I love this product. I have med-dark brown hair......now colored at home but I have been brunette all my life. I do have a ton of gray and my roots start to show some in about 9-10 days. I use the Medium brown AND the Light brown together on my roots. It took me a bout a year to figure out to add the light brown. The Medium brown is actually pretty dark brown. (Nobody needs darker than this Medium brown unless your hair is WALNUT color, as in so close to black people think you do have black hair). ok.....this is a mascara wand. Just like for your eyes, you need to not OVERload the brush. Load it yes. Then take a tissue and dab any clumps of the color off. Mostly it may be on the tip. Ok....let's say you wear your hair pulled back in a pony tail for example. I use the Medium brown 1st. (the darker of my two wand colors). You with put your extra and on your head of hair and where you are starting to "wand" the color on your roots you press down some to make the hair you are coloring in a bit "taunt". My gray is all the way around my face perimeter so I do this same thing around my face .......probably increments of just less than an inch to start. It goes pretty quick once you get the hang of how much pressure to put on the brushing the root color on with that wand. I do NOT use a lot of pressure......about the same pressure as applying a bit of lip gloss. As you move around your facial roots, keep putting a little pressure to hold the hairs you're stroking in place. You will learn you have a few hairs that you will VERY lightly brush just a tad of the color on. These are the tiny little hairs that frame your face (and you can easily miss) that make it look natural rather than a perfectly solid ring drawn around your face with this "root concealer" wand.. You don't want that. Ok....after you have held down the increments of hair around your face....and YES, go from in front of your ears, those "quibly" little hairs, and the sides by your ears, your temples and your forehead. ALL the way around. It goes quick after about the 2nd time. So now I do the same thing with color #2, the Light brown. (It doesn't really matter if you do the light color wand first or the dark). Lightly brush in the 2nd color around the perimeter of your face, just like you did with color 1. Hold your hair down in place behind where you're doing the brushing on with the wand. Otherwise the wand will catch on the hairs and you'll have heavier application here and there. Even with all this detail, do NOT over analyze. It's going to look real good.....it's not going to be perfect every time and you don't need it to be. I have a really observant (critical) girlfriend who seems to blurt out imperfections or selections that she doesn't approve of. NEVER ONCE has she even commented on my roots looking bad, or showing, or a ring around my face of root coloring, etc. Not one word in probably 18 to 24 months or so of using this stuff. And she doesn't hold back......I sometimes wish she would :) OK....take a look now. If it's DEFINITELY looking like an even ring of hairline around your face, use the lighter color (or if you choose to start with one color) to verrrry lightly brush color on few of those little almost invisible hairs in your hairline that barely touch your face. Now THAT's as picky as you get. If you need more than this to go out in your own opinion, then you need to just suck it up and go on and color your roots with haircolor (dye). I have been sick some this spring and a couple of times I have had a solid INCH of white/gray hairs framing my face. It works. The critical friend NEVER commented, and like I said, she doesn't hold back. No tact. You will see some gray roots if you part your hair......do this same procedure along your part. I'd probly part it 3 times close together and brush it along the 3 parts so the white isn't shining through. Ladies, it ain't rocket science....it's a get by thing.....stalling that hair coloring process as long as you can take it. That time will come and you will say "Girl! What are you thinking?!? Color that hair TODAY!" See? All you did was buy some time......and if you go to the salon for color, you can save probably 2 $$ appointments in a year. That's a lil chunk of moolah. Lunch anyone?? ;)))