Hair can be quite unpredictable - a lot of the time. There are several factors that can affect the outcome of your hair color. Hormones, virgin, color treated hair, pre lightened, darkened. Etc. All can play a major role in the outcome of your hair and like many things in life; its not always 100% certain.
In my previous post I talked about using Hi-lift color dye to retouch my roots to avoid having to use bleach and then having to go through the process of washing my hair, drying it, THEN reapplying the color. Honestly, sometimes thats THE only way to get your hair the color you want. But I decided to take a gamble and use hi-lift color. L'oriel Hi-lift color for dark hair, to be precise.
I got L'oriel Hi-Color in H11 - Intense Red
which upon further inspection, I should have gone for the brighter shade of red fire, which is more orange base than violet base. Which Intense Red, looks more violet base and even on inspection of my own roots - it is more violet base even with red protein fillers.
I actually took a video on this to try it out and honestly, I have more respect for V-loggers and youtube gurus. You definitely need a whole set up to do this properly and it was a challenge and excuse me for the shaky camera and ungodly close ups )':
but like I explained in the video as well in my previous post. I mixed the dye using vol.40 developer. And let it process for about 20 mins. I should have let it sit longer honestly but I was afraid my roots would process too quickly and it would come out an intense bright color. This is probably one of the mistakes I did.
And then after letting that sit for a few mins, I went and applied Ion 7IR (Intense Red Blonde) over the rest of my hair shaft using vol. 10 developer (I had the bottle left over from previous retouches and figured - why not?) - again a possible mistake but it worked out alright in the end lol as if I had used the hi-lift on the rest of my hair shaft, even on a lower developer. I'm afraid it would have turned darker than I had wanted.
Also, one thing to note about these Hi-lift colors - they will NOT work if you have dyed your hair DARKER. It only works on virgin dark hair. Meaning, NO color has ever touched that part of the hair.
In the end, the roots on my crown turned decently ok. The rest of my roots - in the back where theres probably a good 2-3" maybe even 4" of regrowth just didn't cut it. Even when I started on the back first to give it extra time to process.
Lesson learned:
Go 2 shades lighter than your actual color. I was trying to color match it exactly as I thought it was. But gotta remember, I'm not pre lightening my hair and redepositing color.
Let it sit and process a little longer.
I'll probably use the same color for the rest of my hair shaft- just using a lower volume so it really helps make everything as even as possible.
Conclusion: I will give L'oriel Hi-lift ONE more shot before I absolutely call it quits and say we weren't meant to be LOL. I've had my hair a nice fire-engine red color before - which, to be honest IS MUCH easier to match since its just ONE solid bright red. Than when you have a specific shade of red on your hair. As a working class person - I can't walk around the office with my crazy intense fire engine hair like I use to when I was younger lol....(which you can see my hair color time line of red here)
I hope you guys find this informative, let my "mistakes" be your guide xD
Yeah why didn't download this app before ): lol in a sad attempt to use this more than tumblr o_oll and instagram. I usually prefer to do more cohesive posts versus posting random tidbit like these...
but I figured why not? At my lunch break I went to go pick up some *supplies* to fix my ugly roots D:
ugly. nasty and dirty roots. I've let them go crazy on their own long enough. The top isnt THAT bad but the back definitely looks like a hot mess. Thankfully being red, isnt nearly as disgustingly bad as when you have BLONDE hair. I remember having to redo my roots every 2 weeks...3 was pushing it for me. Sometimes I even went a month without having to do it. Thats dedication!
And now red hair is another ball game, your biggest battle with red hair is color fading ): and then of course, like with any hair color....roots. And for a while I've always BLEACHED my roots, rinse, dry, then dye.
And on days when I am absolutely lazy, I just used vol. 40 with any red dye. I even went so far as to try Garnier red for Dark hair, yes, it worked but as you can tell, there is a slight color difference. Its definitely not as bright and vibrant as the other half of my hair. The middle shaft of my hair (2-3 inches from the roots) were done with Garnier, and inbetween that Garnier dye is Ion Dye with vol. 40.
