kit that allows customers to extend the time between color appointments by up to two weeks.

Root Reboot is a long-wearing, liquid color that expertly camouflages fast-growing gray roots while restoring beautiful, shiny, natural-looking color at the roots – in just 10 minutes. It retails for $25 (or $22 on auto-delivery).

Root Reboot features:

• a precise sponge-tip applicator for clean results and a no-fuss, no-mess application
• 7 universal colors that blend seamlessly with existing permanent color for two weeks without altering the underlying hair color
• a clean formula with no ammonia, parabens, resorcinol, PPD, or gluten

Color Reviving Gloss

Color Reviving Gloss is a product that Madison Reed has designed to add shine and refresh faded tones on color-treated hair, while deeply caring for it at the same time. It’s important to note, however, that this product is not intended to offer grey hair coverage on the full head.

How to use:

• Apply directly to dry hair, wait 20-35 minutes, and wash out
• Use every 2-4 weeks or 6-8 shampoos

If you need to reduce the warmth or brassiness of your hair color, Color Reviving Gloss can correct the tone without lightening or removing the color with specific cool-toned colors.

Color Reviving Gloss retails for $30 (or $25 on auto-delivery).

Root Touch Up

The Madison Reed Root Touch Up is a “makeup for hair” product that can be used over natural or colored hair on the roots, up to 2 inches away from the scalp. This is a micro-milled powder pressed with water and waxes that can be used both on hair and eyebrows as it is temporary. When used on hair, it can be fixed for longer wear using hairspray.

Root Touch Up:

• lasts one to two days
• washes out with your next shampoo
• sweat, rain, and pillow-proof
• perfect for creating highlights and lowlights to blend away dark roots if your hair is lighter color-treated
• available in 6 shades from the lightest blonde to the darkest hair color

Root Touch Up retails for $30.

Madison Reed Highlights

If you prefer doing highlights at the comfort of your home, Madison Reed offers two great options:

• Light Works, an active 2-step kit designed to create highlights at home
• Toning Glaze, which focuses on refreshing faded highlights.

Light Works

If you feel like getting some salon-like highlights, Madison Reed’s ammonia-free 2-step kit can be a great solution for natural-looking balayage highlights.

The Light Works kit is best used for:

• hair with already existing highlights or balayage (not a full head of highlights though)
• light blonde hair to dark brunette hair, whether natural or color-treated
• redheads who want soft golden-toned highlights

Do note that the Light Works kit should not be used if:

• your hair has been treated with a chemical hair straightener, relaxer, keratin treatment, perm, or all-over bleach
• you are looking for very light highlights and your hair is very dark
• you have or want rainbow-colored highlights like blue, peach, or silver
• you want to touch up all-over bleached hair
• you have black hair, natural or color-treated as you might see little to no lightening with Light Works
• you are looking to cover up grey hair, as it is not intended for grey hair covering

The Madison Reed Light Works kit prides itself on its precision with a clay-based formula and a precise applicator that allows for a no-mess application, and a salon-secret toning glaze that enhances condition and shine.

Light Works retails for $45, or $36 on auto-delivery.

Toning Glaze

The Toning Glaze focuses on treating faded highlights by enhancing the color without interfering with your base color, reducing brassiness, and conditioning the hair as if you had just stepped out of the salon.

Toning Glaze retails for $22 (or $18 on auto-delivery).

Madison Reed Shampoo And Conditioner

Madison Reed offers a shampoo and conditioner specifically formulated to nourish and protect colored hair. The Color Protecting Shampoo retails for $26 (or $24 on auto-delivery) for 8 oz., and the Color Protecting Conditioner retails for the same price.

The Color Protecting Shampoo locks in color with its sulfate-free formula and provides UV protection to prevent fading. It also contains argan oil, keratin, and ginseng root extract to strengthen the hair with long-term use. Importantly for those with sensitive scalps, it is free from:

• sulfates
• parabens
• phthalates
• gluten

The Color Protecting Conditioner is formulated with keratin, quinoa, honey, ginseng root and aloe to repair and strengthen damaged hair and replenish the protective lipid barrier.

