my hair journey: preview - I see trees and greens - enchanted forest by Manic Panic

So it’s been a very long time since I dyed my hair the last time – I went from pitch black to dark red, then to bright poppy red and then I got bored and dyed it to a honey caramel tone. December 2013 I dyed it back to black and cut off 10 cm, since then I didn’t do anything with my hair. The black dye faded over weeks/months and it turned out quite nice, overall it was a dark brown with lighter ends. Got myself an unintentional ombre look – win! Since I didn’t put any dye on my hair since Dec 2013, I have about 17 cm of natural dark brown regrowth – my hair is now about 52 cm long whoop whoop!!

read about how I started going black to red: black to dark red
read about how I corrected patchy spots: correcting patchy spots
read about how I brightened the red: going bright red
read about how I stripped the color to go honey caramel: red to light brown
read about how I went from red to honey caramel step 2: red to light brown step 2

btw here you see how I went from red to honey

The hair journey goes on!

I was going back and forth if I should go for a lavender lilac or if I should dive into totally unknown territory and try a blueish green tone! Yes, green. After hours of research and skipping through thousands of pics I decided to go with green as my next hair color. Considering my current hair condition and color, I believe that it’s possible to pull off a nice vibrant green. It’s not that green little kids color vomit with.. it’s more like a pine green with a blueish undertone. I think it’s absolutely gorgeous!

btw these are not my pics!

After seeing Manic Panic’s “Enchanted Forest” on some nice gals on google I knew I had to order it. You can use this vegan hair dye on virgin hair but it will fade quicker than you can say “quidditch” – unprocessed hair has a smoother surface and that’s why the dye won’t stick as good as on already processed hair. That’s another reason why I also ordered Directions bleaching kit 30 vol. – with a 30 vol developer it lifts your hair color by 3 levels (+-) – so I’ll get a brighter result + it will last longer. I wouldn’t recommend using a 40 vol developer since this is already pretty harsh – as all chemicals I know – but 30 vol. is just the right thing to use if you don’t want to fry your hair.

I learned a lot from my last experience with bleach and since my hair has natural red undertones I added Directions “White” toner to my order. My hair won’t turn bright blonde after bleaching it, it will have a brassy tone and to correct that you need a toner that will help you pull out the brassiness as much as possible. The toner doesn’t damage your hair at all. It can happen that it will leave a slight purple touch to your hair if you leave it on for too long but that will fade away quickly.

When I remember my vibrant red, washing my hair head over the bathtub with cold water and stained towels, pillows and sheets come to my mind again. This won’t be any different now because I’m using semi-permanent hair dye again. And honestly I would never use anything else. Of course the hair gets somehow damaged while bleaching but still it’s better to only damage it once than damaging it twice in a row. Let me list some pros & cons of using vegan hair dye by Manic Panic

Pros

•  Not tested on animals
• No harsh chemicals that damage your hair
• You can mix colors to get your very own special tone
• You can easily pour some of the left over dye into your conditioner, that way you touch up the color with each wash
• The longer you leave on the dye the more vibrant it will turn out (depends on how light your hair was before)
•  It moisturizes your hair
• Looks frikkin awesome and comes in all kinds of colors
• Not that expensive

Cons

• If you don’t know how to properly take care of your new hair color it will fade very fast
• Stains on the skin and hands are something you should get used to -> use Vaseline and gloves while putting on dye to avoid that
• Stains on the sheets, towels etc
• To maintain a vibrant color you have to touch up quite often (I touched up my red every 3 to 4 weeks, well red is one color to fade away the quickest anyway)

Well, I’m very excited and I can’t wait for my order to arrive :) stay tuned

#dyehard

my hair journey: red hair - correcting patchy spots + going brighter

yeh... couldn't help myself

so after i dyed my hair with l'oreal hicolor in h9 red hot 3 weeks ago, i was pretty happy with the result. ok i knew from the beginning that it would take a longer run to get my hair red red red but since my haircolor was kinda uneven and screwd up from the treatment before (went to a salon in bern - ehm ja...) the result with hicolor of course didn't come out even at all -  i had to think about how i get rid of my obvious uneven haircolor at some spots -.- arrgghh

so - i tried to google, as always, but didn't find a good answer - so i just thought "whatever" and got myself a bleaching kit. yes, a bleaching kit... and yes, usually i'd rather cut it all off than going full blonde. nah, i just wanted to lift the darker spots a bit by applying that nasty blonde lifting thing. yes it is damaging (of course how couldn't it? it has something to do with blonde :P haters gonna hate i don't care, so stop crying).

evil bleaching stuff

applied it to the darker spots only

the whole process is simple, i mixed everything together according to the instructions, tested it on a single strand to figure out how much time it needs for a certain lift. after 25 minutes i washed it out and it looked a bit lighter, more matching to the rest of my hair! so i proceeded with the rest of my hair, of course ONLY on the darker spots/areas! if i would've put it on my tips etc it would look uneven again!! so i only applied it to the darker spots and waited for 25 minutes - as i also had to touch up my roots i applied l'oreal hicolor in h9 red hot on my roots and left everything in for another 15 minutes (didn't want super bright roots haha) and washed it all out.

after bleaching, bathroom lightning kinda sucks

the result is more(!) even than before, it's slightly still a bit uneven, but that's ok to be honest - makes it more natural. the following pics show the result AFTER i went over with manic panic/directions.

