When I was a kid, my mom and auntie would retreat into the bathroom, hands wrapped in latex gloves, newspaper covering the counters and floor as they mixed together a dark, foul-smelling paste in a plastic bowl. For hours, they’d alternately gossip and brush the paste into each other’s hair. When the monthly ritual was done, their gray hairs had been completely vanquished. I, a judgmental know-it-all, would scrunch my nose and say this all seemed like too much effort.

They told me to wait until I started graying.

Two decades later, I maintain that I was correct. Thanks to an ill-fated pandemic experiment with purple hair, I know at-home hair dyeing is a righteous pain in the butt. I vowed to never do it again. Then, at my last haircut, my stylist tried to upsell me on a dye job because, “You’re too young to be this gray.” At that moment, I saw my mom and auntie in that old bathroom, pointing their fingers at me, cackling.

Thus began my two-month experiment with L’Oréal’s Colorsonic.

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I first came across the $124.99 L’Oréal Colorsonic at CES 2022. It’s a high-tech hair wand with bristles that spit out goo so you can quickly dye your hair. The bottom half has an empty chamber where you insert a refillable hair dye cartridge. The top half has a nozzle with bristles that oscillate more than 300 times a minute to evenly apply color. You press a button, brush this thing through your hair, and voila! You’re done. There are some extra techy features thrown in — for instance, the cartridges have chips so the device can tell you how much dye is left. The pitch is to make dyeing your whole head, root touch-ups, and covering grays easier, quicker, and more affordable than a trip to the salon. And in the world of beauty tech gadgets, there isn’t really anything else like this.