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...

Style Inspiration: Different Hairstyles & Colors

This entry will start my “Style Inspiration” posts about fashion genres which I love and from which I try to take influences. This first “Style Inspiration” post isn’t yet about fashion, but my other style inspiration (and obsession); hair.

The title says this post is about hairstyles and colors but this is mainly about the colors, because I like to keep my hair very casual – which recaps the hairstyles I like in this post; straight, curled and braided.

RED HAIR

As far as I can remember, I have always wanted a red hair – since I was a child. I had to wait for it until I was 16, and then the color was very dark red. After that period of time, I finally got it really red!

Here’s some delicious redheads:

BLACK AND WHITE HAIR
If I wouldn’t have a red hair, also what have interested me is black and white hair – the other side completely white and the other completely black, right on the middle of my fringe. But I have understood that it takes a lot of work (too much work) to keep it up so I might just fantasize about it...

RAINBOW HAIR
This hair I don’t particularly desire to myself but I always love watching photos of rainbow hairs – they are so inspiring to watch and to see someone putting that much effort to get a rainbow hair is simply awesome!

So there you go – hair dyes which inspires me and hopefully also you. The next “Style Inspiration” posts will be about style and fashion, first up “Victorian Era”.

If you could have any kind of hair, what would it be?

By the way, this is my 100th blog entry!! Yay!

Seeing an Effort Again

Today was an amazing day. I was full of energy and I was so happy (even the sun was hidden behind thick clouds). But I’ve only felt this good for over a week and every day counts for me. I don’t know what happened but since the last day of September I’ve been feeling so good again. There was a long downtime when I couldn’t get enough out of myself and I let myself just go from one day to another. I didn’t have energy or interest to keep up my hair color or look into my cabinets what treasures there is for me to wear or put on my make-up.

But today was different – I had decided yesterday that today I would do something different... I woke up early full of energy (even I slept badly) and I had in my mind what to wear today and what kind of make-up I would do. Oh, and I had bleached my hair yesterday so that has given an extra-extra boost to my self-esteem for I know that the “hard” part was over and the next step is red hair again. I had been having a long brown roots and a shabby orange hair for too long and now it was time to do something about it – I had been waiting for the bleaching eagerly. Although I was a little bit worried how it will go for it was such a long time since I did it last time – will it burn my scalp, will my hair fall out, etc. But everything went better than good and with the help of my mom the job was done in 25 minutes.

This is the result:

I thriving with this hair – it came up so nicely. And the most important thing is that now it looks like I have a sort of ombre hair - that I’m supposing to have orange ends and blonde roots. I’m feeling semi-blonde and I like it. I like this hair too but I don’t see myself as a permanent blonde, to be honest. But I will keep this for a little bit longer because I like it and also because the red hair dye I use now 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 – now my order is sent and all I need to do is wait... But I can’t wait!

One thing I enjoyed today was the 20 minutes I applied my makeup – something I haven’t done in months. I took my time and tried to be as careful as I could. And step by step I felt even prettier – but I don’t see makeup as defining how pretty I am, only accentuating it. Like some people it seems like a mask to hide behind in. I wonder what they think when they see themselves in the mirror in the mornings. I don’t ever want that situation – I like how I look without makeup also.
 
And this was my outfit today: 

It was an absolute joy to go through my cabinets and to see what’s in there and have a difficult moment deciding what to wear. I actually looked in my cabinets a while ago and found this skirt I used today since I have been looking for it since we moved. But I finally found it.

One of the other things that made me feeling beautiful today was putting on a corset after a long time. I adore that even it’s laced not that tightly it gives such a support for my back and posture I need. And since it has been a long time since I used a corset, I didn’t lace it that tightly, just enough for a start to stay comfortable. But my plan is to get back to using corsets more often and starting to lace them more tightly with time. I have a lot of corsets... I seriously need to use them!

It feels bad to admit I haven’t have strength to keep up my look for such a long time but today was a change for the better. I will definitely now put more effort to myself and how I look. And the best part is that I’m not doing it for anyone else but myself only.

Red is like you always told me

It was time to dye my hair again. It has again been a long while since I last dyed it but better late than never, I guess.

Last time I used "Paintbox Red Chilli" but this time it was way more expensive than last time I bought it. Also Stargazer’s “Rouge" what I used beside "Paintbox" was also very expensive (at least for my wallet). So I had to find some new hair dye brand which would suit my wallet. I asked a friend what she had used to dye her hair red before and decided to try LaRiche Directions hair colours (which had been on my mind before I last bought "Paintbox" brand). And the good news was that they are not tested on animals! And also I read it lasts a year after it's opened.

I was bouncing between "Poppy Red" and "Pillarbox Red" and heard the second one is more like a pink which fascinated me for I have never liked that my hair fades to orange but being based on what I had heard and on the photos of the users had put on internet it was too pink for me so I decided to buy "Poppy Red". I heard it fades to orange but isn't orangy red but in fact bright red. And obviously size matters (at least what comes to hair dyes) for "Paintbox Red Chilli" was only 75 ml and LaRiche Directions dyes are 88 ml. It is obvious that you need more than just one package of dye for longer hair but last time I also had to buy third package (Stargazer’s “Rouge") beside two "Paintbox Red Chilli" packages just in case and had to use half of it.

This time I first bought two packages of dye but decided to buy a third one just in case. I still had a half a package of Stargazer’s “Rouge" color and I sent a message to them asking is the dye still ok even if it’s opened and they answered that if it’s still tightly closed it’s ok. So I was going to use that first and then my other hair dyes. And it doesn’t matter if there’s anything left off for after all it lasts a year after it’s opened. I still got another package of Stargazer’s “Rouge" just in case for Directions cans looked so small and I had no time to order them some more.

I’ve been buying the same bleach for a long time since I’ve been proven that it’s good. I remember standing in front of a wall of bleaches trying to pick one before I found the one I’m using now. I bleached my hair a few days ago, I just like to wait a couple of days after bleaching and before dyeing my hair.

I first used the one and a half of Stargazer’s “Rouge" hair dye before adding LaRiche Directions “Poppy Red”. I was so surprised how sufficient it was and only had to use one and about half cans out of three. Applying it evenly to my hair took me about an hour and a half and then I waited for half an hour before I washed it off. The result was what I hoped it would be and I was overjoyed. After the shower the shower sponge was red, the tiles were red and if I would use white towel or pillow case they would be red too.

So life as a redhead is much more nice than a bunch of faded orange hair with oh so sexy roots. My self-esteem gets an amazing boost with red hair and it gives me the “street credibility” I need.