salon dye vs at home dye

I have been searching for the answer to this question for some time.

Is salon dye better than at home dye? Is there truly any difference in the process is you are talking about the high quality at home dye such as Garnier? I prefer to have the control over my color but I don't want to damage my hair. Please let me know.

BTW, I have medium dark brown hair and I dye it almost black.

I think it's a lot easier doing it yourself. It costs a lot less and I think it's kinda fun. As long as you have some idea of what you're doing it's worth it to do it at home.

Well, here's the specifics of what i was looking at.
I had my hair done at a salon that's called "Best in Tampa" Jim Botts, to be exact. THey use Actyva products. It really looked beautiful though I wanted darkest brown not black and it wound up pretty black looking. I have to admit I loved it though, so that was ok. Anyway, I am thinking of switching to Garnier. I am pretty handy with hair and have already experimented successfully with doing my roots.

Do you think Garnier will perform much less well than this Actyva stuff? I don't want to ruin my hair.
They say there is no ammonia in their color(Actyva) however it is permanent dye so they must use a similar component to get it to work.

Help, not sure what to do. I just hate spending that much money.

If you are going with a darker color and you don't want lighter...All you want is to deposit color that is as dark or darker than your original color, your best bet is to go with semi permanent, deposit only color.

Leave the ammonia and higher H2O2 developer out you don't need it to simply deposit color. This type of color...especially in the darker tones...can last better than permanent color...there really is no such thing as permanent color when your talking deposit.

"Natural Instincts" woks pretty well for this.

Can someone help me figure out how to find or duplicate a hair color at home? I have used a blond home hair color (L Oreal Feria 93 Candleglow) for several years to cover premature grey. This summer, I visted a salon and made the drastic change to RED. It looked great, but when the roots grow out, it looks much worse -- far sooner -- than the blond.

I am in a graduate program several hours from the salon, and on my last visit they wrote down the ''''formula'''' for me. The brand is Schwartzkopf, and for new growth:

(1/2) 5.0
(1/2) 6.4
(1/8) 0-77
(1/4) 6-68

with 20 vol, and for the ends

cut formula in half; use 10 vol.

First, I have not been able to find a local salon that uses Schwartzkopf, nor any source online or retail.

I cannot get back to the salon until the end of the month, and I needed a touch-up a week ago. HELP!

Having colored my own hair for many years, I''''ve made a few mistakes, and I really cannot afford to just go pull something off the store shelves & hope it comes out right -- I feel the same way about lucking into just the right local salon that might match but not alter the color.

Any advice?