Hair Story: Going from Red to Ash

My hair has gone through quite an adventure this year. In February I dyed it red because my stylist Apple convinced me I needed a new look for 2015.

My red hair's first outing - The Burt's Bees X Sample Room event — My red hair’s first outing – The Burt’s Bees X Sample Room event

Me after the talk I gave for an org in Ateneo

Me and my disciple Kayla, showing off our promise rings

The thing with red hair is that you have to be careful because it can leave red marks on your light-colored clothes even when your hair gets slightly wet. Summer was merciless this year in terms of heat. At the end of the day, I discovered red stains on my clothes which I was able to remove as long as I washed them right away but it was such a hassle. I then decided to chop my hair off and get a lob.

The last time I had short hair was in college. I’ve always kept it long so this look was a welcome change for me. Some people from church approached me and asked if I was heartbroken or something. Uhm… let’s not talk about that. Basta, mainit.

On the bright side, a lot of people said the cut made me look younger.

Again, the red colour had to be refreshed because it faded. Sometime in June, I thought “I want to go back to low-maintenance hair.” I thought it would be easy to just put on a new colour and go on with my life. NO. Red I found out, is the most difficult to “kill” of all the colours. Either you strip it with bleach or put on a green-tinted dye to counter the redness. I didn’t want to bleach my hair. It would take 6 strippings to get all the red off–bad news definitely. I didn’t want my hair to dry out. So I picked option B–use a green-tinted dye.

Apple put a dark green dye on my hair and this is what came out:

Darn. I look like a vampire. — I look like a vampire. Too bad they’re done casting for Twilight.

I may be smiling in those pics but deep inside me I was like “Oh my. I look like a vampire. I look like a contrabida.” Apple said it would be temporary, the red just had to be “killed”. So I went back after a week, put on a brown colour BUT… the RED RESURRECTED. Oh my gosh. It’s like a friggin creature from a horror movie.

Boohoohoo. If the red colour could talk it would say “I am here to stay.
Moohoohoohaha.” 😦

So I let the red colour stay. At least it looked kinda brown (best effort to convince myself). I had to go back for 2 more coats of an ash brown colour to neutralise the red. So…

That was the day after the colour was applied. Here are more shots:

1 week after the ash brown colour was applied

3 weeks after! The ash brown shade has lightened :D — 3 weeks after! The ash brown shade has lightened 😀

It was a lot of fun being a redhead. It’s a bold, fierce tone that looks very chic even if you don’t curl or blow-dry it. The colour speaks volumes, LITERALLY.

I have decided to maintain my ash brown tone though, maybe just update it with highlights here and there since it’s easier to maintain. I hope this hair story was able to help you out in case you’re thinking of going from red to ash. Usually for cases like this, you really need professional help. You can’t just buy regular hair color from the store to drown out the red. Visit Hair You Go Salon at the Ground floor of Corinthian Executive Regency in Ortigas and look for Apple or Joan.

Remember:
-Red is a tough pigment to kill. You have to either bleach it 3-6 times depending on the level of redness and then apply your colour preference or you kill the red with black or a green-tinted hue.
-If your hair is long and you want to keep it that way, I suggest that you go for option 2. Bleaching will definitely dry out your hair.
-Make sure you go for regular hair treatments after. Since I can’t visit the salon weekly, I count on these products from Cynos to nourish my hair