Affinage B Red Review - One stop to red hair for brunettes!

One thing I get asked a lot about is my hair. A year ago I had never coloured my hair and here I am now with Fire-Engine Red hair - I still haven't had a salon colour. I took a deep breath, a lot of research and DIY'd myself to red hair heaven. The photo makes me look a bit darker than I am, and boy you should see the shine on my hair in the sun!

What I use is this little beauty - Affinage B Red in Red - original name huh? Saying that there are several colours in the range in varying degrees of rouge - Magenta is supposed to be lovely too. It's a high lift colour which means that in one step you can take your so-brown-it's-almost-black unprocessed hair and 35 minutes after you have applied this magic potion you can be the little-mermaid inspired red head of your dreams with out going bleach crazy.

Here are the catches:
High lift colours work best on unprocessed, virgin hair. If you have pre bleached or pre coloured your hair the results just will not be as good. I don't really see this as a catch though, I'll do a further post on my red hair maintenance but for now just know that I only use this on my roots.
You do still need to use a peroxide developer, which does mean some damage. Although as I mentioned above I only use the high lift colour and peroxide on my roots, so technically my hair only gets one hit of damage and from then on it's a loving, moisturising, semi permanent vegetable dye.
This is a salon only product. That you can buy from plenty of places online. Enough Said.
Reds.Fade. And they make a pretty quick job of it too, although this isn't a high lift colour specific draw back, it definitely is something to note. Red hair colour molecules are the largest of all the colours, this means it is super hard for your hair to lock that colour down. There is a lot of upkeep - and potential for pink hand staining along the way!

(Photo credit Katilda.com)

A Quick How To:
I love pretty much everything else about this product, it is so darn easy to use. First, slap on your rubber gloves and vaseline around your entire hair line. Do it now. Dig out your hair colour bowl and hair tint brush. Dependant on just how dark your hair is you mix your developer of choice - as I am very dark (Base #2) I use a 30 vol, Don't use anything higher - 50/50 with the colour. No crazy measuring, just 50% colour and 50% developer. It ends up looking like you are whisking up a particularly violently coloured batch of red velvet cupcakes. If this is your first time dyeing your hair you will be applying this mix all of your hair, but pay close attention to your scalp, the directions state that this is an off the scalp colour. Something else to bear in mind is that these dyes are heat sensitive, the heat from your head will mean that your roots will react more quickly, causing a brighter result closer to your scalp. The first time I used this product I ended up with root halo - my roots were a good few shades brighter than the rest of my hair. I evened it up the next time but a good tip is to work upwards through your hair if you can. I always get my boyfriend to help me - he is super particular so he makes sure every hair is covered! Then you simply pop your hair up, wait 35 minutes and then wash that colour out good and proper - try to use cool to cold water for this and get some good quality conditioner on your locks too.

Where to buy it:
If you live in France, Ebay UK may be your cheapest answer - Affinage B Red at Ebay
If you are in the UK, the Ebay as above but I prefer to buy from a cosmetics website and I really recomend Pro Hair and Beauty, I have always had excellent service from them plus they sell the developer and the refresher, which I will come to in my maintenance post.

There you have it, dark brunette to bright red in one step and in no time at all! I'll post some of my favourite products, tips and tricks for red hair maintenance soon.

As with all dyes please please please read that label thoroughly and research to check that this hair colour is for you! If you start processing your hair it is so important to keep it well looked after and healthy, any processing ultimately damages your hair. I have found Google and Youtube to be a wonderful source of information on Affinage B Red and the other high lift colours that are out there. Also I can't recommend The Hair Dye Forum enough if you are looking at DIYing yourself to wonderful, vibrant hair colours. It's a mine of wonderful information.

Here are some other lovlies that Use Affinage B Red

Louna of http://lounamaroun.tumblr.com

Maliberry of http://maliberrymakeup.blogspot.fr

Scarlet Of http://scarletsaint.tumblr.com/