From Blonde to Silver (and Everything in Between!) with Colour-Freedom Metallic Glory

A few years ago, I had what I like to call "The Great Bleach Disaster of 2013". I really wanted Danaerys Targaryen hair so bleached it and bleached it again and, well, you can imagine what happened. I experienced breakage, the awful cotton wool-feel, lost elasticity and my hair was just generally in a terrible condition. I learned from it and would never, ever bleach my own hair again. 

Fast forward to 2016 and, when my friends from home were over with me at uni one weekend, I spotted something in Superdrug that made me think "oooh!". The "something" in question was this:

Knight & Wilson Colour-Freedom Metallic Glory in Silver Grey

What? Permanent silver hair colour?!? I'd only ever seen silver achieved after toning white hair and, as such, I'd never attempted it after what I described in paragraph one happened. I was absolutely in love with silver hair that I'd seen scattered about the Internet but thought it was out my grasp. Would this change everything? Would I finally be able to achieve a silver hue??

My friends said I should go for it so I bought a pack. After the weekend, I decided to take the plunge and go for it. This was my hair prior to dyeing (except with some roots coming through):

So, it says for this particular shade that hair should be at least a level 9 blonde with no warm tones such as yellows or oranges. As you can see in the photo, I had some warm tones in my hair. My roots were also particularly warm. I wondered if the dye would tone these parts down and make the parts that had been highlighted previously silver. I should probably have toned before applying it but the warm parts were quite dark compared to the rest so it may not have made a difference. But anyway. This was the result after leaving it on for 35 mins (10 mins longer than the stated time to see if it could blast away the warmth):

Not bad, eh?? I really liked it in my bedroom light (it was dark at this point). Near my roots you can see some warmer parts but they didn't look too bad to me.

Well, until I looked at it in natural light. I don't have any photos of it in daylight at this stage but it was pretty obvious that it had worked beautifully on my highlighted parts and not marvellously on the rest. It had toned it down a bit but that was about it. However, I wasn't too surprised. The stubborn warm bits had been lingering for a while and the dye did explicitly state that any warm tones may clash with the dye and produce unwanted results. So I wasn't surprised in the slightest.

I decided to try a toner that I'd bought on a whim at the same time as the dye. This was a toner I'd never seen before and it was quite new to the market, made by the sister company of ColourB4 (thought I recognised the font/logo):

ColourOn Ice Cool Blonde Toner

It's pretty dark coming out of the tube and is a very indigo-shaded thick cream (apologies for the awkward hand picture, I couldn't get my camera to focus in any other position!):

So I had faith in it. The results were great, it really toned down the warmth and made the silvery parts even more silver:

I was happy, though I could still see some warmth. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been. The toner also made my hair feel incredibly soft so I was a fan straight away.

A few days later, I curled my hair for a mad scientist-themed night out with friends. I noticed my roots, which were stubbornly staying warm and were beginning to irritate me:

The rest of it looked lovely, though I did notice some warmth stubbornly staying in throughout the rest of it, underneath, too.

This pic was what convinced me that I needed to do something about it:

Behold my amazing Photoshop skills! My roots looked brown. BROWN. I'm not even brown naturally, I'm a dark blonde. NOPE, thought I. That was it. I was going to have to suck it up and get some bleach on there if I wanted the whole thing to be silver.

For the past 18+ months I've been looking after my hair a lot more. I've reduced the amount of sulphates and silicones I've been using, slathering it in coconut oil fairly regularly, using argan oil on the ends, using far less heat, etc. So the condition of it has improved massively. I also invested in a boar brush, which makes it feel particularly silky. So I was less worried about bleaching it now, though still somewhat anxious so I made sure I knew what I was doing this time.

I refused to go over a 20 volume developer and was prepared to spend more time lightening it. I also invested in a colour remover (JoBaz, which I've used and raved about before on here) and Wella Color Charm toner (T14). I had also heard about a trick to try and reduce the impact of the damage a bit: using coconut oil before bleaching (leaving the oil on during the bleaching process). I had accepted that I would be damaging my hair (but absolutely REFUSED to let it get to the stage that it had been in 2013) and was prepared to trim off some of the length if necessary. I did do a strand test before proceeding to make sure I wasn't going to fry my hair. I was also prepared to look the heck after it following the processes. 

