I am a great purveyor of the hair dye, that is to say I have not seen the natural colour of my hair apart from some root growth in over 20 years. Since then I have been every colour between black and blonde with the exception of green and blue! (I have been orange but that was more to do with trying to become blonde!)

I must admit to being a red or purple kind of person, and I don't mean carrot top red but RED! The walking post box type of red, or if in purple mode, a rich deep velvety purple. Or even mixing the two up to make it more interesting! And you don't get these colours by using those LiveFX dyes you can get, which are quite frankly rubbish! It's far better to use a specific brand of dye.

And there's a few different brands but personally I usually use Directions, it always used to be Crazy Colours but I've found the quality of them to have become quite poor. Its made by La Riche and comes in 34 different shades most quite bedazzling to the eye! Fancy going pink? Well, there's Pastel Pink, Flamingo Pink and Carnation Pink. Red? You'll need to choose from Pillar Box Red, Poppy Red, Coral Red, Vermilion Red and Rose Red, there's also 3 purples and several others that are mixes of the above. You can also go blue, green, yellow and orange! Mix them as well and you get some amazing colours, I currently have a mix of Flamingo Pink, Rose Red and a dash of Vermilion to create this stunning pinky purple. Because the tubs have pop lids you don't have to throw it away immediately but can keep it for the next time.

A word to the wise though, don't go thinking you can just slap this on top your brown or black hair and expect it to look like the top, it wont. To get the best out of those colours you need your hair to be a light colour, and the lighter the better if you want a really vibrant tone. Although some of the reds and purples go quite well over, say a dull brown to give a nice shiny tint to it.

Once you've finally decided on the shade and handed over your £3.50-4.50, its time to go home and try it. Old clothes and old towels to be ready, oh, and the gloves and the cling film! I have another tip as well, get some Vaseline or conditioner and smear liberally around your forehead, ears, base of your jaw and back of your neck. It'll really help, trust me!.
So you wash your hair and towel dry, and really towel dry, drippy hair is not recommended!. Make sure you wear gloves, this stuff is really gloopy, make sure you massage well into your hair without scrubbing it into your scalp, stained scalps are really not attractive and make sure you get it right into the ends of your hair and pile on top of your head. I find cling film wrapped around it helps stop the drips. Turned around and survey the disaster in the bathroom. Look in the mirror and see the stains on your forehead, notice that you even managed to get it on your arms even with wearing the gloves. I kid you not, this stuff is messy and gets everywhere especially as the formula seemed to have changed somewhat and is more runny. And unfortunately it will stain. It does wipe off really well, but get it in the white grouting and its hell to move. Bits of the grouting at the top of our bathroom wall are still blue with my daughter having no idea how it got there!

The top says wait 15 minutes and rinse off, erm no. If you want a good strong colour you leave it on as long as possible. Personally I leave it on for about 3 hours even with the bleached hair so it really is good and strong. It doesn't seem to damage the hair from leaving it on this long.

Beware the mess of rinsing it off! I recommend gloves again unless you like your hands to look like you have some terrible disease. And being mixed with water means more of the dye goes even further so make sure your head is right over the bath or in the shower cubicle. And just keep rinsing, and rinse it quite a lot before using shampoo so you leave as much of the colour in as possible. Finish rinsing, wrap in an old towel and rinse the bath out, and that will probably take quite a few rinses as well. I'm sorry to say that this will stain the bath if left.

And there you go, perfectly red hair. And as you will find out for a few days, red hands if you run your fingers through it, red pillowcases, hats, collars of light coloured tops, and pale sofas if you lean back against them. Your parents are sooooooo not going to be happy if you get dye on the back of their new leather cream sofa! And don't get caught in the rain, green streaks down the face are not attractive. Oh and check the side of your face before you go out in the morning, lying on your hair can transfer the colour. It's semi-permanent so will wash out of most things, and no, dont be tempted to dye your grannys white poodle cos thats just cruel!

Keeping the shade can be difficult, some stay better than others though, reds and purples can last quite a few washes, this stuff is semi-permanent while blues don't apparently last more than a couple. I would use one of those colour protect shampoos, to hasten a removal of the colour nothing strips it out better than good old Head and Shoulders!

So it's messy, a pain to apply, you might not be able to wear your favourite light tops, might ruin your bedding and could end up with green hands. But it's all worth it, it's the best of the bunch to buy and it's going to make your hair beautiful and where's the harm in that?