When I said things lightened up halfway through 2011, I meant it literally. It was the first time I became fair haired.

In this photo the Okanagan sun is eating my soul. But it does let you see just how red my hair was. I wasn’t going for a redhead look – I wanted it to be as fake as possible. Red is my favourite colour, and because I had red and orange streaks and patches in the past, it only made sense to do my whole head red.

The thing about dyed red hair, no matter how good it looks, is this: IT WILL NOT HOLD.

The first few times you wash it, most of the vibrancy will fade out. It will still look good, depending on the colour you picked, but it washes out very quickly. Not as quickly as purple, which is gone in only a few washes, but much quicker than most colours.

If you’re going to dye your hair red, don’t be surprised when it fades right away. That being said, it does last a long time once the fading has finished. Case in point:

 

This is my faded, grown out red hair in December of the same year. It went from a vibrant, super fake red, to a nice, natural copper. I was lazy and let it do its thing, but if you want to keep the brighter red, you’ll have to get it redyed fairly often.

Around this point, I wanted to grow out my hair again. I’m not sure why, because I don’t like long hair on me anymore, but there you go. I was clearly delusional.

So rather than keep cutting it into short fauxhawks, we went for a bob. Bobs are universally flattering, and I’d really liked the ones I’d had before. Keeping with the red theme, we did this:

 

Red all around, and orange for the front. Bobs, aside from being universally flattering, are generally easy to take care of, as well. Let it dry naturally, or blow dry and straighten; either works well.

Next up: the year of the apocalypse!