Taking Care of Dyed Red Hair

Dying Red Hair

 

 

Before Colouring:

When you are considering dying your hair, you should think about some things before you do so:

First, how often will you be able to re-colour and touch up your hair? Depending on your natural hair colour and style, your roots may begin to show faster than if you used a different colour, and it may end up being quite important to you, that you will need to dye your roots every four to six weeks. Are you willing to take the time to do that? If you don’t like the look of roots, and you don’t have time, you may want to consider another colour. But also take into consideration, that if it’s an unnatural red colour, no one is going believe it’s not dyed anyhow, so it may not even matter if your roots show slightly for a little while between colours!

Second, if you have very dark hair, or even black, you may have to either bleach your hair, or lighten it before you add the colour. Every time you fix up your roots, you’ll have to go through the process of lightening/bleaching, before re-colouring. Not only will it begin to damage your hair, but it will be rather annoying to have to spend such a long time on your hair every so often, especially if you don’t much like doing it. However, if you like changing up your hair colour often, and you use a bleaching and temporary dye method, it really shouldn’t matter much to you anyway.

Third, will it look ‘good’ on you? Now don’t take my word for it, if you want red hair, go for it! But if you are worried about the final result, you may want to take a few things into consideration. Your eyebrows will be a different colour. It’s easy to pencil in a red colour on lighter brows, but if you have dark or black hair, it may be harder. It may look a little strange if you have dark eyebrows and bright red hair, especially if you are dying it a natural looking shade of red, but it really doesn’t matter if you don’t want it to. It may also make your facial complexion look a bit more pale, or something. But it probably won’t do anything to horrible, not at all.

Lastly, you may want to ‘deep condition’ your hair a little while before colouring hair, especially if you are worried about dry/damaged hair later.

Colouring Your Hair:

Depending on how comfortable you feel with dying your own hair, or how much you are willing to pay, you can choose either do get it professionally done at a salon, or to dye it yourself.

If you choose to get it done at a salon, it may end up being quite expensive, but the colour will most likely be very high in quality, and you’ll be sure that you didn’t miss a spot, or mess up in any way. While you are at the salon, remember to carefully explain exactly how you want it done. I know that some people are a little timid when it comes to ‘bossing’ a hair stylist around, but remember that it’s their job, they are paid to make you look how you want, and they have most likely had much ‘bossier’ customers than you. Remember to ask questions such as ‘How can I make my colour last the longest’ or ‘How should I take care of my hair?’. They will most likely offer up the information as you ask.

If you choose to colour your own hair, go out to the store (they sell dye in a lot of places, and you can pick up a box from either a convenience store, or a salon store.) and pick up a box that looks appealing to you. Make sure it’s what you want, whether it be permanent or temporary, and that it will work well with the colour of your hair. Then, when you have enough time to dye, open the box, and fallow the directions as well as you can. When it comes time to rinse out the dye, rinse in cold water.

General Care:

• Wash hair with shampoo every other to every three days. Generally as little as possible.
• Use colour depositing shampoos, or mix a little bit of temporary red colour (Raw Colour, Manic Panic, etc.) in your regular shampoo.
• If you swim quite a bit, you should invest in a swim cap (if you don’t already use one). Those chlorine filled pools will suck the red right out!
• If you don’t swim very often (once or twice between colourings), you don’t necessarily need a cap if you rinse your hair down with cold water before entering the pool, and if you keep your hair above water as much as possible.
• The sun seems to fade red hair the fastest, so if you plan on being in the sun for a long period of time, wear a hat!
• Use shampoo/conditioner that is specifically for dyed hair, or even red hair. It may be a bit more expensive, but it really does help in the long run.
• Deep condition your hair as frequently as possible.
• Take cold showers, as cold as you can stand them!
• Re-colour every 6-8 weeks.
• Try to use as little heat as possible (hair dryers, flat irons, curling irons).
• Three weeks after dying hair, I use a temporary colour (Raw Hair Colour) to liven my shade up a bit.
• Make sure that your hair is something you really enjoy! If it seems like caring for it is a burden, and not worth it, then you may not want to keep it. But keep in mind that no hair is perfect, and if you want to swim everyday without a cap, go for it!
  
  

Have a great day!