So. I did this over the course of 2 days. Not recommended by many as it's so many processes and harsh on the hair. I had a slight deadline though as I was heading home from uni for Easter the day after the 2nd day. I would still advise resting though and conditioning and treating the hair in between. But anyway.

Stage one was the colour removal. I was sad to lose the fab colour from the previously highlighted parts of hair as they did look stunning. I was also curious about what the colour remover would do to a silver dye and whether it would completely remove it.

It removed it beautifully. It also caused the strange green ends (which had previously been coloured with LaRiche Directions in Neon Blue and Violet). That was fine, I was planning on putting the blue/purple back in at some stage, anyway.

Very brassy roots, as you can see. I then bleached it with Jerome Russell powder bleach and Wella Color Charm 20 volume developer after having had coconut oil sat on it for about an hour. This was the result:

Slightly less brassy roots, yay! The condition of it didn't feel too bad at all, a little dry but it was to be expected. I then caked it in coconut oil again and slept overnight in it.

The next morning, I noticed there was still a lot of brass and it was a pale orange rather than the required pale yellow. I guessed that I hadn't left the bleach on for long enough (due to my panic about a possible Great Bleach Disaster of 2016!), only around 25 minutes, and I didn't cover it or apply heat, either.

So, another bleach was necessary. Using the same products (and having covered it in coconut oil again), I bleached and left it on for around 40 minutes this time, covered it in cling film and applied heat via a hairdryer for around 2 minutes.

The result:

Muuuuch better! It was now at the required stage with very little brass. I also noticed that, once again, apart from some dryness throughout, it was otherwise intact and ok. It didn't feel like cotton wool, it wasn't snapping off and even the ends weren't too bad. Amazing. I honestly believe the coconut oil helped make it more manageable and less dry and will never bleach again without first covering it in coconut oil first.

Right, so, onto the silver dye! Finally! I had toned it after the first bleach with ColourOn (which didn't do a huge amount this time because there were a lot of orangey tones, but it again left my hair feeling super soft so huge points for that) and then Wella Color Charm T14 (which helped a lot but didn't touch the roots, unsurprising considering how brassy and warm they were). So this felt like such a process! Would it be worth it?

I had to get the Graphite Grey this time as all 3 Superdrugs I'd checked in the city had sold out of Silver Grey (this line is exclusive to Superdrug). I decided to leave the dye on for a very short amount of time as a) this one was darker and b) I knew my hair would be porous at this stage so would grab the colour and come out darker. I left it on for 10 minutes before rinsing and conditioning.

Did it work?

Well?

Yes. Yes, it did.

OH YEAH

YEAH IT WORKED

I AM SO HAPPY

NO MORE BRASSY ROOTS

I am so, so happy with the final result. There isn't an ounce of brass anywhere. The shade came out perfectly - a nice mix of grey and silver. The lighting isn't the best and I'll update with a daylight picture at some point. But WOW. I absolutely adore it. And I can't believe I managed it! AND I can't believe I managed it without destroying my hair!! Look at it! It honestly looks and feels like I haven't processed it several times over the weekend and I'm staggered. 

I heartily recommend Knight & Wilson's silver dye range. I loved the Silver Grey (on the parts that were at the right level for silverising), I love the Graphite Grey. I need to rave about this dye for a bit because I loved everything about it.

The dye itself is quite thick so really easy to apply with a brush and bowl, which I did (I prefer that to using the bottle for boxed dyes). The smell is actually quite pleasant, hard to describe but much nicer than the usual whiff. I ADORE the colour (MY HAIR IS SILVER, GUYS). And a very pleasant surprise was the after-colour conditioner:

This conditioner was a very pleasant surprise and WOW, do they sell this separately?! If not, they seriously need to consider doing so. It made my processed hair feel amazing. It honestly, truly does not feel like I've bleached it at all and I'm staggered at the quality. BUT GUYS,

LOOK,

SILICONE-FREE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. IT JUST GETS BETTER. I AM IN LOVE.

I need to store this stuff for the rest of my life.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE, FOLKS??

It tells you the strength of the developer on the bottle. I've never seen this on a box dye (and I've been dyeing my hair since I was 14 - have I just missed it all these times??) and for me it's a huge added bonus. Then I know exactly how much processing is going on and it's fabulous.

So there you go! This was by no means an easy process and I was quite tired after doing it all in the space of around 24 hours in total! Oh, the backache. But I am so, so chuffed with the result. And I absolutely love the Knight & Wilson permanent silver dye range. I haven't tried any of their other products but will likely do so in the future. If you're looking to go silver, this is the range I'd recommend by far.

