Are all box and professional color's the same?

We all know the constant dispute between box and professional. Any client who has been in my chair though I am never a stylist who will shame or judge you for using a box color. We all have been there and it's ok. I also will be the first to admit that many times if lightener isn't involved your hair may not even appear damaged! I will even compliment some box colors because lets be honest they can be beautiful. However the complications with box colors often come when you are ready to change your hair. The chemicals in box colors are different and harsher than professional. Often times when we try to use lightener with box color it causes a different type of chemical reaction and can cause not only damage, but unexpected results. I did an experiment with a mannequin to help give a visual and demonstration of different box colors compared to a professional version. As you will even see in this experiment I did some of the box colors did not seem to cause initial damage. Hair may be a little dry but that can be common with color in general without any conditioning or repairing treatments. However some of these colors caused some crazy reactions! I will not name the brands I used for legal purposes as I could be considered to be slandering brands. However, I was not going into this just to be anti box color. I simply wanted to see for myself how some different common and popular box brands compared to professional and what they do to the hair. I didn't only use box colors you get at a drugstore, I also used a higher end brand box color and I think those results shocked me the most. While it would have been expected to be comparable to a professional color, it actually was probably the worst one! It also had such a bad smell that remained on the hair. The one issue I ran into with just the normal box brown is also a very common problem I see with box colors. The level and expected outcome shown on the box and swatches was darker than the outcome I had. I had originally grabbed box brown that should have been close if not the same level as my professional brown. However the box color is a lighter brown. I also originally expected my box blue to be darker like my professional blue, but I can't even lie that box blue honestly did make a gorgeous teal! It just caused issues when I tried to remove it. Professional color can be adjusted as needed for specific hair types and levels, but box colors are supposed to be able to cover more variety. This can cause unexpected and inconsistent results. Most box colors and bleaches also usually contain a higher developer which isn't always necessary. This can cause unneeded damage. You will notice when I did my professional and box lightener before a purple color even though the box developer was the same it was much harsher on the hair than the professional. This was a good example how while you may initially get the results you want it can cause more damage due to the chemicals. Feel free to take a look at the following pictures and captions explaining the process! I followed directions to each colors and when using the lightener and color removers they were all mixed the same and I used low and gentle levels of developer just as I would in a client situation. I will never shame you for previous colors history. However, this experiment helps to give a visual as to why sometimes when box colors are involved hair goals may not be achievable in one day and I may need to take additional steps and precautions.