Colour Trial Revisited: Locspiration

So today I confess that my fascination with hair colour is back in full force. (read more here). I still want red locs and I'm not the only one. My4tress and ThoughsofAddis have both blogged about there new hair colours and I love it. I found locspiration on tumblr too:

 

Cute right? Well while I wait for my locs to mature I have done tons of research. During my first attempt I bleached and coloured a few locs and wasn't too happy with the results. The colour was too subtle and the bleach left me with dry hair that no amount of deep conditioning has been able to reverse. I'm glad to share this bit of info for anyone wanting to lighten their hair using bleach. The result is permanently stripped hair. It's in good enough condition for me to let it grow because I don't comb or use heat but I cannot bare the thought of my entire head feeling this way so I need something else.

Amongst other YouTubers, My4tress used a different method to lighten her hair. Dying it blonde! Sounds simple enough right? I looked around and it seems both Dark & Lovely Lightener and Creme of Nature Honey Blonde have successfully taken natural hair from dark to light so I was tempted enough to do a strand test. And it worked. Using Dark & Lovely Lightener in Light Golden Blonde I was able to lift my colour to the same shade on the box...and get this, I didn't use the provided bleach (booster) packet!

Once I tried it on myself my hair felt normal, it hasn't lost it's elasticity (as with the bleach) and it's not dry. As you can see, My4tress then applied a semi-permanent colour to get the red. I followed suite and did the same. Using Creative Image Adore in Intense Red I got this:

Now I personally think my roots are far too bright but as I palm-rolled the loc, the colour became darker and I quite like it.

So I learnt:

1. I should lighten my roots last so that they aren't as bright as the lengths. 
2. I should apply lightener/colour ⅛" away from my scalp so I don't get such a harsh contrast.
3. I should pick a colour only slightly lighter than I want so that when it's applied to loc'd hair it'll appear slightly darker because less light can shine through it than if it were loose.
4. I need only colour my hair permanently once or twice a year and then use a semi-permanent in the same shade to top up the colour in between.
5. Semi-permanents can last longer on loc'd hair because we don't tend to wash and use heat as often as when it's loose.
6. Adore brand semi-permanent colour isn't harmful to hair.
7. I'm one step closer to getting healthy red locs.

Thoughts, advice, critique, dye stories welcome below.

DREADLOCKS ARE A LIFESTYLE

**Collage created using photos that a publicly available on tumblr. All other material is owned by the blog account holder. DONOT use without permission**