BUT BE WARNED

As you can see, I did need to bleach my hair and I already had light hair. So, if your hair is dark or has brassy tones, be prepared for having to lighten it. As you can see from my results, it worked well on the previously highlighted parts and not so well on the warmer parts BUT it does say this on the box!! So I was prepared for this and not surprised at my initial results. 

I highly, HIGHLY recommend spending some weeks/months getting your hair into a good condition before you do anything along these lines. I believe that, along with the coconut oil, is why my results were good. My hair feels fine (a little dry but I will be taking good care of it from now, conditioning it plenty and using as little heat as possible) because it was in a good place before I undertook this process. Don't say I didn't warn you!

And not forgetting! The traditional cat photo of my gorgeous Cleo being all snuggly:

No-Bleach Lightening My Roots

So, it's been a while since I added anything to this blog. That's because, not long after my "red to blonde" post, I had my hair professionally highlighted so I didn't do any DIY hair stuff for ages. My mum treated me when I went to the hairdressers with her at some point in the summer (August?) (thanks mum!) and my hair was quite a warm blonde. I explained to the lady I wanted really ashy hair (think Taylor Swift) so she put some highlights in and toned my hair and I loved it. I was a bit wary of having bleach put in my hair after The Great Bleach Disaster of 2013 but my hair was in good condition again by this point and she assured me my hair would be ok. It survived beautifully and I really liked them. I can go for much longer these days without being bothered about my roots (which aren't terribly dark anyway) so only got my hair re-highlighted in November (and the only reason I did then is because I was going on TV and didn't want roots on national telly). It looked fabulous again (I had a different lady this time who put some darker ashy bits in along with the highlights) and I was happy up until this weekend.

I'm a second year university student and, with it being January, I had exams. All thoughts of my appearance ended when we broke up for Christmas and revision started. I lived, breathed, ate and slept microbiology for six weeks so I didn't pay any attention to my hair. I emerged from my isolation after the final exam a couple of days ago, blinking at the light outside, breathing in fresh air and caught sight of my hair and saw how tired it looked (it must have been reflecting my own fatigue - those six weeks were incredibly challenging). My roots were very visible and the blonde had yellowed. I'd used a funky reddish-pink semi-permanent on the ends (La Riche Directions in Rubine) the previous weekend for a cousin's birthday meal and even that looked tired.

I'd noticed a very small amount of breakage after my hair was highlighted in November so I pondered whether I did want highlights again. The ladies at the salon my mum's a regular at are fabulous but it would be a while before I could go again and I decided I didn't want it highlighting again. I didn't want to get into a pattern of highlights, damage, highlights, damage, etc. I decided to sort it out myself and just hoped I wouldn't make an absolute hash of it. I don't know why I was so worried about doing my own hair again, as I've been home-dyeing it since I was 14, but there was a bit of worry I'd end up with vivid orange roots. But I couldn't wait any longer and I felt a kind of desperate urge to take care of my appearance after having abandoned it for a while so decided to go ahead.

I decided to use a high-lift blonde dye to lift my roots, then use an ash blonde over the top to even the whole thing out. I would then tone if necessary and I also equipped myself with some new silver shampoo that I'd read rave reviews about to keep the brass at bay. I wasn't naive enough to think the high-lift dye wouldn't damage my hair but at least it would be less damaging than bleach.

So. This was my hair before I started The Process:

Rooooooots! I'm naturally around a level 7 dark blonde and it's ashy as HECK. Sadly, whenever I lighten it it goes really warm (which is unsurprising but still disappointing). It really does look tired here :( I soaked it in coconut oil (100% coconut oil, no additives) for a few hours a couple of days before I did this to prepare it. Coconut oil is absolutely fabulous and it's been a life-saver for my hair. My hair itself isn't fine but I don't have a great deal of it so it's kind of thin (it was lovely and thick when I was younger, I blame ageing and also The Great Bleach Disaster of 2013 - entirely my own fault on that front).

