You’ve decided you would like to have pillarbox red hair? its beautiful isn’t it? there are however a lot of cons to dying your Hair red, all of which I continue to ignore 4 years on because it looks so amazing.

Those of you that have followed me for a long time will know I have had bright red hair for many years, I did go a few other colours in the middle but, I could not leave the red behind.

In this post I will cover the pro’s and con’s and what I think are the best products for the job.

The Con’s

Maintenace – Now depending on how you go red you could be looking at a redye every 3 washes! If you are using a salon based dye, such as Affinage B-Red Red or Red Violet, your colour wont fade as much as it’s a professional shade. If you decide to go down the route of lightning your hair and then adding a semi permanent shade you will be topping up often.

Leaking – When opting for the lightning method you will find your hair will leak every time you wash it, your nails will constantly be pink along with your bath,neck and pillow case. Even with dry hair you will find transfer on clothing, skin and pillow cases as it comes off when you sweat or rub your hair on fabric. I wanted to insert an image of my pillow case however, the man had washed it

Lets not even discuss when it rains!

Matching clothes and makeup – You options become limited because wearing certain colours with red will just make you look like a clown and nobody wants that. This one is not much of a problem for me clothing wise as like most makeup artists I do tend to wear mostly black but, makeup that can be a problem.

The Pro

Yes there is actually only one pro, it looks bloody beautiful, is that it I? hear you cry unfortunately yes Red hair is a massive commitment so, before you jump into it be sure you can be bothered with all of the maintenance.

If after reading the above you still would like to jump in with both feet then below are my colour and product recommendations, I have tried and tested each and every product.

Affinage B-Red range – Bloody superb range, if you can find a professional salon that uses it then I would certainly opt for this. If you are pretty handy with using professional dyes that use peroxide etc then you can get hold of it from  and do it yourself. The benefit of using this product is that leaking and maintenance are kept to a minimum. If you decide you want to buy this yourself you can grab it from Pro Hair and Beauty for £6.95

Crazy Color – Fantastic staying power and colour pigmentation, I started off using Fire but, this is very pink toned so, now I use Ruby Rouge which is a much truer red. With Crazy Color you will experience all of the cons but, the colour you end up with is pretty worth it. I get Crazy Color from Capital Hair and Beauty because I have a trade card however, you can grab it on Crazy Colors site for £4.00

Pravana Vivids – Fantastic red shade however, our of the 3 brands this is the worst for transfer to clothing and bedding even with dry hair. Whenever I buy Pravana I head over too Hair Crazy where it retails at £12.00.

Label M Colour Stay Shampoo – This stuff is absolutely superb, I got a bottle after my hairdresser recommended it and for the duration of the bottle I actually only needed to top up my colour twice. I would say you would get about 20 washes out of a bottle maybe a few more (based on a graduated bob length) so, two top ups in 20 washes is bloody brilliant. Another big plus with this product is that it smells absolutely divine and we all know how important a great smelling shampoo is. You can pick this up at Look Fantastic for a very reasonable £11.95

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