I naturally have dark brown hair but for a little over 6 years, I’ve been dyeing my hair red. In the beginning, I didn’t know much about dye and the chemicals some contain and what horrible damage it can take a toll on with your hair. I would use drug store box dye, which is known to be the worst for your hair. Not only damaging, but red is the hardest color to achieve, and to maintain…and my color would never last. After almost two weeks my color would turn brassy and dull. A few years ago I finally discovered vegetable based hair dye. Brands such as manic panic, punky colours, and special effects are some of the top known brands. These contain no chemicals and are not damaging to your hair.
The first brand I tried was punky colours. I used the color Red Wine and had a scary first experience because these dyes can get quite messy and stain. I pretty much was never able to wear white after that. BUT! The color pay off and how long it lasted me was definitely worth it…not to mention how yummy the hair dye smells to me, which was unusual since I was used to smelling those harsh chemicals. I’ve tried dyes such as Paul Mitchell and Redken, and turned back to manic panic. This has been the least messy out of the three vegetable based brands (I’ve also tried special effects) and the longest to last on my hair. It is personal opinion because I’ve heard a lot of girls dislike manic panic and would rather turn to special effects, but this has been working for me for quite sometime.
I began getting into mixing different shades of red and purple to achieve that true wine color. I usually do a mixture of Rock n Roll (or Pillarbox) red with purple haze, which on bleached hair is incredibly bright and pigmented. When I want to tone down the red due to my roots, I do vampire red with purple haze and mix the two together in a bowl. I had some leftover dye from previous months which I mixed all together today and below is the end result color. I’ll have some pictures up soon of my hair color before and after using this dye. It really is my favorite!
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how did you like special effects?
It wasnt bad, but I just personally preferred manic. I feel like it lasted longer
About how much of each color did you use when mixing? I plan on mixing vampire red and purple haze to get a deep red with purple undertones.
I’ve mixed vampire red and purple haze! Very good for the darker effect. I usually use the entire jar when mixing colors, get an even amount. Depends if you want it more purple based, just add more purple haze, or the other way around. But usually I put an even amount.
Im new to manic panic and I really want to try mixing colors together. But there’s a lot different shade for red! Can you describe some colors like vampire red, rock n roll red, pillar box red, and red passion. To me, rock n roll looks the same as pillar box, but again I never used those colors before xD
I used to mix Vampire Red with Rock n Roll red!
Whats the difference between rock n roll red and pillar box red?
Not much actually!