Step one was the high-lift blonde. I settled for this one as I've used it before on darker hair with some success:

Garnier Nutrisse Truly Blonde 101 - ultra light beige blonde

It claims to lighten up to 4.5 levels, which was fine for me as I only wanted to lighten it around 2 levels. I didn't want to go any higher than a level 9 because, as much as I love really light blonde hair, my roots would have been more obvious more quickly. I've been a level 10/11 blonde before and it was lovely, but the roots! I pasted it onto my roots and the underside of my hair first for around 15 minutes, then spread it throughout the rest and left it for another 15. This was the result:

It definitely lifted my roots which I was happy about, but left them very brassy, which wasn't at all surprising. Perhaps I should have added heat/wrapped my hair during the process but ah well. It nicely boosted the rest of my hair where it had been highlighted before to a lovely ashy blonde. It also faded the pink ends, which was fine because I was planning on re-pinking them anyway. I kind of liked the faded look to them.

I got a better picture in the daylight the next morning:

Next was the ash blonde dye. I went with L'Oreal because their dyes seem to dump a lot of ashy tones which is exactly what I wanted:

L'Oreal Recital Preference 9.1 Viking - very light ash blonde

Again, I painted the roots first for around 15 minutes then pulled the rest through the rest of my hair for a further 15 minutes. The result:

It took away the orange but was still slightly brassy, as I saw the next morning:

I'd probably use their other ash blonde series in the future because this one didn't seem to make my hair as ashy as I'm used to. Not bad, though. The rest of my hair looked like this:

The highlighted parts were stunning, a silvery ash shade that I adore. The warmer parts running through, as can be seen on this pic, weren't too bad. They seem to make a huge contrast on this pic but weren't that bad in real life. I also re-pinked the ends.

Toner time! Glad I invested in this, I had a feeling I'd need it. The one I chose was this:

Wella Color Charm T14 - pale ash blonde (previously Silver Lady)

I opted for this one rather than T18 because this I think has more blue tones in it, which I figured I'd need. I mixed it with 10 vol developer (not 20 as the box recommends. I didn't want to lighten my hair any further, just wanted to tone it and 10 vol is colour-deposit ONLY). The box says to apply it to towel-dried hair, but I accidentally missed this instruction and applied it to dry hair. It didn't seem to have any adverse effects but I would recommend following instructions where applicable (pay attention, future self). I applied this to my roots only, I didn't put it anywhere else on my hair. I left it on for 25 minutes, washed it off and this was the result:

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Brass GONE. I'd read rave reviews about the Color Charm toners online and it didn't disappoint. The brass is gone. The roots and some parts of my hair are a slightly warmer tone than I was after, but at least there is no brass and I can work on the warmer parts over time. 

I also invested in this silver shampoo:

Bleach London Silver Shampoo

I tried it during this process but can't give an honest review of it yet as I used it alongside all the other stuff I was doing. It is the most heavily pigmented shampoo I've ever seen and there were so many good reviews online for it. I went to Boots where it seemed they didn't have any in (none on the shelf!) but luckily another customer had asked a staff member if they had any in and she brought some out! So I nabbed some and will give a review of it once I've had the chance to test it properly. It smells good and it didn't seem to dry my hair out, unlike Provoke Touch of Silver, which I find quite drying. I've also used Shimmer Lights in the past, which has a gorgeous smell (I think so, anyway! A lot of people seem to hate it - it is very floral) and leaves my hair soft. So, we'll see.

So yes! It was a long process (couple of days) but I'm happy with where it's at now. I may use a stronger high-lift dye the next time I do my roots, but, as my hair condition isn't too bad right now, I might just do this again. The ends of my hair are a bit dry but other than that, it seems fine. Which is a huge relief, as I didn't want to damage it too much (this process is damaging, there's no avoiding it to have lighter hair, but it's nowhere near as bad as bleach). I'll keep conditioning and coconut oiling it. I rarely use heat to style it (apart from my wayward fringe which needs straightening nearly every day) and dry it on the lowest hairdryer setting to keep damage to a minimum, so yeah. It should be fine.

I hope this helps anyone who is looking to go lighter! I realise for a lot of people that bleach is the preferred (and sometimes necessary for very dark hair out there) option but this may be of some use to the lighter-haired ladies and gents out there. 

Note: No, I am not a professional hair person and I do this entirely at my own risk. I've probably done some things wrong, there are probably easier ways of doing this, etc. But this works for me and my hair feels fine, so yes.

Bonus cat photo! Meet Tiger. Isn't he gorgeous?

