Red Hair - Matrix SoColor SoRed

My post on lightening dark Asian hair without bleach seems to be doing pretty good traffic-wise. So, I have decided to do another post on hair colour. I have been colouring my own hair since I was 19/20 and I have done my best friend's hair as well a couple of times. I don't think I have been to a salon in over a year, I snipped of my layers at home when I started lightening my hair to get rid of the thinning at the ends.

Anyway, this post is about red on virgin black hair. We used Matrix SoColor SoRed (the normal red shade they have) with the 30 volume Streax developer I have been using(read about it and what kind of developer to use in the above link). We got them from medplusbeauty, but the colour is out of stock it seems. It was very difficult to get a reasonably priced red from an Indian e-store, the L'Oreal Excellence HiColor Red HiLights every youtube vlogger raves about (for using on dark hair without bleach) costs somewhere north of INR1500($25), which is too much I think for some fun experimentation. This Matrix colour was INR290($4.75) and it worked pretty good. The hair that processed for about 2 hours was the brightest red. The ones at the top were kept for a little more than an hour and even though it wasn't as bright, it was pretty obviously red. According to this website, it deposits so much pigment that the first few shampoos there will be some excess dye bleeding out.

See the before and after results.

She only wanted strategically placed streaks which will show through her braids, she does mean braids, that girl does. See another photo of Rashmirekha with her red hair here.