How To Make Natural Red Hair Redder?

I will tell you a few things about red hair.

For one, it looks great on anyone. It makes you look bold and beautiful and is an easy way to up your style.
Two, it requires a lot of maintenance. Washed out red hair will not make you look good, so you need to keep maintaining that fiery red.
Three, you will miss it once you move on to another hue. The maintenance part is the tricky part. Whether the red hair is natural or color-treated, you will need to keep up with maintaining the color. Otherwise, it will look tired and dull and unappealing.

So I will teach you how to keep people’s heads turning in your direction by using a few ingredients. Also, these techniques use natural ingredients, so damage to your hair is not likely. If you want to have temporary results, opt for the carrot juice and hibiscus tea. But if you want something that will last a while, go for henna.

Although these products are natural, there is no telling how they will react with your hair. I have not suffered an allergic reaction from using them, but people’s scalps are different. So start by performing patch tests before using the products on all of your hair. Are you ready? If yes, read on for instructions on how to go about this:

Using Carrot Juice

Start by cleaning your hair to get rid of any dirt or oils that could impede the uptake of the pigment. When washing your hair, use a shampoo that is free of harsh ingredients such as sulfates. Also, skip the conditioning and, instead, let your hair dry. Using heat on your hair to speed up the process is not advisable as it makes the strands vulnerable to breakage.

You can sit in the sun as you catch up on a book, and the hours will turn into minutes. Once the hair is completely dry, wear some old clothes which you do not mind ruining with stains.

Recipe

Get four medium-sized carrots and wash and peel them before placing them in a juicer. You are looking at getting half a cup of carrot juice to help with enhancing the hue. I am more of a deep red kind of person, so I would add half a cup of beet juice to the carrot juice. You can get this by juicing three medium beets. Also, it is okay to skip the carrot juice in entirety and, instead, make the mixture using beet juice solely. Note that this will make your hair redder than the carrot juice. But again, I love that deep red hue.

You should also add three tablespoons of yogurt and two tablespoons of honey to the mixture. The result should be a paste that will make the application an easy task.

Process

Divide your hair into four sections, combing each through thoroughly to avoid tangling. Start at the bottom and use hair clips to hold the hair in place. Apply the paste to the hair starting at the roots and working your way to the tips. Comb through the hair to ensure even distribution of the paste as you work towards the other sections.

This paste is quite strong, and it can color your hands. So you should wear gloves when working with it. Let the mixture sit on your scalp for one hour before rinsing it out. This color may be vibrant, but it will not hold up much when you use shampoo. Using a leave-in conditioner is your best bet in this case.

Using Hibiscus Tea

Cleaning your hair is of the essence. I have seen people work on dyeing their hair without washing it, and this does not work well. You need to ensure that your hair is free of buildup and oils. Also, you should not have sprays or gels or other such products on the scalp. So start by using shampoo to clean out these impediments. After washing it, skip the conditioning and, instead, allow your hair to dry. As it dries, you can look around for clothes you do not mind ruining, say an old t-shirt.

Recipe

Put two cups of water to the boil, measuring approximately half a liter. Wait until the water starts boiling and then take the water off the heat source. I like to prepare a cup of tea while doing this. I mean, why not? So I use three cups of water and use one for my tea. At this point, you can add five hibiscus tea bags to the boiled water. The more tea bags that you use, the more color that you will get in the water. However, note that there is such a thing as saturation which can affect the absorbing capacity of the water.

Allowing the tea bags to steep for long will also affect the color. If you do not have tea bags, you are free to use dried hibiscus flowers. I would recommend using at least one cup of flowers to get the full effects of the color. Sometimes, people use a blend of hibiscus and other plants, but I would not recommend this. Go for a pure blend.

It is now time to wait for the tea to steep and for it to cool. You can have your cup of tea as you work on something else. It should take about ten minutes for this to happen. Transfer the cold tea to a spray bottle for ease of application.

Process

Start dividing your hair into sections such that you can thoroughly spread the tea mixture over the hair. I do this in quadrants and use hair clips to hold the strands in place. You can now spray the separate quadrants with the tea, ensuring that the bottle is at least three inches away from the hair. Start with the bottom quadrants and work your way to the top such that the hair is slightly wet. Work through the hair with a wide-toothed comb to allow for even distribution for every quadrant.

The amount of time that the mixture sits on your scalp will depend on how deep you want the color to be. If you are looking to enhance the color lightly, you can let the tea sit for an hour. But if you want a deep hue, aim for two hours. You can get better results by using heat on your hair as you wait. Sitting in the sun helps a great deal by opening the cuticles and allowing the pigment into the strands.

After you have let the tea sit for the recommended time, you can now shampoo your hair with a gentle formula. Follow through with conditioning to hydrate the strands before rinsing and drying the hair.

Using Henna

Note that not all henna products on the market are organic, and you should ensure that you get your hands on a natural product. Once you do, shampoo your hair with a gentle product and skip conditioning. Let your hair dry in the air before you proceed.

Henna is not only a strengthener, but it is also a potent coloring agent. That means that it will remain on what it touches.

For one, you should wear old clothes.
Secondly, you should cover the bathroom floor with newspapers to protect the tiles in the event of spillage.
Third, you should have some dark cloths nearby to help you wipe away any henna that falls on you.
Fourth, you should have a balm protecting your hairline and ears from staining.
Fifth, you should divide your hair into four sections to make application easy.

With all these preliminaries out of the way, you can prepare the henna as per the label instructions. Once you have a paste, work on the bottom quadrants before moving to the top of the head. Wear gloves and massage the paste into the hair using your fingers. It allows the thick paste to penetrate the hair strands. You can now let the paste sit on your hair for one hour and cover it with a plastic shower cap. The paste is very messy, and you will need to have a cloth around you to wipe off any leaks.

Finally, you can wash the henna off with shampoo before using conditioner. This coloring is permanent, and the development of the same will continue for the next day or two. Thus, you will see the results in about two days.

Commonly Asked Questions

Does natural red hair fade with age?

Yes, as you age, the red hue will fade and turn copper then blonde before becoming silver.

How do you lighten red hair?

If you want to bring out the red in your hair, using henna, carrot and beet juice, and hibiscus tea is advisable. But if you want to reduce the red color in color-treated hair, using baking soda and bleach will work.

What shampoo is good for red hair?

When choosing a shampoo, you should consider your scalp type. Also, think about if the red hair is natural or color-treated. For the latter option, you should opt for color-safe shampoos. And in both cases, you should avoid shampoos that list sulfates and sodium chloride as part of the ingredients.