Maintaining Red Hair

Red is probably the hardest of all unnatural hair colours to maintain (so my unprofessional Googling tells me), so since being an on again/off again redhead for the past 5 years, I am still perfecting the art of maintaining my colour.

While I am perfectly aware that the best way to colour hair is with a professional at a salon, I am too broke to be doing that every couple of weeks, never mind the fact that dying your hair at home feels like a science experiment. While I enjoyed science at school, the results never left the classroom, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Every month/6 weeks depending on how patient I am feeling (how poor I am), I touch up my colour using Schwarzkopf "Red Passion" or a different shade of my fancy. This colour is a bright red, but isn't pillar-box so I like to tell myself it's subtle. My hair is getting on the longer side now so I usually use two boxes so that I get enough coverage in my roots as well as the rest of my hair. My natural hair is chestnut brown, so while a red tone already exists in my natural colour, it is still quite dark, yet the dye works first time without bleaching. This is because the way the Schwarzkopf dyes work is that they use 'newer coloring technologies' (basically the dye bleaches the hair in the process). This means that it can be quite damaging, therefore I refrain from using it too often. However the colour payoff is great; vivid red that lasts a couple of weeks. If you wish to fade out the colour, depending on how often you have dyed it, it usually fades out to a brown colour, although as I have dyed my hair so often, (and therefore bleached it) it fades to a dull pink/red.

To maintain colour in between dyes, I use Osmo Colour Revive in "Purple Rouge". Osmo is a colour conditioning treatment infused with avocado oil that does not intend to act as an initial dye, but simply restores vibrancy to the colour of the hair. This particular shade is pinker than the red colour I dye it, so it gives me an opportunity to have fun with a slightly different shade without having to damage my hair further by dying it. While it does not get rid of roots, it can help to break up the root banding slightly by fading the colour into the regrowth. I guess it could also create some fun, semi-permanent colours on blonde hair too, although I am no expert, and don't claim to be! (subtle disclaimer so you can't blame me if it wrecks your hair)

Finally, everyone out there will tell you to wash your hair with cold water. That is sure to help, however I feel that life is definitely too short to have cold showers. Instead, refrain from washing your hair daily, instead using dry shampoo, and be sure to use heat protectants. A good conditioning mask every now and then is also definitely worth the investment. I recommend the Mark Hill Intensive Conditioning Mask, although it appears to be out of stock in many places at the moment, so I may be trying -this product- as a replacement.

I honestly believe that different things work for different people, so I thought I would write about what has worked for me. I only had my hair cut twice in the whole of last year, and it has survived direct bleaching, constant dying and colour changes with minimal damage. It has taken a while to find my routine, but now I have found it, I think I may be sticking to it for a while.