intellectual properties

red update

a little over a year ago (holy crap) i wrote a long post about how i get my hair so red, and keep it red, which a fair number of my other bright hair coloring friends told me was helpful, so here’s an update.  since then, i discovered a permanent red haircolor that is really awesome, so for those of you also in the extreme red-headed category, sometimes or always, partially or wholly, or if you have dark hair and want awesome red highlights, this is also for you: L’Oreal Exellence HiColor Red HiLights in Magenta. they have various shades of high-pigment red, but this is the one i’m using that most matches my former dye color. i assume the reason that i never found this before, and that no hairstylist i ever asked knew about a bright red permanent color, is because i’m white and all my haircolorists were white, and this product is made and sold for black hair (african american, asian, latina, etc.).  it wasn’t until a huge beauty supply warehouse which pretty much only sells african american hair products opened up down the street from me in west oakland that i discovered this on the shelf. i’m sure it’s sold in other beauty supply places (not drug stores), i just never looked in the african-american section.

the upsides: no need to bleach my hair before coloring, as the dye lifts and colors at the same time, so the whole process takes less than 45 minutes. also, not a total mess to apply like Special Effects - applies like a regular hair dye, no red dye splattered all over the place. rinses clean. also - cheap! $4.50 for the tube of dye plus $1.50 for a small bottle of developer = $6 to color my hair.

the downsides: is BRIGHT, but not necessarily RICH. Special Effects, when applied over bleached hair, is a super deep, rich color. this is more bright and shiny at first, but then seems to fade and become dull, even though i only wash my hair 1-2x a week, like every regular hair color i’ve ever applied. also, Special Effects is a toxic free, cruelty free pigment that is safe and tested on humans. i’m pretty sure anything made by L’Oreal is not.

the current method: i’m using the L’Oreal only to color when my roots grow out, because i’d have to bleach and recolor then anyway. on top of that, i apply a custom mixture of Special Effects Blood Red and conditioner when i shower, which adds a layer of color and shine on top and keeps it from fading, but only shampoo if i feel like my hair REALLY needs it, which isn’t often. this does cause some of the pigment to bleed, getting on the towels and pillows and the occassional shirt collar, but not nearly as much as when my whole head was colored with pigment.

you can make your own color conditioner by adding Special Effects (or Manic Panic or any other of the punky colored hair pigments - NOT chemical hair dye) to whatever conditioner you normally use. this way, if you buy natural shampoo/conditioner, you can have an all natural color enhancing conditioner instead of the ones you would buy at the drug store, and it’s cheaper. i think a 25% color/75% conditioner (by volume) mix is good to REALLY keep the color true if you have a full head of crazy color like mine, but you don’t need to add that much dye to get a tint, and can do it MUCH lighter if you just wanted to add highlights to your natural hair. obviously this doesn’t work for blondes, but if you have darker hair and want to add a tint of red, or purple, or blue….make your own.