Dying black hair red!

msjanani

I've been thinking for a long time about dying my hair (black/extremely dark brown and about 2C/3A) to a more reddish brown/burgundy color. I expect I'd have to lighten my hair first and then color it to have anything show up, but I'm really afraid of the damage to my hair and what it might do to my curls.

Can anyone else (preferably another South Asian woman? maybe?) speak to this if they've done it and what it's been like for their curls? And if you have any recommendations, I'd love them.

Meghuney

I'm Black, but I did it and it was SO adorable for a while. I actually got stopped places and told how cute it was. But then the color started to fade and my hair was left the color the initial bleach left it.

cara4curls

"I've been thinking for a long time about dying my hair (black/extremely dark brown and about 2C/3A) to a more reddish brown/burgundy color. I expect I'd have to lighten my hair first and then color it to have anything show up, but I'm really afraid of the damage to my hair and what it might do to my curls. " - msjanini

No, you don't have to use bleach first to do that - that's old-school, or only if you want a MUCH brighter red. I have black-brown hair too, now with alot of grey, and I just went with a box color in a medium shade of coppery brown, and my latest mix was half and half medium auburn with medium golden brown, and it looks great. If you use permanent color in no more than two shades lighter than your natural color, the damage will be nowhere nearly as great as with pre-bleaching(even writing that makes me shudder at the thought of bleaching out black hair!).
Hope this helps!

~GypsyCurls~

I'm not South Asian, but I'm mixed with black, native american, and white. I have very dark hair that that I have been coloring red for a long time. The best thing to use is a high lift haircolor-I love L-Oreal Hi-Color that they sell at Sally's. These are designed to work on very dark hair, and come in several different shades. Every time I've used it I've always gotten compliments You'll need to buy a bottle of developer with it, either 30 or 40 vol.

In the past,all the red dyes I've used gave me nothing but subtle highlights.