And of course the rest - which are more vibrant were a result from when I would take the time to bleach my roots and go through the double process of doing it.
I was going to try and grow out my roots to get some sort of funky dirty gradient ombre black to red look. Lol. but no, my roots arent a jet black and therefore it just doesn't look good, especially if hair isnt a fire engine red as I use to have it back in college )': and just...no.
And after stumbling on this video:
I got a hard kick on the ass and decided, no the regrowths got to go! Not to mention Toshi also recently kill their hair lolol...so I guess its just that time of the month when you need to clean your look up.
lawl. Durp.
Watch that video, its very informative and quite similar to what I do - will be doing to my own head tonight. Just...a more visually appealing step-by-step way to do it for those who aren't interested in reading my ramblings. Yes.
So at my lunch break I took a trip down to Sallys beauty supply (I wish they had coupons out this week D8 but nooooo urgh) and dropped $26 of my hard earned cash on my hairrrr. Yes. red hair is a bitch to maintain, its also quite expensive to maintain. $26 ISNT that much to drop on your hair - I know a lot of people have spent more. )': but stilllllllll ( this is probably why my hair is shit hahahaha - actually I do like to splurge on my hair when I can coz,I need to baby this bitch. Now if only weaves werent an arm and a leg and I've probably been spoiled when I could buy stuff from the supply warehouses for super cheap when I was a student in cosmo school. I could get Biolage shit for $6 or 8. Was such a steal)
But yes, moving on to my haul from Sallys. Picked up another mini bottle of the red protein filler, which for some reason is always sold out when I'm there or they just dont have enough of it in stock as I picked up the LAST bottle. AGAIN. WHY?! I still have half a bottle left at home but I don't want to be caught without one and have to go through the agony or ordering online lol....
More shampoo - which I'll still add the protein red filler in because I am meticulous about maintaining my reds, I should have picked up more conditioner but I still have a bottle at home which I am hoping would last me another 2 weeks before I am forced to get another bottle...(of course if I'm in a pinch I can just throw red manic panic + red filler into any conditioner and make my own)
And of course, dun dun dun, HI-LIFT RED COLOR. I avoided using high lift red color before because I just dont think its going to show up the same shade as the rest of my hair, or its going to just be RED RED.
And the last time I used high lift red it turned my hair gummy. Disgustingly gummy and over processed...
But, I'm lazy and dont want to bleach and dye my roots. So, why not give Hilift color another shot. I picked up Red Hot and we shall experiment tonight and I will edit this post with the results :o
The box calls for vol. 30 developer, but I picked up vol.40 just because. And also vol. 10 for the rest of my hair to refresh the color (but I'll be using my usual shade from Ion 7RR for that)
Procedure: Section your hair into 4 different parts like in this video above demonstrated by David Mayeda. I personally do my own hair and it never comes this clean, but w/e its coz I'm ghetto and refuse to go to a hair dresser lol when I can do it myself.
Start with the back sections of your hair and work to the front, taking small sections in between. Also because as you can tell, my roots are the longest in the back than the front / top since I have better control to see the crown of my hair and the front sections. I'll only be using half of the tube to do my roots, or even just a quarter of it.
Let it sit and process for about 15-20 minutes - watch your head! Since the heat from your scalp will process it faster. And then quickly mix vol. 10 with your other hair dye (I'll be using my Ion 7RR dye for this one) and vol. 10 because I don't need to lift my color at all so I will not be using vol. 20. Its just to refresh the color and make it blend with my roots. Sit for 20 mins. And then rinse! Photos maybe tomorrrroowwww when I have my face on.