The Conditioner and Shampoo are also available as a bundle for $40, or $37 on auto-delivery.

Madison Reed Color Chart

Madison Reed offers a color chart on the website for you to be able to choose your own hair color like a pro and even offers online assistance with licensed colorists to help you select the most suitable hair color for yourself. The brand has also implemented a very useful quiz that helps you determine the best color according to your skin tone, your hair type, or current hair color. In total, more than 50 shades are available, and best of all, they’re all illustrated with real customers’ photos and samples.

Madison Reed thoroughly explains how to best choose your color through a breakdown of hair color levels; with a range from level 2 indicating the deepest black to level 10 being the lightest blonde. Hair tones are also precisely described with letters such as NGV, which stands for Neutral Gold Violet, a mix of the colors used to get the Amalfi blonde hair color.

Madison Reed Promo Codes

While researching for our Madison Reed review, we have not noticed any deals running for the Madison Reed products. However, the brand offers free standard shipping for new customers on their first order when they sign up to the mailing list.

If you often dye your hair, for grey hair-covering or a new look, you might like to look at the Madison Reed membership that is available straight from the brand’s website as it can save you quite a bit of money (for instance, auto-delivery every four weeks on hair color makes the price drop from $26.50 to $22).

Thicker or longer-haired women can also add a second tube to their order for the lower price of $14.

Madison Reed Customer Reviews

At the first glance, Madison Reed’s customer reviews seem to be positive. Many users claim that their hair looks healthier after using Madison Reed hair dye due to the shine and vibrancy of the color, quite a few report that the product smells great, and some folks say that the depth of color is fantastic.

However, since many brand websites filter and censor their reviews, we also checked customer reviews on other famous review websites, including Trustpilot and Makeup Alley.

To our surprise, we found that Madison Reed has a 1.7/5 star on Trustpilot (as of this writing), where a large part of the 50 reviews express concern and disappointment after trying the product. Some customers report that the hair color did not manage to cover their grey hair while others complain that they had hair loss problems after using Madison Reed hair color. While this may sound alarming, it’s good to remember that some people can have an allergic reaction to any hair dye, including Madison Reed which can lead to hair loss and other scalp issues. For this reason, we highly recommend patch testing the color before using it (this goes for any hair color you purchase, not just Madison Reed).

One of the customer reviews on Trustpilot reads: “Hair felt healthy but color faded way too quickly…”. Another one says: “Every time I wash and then comb my hair a lot falls out. This has happened since I used Madison Reed.”

There were a few positive comments as well, including this one: “I have been using Madison Reed hair color for over a year and I cannot recommend it highly enough. I am covering gray hair and they helped me find the right shade to do just that without fading. Each shipment comes with everything you need to color your hair at home plus shampoo and conditioner that smell herbaliciously yummy, like you’ve been at a spa. I also use their color reviving gloss and root touch up powder…in fact their root touch up powder is what I use to fill in my eyebrows daily as well!”

We do feel the need to say that most bad reviews on Trustpilot came from users with only 1 review – the Madison Reed review. This doesn’t have to mean anything but it also might, so that take as you will.

As for MakeupAlley, it has much more balanced reviews. Yes, there are some bad experiences, but none complain about hair loss, which is interesting (they typically complain about rougher hair texture and the color not covering all of their grey hair). There are also many positive reviews, all of which seem genuine.

One of 3-star the reviews on MakeupAlley says: “Pros: gentle, gives very natural color, doesn’t harm my hair, doesn’t smell terrible, and the kit is definitely nicer than any other at-home dye I’ve used – the gloves (two pairs!) are sturdy, the bottles are easy to open/work with, and it includes shampoo, conditioner, barrier cream, and a cleansing wipe. Very, very nice. Cons: color doesn’t last that long, doesn’t cover grey very well…”.

A 5-star review reads: “I saw Madison Reed online and decided to give it a try. This color is wonderful! My gray roots are completely covered and my hair is shiny and soft. Positano Black is a natural darkest brown. Everything you need is in the kit and I don’t have to run out for a color appointment every three weeks since I have auto delivery. The customer service is great.”

