I just got a bottle of Back2Natural color conditioner, and it really is as good as people say. I've been in the sun a lot and my month-old piece has faded a lot. one 'treatment' with the Back2Natural made the world of difference, and made the blend with my natural hair seamless again...

but man it's expensive!

Does anyone know of a similar product without a similar price tag?

I haven't used B2N, as I find the price a bit ridiculous.I just got a bottle of ProTouch color maintainer shampoo from HD that's supposed to maintain/restore color if used regularly.I've only used twice so I can't really comment on how good it works,but hey it's a lot cheaper.

If you have brown hair, then a great alternative is John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Liquid Shine Luminous Color Glaze. Unlike the other John Freida Brilliant Brunette shampoos and conditioners that don't deposit anything, the color glaze deposits temporary color. I use it and it makes a difference. You can find it for less than $10 a bottle at Amazon.

http://www.johnfrieda.com/en-US/ProductD...f-Brunette

strange how L'Oreal and many other top brands are moving away from shampp+conditioner combo,
very difficult to find 2 in one now,
time to find another brand.

I've been using Back2Natural for about a year now, and find it makes my hair feel dried out after using it as directed, so I've been mixing it with conditoner before applying it. It really seems to help with the dryness, but doesn't deposit quite as much color.

I also use the John Frieda Brunette Color Glaze and like it a lot. Lately, I've been mixing it with Back2Natural and that works well too. Be careful if your hair has lots of ash tones though, because this glaze has a slight reddish tint to it. John Frieda also makes the same glaze with no color added that you can use to mix the Back2Natural with, or use alone to add a little extra shine.

Another thing that works great are semi-permanent (level 2) colors from Sally Beauty. This type of hair color deposits a "glaze" of color around each hair, and eventually wears off after a few shampoos. It's great to use because it contains no harsh ammonia or bleach to damage hair like permanent (level 3) color does. Also, you can mix different shades together to achieve about any color you want with these. They're very inexpensive ($5-7). A cool thing you can do with these colors is to get several different shades and "paint" sections of your piece with slightly different shades to break up the color a little (like highlights/lowlights).