INOA Hair Color

In March of 2010 L'Oreal group discontinued their popular and inexpensive home hair color brand called Natural Match (advertised as "a no-ammonia, color calibrated, color systems that uses a unique oil deliver system") and relaunched it as L'Oreal INOA (Innovative No Ammonia) hair color.  

L'Oreal INOA Ingredients

L'Oreal's Natural Match ingredients list matches exactly to L'Oreal's INOA ingredients list except for one conditioning agent and one fragrance.  Although INOA includes its Oil in a separate tube, the same ingredients were in the Natural Match color product but found in the colorant itself.

One shocking fact is that "Ammonia Hydroxide" is found as a predominate ingredient in the L'Oreal INOA line, particularly the shampoos. This is despite the clear and inconspicuous advertising that L'Oreal INOA does not contain ammonia. The truth of the matter is that L'Oreal INOA contains high levels of ammonia as any chemist will tell you that the ingredient "Ammonia Hydroxide" is simply ammonia and water.

L'Oreal INOA Price

L'Oreal's Natural Match was sold in stores like Target, Walgreens, CVS, Wal-Mart, and grocery stores for anywhere between $3.99 to $5.99 per full application.  The amount of product would comfortably color any head of hair. Comparably, L'Oreal INOA is sold for $11.42 per 4 ounce bottle. Because of the poorly engineered consistency of INOA, it is unlikely that 4 ounces would cover most heads of hair and consequently costs $22.82 per application.  

Therefore, L'Oreal INOA costs $22.82 per application and L'Oreal Natural Match costs $4.99 per application. Salons are expected to pat 357% more for product that was sold in grocery and drug stores just months ago.

In general, the performance of L'Oreal INOA hair color is very poor for several key reasons. First, the extremely thick consistency of the product makes application difficult causing unreliable and inconsistent tones and shades. Second, the hair color's extremely high tendency to fade off tone, especially after covering gray hair, makes the durability of the hair color treatment extraordinarily low. Third, the cumbersome and time consuming mixing process increases the likelihood of colorist taking short cuts and making mistakes. Finally, the exceptionally high price of L'Oreal INOA, combined with the poorly engineered packing requiring several tubes to accomplish a single application and therefore unnecessarily wasting product, makes the hair color uncompetitive from a pricing perspective.

Mixing L'Oreal INOA Hair Color

Mixing INOA color is extremely slow and cumbersome. It takes 5 - 7 minutes to mix the color and requires both hands to squeeze the ingredents out of the oil and the peroxide bottles because of the thickness of the product. The thick consistency of the product also makes it exceptionally difficult to measure especially with the inadequate measuring device provided.

L'Oreal INOA Hair Color Application TIme

Because L'Oreal INOA haircolor is so thick, it takes much longer to apply. An average head takes almost 25 minutes to apply the thick color from scalp to ends. I cannot imagine a benefit of L'Oreal INOA being so thick that it makes it so difficult to apply. This cumbersome application process can easily lead to inconsistencies in distribution of the product and a busy colorist growing frustrated and short-cutting the process.

L'Oreal INOA Fading

Fading of INOA hair color is very significant. The hair color has a extremely high tendency to fade off tone. There seems to be a substantially higher tendency for L'Oreal INOA to fade off tone when covering gray hair.

L'Oreal INOA Hair Condition

Upon the second application of L'Oreal INOA on a client's hair it becomes undeniably difficult to comb the hair and the hair begins to exhibit a very corse feel as it presents a rough cuticle.