Having red hair, even subtler red/brown hair such as what I'm sporting, is hard work. It's a lot of maintenance because of all the hair dyes out there, red hair dye fades the fastest and the most. So monthly maintenance is a must, unless you like faded red tones and/or visible roots. I use demi-permanent dye so the fading means my hair gradually gets closer to its natural color and the roots aren't quiet as obvious...well, in theory, anyway. In reality, demi-permanent dye never goes completely away.
Having long hair doesn't make it any easier. It's not at its longest length, but it's gotten to the point that I've had to move up to using 3 boxes of hair color, as 2 is no longer enough. I'm not using the entire 3rd bottle...yet. My hair being long means that dye gets everywhere, so it's a messy process. Then is the washing out of all that dye: that alone takes as long as it takes to let the dye sit in my hair to color it. And the washing out is even messier than the application.
For the best results, one should wait as long as possible before that first hair shampooing: at least 24 hours. I color my hair right after my last shift of the work week, so this occurs on my days off. Then for the next three days, my hair will bleed dye every time I shampoo. I wear a lot of black during that time.
Overall, I think the results are worth it. I'm left with a nice plum/burgundy-brown shade that looks stunning in sunlight. But I don't know how much longer I want to keep all this work up. I'm thinking about going back to black-brown. The coloring process is still a lot of work--see second paragraph--but at least I can go more than a month between coloring sessions.
