My Life Isn’t Perfect, but My Red Hair Is.

All you need is love, a cup of coffee, && fabulous red hair.

With so many people depending on you, it’s important to take care of yourself. Personally, I always feel better about myself when my hair looks good, and nothing makes me more self conscious about my hair as when my roots start to grow in! But let’s face it, going to the salon isn’t cheap, or fast, leaving a lot of moms in serious need of root touch-ups, and extremely faded hair.

**No judgement here, I’m just tellin it like it is**

Learning to do your hair at home is a very cost effective solution, and you are free to do it on your schedule. Even if that means long after the sun goes down, and everyone is tucked into bed!

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am notorious for doing my own hair at home, and that I have had just about every color under the sun.

Not to mention, every shade in between. At one point, I had such a dark shade of brown that it looked blue in the right light. I also rocked a strange shade of orange for a few weeks back in high school. That was when I learned that you can’t go from dark brown to blonde in a day, and that you should consult a professional when making that dramatic of a change!

**I HIGHLY recommend still seeing a professional for the initial color, especially if you are going more than 2 shades lighter or darker than your current color! If you are changing color families completely, you may need to seek professional help more than once. Remember, safely coloring your hair is a process, not magic. Some changes may require multiple processes, and should never be done at home. The purpose of this post is to show you how easy it is to maintain and touch up your color.**

Currently, I have a darker shade of red, which is the color I’m going to tell you about today.

First, let me go ahead and just lay out some facts about red hair:

All you need is love, a cup of coffee, && fabulous red hair.

Red has an extremely high wash out rate. Meaning that every time I get my hair wet, the water runs with a hint of red.

Some hair color brands are better than others. I personally prefer L’OREAL PARIS – Feria. It has an extra step of shampoo that sort of sets the color better than other brands. I do have dedicated hair towels, because my hair does still stain the towels a bit when its wet, but going to bed with damp hair does not stain my light colored pillow cases.

Because of the high wash out, reds fade faster than any other hair color.

There are a few things you can do to combat the fading. First, wash your hair in cold water. The colder the better. Second, don’t wash your hair more often than you absolutely must. And third, use the proper shampoo and conditioner for your color treated hair.

**For blonde hair, you should use a “purple shampoo” to fight back against the brassiness or yellowing of your color. Use this shampoo as often as necessary to keep your blonde looking vibrant. It is possible to use this too often, resulting in a purple tint to your blonde, but rest assured that will wash out with a wash or two**

My favorite shampoo / conditioner for red hair is MATRIX – KEEP ME VIVID. It is formulated for high maintenance colors.

Okay, so now we have the hair dye itself, and the correct products to care for our color. So lets open the box! First, you pop the top off the cap of ‘bottle 2’. Then, you pour ‘bottle 1’ into ‘bottle 2’. Next, you add the color booster. Be careful when you open this, because it will stain anything that it comes into contact with. Then you add ‘step 3’ into ‘bottle 2’. (Don’t worry, each bottle is clearly labeled, and the instructions have pictures.) Replace the cap on ‘bottle 2’, cover the hole with your finger, and SHAKE!

For reds, I urge you to always apply the color following the directions for the “all over method”, rather than the “root touch up method”. Otherwise, you may end up with a duller looking color on your ends. Once you’ve generously applied to all your hair, start your timer for 25 minutes. Then rinse. With cold water. The instructions say to use warm water, but all hair dye kits say to use warm water. Please trust me, and use cold.

As I mentioned before, this particular brand comes with a shampoo to use immediately after rinsing the dye. Per the instructions, you need to shampoo and rinse twice before applying the supplied conditioner. This step is so important in fact, that they have included this part of the instructions on the inside of the lid to the box. After shampooing twice, apply the supplied conditioner, allow it to sit for 2 minutes, then rinse. Style as usual!