I'll leave you with a shameless photo of myself a few weeks ago with my mermaid weavess (no, their not long enough to be mermaid weaves coz these bitches are only 18" someday this hoes gotta get herself some 18" and 24" ones ):< want but urgh. So expensiiiivveeeee and I'm not made of money. And I honestly only wear these on the weekends coz no. Not about to do this shit everyday for work.
P.S: WHY ISNT THERE A LEGIT EYELINER DESIGNED FOR THE WATERLINE?! D8 /majorpetpeeeeve/ I'm going to hopefully check out Inglot tomorrow with mooother and pick up Inglot gel liner since I'm hearing decent reviews from them :o and see how well it lasts on my water line ):<
Red hair of any shade is definitely always a show stopper. It beckons for attention and definitely captures a room when you enter it. When you see someone walking by with red hair you simply cant stop but look and pay attention to them! Even for a split second!
Red hair is definitely a fun fun color! And personally I believe its a very complimentary color on any skin tone! :o And it comes in so many different shades so you're guaranteed to find a GOOD RED on you!
BUT! BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO RUN OUT TO THE NEAREST DRUG STORE AND PICK YOURSELF UP A BOTTLE OF RED HAIR DYE. THERE ARE A FEW THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW!!
1. RED HAIR FADES THE FASTEST!!! AND IT DEF. TAKES TIME AND DEDICATION TO KEEP YOUR VIBRANT LOCKS AS FIREY AS POSSIBLE.
2. It will NOT show up on black hair unless you use a highlift color and even still, sometimes you're not garaunteed a very vibrant color. Alot of different things can go into this...hormones. hair structure. virgin vs dyed hair...etc etc etc..
I've been dying my hair red on and off for almost 10 yrs? or so?...my first ever dye job was a burgundy red my mom tried on me when I was on 2nd grade XD...needless to say it didnt fly very well since I went to an All Girls Catholic school then. Hurpderp! but it was only the back bottom side of my hair but still! LOL! I've been burgundy to the brightest fire engine red to even shades of pinkish red.
Heres a few rundown of red hair colors I've had in the pass that I am still able to dig up photos of O_O....if I find anymore, I'll definetly try and post them up?...hahaha....And all of these dye jobs were achieved many different ways and using different products. I'll try and briefly talk about each one to kind of give you an idea of the shades or how I achieve them?
the first 2 photos: this was over bleached hair. I have naturally BLACK hair and I bleached it using vol.40 + bleach (you can refer to my 'bleaching hair FAQs for Q&A) and I used SLAT hair dye on the very top one and on the 2nd photo I used MANIC PANIC Pill Box Red.
WARNING: VEGGIE BASED DYES CAN AND WILL STAIN YOUR BATHROOM, PILLOW CASES AND ETC IF NOT WASHED OUT PROPERLY And even when you DID wash it properly theres still chances that it will stain some items :B... I think this all depends on how bleached out your hair is and how much of the dye will hold on your hair.
Always handle with gloves! And keep bleach or bathroom spray handy to spray your bath tub down!
Used L'oriel Feria in Ruby Rush + a hint of SPLAT Cherry Dye mixed in to add the extra umf of red. Over BLEACHED hair.
This one is my most recent adventures with red. This is with L'oriel Feria Rush Rush once again over Blonde x Brown hair. Only my front bangs were bleached blonde while the rest of my hair was a medium to light brown....
I do want to stress that you cannot achieve this vibrant red color OVER BLACK HAIR without having to prelighten it to atleast a brownish shade or use a high lift color. I dont like to use high lift colors exactly over black hair (unless its virgin hair) simply because I feel that the colors arent as exact or accurate. Its better to be safe than sorry? by pre-bleaching. Haha I know hu? Double process, whats safer about that?! Well, atleast you know you're getting exactly what you're looking for! especially if you're doing this at home and are unfamiliar with High Lift colors too!
