Hi, So a couple weeks ago I dyed my hair red, and remember my hair is naturally the darkest brown. So i decided to leave the dye on my head for an hour as apposed to the recommended 25min. The dye had peroxide in it, so I thought leaving the product on for an hour would give my hair some time to lighten and take the colour better, and it did. My hair came out a dark red shade. The dye I used was the Garnier 5.62 Vibrant Red Hair Dye, but my hair was a little dark for my liking, so I used Bicarbonate of Soda to strip/lighten my hair colour, and it work. It went from a deep red to a medium red, but I still find it too dark. Last night, I decided to try the Food Colouring hair dye, so I mixed super red gel fod colouring with some coconut oil and some lemon juice. I thought the coconut oil would allow the colour to penetrate the hair shaft and colour the hair more effectively. It worked, it lightened and it got a bit redder, but I'm still craving more. :bang: Do any of you have any recommendations for me? I'm thinking of mixing the super red food colouring with some pink food colouring and see if that lightens my hair. Thank You, Male Streisand
Oh Male Streisand, I don't know. Coloring my own hair would scare the life out of me, I just know it would end up orange or green haha. Have you thought about calling a stylist and asking them their opinion? Maybe a professional wouldn't mind sharing what you could do.
I use a brand from Sally's called Hi-Color. You don't have to bleach your hair, and it is still crazy bright. I have brown hair, too, and my hair now looks like a fire engine. Just follow the instructions on the box, though. It'll do the trick.
In the past if I've been trying to lighten my hair I've gone with the bicarbonate approach, I've also seen people saying that you can lighten colour that's gone too dark with crushed up vitamin C tablets... another method I've tried is mixing honey and distilled water which is a gentler way of bleaching your hair since I was using henna at the time and nothing else would remove it, and it did lighten my red hair, though it takes a few hours. Another option is to do lemon juice again, though maybe not for too long as I imagine using it to lighten your hair too much may make it orange...
Unfortunately if you've got dark hair the only way to go is bleach. Just use 20vol developer if you're worried about damage and keep checking on it every couple minutes. It's not expensive and if you buy in bulk there'll be more for next time.
I agree, you should've bleached your hair first. I have dark blonde/light brown hair and my hairdresser bleached my hair before dying it purple. So even on lighter hair it's best to bleach it first and then dye it your preferred colour. I think your best bet would be to seek advice from a professional.
Its because your natural color or brown. If you really want it RED, red then you should bleach your hair first. but remember that bleach destroys your hair.
