December 9, 2013

Red Hair & My Red Dye Experimentations

I’ve used many different red hair dyes during my time of being a redhead – I’ve done my researches and experimentations to see what suits me best.

Before I became smart enough to bleach my hair and use semi-permanent hair dyes to dye my hair bright red, I used to dye my hair with a permanent hair dye which contained ammonia – what a shame. I was ignorant!



Since I had got my hair from black to dark red (on 18th August 2008) in a hairdresser I don’t remember did I bleach it after it to get it brighter but instead of going to the hairdresser again paying myself sick for him/her dyeing my hair again, I decided to do it at home. My ultimate mistake was that no, I had not read up on different kind of hair dyes – semi-permanent hair colors, demi-permanent hair colors and permanent hair colors... I had no clue that bleaching your hair and dyeing it with semi-permanent hair dyes makes it much, much more brighter than that god awful ammonia crap, I put on my hair for so many times.



So I found and used Schwarzkopf’s Live Color XXL shade “35 Real Red” for so long… Too long! That hair dye's official website says “Real Red 35 is a bright and vibrant red which gives you a vivid colour result” – no, it didn’t gave me such a glow as semi-permanent hair dye gave – and I ended up with this dark red hair:


That was dark red – that has not seen a bright and/or vibrant red they claimed it would be or what it looks like on the cover. The dark red hair was okay, but I wanted bright red hair!



On 2nd of February 2012 when I dyed my hair I used a red hair dye called “Igora” by Schwarzkopf.


I had used it many times until then and it had worked perfectly – but then they had to change its consistency from smooth and easily applicable to a thick paste-like stuff which was hard to apply to hair. And! I used to get 150 ml of dye, with the same price but the new tube had only 100 ml of dye – that’s not nearly enough and that dye wasn’t cheap at all! I don’t know whether this dye is on the market anymore (at least in Finland) but I haven’t come across with it since I stopped using it after Schwarzkopf changed it...

When I next time dyed my hair on 28th of November 2012, I used a different hair dye entirely.
 



When looking for a new bright red hair dye, I stumbled upon a hair dye called “Paintbox” which I decided to try. I had bought two packages of “Paintbox Red Chili” until I realized I would need three of them. 


In a hurry I needed a third package of dye just in case so I marched into a goth/rock store and after taking a lot of time, comparing Crazy Color’s hair dye “Fire” with Stargazer’s hair dye “Rouge”, I ended up in buying a pig in a poke and went for the Stargazer’s “Rouge” because it looked so bright red and that was exactly what I was looking for – just in case if the two Paintbox’s “Red Chili” dye won’t last.

It has been so close that I haven’t yet tried “Manic Panic” or “Crazy Color” hair dyes. I have found something else to cover the opportunity to try them. And maybe some day I will try them, at least “Manic Panic” for it’s a vegan hair dye and it’s not tested on animals.




I currently use “La Riche Directions” brand’s shade “Poppy Red” – it has been a damn great hair dye! It’s red – I mean, IT IS RED! And the dye itself lasts 12 months after it’s opened so… that’s a plus. And as far as I’m concerned it’s vegetable based dye and it’s not tested on animals. And that’s a huge plus!

The red hair dye I use now - “La Riche Directions” shade “Poppy Red” - was out of stock from where I used to buy it and it took me a moment to find another place with a good price – the order came to my door sooner than I thought! I already had one opened but full can of hair dye left since I last dyed my hair and now I had three more ready to be applied to my hair, although I suspected I wouldn’t be needing that much – but I’ve learned that it’s better to be too much hair dye that too less...

The reason I haven’t put any other after-dyeing photos than just that one with the ammonia nightmare is that because they are basically all the same – they are all bright red and so far I nor anyone else have seen any difference between all the semi-permanent colors I have been using on my hair so far. That means I have chosen my dyes wisely, nice to know.
I dyed my hair red last Tuesday. The result, this time, shows as follows:



The red hair came up perfectly, but I was kind of shocked (but in a good way) having bright red hair again. It had been faded to orange with dark roots for so long and then I was semi-blonde for almost two months and I kind of liked the blonde hair for a change – I was almost actually blonde for the first time of my life. Even my dad and his wife said it suits me better than red hair and my brother said that brown hair would suit me better than red. But it’s my thing to be a redhead, I’ve always wanted to be a redhead so why would I change? And I noticed how hard it is to upkeep blonde hair; it started to turn yellowish sooner than I thought for I didn't use white shampoo or anything to actually keep it as blonde as possible because all I needed was a blonde base for the red hair dye. It took a little over an hour to dye my hair completely and it swallowed three cans of dye (I was glad I bought four cans, just in case) but like always, it was so worth it! I find myself just staring my hair constantly. Although it took a few days to get used to bright red hair since the last time it was perfectly bright but now I’m used to it again and I think it’s just awesome! 


p.s. I was kind of hoping this would have been my 100th blog entry but... oh well, never mind...

2 comments:

  1. I have to agree with your brother :) Your bright red shade came out nice, only that it seems to me that dark red hair fits you way better. Your first photo - with the darker red hair - is gorgeous.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you very much! :)
      The thing is that I'm much more happier with my bright red hair than my dark red hair - even I've sometimes heard it suits me better. No can do... What can I say? ;)

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