Red Hair dye - advice please

[Stangirl]

I have mid-brown hair and want to home dye it a vibrant, pillar box red shade. Permanent/semi-permanent. A really unnatural primary red colour. Morning sickness means I can't get out much at the moment - could anyone recommend a dye for me please so I can more easily target my shop?

Dont do it yourself.

I have really really red hair and i have it done at the hairdressers.
My hairdresser also lets me take the colour home and i re-red it every two weeks.

Early dec i had run out, and it was an extra week before she could get any. I went into boots in a panic and brought some live xl stuff.

I nearly used it as well. Told hairdresser about it who pratcically shouted down the phone at me ' dont touch the bloody stuff' as it would ruin the condition of my hair.

Its not worth it. Hold off and make a hairdressers appoitment.

But actually, with a growing bump, and then small baby, and the committment it takes to have really red hair, you might be better going brown with a hint of red or something.

redderthanred is right.Red dyed hair needs a lot of maintenance and fades very easily.I used to have mine done before dc,I'd never consider it afterwards,it was too much upkeep and expense.I did mine at home yesterday for the first time since before dc-they are 5 and 7 now so I have a little more time to keep it looking good.

I might be wrong,but isn't dyeing your hair whilst pregnant not recommended? My info may be very out of date though,so am happy to be corrected.

Previously I had black and white stripes in my hair and when pregnant my hairdresser did it with foils so the dye didn't touch my scalp. Apparently dark dye is more of a danger than peroxide. However, since then a friend of mine who is a toxicologist and studies pregnancy, newborns and toxins said it was all hooey about hair dye and someone would actual have to swallow it to have any effect at all - so I'm going ahead.

I've had dyed hair for 28 years - about 15 of those were various home dyed reds/auburns/hennas. So I'm confident about doing this at home and the effect on my hair - I now can't afford to have professional dye. I was just hoping someone might know a make that does really bright red.

Thanks anyway.

it will be high maintenance but i used to find that permanent colours had enough peroxide to provide a good base for a temporary colour. to keep it fresh you'll need to top up the temp colour every month at least (better if you can do it every fortnight) and redo the roots with permanent colour every other month. i used the brightest red in the feria range, topped up with dimensions colours (from your local friendly emo/goth/piercing shop) in poppy/pillarbox.

sorry, directions

Thanks. I think I've used dimensions before - when I used to have blue hair.

Are the dimensions one really semi-permanent? Would love pillar box red hair but never wanted the hassle of permanent colour. Might give it a go if it's semi-perm.

they are semi-permanent, but only take strongly if you've got peroxide underneath. you need to bleach to white if you want something like blue (i briefly had blue too, it was my favourite but looked like shite when it was washing out) but as i said i found the peroxide in a permanent was enough to give a nice bright red (or a couple of weeks at least).

Yeah - the blue went sort of grey.

Stangirl - I was just going to post something similar myself

I dyed my hair purple earlier today, it's nice but not as vibrant as I'd have liked.

A few months ago I dyed it navy underneath and plum on top. Today I dyed the plum bit a more violet purple, but it came out a bit darker than violent.

Hope you get the colour you're looking for!

I once used a different auburn dye to the one I was used to on my hair and the two reacted to make my hair go practically flourescent orange. It was 20 years ago and people still remember it. I had to wear neutral colours for weeks to tone it down.

Try Superdrug's own permanent vibrant reds for a base, they're 2 for £5 at the moment - I did one just before Xmas wanting a slightly brighter version of my usual reddy auburn (Casting Amber over natural dirty blonde) and ended up fire engine :( I had bright red hair as a teenager and loved it but I am too fat and mumsy to pull it off these days. I am now a brunette!