BONJOUR-DAHLING! 
Whether you’re a natural redhead or you prefer to dye your hair a fiery, chili pepper red, a cool copper, or a rich and complex burgundy, red hair always makes a brave and bold statement. Get the look right and you’ll instantly channel a whole load of sass and kick-ass confidence!
Red Alert
While some of you might prefer the cool, icy-white Scandi blonde look, there are plenty of you who love the luck of the Irish! As we’re celebrating St Patrick’s Day in today’s blog, we thought we’d focus on how to select the best shade of red for your skin tone, along with some top maintenance tips to enhance the color and hue. You need the best high performance hair products, including a clarifying shampoo but more on that later!
Note, this color is not one for shrinking violets. There’s no disappearing into the background when you’re the owner of fierce red hair. It’s loud and proud and demands attention! It’s one for the Bravehearts among you! The strong Queens who dare to be different; modern-day Celtic warriors!
Choosing Your Shade
Picture Christina Hendricks, Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain, Amy Adams, Isla Fisher and who could forget Jessica Rabbit? You’re certainly in excellent company. Red is a color that naturally oozes sex appeal. You could say that it’s smoking hot!
The main challenge is finding the shade and tone to suit your skin tone. Approaching the perfect shade should be tackled like choosing the ultimate red lipstick.
We recommend you try the vein test to determine the most suitable tone.
Simply hold your wrists to the light:
- If your veins are mostly blue and purple, go for a cool undertone
- If they’re green, go for a warmer undertone
- If they’re a mix of both, you should keep it more neutral
Think about your own natural skin tone and take it from there. It’s a color that can suit everyone, not just those among you with pale-skinned, green-eyed Celtic ancestry.
Let’s take a look at some go-to shades that will work whether you’re light, medium or dark-skinned.
Light Skin
Go for colors like rose gold, strawberry blonde, and lighter coppers. Dark shades could leave you looking washed out and needing to pile on more makeup to compensate.
Medium Skin
To keep it looking more natural, go for a rich auburn or a warm copper. If you prefer to stand out from the crowd, then how about experimenting with a luscious cherry red? It’s such a fun and feisty, color-popping shade.
Dark Skin
Deep auburn is especially flattering on dark skin tones or you could go for something that packs more punch, choosing instead a blue or purple based red tone.
Maintaining Fresh & Vibrant Locks
Once you’ve decided on the perfect shade of red, you need to know how to maintain your color for as long as possible. Fret not, we’re about to run you through our top five essential hair tips for looking after red hair. With Number 4 High Performance Hair Care, we’ve got your hair needs on red alert!
- 48-hour Rule
Give yourself at least 48-hours post applying fresh color before you go ahead and shampoo. That will give your hair time to completely absorb the dye molecules, resealing the shaft so that your color doesn’t fade prematurely
- Go Sulfate Free
Use a shampoo that’s sulfate and paraben-free so that it won’t strip away the color. The purer and more natural the shampoo, the less it will disturb the color. We recommend you treat red hair with N4’s Lumiere d’hiver Clarifying Shampoo. This plant-based clarifying shampoo is packed with our signature liquid complex of highly powerful and organic botanicals. You’ll quickly be channeling your inner Celtic Catwalk Queen for hair that’s seriously debonair!
- Mask Maintenance
The key to maintaining a rich, deep color tone for longer is to keep the hair fully moisturized and hydrated. Once a week we recommend using N4’s Reconstructing Hair Masque to deeply nourish, replenish and infuse hair with anti-aging and color-protecting proteins. The Number 4 hair care range includes the best hair mask you’ll ever use!
- Avoid Sun
UV is notorious for fading just about everything. From your color-washed decking to the cushions on your patio furniture and yes, your hair tone. So if you are spending time outdoors, protect your hair either by wearing a hat or using a product like N4’s Support Solution which contains flex-net resins to boost hair naturally with humidity resistant, anti-static shine, thermal protection.
- Add Shine
Hair looks so much more vibrant and alive, the color intensified when it’s packed with shine. Red hair color is actually the most prone to high shine enhancement so add a few drops of N4’s Fluoro5 Elixer Restore & Repair Oil and illuminate your red hair with time defying shine.
Don’t forget, in celebration of St Patrick’s Day you can claim 30% off all N4 shampoos and conditioners. It’s a fantastic offer, to be sure! No need to find a Leprechaun or kiss the Blarney stone today. Just use discount code Lucky30.
