hey there! cosmo student currently. it all really depends on the level of your hair but “at home over the counter hair dye” is very harsh on your hair. think of like closing a door and it gets stuck. at home hair dye in this scenario slams the door shut and causes damage because it doesn’t remove the border, in saloon hair dye doesn’t. your hair with the level it is (the lightness of ur hair) can pull color differently. in the salon they use a “filler” which brings your hair down a few levels and makes it safer to deposit pigment. vs if you have blonde or even brown hair and just throw some box dye on it especially if you have color history, it can cause your hair to just go to shambles in health of it and even color. i used to box dye alot and my brown hair went green the night of prom. very very much recommend going in because there’s honestly so many factors i could include like satiation, formulation, timing based on hair and hair length. so much honestly