Hairdye for redheads?

[Flowerpower70]

I have naturally red hair - brown/red.
I've started to go white - in my late 40s.
It's hard to get box dye for red hair, it always ends up too dark.
Dye is only lasting a few weeks then my roots grow through and my roots are white.
I tried the salon - I asked for a red dye but they dyed it a dark brown and said I suited in better than my natural red. Also, DH said I look better with dark hair - though I prefer the red and think it suits my fair complexion better.
I don't know what to do?
Box dye doesn't match my redhair, even if I dye it, it only lasts a few weeks. I don't want to grey / white just yet..
I have also put on almost a stone in weight - partly due to having a sit down job, it's cold to go out and exercise. I feel awful! I don't want to join a gym to shed the pounds so any advice grateful.
Any redheads who have the same problem and please any advice appreciated.

I'm the other end of red - strawberry blonde - and have found it fairly easy to do root touch ups (I don't dye the whole lot as it gets too dry). Plus my 'super blondes" (ie white) aren't too obvious.
I would look at the Clairol website and products. They seem to get redheads slightly better than other brands.

I use a mixture of henna and cassia on my hair and it's brilliant. It doesn't really fade and is pretty cheap. I've found that my hair has a lovely shine now whereas normally my hair can look quite dull. The cassia is a natural conditioner so is great for hair in general.

I struggle too - I am a mousyish auburn colour naturally and then the ends lift to a strawberry blonde in the sun, not a vibrant red by any means, but anything too cool or dark washes me out. The problem I’m having at the moment is that red dye takes really strongly on my roots and then the hairdresser struggles to match the already dyed (but faded) ends to the roots. It’s really tricky to replicate the very subtle red of my natural hair, but I hate the grey.

OP. Could you post a photo of your red hair before you started dying it and a photo of what it looks like now?

red before, dark after

My red hair has gone white at the top. I didn’t want regrowth, so I use a colored conditioner on it, around once every 5/6 washes. It looks like peachy coloured highlights. I’ve had many compliments on it!

I,ve posted a pic. I'm struggling to find a dye they are all too dark or too red, white roots too. I'm self concious of my hair - my male friend and DH, and his friend said i look better with dark hair but now i feel like they don't like my red hair.....😢

exactly my problem!!
DH prefers dark hair - I look washed out though

I get mine highlighted it blends with the bits white. I only get it done a few times a year.
Whenever I've gone darker it makes me looks washed out

That’s a big difference op! It looks to me like they’ve made it cooler and darker when you’re naturally a gorgeous titian colour. How frustrating. I do think that redheads need that colour near their faces, otherwise it changes everything - when my hairdresser initially took me too cool loads of my clothes suddenly looked dreadful (ok again now she’s warmed me back up - although I wish she’d bloody match the roots and ends properly!).

That sounds lovely - I have thought about those conditioners, they do seem to work well. My whites are stripes at the front, so I have to be careful to look like I’m not channeling 1990’s Geri Halliwell though!

Clairol nice and easy 8WR golden auburn isn’t too dark - have you tried that one?

Is henna an option? I'm a redhead, I've not started to dye it yet but I thought that might be my option.

Your natural colour is stunning, I can see why you want to keep it as close to that. I am a natural ginger too, but it is fading away and I have white streaks (which I quite like!). I would be very unhappy too if friends/family told me I looked better as a brunette, it can't possibly be true if you have typical redhead skin tone. I had a similar colour to your dyed hair a few years ago and everyone was quite honest about it not suiting me at all!

I recently tried a hair gloss which did what it says and made my hair shiny but didn't colour the whites at all so watching this thread in hope to find something to reinvigorate my hair colour.

No I haven't, thanks

Gosh that is a difference! You are naturally warm toned and you now have cool toned hair - crazy.
So your natural hair is approx 8.34 - your hair is currently 6.45.
You will need to remove that darker colour - may not be able to do this yourself as you may need a hairdresser to do it but you could have a go with colour removers on the market or a good DIY tip is to use original head and shoulders with crushed up vitamin c tablets and bicarbonate of soda powder - have a google - I’ve done it quite a few times with good success but you need to deep condition afterwards as quite stripping.
Then get yourself a Wella Perfect Me permanent colour in 8.34 and mix it 50/50 with 20 vols hair developer. Leave it on for at 40-50 minutes.
If you don’t want to do this yourself, just get a hairdresser to do this for you - just find a salon that uses a dye with the Wella numbering system - a lot of them do.

I had the same problem. Got my first grey hairs in my teens. I was a real copper penny bright red, lighter than yours. For years I tried to dye it but it never was great, too dark or with a strange orange or, worse, purple tinge that never looked right.
in the end I gave up & grew it out. Have to say I prefer how it is now to any of the attempts to colour it. It never went grey, it went white. That sounds cold & harsh but funnily enough it isn’t. Somehow it isn’t cold but a real sparkling white & lifts my skin tone better than any dyed colour. I’ve even had people ask me where I get it dyed such a perfect “ platinum” as they've been trying to get similar! I know that sounds weird but it really is true. Red is the hardest colour to fake, it never looks all that convincing, so although you don’t want to go white it honestly isn’t as bad as you think.

I was a natural redhead and used that ^ about 6-8 weekly for several years with success, then starting mixing with a golden blonde shade as I got older and felt the auburn was too dark for my (fading) colouring.
Now I am using a half and half mixture of this every second or third hair wash (so roughly once a fortnight), just once after a normal shampoo, iyswim. It’s keeping some colour in my hair, hiding the grey/white, but looks very natural. It’s from Superdrug and about £3 a bottle which does about 10-12 shampoos. I just leave it on my hair for about 5 minutes as I shower, so very easy to use.

I would try henna if I were you. Lots of shades to choose from so you can go redder or browner as you like.

These look fantastic to manage grey roots between hair dyes. I’m definitely going to check them out - thanks for the tip!

Thanks so much for your help. I will definitely try these

What a lovely colour thanks