Since the horrifying "Annie" perm stage in 5th grade, I've been a little paranoid about my hair. A bad haircut or coloring job is pretty much a girl's worst nightmare, is it not?

My hair lost its virginity sometime in high school when I used my first package of Clairol Glints. I became very attached to my trusty reddish-brown and practically shed a tear when they discontinued the line. Most recently, I've been a dedicated user of L'Oreal Natural Match but have become increasingly uncomfortable with the fact that hair color is loaded with harmful chemicals and carcinogens. I try not to put chemicals in my body, so why would I put them on my head every 6 weeks? Still I was afraid to try herbal hair color. I'd seen it on the shelves at Whole Foods but frankly dismissed it - "There is no way that stuff works."

Then, I found Naturtint. I read one glowing review after another on Amazon and Vitacost that heralded its many benefits - multi-dimensional color, full grey coverage, great conditioning, and gentleness on your hair due to the vegetable ingredients. And, bonus, it's one of the top hair colors in the U.K.! Not surprising.

It does have some synthetic ingredients but far less than regular hair color. It's not 100% natural like henna, but I live in Dallas, not a hippie commune. A girl's gotta draw the line somewhere.

So, after practically driving my husband insane by pondering out loud over and over which color I should choose, I finally settled on Naturtint Light Chestnut Brown (5N). I returned home with the box and was still nervous to open it. "GOOD GRIEF!" my husband exclaimed. "Just do it! How bad could it be?" He actually opened the box, handed me the ingredients, and read the instructions aloud to me from the living room. The best part? They provide a small bottle of conditioner you're supposed to use after you rinse the color from your hair. But only use half, because the other half is supposed to be used "in a fortnight." A fortnight? I had to Google that sucker. It's 14 days.

So, 20 minutes on the roots, 10 minutes on the rest of the hair, then rinse.

How did it turn out?????

I LOVE IT. L.O.V.E. Here it is about a week later, still going strong, and it seems to have given me natural coppery yet non-brassy highlights. Plus, the gray is non-existent!

So give Naturtint a go. If you end up trying it, I recommend a few things:

Get a shade lighter than you think you'll need. I read that in the reviews, so I chose "light" chestnut brown. As you can see, it's not light!
If you have a lot of gray, leave it on your roots for more than 20 minutes. Next time I'll probably do 30 minutes just on the roots.

And of course, dearie, the most important part. Don't forget to use the rest of the conditioner in a fortnight!