need a new hair color. suggestions?

[Eve of chaos]

I'll start by saying I absolutely love red hair on girls. so I haev taken full advantage of my transition by being a redhead. Iv'e run across the problem of being able to maintain it though. I think it was perfect as the color in my profile pic. but it quickly faded as you can see in my photoblog.

My natural hair color is a dark brown.
just looking for suggestions on what you all think would look best on me. I plan on getting a cut and color real soon. and hopefully its something that wont fade real fast. :p

(link to pics of me for reference)
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,109920.0.html

[Alainaluvsu]

Red does have a tendency to fade, especially on darker colors. Which is strange because if you bleach any color that's darker than red, it will eventually turn a red tint!

Red looks wonderful on you. It just sucks you can't keep it up!!  I'd suggest a deep brown with some unusual colored streaks.. I'd say bold purple streaks but they'd fade fast too.. Do you use a particular brand of haircolor? If so maybe I can point you to the right color depth that would keep it from fading.

[Eve of chaos]

heh to be completely honest i use whatever you buy at target.
but I dont buy it -.-

ahem but yeah.

when i use unnatural colors I go with manic panic. I used to dye my exe's hair every month with that stuff. but I'm not so good at doing my own head

[Alainaluvsu]

Is that semi-permanent? Are you using those on your head?? If so... girl go get you some permanents.. lol!! Permanents lift and deposit. All semi-permanents fade quickly, and that's because they don't do anything to pull the darker color out. All they do is deposit a slight bit of color onto the cortex and it gets washed out (slowly) whenever you use warm water. I wish you lived near me cuz I need practice and word of mouth, plus I'd go and get you some of the professional stuff for cheap

I have red highlights all over my jet black hair and they haven't faded hardly any after a month of being in there!

[Eve of chaos]

theyre semi permanents yeah. but only for cray colors like blue and anything else unnatural. for the red I used come clairol or w/e the boxed hairdye is.
I amy get ti done at the salon when i get my hair cut if it doesnt cost too much. and if its pretty permanent.

[Jeneva]

Have you bleached it first?

I had a phase for a few months where I was wearing Manic Panic Vampire Red and it did fade a bit, but more to a pinker color because I had it bleached first.

The funny thing is that it has been months and I have dyed my hair 3 times since then with permanent color (black) and I STILL have red highlights from it.

[Alainaluvsu]

theyre semi permanents yeah. but only for cray colors like blue and anything else unnatural. for the red I used come clairol or w/e the boxed hairdye is.
I amy get ti done at the salon when i get my hair cut if it doesnt cost too much. and if its pretty permanent.

Clairol makes temporary, semi, demi, and permanent haircolor. If she mixes peroxide into it, it's permanent.

Have you bleached it first?

I had a phase for a few months where I was wearing Manic Panic Vampire Red and it did fade a bit, but more to a pinker color because I had it bleached first.

The funny thing is that it has been months and I have dyed my hair 3 times since then with permanent color (black) and I STILL have red highlights from it.

Bleach lifts color permanently. By lifting it, it goes thru a process where it turns from whatever it starts at, to blonde (if your hair will develop that far). Inbetween those colors is a pinkish color. Therefore chances are whatever it faded to is what your new natural color was for those processed fibers. People think "Oh she bleached my hair" means it was turned bright yellow or had all the color removed. This is not necessarily the case all the time.

As far as your red highlights, same concept. I'm sure those are the bleached strands.

[Jeneva]

Clairol makes temporary, semi, demi, and permanent haircolor. If she mixes peroxide into it, it's permanent.

Bleach lifts color permanently. By lifting it, it goes thru a process where it turns from whatever it starts at, to blonde (if your hair will develop that far). Inbetween those colors is a pinkish color. Therefore chances are whatever it faded to is what your new natural color was for those processed fibers. People think "Oh she bleached my hair" means it was turned bright yellow or had all the color removed. This is not necessarily the case all the time.

As far as your red highlights, same concept. I'm sure those are the bleached strands.

The problem with a boxed dye that contains bleach is it won't usually be strong enough for dark brown hair.  I speak from experience here.  Also the darker colors tend to not have bleach since it isn't needed for as many people since dark covers light.  None of the black dyes I have used in a box have bleaching ingredients (especially not the henna/indigo I used last time).

I did separately bleach my hair with 40 volume bleach from Sally's.  We left it long enough that I had light yellow hair (our son's for the same time was platinum blonde, but his hair is much lighter than mine).

[Alainaluvsu]

The problem with a boxed dye that contains bleach is it won't usually be strong enough for dark brown hair.  I speak from experience here.  Also the darker colors tend to not have bleach since it isn't needed for as many people since dark covers light.  None of the black dyes I have used in a box have bleaching ingredients (especially not the henna/indigo I used last time).

I did separately bleach my hair with 40 volume bleach from Sally's.  We left it long enough that I had light yellow hair (our son's for the same time was platinum blonde, but his hair is much lighter than mine).

Hair responds to bleach as a result of its porosity or texture. Hair that is difficult to open (very unporous) or course in texture  can be less responsive to bleach. This does include bleach not included in a color. However, if you can achieve a blonde from  bleach going from dark brown, your hair will turn red at some point. Bleaching from black causes hair to go thru a.maximun of 10 colors, red is between colors 4 and 7 iirc.

[lilacwoman]

Tabatha the top Australian salon owner was on telly yesterday doing a makeover of a US salon and told one hairdresser to offer teh customers some products to protect the tinted hair from the sun...didn't catch what it was but a local store will tell you what you want to try keep the colour from fading?

[Eve of chaos]

I bleached my hair from brown before I went to the light orange. I don't have trouble attaining a good blonde. Before I dyed it with the orange I had a nice blonde set of hair. I dyed the burgundy over the orange. But I do f tho k my hair has faded to the orange or even the blonde. It still looks burgundy. Just really light