I want red hair! What do I need to know?

[DontPhoneItIn]

I've just started watching Mad Men (I know I'm late to the party, but it's amazing) and I love love love Christina Hendricks' hair - it's a lovely coppery/auburn red.

At the moment, my hair is its natural colour as I've been growing it out. It's a mid-dark brown and I'm starting to get a bit bored with it. So I've collected some pictures of red hair to show the hairdresser (think along the lines of Karen Gillan/Florence Welch) but I have yet to make an appointment because I'm nervous!

Is dyed red hair really high maintenance? Will it look quite fake? If anybody has any advice, that'd be grand.

It's the ardest colour to maintain I think, as it fades so quickly. I went red years ago, and I found once I'd got bored of it, there was always a red tinge to my hair even with other colours over the top.

Yes it fades so quickly. I had it for a while too, loved the colour for a few weeks then it faded back to a dirty blonde colour.

It is a nightmare to maintain as RedHappy says.

Really does fade quickly imo

Also when you want to change back it can be a very slow process because basically your hair is stained and until the stain grows out there will always be red.

Hmm, this is what I was afraid of. Would it make any difference having it professionally done or will it fade just as quickly?

Doesn't matter where you get it done.

I had red hair for ages, and yes it did fade but only ever to a darker not as bright red, it still looked really really good. I used the home hair due it was about a fiver which meant I could dye it more often as it was so cheap to do.

I like the sound of only fading to a darker red, Penguin.

Overall, though, it looks as though it'd probably be a bad and expensive decision.

Thank you all for your advice.

I had mine professionally done and used expensive shampoo for coloured hair but it made no difference.

Go for it! I love mine but it really has faded after 4 weeks so you need a really good quality professional colour to stop it wrecking your hair.

I've been using Henna for years. I love being a redhead!

Chemical dye fades really quickly and is obviously bad for your hair over time. Henna gives you lovely colour, softness and strength. When I've got bored I've dyed it back to brown with no problems, you just can't bleach over it.

If you do get to the stage where you are ready for the vibrant auburn look, loreal's Feria in Intense Mango? (no 74) should do the trick, I use to colour my hair with it, had lots of compliments too! It was quite long lasting, the conditioner you get with it was fab, seems to refresh the colour a little each time you use it!

But my hair was a light/med brown to begin with. 4 weeks prior to using Colour B4 to strip the dark brown out.

Yes it fades quickly and you will struggle to dye over it if you change your mind, the red shows through and you need to grow it out in the end.

Be aware if you go down the henna route to use henna with nothing else added and do a bit of googling about henna first.

Naturtint's colours last, and their red ones really last!!

Op I think you should go for it.

I loved my red hair, was actually considering this myself but I done the stupid thing of telling my little sister who went and done it then.

Now going blonde and purple :) but I'm keeping that to myself.

P.s I always found going from red to brown it always gave the brown a lovely red tone to it. Also it does eventually grow out.

Yes red fades, but there's loads you can do to minimise the fade. Best thing I ever did was go red. I love it.

I haven't coloured mine for at least four weeks and it's still bright, I get comments all of the time.

I use a La Riche Directions dye (Poppy Red) in between permanent colours - it's a vegetable dye and it won't harm your hair.

For permanent dye try Live Color XXL in Real Red - but you do need the Directions dye in between as XXL does go orangey pretty quick.

Put some of the Directions dye in your conditioner bottle - it helps maintain the colour.

If you want to do it - do! It's really not that much harder to maintain than putting a deep conditioning treatment on every couple of weeks - just use Directions dye instead, it does actually make your hair really shiny.

To make it last longer, protect your red hair from the sun. I've found that really helps in the summer.

Wow, lots more replies, thanks everyone.

Gingersnap can I ask what kind of henna you use? I've heard good things about the Lush Caca range, I've been doing some googling to find out more about Caca Rouge and Marron.

GoodDay the mango colour is lovely! I think that's the kind of red I'm looking for, maybe a little darker though.

Ooh, I'm dithering now. I haven't dyed my hair in such a long time - I've been growing it out of a pixie cut for about 18 months and grew out the dyes with it, so I've been au naturel for quite a while - which is why I'm being so indecisive.

Thank you for your advice, everybody

OP I use henna from the Henna Boy website. It's 100% henna so no crap in it. The Lush one is ok, I used it the first time, but not as good as HB imo.

My problem is that my hair is dark brown naturally, and henna only gives it a reddish tinge. Really I want vibrant red hair, but you don't get that from henna unless you're light brown/fair etc.

I went red (from blonde) a week ago and i love it. Had it done at hairdressers did a tester first and then she was able to fine tune the correct colour. It has faded already with washing so i will be having it redone but at least its cheaper than foil highlights!! Its a colour that seems to suit everyone imo. I dont suit brown but i love the red. Go for it!