Okay, I realized this was necessary, because most people don't really know anything about it.

Most extreme colours are semi-permanent, which means they're going to fade when you wash your hair. There are permanent dye, too, but most of those aren't better than the semi-permanent ones. Might be exeptions, because you have a lot more brands over there that I don't know anything about. So feel free to add anything ;D

The most important thing is: you need to bleach your hair before you dye it!Even if your hair is naturally blonde, beacuse it makes your hair a little rougher and it's easier for the dye to stick. If your hair is black or dark, you need to bleach it because otherwise, the dye will not show up in your hair at all.
(If you want to, I'll make you a guide how to bleach your hair, but I'd prefer if you got it done by a professional, because there are a lot of things that can go wrong. )

The other thing that's important is how light you need to bleach it. Bleached hair always turns out orange or yellow after the first bleaching. It doesn't really matter how orange your hair is as long as you're gonna dye it red/orange/any other darker warm colours. But, if you want really light colours or blue hair, you need to bleach it almost white. Yellow + Blue = Green.

Okay, now you've bleached your hair light enough and want do dye it.
You need to cover any areas that might get any dye on it, because it's almost impossible to get rid of. Use a mosturizing cream (or vaseline or similar) on your forehead and on your ears to make sure your skin won't be dyed too. Then, follow the dye's instructions (USE GLOVES!). The thing about semi-permanent dye (ONLY!) is that you can leave it in for as long as you want, the longer you have it in, the longer it takes for it to fade. Most people I know sleep with their dye in. The only thing you need to make sure of then is that the dye don't get dry. The easiest way to provide that is to use this thin plastic you use to your food (someone, please come up with that word!) and wrap it round your head. The dye won't get dry and you won't get dye anywhere. Perfect!
When you feel like you've waited enough time, rinse it out.

To keep the dye in your hair as long as possible, don't wash your hair too often. But never wait until it gets greesy (spelling?) because that's not flattering at all. Use products for dyed hair and hope for the best.
When you feel that your dye is fading, redye it or bleach away the old dye, don't just leave it. It's ugly.

I hope I wrote about all the important things here. If someone got anything more to add, feel free to do it. I'd love if you corrected my spelling and grammar mistakes, too. And drop a comment about if you liked this or not.
Good luck with all the dying out there! ;D

This was really helpful & extremely well written.
You definitely know what you're talking about, & anyone with question should go to you. (:

Edit: For the plastic you put on your food part, did you mean Saran wrap ?

Thank you!

Yes, Saran wrap is what I was talking about. Thanks again ^___^

ahh more great advice

lily siddalee wrote:
but what when we dont want to dye all of our hear... just a part.... what then???

Then you just do the same thing on the part you want to dye. It's not harder than that. Use a lot of conditioner on the parts you don't want dye on (if you're a bit clumsy as me. if you're good, no need to do that, lol) and wrap the parts in saran wrap when you're done applying the dye. Rinse. When you wash your hair, wash the dyed part separate, otherwise you might get dye in the rest of your hair. <- only when it comes to blonde hair.


And thank you everyone! I'm glad I could help you.
(as I said, if someone needs a guide to bleaching, PM me and I'll fix it!)

hmm...I didn't know that....very helpful advice, I'll have to remeber that when I refresh the red in my hair...