Hair Color always fades so fast ! :(

[Lejli]

Before I dyed my hair red, I had platinum blonde bleached hair. I decided that the bleaching was only making my hair look unhealthy and took too much time to keep it looking nice. So I decided to color it red. To be honest I love the color because it really highlights my green eyes, but it fades SO FAST. I know that red hair dye molecules are very big, which is why they don't stay as long as other hair dyes, but my color literally fades after only a week. I try not to wash my hair too much, but that doesn't help. Especially the bottom half of my hair, which was fully bleached, fades fast. My natural growing out hair however (dirty blonde), takes the color better and it doesn't fade so fast.
I use Majirel Coloration Creme, and mix 6,46 with 6,6 and then mix it with 20 vol 6% developer. To upkeep the color I take this exact mixture, only adding conditioner to the formula and let it sit in my hair for a bit. But every time I color my hair its not like bleaching, meaning I don't only color my roots, I have to put the color all over my hair, every single time. But the color is expensive and my hair is long.
SO MY QUESTION!
Do you have any tips on what I could do to make it last longer?
What do you guys think about the colours I am using? Are there any better colours or brands that I could be using instead? Im not the biggest fan of henna, because you cant reverse it.
Since my hair fades to blonde every time, would it make sense to color them brown first, and THEN add the red to make the color stronger and last longer?
Or should I just forget about my red hair and choose a different color thats easier to upkeep ?

[polarnatt]

Red dye is notorious for fading fast, a friend of mine used to keep her hair bright red just by dyeing it every few weeks and using color masks/toning conditioners. I don't think there are any other options, red dye just tends to fade and needs to be freshened up constantly.

If you dye it brown first, the red wouldn't be bright on top of it, more of a purple/auburn color depending of the tones. And from experience I can say that bleached hair likes to fade quickly no matter the color that's put on top of it, but it's not impossible to keep it looking nice!

[Lejli]

oh ok... do you know if it is possible to get rid of the red and go back to blonde? or will it damage my hair even more?

[polarnatt]

I would imagine if you'd let the red fade you could then start to tone your hair towards blonde, but it would probably require a bit of bleach as well. So, as always with dyeing your hair, damage would be a risk - but you could really go anywhere from faded red! A darker, more auburn-y red would probably stay better in your hair than bright red, so that's always an option too.

[kuroi]

Yeah trying to get color out is damaging. The best is just to let it fade if you want to go to a different color or be happy to re dye it often to keep it red. Just keep in mind it might get orange if you try to get rid of it but you can always tone that to ginger if you like that.

[Decoy24601]

Yeah trying to get color out is damaging. The best is just to let it fade if you want to go to a different color or be happy to re dye it often to keep it red. Just keep in mind it might get orange if you try to get rid of it but you can always tone that to ginger if you like that.

That's a good point. My mother dyed her hair red for years and when she tried to bleach it, her hair was more of a honey color than a blonde. It took a long time for her hair to fully go blonde. Her hair was a darker red usually though with some purple tones.

[Zebra Fish]

You could try some stuff like Manic Panic (or simmilar, don't know the other names) to keep in between, as it is not damaging. I used Vampire red and it stuck on my hair for years (ofc it fades and bleeds, but I still have it in my ends after 2-3 years). The orange one (Tiger lilly I think?) showed barely (but I henna, don't have bleached hair). Haven't tried other reds. But there are member having very colourful hair here, so they could advise.

Edit: Another one is Stargazer. Maybe I remember some more.

[Lejli]

do you know how to get the red out of the hair completely and go back to blonde?

[Zebra Fish]

do you know how to get the red out of the hair completely and go back to blonde?

Not entirely. Warm oil packages will help definitely (and probably do good to your hair too), but they won't get the colour out completely. But there are options, you have products ilke Color oops to take colour out - I never used it, but know some members even managed to get henna out (at least partialy) with it. Try browsing the forum about getting colour out of hair, there are threads about it (except oilings and Color oops, I thinks some used dishwasher soap and Head and Shoulders, but better read through other people experience, as I never did that myself). I definitely wouldn't advise any more bleaching at the time beeing, give your hair some rest and deep treatments (oils, SMT, hair masks... they will all get some colour out too).

[browneyedsusan]

I couldn't make red dyes stay either. No matter how much I babied it, it only lasted a week.
I use henna now.

On another note: I dyed my underlayer with Manic Panic Vampire Red, right on top of the existing henna, and really liked it! Amazingly, it's STILL hanging on under there?! (I dyed it around March 6.) I've tried to fade it a couple of times, but it's staying better than any "permanent" color I've used, and I tried a lot of them!

Here's a picture of the fresh dye:
2016-03-06_10-36-26 by Mom and wife, on Flickr


Some people mix veggie dyes with conditioner to give their color a little boost? Some brands are Directions, Adore, Stargazer, and my old reliable -- Manic Panic. These dyes only deposit color, they don't lighten hair, but they're not damaging.