To achieve my latest hair color I used this box dye:
I wont go into detail about how the process work. LOL. its pretty simple~ that and while I was typing all that up earlier firefox decided to die on me and I don't think its really worth writing it up again when its pretty straight forward :o
Now lets talk about products and maintenance! (or mostly products and ways you can do to help maintain your vibrant fierce red hair!!!)
So its basically a no brainer that Red hair fades the fastest! But, like I said, there are ways you can do to help maintain you're red hair longer!
heres my routine for keeping my red hair 8D!
I only wash my hair (as in wet it + shampoo & condition) about only 2-3 times a week. EEK! Yes! Sometimes when I DO have to wet my hair, I use a red hair safe shampoo or color friendly shampoo.
The shampoo and conditioner I use is the John Freida Red one 8B and every so often I have a small bottle of white conditioner where in I put a spoon or two of RED dye in it to kinda just help redeposit color in as I condition my hair.
In between days when I'm not shampooing my hair, I use DRY SHAMPOO. I've heard of this before but it was only recently that I've decided to pick myself a bottle! Tresamme, Suave Professional AND Got2Be now makes Dry Shampoos and are easily accessible to the general public - your local drug store carries them in their hair care line.
How it works? You spray it in your hair in sections as close to the roots as possible and just let it sit for a few mins - see directions per bottle. And brush it away~
For brushing it away I like to use a tight bristled brush like a GROOMING BRUSH (which looks awefully close to a teasing brush! but the teasing brush is thinner. See images below) And if you do not have a tight brittle brush, you can go ahead and use a rat tail comb since its pretty tight together that it helps brush out all that oil from your hair.
grooming brush
teasing brush
which looks almost like a rat tail comb but with
bristles perfect for teasing or back comnbing your hair into
a volumized mess! HAHAHA
And the good thing about DRY SHAMPOO is, it adds volume to your hair! :D win-win situation! The one I'm currently using is the Suave Professional one. I got it since it was on sale at my CVS I was originally going to try out the Tresamme one or the Got2Be brand (since I swear by their hair spray!!!) So far so good its working out just fine for me.
Secondly, you know your hair WILL fade! I usually like to retouch my color every 2 weeks using a deposit only VEGGIE based dye like Manic Panic or Special Effects. My go to is manic panic VAMPIRE RED. I leave it on for a few mins and rinse out - and tada! Red hair again, now this is only a deposit only color so it just refreshes your shade. Once every 2-3 months or so I like to use a box dye with peroxide to retouch my color and roots.
Roots: since my roots are BLACK, I like to do 2 mixtures. One with vol. 40 to help lift and deposit the color to my roots without having to pre-bleach my roots. If you're not too familiar with the different levels of peroxide just refer to my post on bleaching hair and peroxide levels~ And I use vol. 10-20 for the rest of my hair with the red dye of my choice. But of course you dont NEED to use box dye or dye + developer, you can just simply keep using the veggie dyes - but keep in mind you WILL need to prelighten your hair and expect your color to fade faster when using deposit only veggie dye.
And please! Remember! Anytime you apply heat or go out in the sun you're hair is susceptible to heat damage and everytime heat is applied to your hair it opens up the hair shaft allowing color pigments to fade and go bye bye~ so please remember to use thermal spray to protect your locks. I use to go to the extreme and even go as far as using color friendly hair spray XD! But that was when I had blues and reds in my hair and was using the deposit only dyes and I was THAT paranoid in keeping my hair as fire engine red as possible. LOL
Sad to say but having high maintenance hair definitely can be costly with all the products you'll be using/needing...but all this is optional! You dont HAVE to do all this or use all this. Sometimes its just fun to throw a bit of color in your hair.
And normally when you let your red hair fade, it can go one or two ways~ it'll fade to a brown shade (if your in the ruby shades) or more of a pinkish-orange tone - strawberry blondeish if your hair is prelightened and you used a lighter shade of red~
I personally have always preferred to be in the more dynamic ranges of red from vibrant ruby reds to something as insane as traffic light red/stop sign red! HAHAHAHA
