You love your red hair, but you are dreaming of a darker, more sultry look. You’re feeling ready for a change. Burgundy is a great hair color choice for redheads looking to go darker because it’s in the red hair family but can still give you the big change you’ve been hoping for.
The shade is a beautiful blend of purple and brown that leaves you with gorgeous red wine color. Now that you’re ready to take the leap and deepen your red hair, we have to discuss how to approach going darker so that you can achieve the desired burgundy color.
If you want to go from red to burgundy hair, as a professional colorist, I’ll discuss the step-by-step process of darkening your red hair to burgundy the right way.
Note that, it’s always best to take a professional’s help when dyeing your hair as there are so many things that can go wrong and you want someone who has the experience to handle different situations.
How to Darken Red Hair to Burgundy
The great news is, it should be relatively easy to color your hair burgundy if it’s already red. In most cases, you can simply apply a demi-permanent burgundy hair dye over the red, and it will turn out beautifully.
There are a few hair color situations where going from red to burgundy may take an extra step or need permanent hair color, let’s go over each scenario to ensure you can go from red to your dream burgundy hair color.
Situation #1: Your Hair Is Root to End Red
Easy peasy. Choose a burgundy demi permanent hair color and apply root to end. You’ll want to section your hair into four quadrants and go through each section, meticulously applying the color with a color brush and gloved hands to fully saturate your hair.
Saturation is key when going darker with hair color because it will ensure the red is completely covered and give you an even, all-over color.
Situation #2: Your Roots Are Grown Out And the Mid Lengths and Ends of Your Hair Are Red
If you have been coloring your hair red, but it’s been a while since you’ve touched it up and your roots have grown out, you may need to rethink your hair color formula.
Instead of simply applying the hair color root to end, you’ll need to do two different hair color formulas. One for the roots that have grown out and then a second formula on your red mid-lengths and ends.
For the root formula, you will want a burgundy with a touch of red. You’ll also want this formula to be darker (for example, if you are planning to do a level 5 burgundy on your ends, you should do a level four red/burgundy on your roots).
For the mid-lengths and ends, you’ll apply burgundy hair color in a level one shade darker than your roots.
You apply the root formula first and then go back through and apply the second formula to the mids and ends. Section your hair into four quadrants to stay organized. Doing these two formulas will give you an even and seamless result.
If you’re feeling a bit intimidated by this process, you can always go see your hairstylist. Bring them an inspirational photo of the burgundy hair, and let them take it from there!
Situation # 3: You Need Gray Coverage
If you are a redhead who also has lots of gray hair. You will probably want to skip the demi-permanent hair color and go for a permanent burgundy hair dye.
Permanent hair color is the only one that can give you 100% gray coverage. Permanent hair color has many options for burgundy and will give you the change you want, plus the gray coverage.
Key things to remember:
- If you are all over red with no gray, apply demi permanent burgundy color root to ends.
- Saturation is key to transitioning to a darker color.
- If you have roots, you’ll most likely need two different hair color formulas.
- If you have gray hair, you’ll want to choose permanent hair color instead of a demi-permanent one.
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