Red Hair

Although I'm blonde(ish) now, I had previously been colouring my hair red for about 3 years. Here are my favorite 2 red hair dyes...

BRIGHT 'OMG I NEED SUNGLASSES' RED

Firstly I want to say I DID NOT copy this from Rhianna. I was this colour about a year before everyone jumped on the bright red bandwagon and if I want to copy anyone it'll be Sherri Dupree Bemis (god I love her).

Before I went this colour I had very dark brown hair with a lot of colour build up. I'm naturally a medium / dark blonde and was getting tired of my roots looking so light against the dark hair. Using one of the Manic Panic Flash Lightening (30vol) kits I lifted the colour to a medium / light orange. If you think you need to lift your colour to blonde / white for this kind of bright red - DON'T DO IT. Its really unnecessary and you don't need to cause that much damage to your hair. For pastel shades you will, but red will be really vibrant even with an orange base... especially with this dye:

SPECIAL EFFECTS - DEVILISH

This colour is amazing!!! It's a great pinky red and its soo bright. Here is the lovely LouTube with a quick video of her applying this product and the end result.

Special Effect dyes generally last around 2-6 weeks and apparently last a lot longer than Manic Panic. YES it is a pain the ass to maintain and YES you will dye the whole shower pink but it is so damn pretty. I always bought my dye here and it's £9.40 a bottle. This is what the colour looked like on me (please ignore the MySpace pose).

 

 NO BLEACH 'IS THAT RED OR ORANGE?!' RED

Red hair is high maintenance, especially when using a non permanent colour which requires you to pre-bleach your hair. I found a home dye which delivered an awesome bold orange/red colour and which actually lasted quite a long time before fading. It is..

GARNIER NUTRISSE ULTRA COLOUR - Intense Red Copper (7.64) 

This cheap little box (usually £5-6) gave me a more vibrant and longer lasting red than when I paid over £100 at the hairdressers. It is great value for money and always left my hair feeling smooth and strong. I think this is a lot better than the Live XXL Colour Intense Red Passion R43.
Here is what this colour looked like.

If you have any questions message me on whimsicalwilma@gmail.com

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