Hair Color: Rouge Chocolate Brown

Back in November 2012 (Yes, this is a flashback Friday post), I colored my hair with a reddish shade using a mix of hair color brands. I thought I wasn't able to document the moment so I didn't do a post about it but after looking through my hard drive, I saw that I was actually able to take some photos.

I've always colored my hair at home with the help of my mom. I know DIYs like these are somewhat scary (especially for first timers) but I've always felt like having it done outside is a lot scarier since I've heard about a lot of horror stories on hair color errors even with a professional's touch.

I've had an urge to color my hair with a touch of red ever since I saw Park Bom's hair in a 2NE1 MV (I think it's Can't Nobody). I just thought that a touch of red was kind of cool especially since I used to always stick to browns.

 Park Bom

I ended up getting HBC Hortaleza Hair Coloring Cream (Low Ammonia) in the shade Rouge 6.43 (firts photo above). I chose the low ammonia variant because I felt that this type of hair dye would not be as damaging as the regular ones. The swatch shown in the store was a little bit more red than the actual color I wanted but since hair dyes almost always doesn't color as bright as the swatch shows, I still bought it. It was pretty cheap and I was pretty happy with my purchase.

When I got back home, however, I chickened out! Since I used to work as a Staff Nurse and we weren't exactly allowed to dye our hair crazy colors, I had a lot of 'What If' moments. Panic went through me and I was unable to answer questions like, 'What if red doesn't suit me after all?', 'What if it doesn't turn out the way I want it too?', 'What if I look stupid after coloring my hair this shade?' and 'What if it actually colors as bright as the swatch?'. I then decided to mix this hair color with a previous hair dye that I've used- Bigen Silk Touch in Chocolate Brown!

I used the conditioner that came with the Bigen box dye for after color care

My hair is pretty fine and I had short hair back then so whenever I dye my hair, almost half of the dye is left untouched. That is why I still had the remains of my Bigen Silk Touch hair dye in Chocolate Brown. It was risky but then I decided to mix the two shades together in a ratio of 2:1 (Rouge: Chocolate Brown). I thought this would in turn help give the shade a touch of brown to make it more wearable. So how was the result?

I got reddish brown hair! I loved it! Especially the first few weeks when the red color was showing up really nicely. It's very humid in the Philippines and it's always summer here (Not really. But you get my point, right?) so I wash my hair everyday. And since I have fine hair, I can't skip on the shampoo so I guess the red color washed out pretty quickly. It washed out faster than the brown and in a month's time, my hair turned more of a brown shade than red. I guess that's just how it is since red hair is really hard to maintain.

 with flash

under natural lighting

Overall I was pleased with the results even if the red tones only lasted for a few weeks. I'm thinking of trying out bubble hair colors with red tones (Prettia, maybe?) right before I leave for South Korea in December. What do you guys think? Oh, and I have my next hair color at hand. It's Prettia Bubble Hair Dye in Milk Tea Brown. I bought it during my Japan trip. I'm planning to color my hair around April or May so watch out for that. ^^