How to Dye Your Hair Red at Home

dye your hair at home

When you are ready to dye your hair red at home, here we provide some guidelines that you can do yourself at home.

• Choosing the right color is probably the most important step if you are considering coloring your own hair. Find out what red you want. Do you want blood red? Bright cinnamon color? Or a Vibrant cherry red? Whatever color you want there is a dye for it but you must browse shops, read reviews and get advice before you decide on your dye.

Cocorocha Red Hair

• BEFORE HAIR PRE-LIGHTENING, DO A STRAND TEST !

This requires a bit of patience but well worth doing.

Snip off a piece of hair from undersections, some more adventurous than I prefer to do a test strand of their hair but it's not for me. Mixing a small amount of pre-lightener, apply to the strand, waiting and watching. Doing this means you can get an estimate of the time to leave the lightener on AND you get a fair idea of how your hair will react through the process.

• Pre-lighten your hair. If you are dark-haired first thing to do is pre-lightening hair. The point is to obtain the best results from the color you want. Just get the pre-lightener, and apply to your hair such as coloring. The best pre-lighteners will not only lighten your hair, but to disarm any previous permanent color left in your hair.

• Leave it for at least a week, as your hair can only take so much damage at a time. Do a deep conditioning treatment which will help your hair get back into a suitable state for dyeing it again.

• As always do a patch test with your dye. Most dyes will have instructions on how to do a patch test. Make sure each time you dye your hair you do a patch test. This will tell you if you will have an allergic reaction or not when you apply the dye. Do not apply the dye if you experience swelling, itching or burning during the patch test or if you get a rash, do not use the product and seek medical advice before dyeing your hair again.

• Set up your area for dyeing your hair. Lay some newspaper on the surfaces, mix your dye if needed, get out gloves, towels, a comb, hair clips etc. Just make sure you have everything you will need during the dyeing process.

• Pour some of the mixture into your hands (with gloves on, of course) and starting at the ends apply all over. Make sure the ends are all covered in dye. Comb the ends to make sure they are completely covered in dye.

• Now do the roots. Section them out with hair clips and dye each one separately. Make sure you have gotten right to the bottom of the root and that each one is completely covered in dye.

• Make sure your whole head is covered in dye!

• Leave for the recommended amount of time and wash out. Make sure the dye is completely washed out before drying it.

Things You will Need

    Red hair dye
    Hair lightener
    Deep conditioner
    Gloves
    Old clothes
    Hair brush
    Tint brush (Optional)


Warnings

• Always read the warnings on the side of the dye boxes.

• If, during the dyeing process, you experience swelling, itching or burning, rinse out the dye immediately and seek medical advice.

• Do not use dye on dry, irritated or damaged scalp.

• Do not use the pre-lightener or dye if you have experienced a reaction before to either a lightener or any red hair dye. Seek medical advice first.

• If product gets into eyes, flush eye with water and seek immediate medical help as the dye may cause serious permanent damage to your eye.

Tips

• Always perform a patch test!

•     Always read and follow the instructions your dye gives you.

•     Make sure you have the conditioning mask, they help a lot.

•     If your hair is longer than chin length some dyes recommend you use two boxes of dye.

•     After lightening hair and dyeing it use a deep conditioning treatment to repair your hair and get it soft, shiny and healthy. 

•     After dyeing your hair, if it is really damaged, do a conditioning treatment once a week, have a good diet full of protein, avoid dyeing it for awhile and get it trimmed regularly.

•     Wear old clothes while dyeing your hair. Don't get your good clothes dyed red!

•     It is best to get your hair cut afterward to maintain it's growth.

•     Trim your hair regularly as your hair will be more damaged after dyeing it and you will be more likely to get split ends.