Beautiful Soundtrack Music

So, my music taste is quite strange. I've never been a follower of many artists, really. There're only a few that I've listened to several albums of (Keane, Florence and the Machine, Muse to name a few) and I don't anticipate the release of their new songs or albums. I'm much more of a song person in that, if I hear a song and love it, I'll download it, regardless who it's by. This is why I have a Miley Cyrus song on my phone. Most of the tracks on Guitar Hero 3 lived on my phone for ages for this very reason.

Soundtracks are a different matter though. I adore good soundtracks, specifically movie and video game soundtracks. The first one I ever bought was the Halo: Combat Evolved soundtrack because the music in that game is absolutely stunning. And if there's a particularly beautiful track it often makes me tear up because I'm just a sucker for beautiful music. The first piece that made me cry was the Ending Theme of Final Fantasy X, mostly because DAMN and a lot of because I sunk so many hours into that game and the ending was so sad.

I decided to compile a post of some of my favourite pieces because why not? If it causes just one person to fall in love then it'll be worth it. I know I'm not the only person who loves this kind of music and I discovered a few pieces through looking up what others had suggested. With the exam period being upon us I needed some nice background music for my studies so looked up some of the composers of these tracks. Some of whom I was familiar with, some brand new to me but I'll be watching out for their future compositions.

I will keep updating this list as and when I come across more beautiful music - the exam period has only just started so no doubt there'll be plenty coming this way soon! Finding music like this is the best way to procrastinate help revision.

This is in no particular order but I'll start with my favourite, which I only discovered recently.

1. Arena Crumbles - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Official Score
   James Newton Howard




It's May 2015 and I only discovered The Hunger Games a couple of weeks ago (shameful, I know). Having been in possession of the first book for over a year now and never getting the chance to finish it, I was properly introduced to the series by my mum. She's a big fan and asked me when I visited one weekend if I wanted to watch the first film. I was curious so said yes and so my love for the series began. We also watched Catching Fire that weekend and I really, really enjoyed it. I think both films were excellent but Catching Fire was fantastic in my eyes. I haven't seen Mockingjay part 1 yet but I will as soon as I can, then go to the cinema, hopefully with my mum, to see part 2. I've now read all of the books (again, thanks mum, for lending me your Kindle collection!) and devoured Mockingjay in a single day. Absolutely brilliant series that I'd heartily recommend and the films are great. Jennifer Lawrence <3 She's fab (also definitely have not developed a crush on Woody Harrelson as a result of his portrayal of Haymitch). And I didn't think I'd like Effie but I loved her. And CINNA, I love him, Lenny Kravitz is just lovely. Also, Finnick, pfwoah, ANYWAY I'll stop now.

The whole soundtrack is excellent but this particular piece just staggers me. The scene that it's from really sticks out in my mind (I won't spoil it but those who have seen Catching Fire will know which part from the title) and it's one of my favourite movie scenes of all time. I only heard the piece properly a few days ago but I can't stop listening to it now. Firmly wedged into my top spot and it had its work cut out beating the Avatar soundtrack, but it did it.

2. You're My Hero - Wreck-It Ralph OST
    Henry Jackman




With Wreck-It Ralph being my favourite film ever, there was going to be something featured from it on this list. The whole soundtrack is catchy and it was so well-done and captured the mood brilliantly with every scene. This and Sugar Rush are my favourites, I chose this one though because at the start and about 2/3 of the way through it's just lovely. I won't spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it (and please, watch it, it's absolutely fantastic, never fails to cheer me up) but it's at a very heart-wrenching part of it. I'm going to note here that the voice acting in this film is some of the best I've ever heard, from every single person in it.

3. Becoming One of the People - Avatar, Music From the Motion Picture
    James Horner



When Avatar was released I went into it with zero expectations and came out of the cinema feeling pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the film but the music stuck with me straight away. It has one of the most gorgeous soundtracks I've ever heard and was my favourite for years until I encountered The Hunger Games. There are so many lovely pieces contained within and I could list them all here, but I won't. Instead I'll put the one in that I first fell in love with. Trust me when I say they're all excellent.

4. Miracle - Winter's Tale Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
    KT Tunstall



An actual song featuring on this list! This was a "I desperately need some nice music to accompany this lecture revision on cell signalling of all things, help me, Internet!" discovery. I'm not familiar with the film at all but when this came on it stood out to me straight away. Very nice, dreamy, flowy song and KT Tunstall sings it beautifully.

