Thursday, May 31, 2012

Thursday Tutorial: DIY Red Ombre Hair

So I have to admit that I've felt like a pretty bad blogger the past few weeks. Not that my heart's not in it anymore, because it is. I've just felt completely swamped by life. Part of this feeling led me to believe that I needed a new or at least updated hair do. Naturally, I'm a girl and that's what we gals do when we feel like something needs to change, we change our hair. There you go fellas, Ladies 101. 

Anyway, when trying to figure out what to do with my mess of hair without spending a ton of money, I decided the biggest change would be in getting both a cut and a color. Picking out a color for my hair was the hardest part, but I finally settled on red, even though I know how quickly red fades and what a pain in the butt upkeep is on it. This is why, if you saw yesterday's outfit post, you will see that I have since given up on red hair and gone back to something dark. BUT if you have the patience to re-dye your hair every month and not wash it often, here is a tutorial for how I got my Red Ombre Hair! 

A few things before I start this red ombre hair tutorial:
a.) Bleach is very corrosive. It will burn. Try to keep it off your skin as much as possible and always wear gloves when applying. 
b.) My hair had a LOT of layers of dye before I started so I knew I would have to leave the bleach on for longer periods of time to get it as light as I wanted it. If you don't dye your hair often, this will take less time. Try bleaching a little test piece first. 
c.) This is kind of a LONG process. Expect it to take at least a few hours.

DIY Red Ombre Hair Tutorial


This photo is from an outfit post a few weeks ago.

Materials:
Hair bleach
Red hair dye
Developer cream (you only need this if you're buying your dye from a beauty supply store, if you buy the box kind from a Target or something you can skip this material)
Gloves (this stuff will STAIN so be sure to wear gloves)
Hair dying shirt
An empty container and a stirrer 
Hair Clips
Vaseline
Patience


Instructions:
1. Start with your hair a little dirty, just a day or so should be fine and brush it out really well. Put on your hair dying shirt and clear your bathroom of anything you wouldn't want to drip dye or bleach on. 
2. Mix together your bleach. If you bought a box that has all the parts divided for you, mix together the mixture as instructed on the box. If you bought lightening powder and developer, mix together equal parts and stir. If you're not sure, add developer slowly. You can always add more developer, but you can't always add more bleach powder. The mixture should look kind of like pancake batter - drippy, but still sticks to your brush.
3. Once you've mixed your bleach, put on your gloves and part your hair down the middle. It helped me to clip back my bangs so that I could just focus on the ends of my hair.
4. Take the bleach and apply it as evenly as you can to just the ends of your hair. Save some bleach for the rest of your head, because we will be working our way up. I did about 3 inches at first because I knew I would be cutting a lot of it off, but put on as much as you'll want your hair to be bright red. This will be the brightest part of your hair.
5. After about 10 minutes, I added more bleach to about 2 inches above the first part and left all of it in for another 10 or 15 minutes. Then I rinsed and dried my hair.
6. After the first go, I realized that the end weren't as blonde as I wanted them. Everything looked about the same color, maybe a little lighter. So I took what was left of the bleach and re-did the ends. Just about three inches or so. I left the bleach in for about 20 minutes, rinsed, and dried.
7. I finally got what I was looking for. My roots were pretty dark, the middle got lighter, and the ends were pretty blonde. Now it's time to mix together your red hair dye.
8. Follow the directions on your dye box for mixing and applying your red dye. This is where the vaseline comes in handy. If you don't want to dye your forehead red, rub a little vaseline around your hairline to prevent the red from staining your skin.

9. Apply the dye to your entire head, don't worry, the different shades will show. That's why we went through all that trouble to bleach it! Leave it in for the recommended amount of time and then rinse out as much red as you can. Dry and you're done!

This was the result from my dye attempt and I was pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, like I said above, I didn't have the patience to keep re-dying my hair red. So after about three weeks I changed my hair again. I'm fickle like that. 

If you try it out, I'd love to see how it turned out for you!



28 comments:

  1. I am all over this! Ty! Will post some pics when I get er done, with a 2 yr old runnin around it won't be until the weekend :(

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    1. Haha well I'm sure it'll look fabulous when you get to it. Can't wait to see!