Overall, we’d say that the reviews are mixed; while some customers love the multi-dimensional, salon-like colors that Madison Reed hair products provide, others are not so pleased with the quality of the product. In the end, it’s good to keep in mind that hair coloring is dependent on many factors, including the natural color, thickness, porosity and overall health of one’s hair.

Where To Buy Madison Reed

If you’d like to treat yourself to new hair color or Madison Reed hair care products, you can buy the brand from:

• the Madison Reed official website
• the Refinery29 website
• Madison Reed Color Bars which provide in-person help from licensed hair colorists
• Ulta

What Is Madison Reed’s Shipping Policy?

Where does Madison Reed ship?

Madison Reed only ships within the United States of America and some of the U.S. territories including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

Excluded US territories are:

• American Samoa
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Federated States of Micronesia
• Marshall Island
• Palau

Customers from APO, DPO, and FPO locations can order from Madison Reed but should bear in mind that standard shipping time frames are not applicable, which means that you will get your order between 2 and 6 weeks later. Expedited shipping is also not available for non-state addresses.

Standard Shipping

 If you order from Madison Reed and are based on the US mainland territory, standard shipping takes 3 to 7 business days, starting from the day the order is shipped.

Some Madison Reed products are required to ship by ground, like the Loud + Pro volumizing mousse and the Light Works Balayage Highlighting Kits, and they can also not be shipped to APO/FPO/DPO addresses.

Expedited Shipping

 If you choose expedited shipping, you will get your order between 1 business day and 3 business days with FedEx or UPS. Expedited shipments cannot be delivered to Alaska, Hawaii, or P.O. boxes.

What carriers does Madison Reed use to ship orders?

 If you order from Madison Reed, you will receive an email with tracking information as soon as your order ships. Standard shipping uses FedEx, and orders are then handed off to your local Post Office (USPS) for the delivery, using the same tracking number for both.

You can also find your tracking information through your Madison Reed account, in the section Your Order, clicking on the purple box labeled “Track my box”

Madison Reed Vs ESalon

Madison Reed’s main competitor, ESalon, is a home hair-color brand that focuses on custom-crafting hair color.

Both companies offer a membership that reminds us a little of subscription boxes that you can stop or cancel at any time. A single order is a little pricier at ESalon with a hair color box retailing for $27.50 ($26.50 for Madison Reed), but both are priced at $22 on auto-delivery.

You can book an online consultation for either brand, with the main difference lying in the ability to get a hair color created specifically for you, with your name printed on the bottle from ESalon, while you cannot get this personalized service from Madison Reed.

Contact Madison Reed

Customers can contact Madison Reed directly through their website, by means of a chatbot, and through the phone number indicated on the website: +1 816 439 8014.

Additionally, you can almost instantly connect with Madison Reed on various social media:

• Facebook on Madison Reed
• Instagram on Madison Reed LLB
• Pinterest on Madison Reed
• Twitter on Madison Reed
• YouTube on Madison Reed

The Madison Reed licensed colorists are available to help out customers all week:

from Monday to Friday, from 6 am to 6 pm PT

Saturday and Sunday, from 8 am to 5 pm PT

Madison Reed: Editors Verdict

Madison Reed and its beautiful color range is seemingly worth the deal since the brand offers products formulated to care for and color the hair in the most harmless way possible. At $26.50 apiece, the Madison Reed Permanent Hair colors are priced above drugstore average, but the company does focus on bringing salon-grade hair color into our homes so the pricier tag is understandable.

Based on our research for this Madison Reed review, which not only included looking at dozens and dozens of customer reviews on various sites, but also at the ingredients that the company uses in all their formulations, we have to say that yes, we do think they’re worth it.

If you’re after that sophisticated and vibrant color and gloss, Madison Reed is definitely worth trying out. Just remember to still do your own research if you have a sensitive scalp, and make sure you follow the instructions to a tee!