5. Rue's Farewell - The Hunger Games Original Motion Picture Score
    James Newton Howard



Oh lookie, it's The Hunger Games again. Told you it was good. This one features from the first film and the title could be considered a spoiler but it's another beautiful piece. Especially since I had had no clue about the story at this point and that bit accompanied with this music and the tears were flowing. I cried a lot during The Hunger Games series, to be honest. Not ashamed. Plenty of people will have done, too.

6. Evacuating London - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
    Harry Gregson-Williams



Another film in which a scene sticks out because the music grabbed me straight away. Seriously, the people behind the music of movies deserve some serious credit for what they do. I saw this at the cinema years ago and the point at which this occurs will always be burned into my memory. It's not spoilerific so I'll tell you: it's at the bit where the kids are on the train right at the start and it's wonderful. A Narnia Lullaby is another good one.

7. Ending Theme - Final Fantasy X OST
    Nobuo Uematsu



"Finally!" I hear you cry. "A video game soundtrack!" This soundtrack is wonderful all the way through but this piece will live with me forever because I bawled my eyes out during it and the scene that was playing. This is right at the end of the game so I won't spoil (... I know the game is 13 years old now but still, the HD remaster just came out so some are still new to it) but DAMN, SON. When you invest yourself into a story and see it through you're bound to get emotional, but the music just made it for me.

8. Cornfield Chase - Interstellar Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
    Hans Zimmer



Hans Zimmer did The Lion King soundtrack so I already loved his work. I was shown Interstellar by a couple of friends fairly recently and when I was hunting down good revision music, I remembered that I'd enjoyed the score in this film. A lot of the soundtrack sounds very similar but I like this one because of the urgency of it as it goes on. Again, I can remember the scene in my head largely because of this piece that accompanied it.

9. Light as a Feather - Winter's Tale Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
    Hans Zimmer



It's our old friend Hans Zimmer again! He does some excellent stuff. Again, I've no idea of the context of this one because I haven't seen the film, or even heard of it to be honest. This was another stumble-across-ey one which stood out to me in the sea of soundtracks I was listening to in order to gather inspiration. It's a nice little piece.

10. Brothers in Arms - Halo: Combat Evolved OST
      Martin O'Donnell



Halo: CE was released on 15th November 2001 and I was in year 8 at high school at the time and about to turn 13 and I'll never forget because good grief I loved Halo. It was my first FPS and I loved the whole game (though the level "The Library" can go and do one). But the music! Oh, the music. When I left the game running on the menu one time and went back into the room to this music, which had come on in one of the trailers that ran every now and then, I fell in love. I really enjoy all of the soundtrack and it was the first game soundtrack I fell for, but this piece gets me even now, all these years later. I still play the game and I still love this music and it's well worth a listen.

Scott Cornwall Colour Restore: Deep Red (and a bit of Garnier Nutrisse 6.60 Fiery Red)

I adore red hair. Whether it's out of a box and enough to rival British telephone boxes or gorgeous hues seen in natural redheads (such as Karen Gillan, for example), it's lovely. I'm not a natural redhead, sadly, so for me it comes out of a box/salon if I'm being treated by my mum. I've always strayed towards the ruby/plum reds and was red permanently for a good couple of years before yearning for blonde again. Well, recently I took the plunge and went red again after 3 years of blonde. I started with a lovely golden copper blonde and it made my green eyes look stunning (shameless self-admiration). Sadly, almost all red tones washed out in a couple of weeks even though I was using a copper-adder-of-tones-shampoo-thing. So sod it! Back to extremely red it was.

The colour I chose, after pouring over the delicious red shades in Superdrug for slightly longer than is deemed sane, was Garnier Nutrisse 6.60 Fiery Red - a permanent colour. I didn't want to go any lower than a level 6 in case I changed my mind in the future and wanted to go light again. The shade on the box was perfect and I knew I'd get something like it as I had a pretty light level 8-ish kinda-blonde that I was about to plonk it on top of. 

This is was what it looked like straight after dyeing:

I loved it! It was the exact shade I was after. 

Two things to note about this particular dye. One, it smelled very pleasant unlike dyes I've used in the past. I hadn't used Garnier for a long time before this and have no idea if all of their dyes smell like this, but when I opened the box I got a kind of soft, fruity smell (likely the conditioner - avocado-ey!). And applying the dye was a nicer experience than usual because of the smell. Thumbs up, Garnier! Secondly, I noticed far, FAR less staining in the following weeks than I've had with other red dyes. I'd fully expected my pillows, towels and necks of my clothes to come out with pink/red stains but only experienced the smallest amount on a white shirt I'd slept in one night. My towels and pillows were absolutely fine. No idea why this was the case but I was pleasantly surprised and impressed.