after / normal indoor lightning, no extra lightning or filter here

before / indoor lightning

before with patchy bangs/sides + super bright lightning

after / with sunny lightning from outside (window)

t o u c h   u p

after letting my hair air dry i mixed 3 parts of directions "poppy red" with half of manic panic's amplified "vampire red" tube and applied it to my entire hair. these sweeties are SEMI-permanent hair dyes, vegan + they are NOT tested on animals!!! how awesom is that?! since they are vegan (vegetable based), they don't contain any aggressive and damaging chemicals, that means you can easily let it sink in your hair for about 2-4h!! yes, you can even let it in over night! the application is super easy and i even had leftovers so i disposed it back in the directions pot - i can use the leftovers for refreshing my color while washing my hair everytime!

color mixture in daylight - vibrant red with a cool undertone

vegan hair dye <3

I'll do the same touch up process once a month, lifting my roots with l'oreal hicolor in h9 red hot and apply my color mixture (directions poppy red and manic panic vampire red) all over afterwards.

 

started to mix, bright red is "poppy red" darker one is "vampire red" I added more afterwards, just so you can see the contrast

my hair journey: how to care for red hair & maintain vibrancy

Disclaimer: i'm by no means a professional - if you are concerned using some of the mentioned products then consider your local beauty salon for advice or google! i just share my experiences with you and show you how i do it cause' it works for me.

yeh dem b!tches be like "care, care, care" - BUT hair care becomes slightly different when you are a red head! The better you care for your hair with the right products, the longer you will enjoy a vibrant color - no you really don't want to run around with hair looking all faded and... just meh!!!

g e n e r a l

as we know from our research, red color molecules mostly sit on the surface of our hair because they are too big for our hair cuticles to fully absorb. each time you wash your hair it will bleed out - there is no way of avoiding it. especially if you wash it on a daily basis or every second day + overkill factor: warm/hot water. i wash my hair in cold water only - how i do it without freezing my whole body, i'll explain later. combining both, daily washing + warm/hot water, i'll promise you that your red color will fade super fast. that's why i wash my hair max. 3 times a week - usually 2 times, when i was out clubbin or whatever doin things that affect the freshness of my hair i wash it 3 times, otherwise just 2 times. you think that's gross?! jezz a bit oil is so good for our hair - it's natural!! - washing your hair on a daily basis will damage it anyways and might cause a dry scalp! sure it depends if you have naturally greasy hair or not, but if you have let's say "normal" grease excess then 2 times a week is just fine! but here's another tip, use dry shampoo between your washing days - it's not at all old fashioned, it works super well and gives back freshness by absorbing the grease in your hair + it smells nice. 

p r o d u c t s

• "reviting reds" shampoo & conditioner (see first picture), amazon
• "gliss kur" marrakesh oil & coconut intensive hair mask, dm
• "alverde" almond & argan hair oil, dm
• "balea" trend it up dry shampoo, dm

bleeding love *sing*

m y  r o u t i n e

as i said before i wash my hair in cold water, so obviously i don't want my whole body to freeze the sh!t out of it - that's why i wash it separately. see how it bleeds out even with cold water? the thought of how bad it would bleed out even more with hot water gives me shivers!!! i wash it headover in the tub first, using both my reviting reds shampoo & conditioner. those products are indeed red! they are red tinted and color depositing products, that's why they help you to maintain your color a little better and longer. we aren't talking about general products for colored hair, these goodies are explicit for red hair because they contain red pigments - yes they will stain your hands a bit, but that fades after washing your hands with soap or showering your body.

shampoo above, conditioner below

when i put on the conditioner i also add some of my hair mask and massage it all in. instead of hangin over the tub for 8-10 minutes like a weirdo. i slightly wring out my hair and wrap it in an extra towel - then i shower my body as usual, having both products in my wet hair which i wrapped up. that works just fine and i can have both, warm shower & cold hair wash!! after showering i simply hang over my head again and wash it out! that's all, actually not much more effort than doing it the other way round - that way it's much easier to leave in the mask/conditioner. my hair really feels awesomely soft and it's somehow easier to straighten!! of course i use a heat protector before doing so. super shiny!

stained hands - but no biggie!

after that i just massage a little bit of my almond/argan oil into the tips of my damp hair and let it air dry - another amazing tip! cold washing + air drying really helps your hair to shine, stay healthy and on top of that it maintains your color way longer! although the reviting reds products help for vibrancy they do not replace a touch up! the difference after using it isn't phenomenal, but you can clearly see that it helps a bit. in my next post i'll write about how i touch up my roots and what i use on my hair length to touch up! i just ordered two different semi permanent hair dye, manic panic amplified in vampire red (more a blueish red) and directions in poppy red (more a pinkish hotter red) however these are vegan dyes, you can mix them and they don't damage your hair because they don't contain ammonia or other aggressive chemicals - they are even cruelty free!! but you will read about both in my next post.

one last tip: when you use dry shampoo between your hair washes then you won't have problems with grease or whatever. i'm not sure yet if this product is the right one for me but til now it works. 2 days after washing my hair i spray little strand by strand on my upper sections, run a towel gently through my hair and brush it out - no leftovers but freshness instead!