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  2. This is actually how I have been wearing my hair for about the last year. Love it!

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    1. You are more committed than me girl. Props!

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  3. I'm so happy I found this! Youre the only tutorial Ive found that does an overall dye after bleaching! My question is, if I follow your directions, can I just dye all over red a month later and my ombre red still show or will I have to bleach then dye every month to maintain the ombre look? Thanks!

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    1. Hey Bre, you should be able to just do an overall dye every month and it will still be ombre since the red will fade from the bleached ends too. When mine started to fade a lot you could start seeing the blonde on the ends again. I did it like this specifically so that I can dye it over everything once it started to fade because I'm lazy ;)
      Thanks!
      Maggie

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  4. When you have to due your hair red again do you have to rebleach it? I love this tutorial I really want to try it!

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    1. Nope! Just dye it over again in red! Easy.

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  5. What brand of dye did you use?

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    1. I used L'Oreal. I forget the color though. Something Red.

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  6. I'd love to try out this tutorial, but the thing is, I usually dye my hair with henna, and I read that the results of using hair sye over henna can be ... unexpected ;) What's your take on this? Should I try it anyway?

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    1. Hi Alix, I really can't say since I've never used henna to dye my hair. If you still want to try it, to be safe I would mix up a tiny bit of bleach and try it out on a small section of your hair. Try it somewhere easy to hide and if it doesn't work out you can cut that tiny piece off. It's just hair, it'll grow back right? ;) Let me know how it goes if you do try it.

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  7. I think I may be in love with your hair. b-b-beautiful! I'm def guna try this ombre malarky tho I already have faded red dyed hair so I wonder what magical shade of ginger the bleach will turn..?

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    1. Hey, I didn't put this in the tutorial, but you can try using some color lifter before bleaching. It'll give you like a nice strawberry blonde base to start with. But my hair has a ton of dye in it and all I used was two rounds of bleach and it still turned out fine.

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  8. You included vaseline in your list but I didn't see where it was used in the tutorial. Is it still needed?

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    1. Hi Angel,
      Thanks for catching that. It's only needed if you don't want red dye all over your face. You take the vaseline and rub a little along your hairline on your face to keep the dye from staining your skin.
      I hope that answered your question!

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  9. Love Love Love!!! I am actually going to do a Red Ombre on myself. I already have Medium strawberry blond hair and am just looking to have it go into my natural color. I was wondering if you have a video of this tutorial on youtube? I can't find any just red ombre tutorials.

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    1. I don't sorry! The idea for the tutorial was last minute so I only have the photos. Sorry :/

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  10. Do you have a video tutorial? I am going to do this style but there aren't full red ombre tutorials and yours looks Amazing.

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  11. Hey! I previously ombred my hair, but it goes from black to brown not black to blonde, and I used the L'Oreal ombre kit, not bleach. Would you suggest me just to dye red over my hair and then use the ombre kit again, or use the ombre kit first to make my ends blonde, THEN dye over? I was wondering, because the kit only lightens the hair subtly so I thought it would make more sense to use it after... tips?

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    1. Hi Erica, I wouldn't dye your hair red first just because you'll be adding chemicals on top of it if you ombre after and you really want to be careful when mixing colors like that. You never know what you'll get. Your safest bet is to lighten your hair one more time THEN dye it red. I hope that helps!

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  12. Hey! This is amazing! I was always looking for a DIY tutorial for red ombre hair. Really, great!
    Do you know how it'll be when the hair is already dyed? (Naturally I have dark brown hair, but I keep dying it red^^)
    I should work with this as well, shouldn't it?
    Thanks for the great tutorial! I will try it out as soon as possible xD

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    1. Yep, it should still work. I did it with my hair which I have been dying for 8 years.

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  13. STOP WITH THAT "SMILE"!!!! Sorry, it's just that your so pretty and your "smile" is just so phony!!!! Keep your natural smile! :)

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    1. Sorry you don't approve but that's just my face. I don't think I can change it much. :/

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  14. I did basically the same exact thing! But i read this until WAY after...maybe a year after and ide love to show you how it came out! I just dont know how :c

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  15. I did almost the same exact thing and this was like...almost a year before i read this! I would love to show you how it came out but...i dint think i can post pictures here :c just know it was amazing

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