The only bad thing was that I only just had enough dye for my shoulder-length, medium-thickness hair and had to stretch it as far as I possibly could. When I recently dyed my hair blonde again with a different brand I didn't have this issue at all and actually had excess.

Now, the problem with red dyes is the notorious, dreaded FADING. Using a colour-save shampoo and conditioner reduces the fading so the colour lasts a bit longer. Washing with cool/cold water ensures the colour is sealed in for longer. Avoiding shampoos with sulphates (even colour-save shampoos contain these) can help a lot, as sulphates strip the colour from hair. Four weeks down the line, this was my hair:

Sadly there was no natural light available as it was 10pm-ish at the time so apologies for that, but you can see there had been considerable fading!

I was determined to keep the red fresh for as long as possible as I didn't like the idea of dyeing my hair more often to keep the red looking good. I'm trying to grow it out and it's suffered some damage in the last few years so I'm avoiding putting it through dyeing as much. My unbelievably ash blonde (~level 7) roots were coming through but I figured I could live with those for a few more weeks.

Behold! This product here. Scott Cornwall's Colour Restore in Deep Red:

I'd seen this in stores and after a lengthy couple of evenings Googling it and reading reviews, I decided to buy. It's not that cheap (I got it for £12.99 in March 2015 at Boots) but you get a lot from the tube, especially with my length of hair.

It's a toner-type product. You can either shampoo it through like a normal shampoo, leave in for up to 5 minutes then rinse like normal, or plop it on for 25 minutes for a restorative job. As I'd had quite a bit of fading, I opted to leave it on for 25 (... 30) minutes. I washed my hair first with a clear shampoo, combed it and then applied the stuff to damp hair. 

A little goes a long way with this and I only needed a few blobs to saturate my hair. I combed it through with a wide-toothed comb to ensure I hadn't missed any bits. I didn't cover it with anything and didn't apply any heat, just sat and waited and fed my cat and made a cup of tea and despaired over the amount of revision I had to do for my upcoming exams. When the time was up I rinsed and conditioned. You don't actually need to condition with this as it leaves it in a soft condition (I could definitely feel this as I was washing it off) but I did anyway as my ends were a bit dry at the time.

The result! Again, no natural light for the first pic but took one in some poor, cloudy daylight (yay for Lancashire weather) for the second one:

I was pretty stunned about how NICE it was! The photos don't do it much justice at all. It had taken on a nice cherry colour which I hadn't expected as the pic on the front of the box showed more of an orange-red! 

Which leads me onto a point: this is PINK-BASED. It deposited pink tones along with the red and it was also very pink when I shampooed my hair in the next few weeks (the colour of the shampoo as it washed out was candy-floss! Very pretty colour though!). For me, this worked very well with the base I had and I adored it. BUT, A WARNING: to those with bleached hair who use this, it'll likely turn your hair pink. If you're after pink hair, great! If not, I wouldn't use this on a light base. I don't fully know how it would work on dark hair. It CANNOT LIFT COLOUR so dark bases will NOT be lifted to a red. It'll deposit red/pink tones so will add warmth but I don't know how much red would be visible amongst the dark tones.

It didn't really touch my natural roots very much. It DID blend them in ever so slightly for the first few days but my roots were very evident again after a couple of washes. Based on this, I'm not sure it'd be very effective on non-red natural hair.

It lasted for a surprising amount of time, too. I was seeing friends just over a week later so did the shampoo/rinse-through refresh a couple of weeks later. I didn't see a huge difference but it did look slightly brighter - which is the point! When I then went blonde again just under a week later, it still looked pretty good and hadn't faded nearly as much as it had prior to using it.

Overall: recommended for redheads seeking a refresh for plum/cherry tones, a little goes far so the price isn't too bad considering. Definitely wear gloves when applying it! Unfortunately my memory fails me so I can't remember if it comes with gloves or not (I have a feeling it does) but there are packs of gloves available in places such as Boots for only a couple of quid.

Bonus: a photo of our lovely cat, Toby. He was our first cat, sadly no longer with us but he was wonderful (and huge!):