Red hair advice

How are you dying it? High lift dyes? Affinage B:Red, Majirouge, something like that?

Why no bleach? What is your natural colour?

I use xxl live real red and that makes them red but not bright anymore. Don't want to keep damaging my hair with bleach. They are a mousey brown maybe slightly darker for natural

If this is a permanent dye, which I'm pretty certain it is, you're doing far more damage to it than using bleach on just your roots.

The reason it's darker on the top is because every time you use the red dye, it's further lightening the lengths of your hair. It's doing what bleach does, it just puts on red dye as it does. So, the hair on the ends are getting lighter and lighter underneath. It's also damaging your hair more and more so the ends of your hair won't hold on to the colour so well and won't even take the colour well in the first place.

To get a really nice bright red then the best, and least damaging way on hair your natural colour, is to bleach bath ONLY your roots. Here's a tutorial on bleach bathing http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php/topic,995.0.html You only need it to be a ginger colour or lighter to get a good red.

Then use a direct dye, like Special Effects or Directions etc over all of your hair.

Oh ok.
My hair doesn't feel damaged it's very good quality. Hardly any hair comes out either.
I've never bleached my roots before. What's this loreal excellence  hicolour hilights?  Cos I hear that's lifting to red without bleaching

Anything that is lifting is doing exactly the same as bleaching. They ALL have to bleach the hair so it's light enough, and damaged enough, to take the colour. That is what anything you mix with bleach is doing. So no, hicolour hilights are not actually lifting to red without the bleaching. I blame youtubers for that misconception. It is just not using actual bleach, it's doing precisely the same.

It depends what products you're using, but as silicones are in approx 80% of all hair care products, it's likely that the true condition is being hidden. And even if it's in good condition now, that can change very quickly.

Every time you use an oxidative dye (one you have to mix with peroxide, just about any dye that you have to mix two bottles together means they have peroxide) it is damaging your hair that bit more. If you're using silicones, the damage is hidden from you, but it's still there and it can give way at any time.

If you have to, you can use the red dyes on ONLY the roots and then touch up the rest of the hair with a direct dye. But again ONLY the roots. A bleach bath is still a lot kinder.

it all confuses me ive only ever bleached my whole head and when I read how to do the bleach bath confuses me lol.
I do use devilish by special effects and nuclear red.

Well, instead of doing your whole head with bleach, you just do your roots with a bleach and shampoo mixture. The shampoo makes the bleach weaker.

This is the best video I can find right now of doing roots only. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBh-RmmlGtY

Though I don't agree with doing the front sections first, you should do the back first. You don't need yours to be as pale as hers. As I said before, it just needs to be ginger.

Then just put the special effects over it and the rest of your hair.