Hello lovely people,


it's been a while and I have an exciting post to share with you.
For quite a long time now I've been dyeing my hair red and honestly I will probably never stop. It's become a part of me, I guess, and as often as I wanted to try out a new colour, I didn't go through with it anyway, it wouldn't be me without my red hair somehow.


BACKSTORY:

So I've tried out many colours and techniques to maintain the colour vibrance and gone to several different hair dressers. I started with normal red hair colour, which you could get at a normal drug store and I was content with the outcome at first.
Back then, I didn't know yet, which shade of red I wanted exactly. After that I continued to get my hair dyed at a hair dresser's or by my friend, which both used the very common WELLA products. I was happy with the colour, which changed several times over the years (but always red) and got used to being red haired. (only changed it once to blonde...not a good idea)

My go-to product, when it came to vibrant, new and fun colours was for many years the brand DIRECTIONS. I was very satisfied with the results and almost always got what I wanted. But there were a few things that bothered me.
As it is a semi-permanent colour and isn't as long lasting as a normal hair dye from the hair dresser's, it didn't stay vibrant for a very long time and I would have had to redye my hair every 4 weeks. Of course, I didn't do that, because I didn't have the time or money for that.
Another part was that most hair colours are not very good for your hair and have a lot of bad chemicals in them.

_______________________________________________________

So after doing some research and being interested in the subject, I came across a brand from the USA called "ARCTIC FOX". One of my favourite youtubers of all time owns the brand and one of the reasons why she started it, was because she wasn't satisfied with the existing hair dye products either.
(http://www.kristenleannestyle.com/, https://www.youtube.com/user/KristenLeanne8)


One month ago I ordered my first Arctic Fox product. I thought it would take forever with the shipping, as it's all the way from the US. But I was wrong, they thought it all through and have a distribution center somewhere in Germany for people in Europe. So it took just like any other order about 5 days to arrive at my door step, which was awesome.

First impression, when I took it out of the box was that it smells amazing and the packaging is really cute. You also get a sticker of the Arctic Fox logo with your order, which is super nice.



For my hair I used three of their products: 

Wrath, Poison and Arctic Mist (diluter) - I mixed Wrath with Poison and added a bit of Arctic Mist for the ends of my hair.
Wrath is a pinkish red and Poison goes more into the orange tones of red. Arctic Mist is a brilliant product of Arctic Fox, as you can use it to mix it with any of their colours. It is basically just a conditioner which lightens up your colours and makes it more pastel looking and faded.





- vibrance: 

Sometimes when I died my hair myself, I thought the vibrance and intensity of the colour just didn't quite came out as I wished it would.
This time with Arctic Fox, I was amazed by how extremely vibrant and intensive the colour really was. Even after some time, it didn't fade much. It was a deep, flashy, beautiful red and I was in love with the outcome.


-long lasting: 

I dyed my hair with Arctic Fox at the beginning of August and it still looks really cool now. I've washed my hair probably about more than 10 times since then and I am pleased at how the colour lasted. Definitely longer lasting than anything I used before.


- almost no bleeding: 

This may sound creepy to some of you, but in hair dyeing terms bleeding defines the way the colour gets out of your hair while you are washing it.
With most of the hair dyeing products I used before, most of the colour already came out the first couple of washes. As Arctic Fox is a conditioner, you save one wash already at the first steps.
Also it doesn't stain your pillow or your sink/shower.

TIP: ---> After watching some videos of Kristen Leanne, the owner of the brand, I found out that washing your hair with really cold water, saves the colour from bleeding and fading too early and too much. This worked real wonders for me, as this is so true. Washing your hair with warm water opens up your hair's cuticles and let's the colour out and leaves your hair unprotected. If you wash it with cold water, this doesn't happen as cold water closes the cuticles and keeps the colour in your hair and prevents it from bleeding. <---



So all in all I was very happy with the outcome and will from now on always use my favourite hair dye so far, ARCTIC FOX.


If you have any questions left, or if you want me to do a hair care/hair dye maintenance blog post, then let me know :)

I hope you found it helpful!


<3


Anna Florentina

After 2 weeks - 4 washes

After 2 weeks - 4 washes

After 6 weeks - about 10 washes