Semi red dye for in-betweeny stage after decolour while waiting for bleach bath

Can you post a pic of the red you would like to achieve?
I think you will be better off doing several rounds of Colour B4, to get as much of the old dye out as possible. I think you may need to do three. You can do them straight after each other, but they are rather drying so probably best to deep condition in between.
If you can get to an even ginger with three colour removers you may not have to bleach at all. Reds do not need a pale blonde base, they will give a bright result on orangey hair. It will be better if you can get your base as even as possible though.
You can put a direct dye straight on after colour removers without any risk of re-oxidation, it is the peroxide that triggers it so any dyes  that don't require peroxide (developer) are safe. You can check if your hair is likely to re-oxidise by putting some neat peroxide on a strand. If it darkens you need to continue washing and rinsing.
I don't think you will need the high lift red dye, except if you choose to use it on your re-growth instead of bleach. Those  types of dyes should only be used on virgin hair. Depending on what your natural colour is you could opt to just bleach bath your roots instead.
It is perfectly possible to get a very bright and vibrant red with direct/true semis over a ginger base, they will be brighter and last a lot longer than permanent reds.

Everything Wicked Pixie said.  If you haven't already, I really suggest the thread How to Get, Maintain and Remove Red Hair.

With regards to what shades to buy, I'd recommend pretty much anything by Adore, apart from Truly Red, as it's very, very orange.  All of the other Adore reds are pink based and will neutralise a gingery base.  Don't trust the swatches, though!  They're all really bright reds apart from Wild Cherry and Intense Red.  If you want to see the colours swatched in real life, have a look through the Adore Bases thread.

Since you want bright, I'd go with Crimson, maybe mixed with just a bit of Ruby Red for depth.

Thank you very much you lovely ladies, it hadn't occurred to me that just removing old dye may be enough, was like a lightning-bolt moment hehe.. the reason I've been putting this off is fear of trashing my hair. Fingers crossed decolour will be enough, I've certainly slapped a whole lot of perm dye on there over years and years so hopefully it'll lift enough to be a workable ginger base  🙂

I have had a look at the red thread, thank you, but looked at so much on here and a lot of it was new to me so I don't think I retained it all first go, will refresh myself now, thanking you kindly! 🙂

I'm trying to remember what exactly happened in the brief window between Color B4 and reoxidisation, I know it was pretty patchy but I'd only used one box and my hair is quite long and thick. When I say it was "ginger", I think my perception has been skewed a tiny bit from years of battling to make my very dark brown hair look at a tiny bit red, so I'm not confident it was a light ginger - any browny shade with a hint of ginger would have got me excited 😉 I'd assumed that this time it would go decolour -> brown/dark ginger with maybe orange at the top of the hair shafts, and would subsequently def need a bleach bath as well as a MajiRouge / Contrast!

However I am completely new at all this and probably got carried away with my plans for coconut oil and gentle beach baths haha.. I'm just used to crappy box-dyes too I guess, nothing ever seems to work that well on my dark hair so assumed it would need bleach. it would be amazing tho if I could skip that part, my hair is in  a reasonabaly decent condition but only after a *lot* of tlc and I'm trying to grow it long and healthy at the mo so if this works I would be so happy!  *loveeyes*

I can't get a suitable pic to upload to show my current hair but I'll go at it the Decolour and see what I am left with! It's really thick and longish so this could take a while 😉

What I am aiming for:

I've dithered a bit about what I am aiming for but I think that actually pink-toned reds wouldn't suit me so much, orange-toned is probably best. To be honest though, when I browse pics of people with bright red / deep red / orange-red / pink-red / whatever-red hair I tend to think they all look amazing (which is why it is my lifelong dream to get it for myself, I would be so happy!  *loveeyes* )

The top 3 pics I just love the colour, bright but not too pinkish (on my screen anyway) but not overly orangey either, just redredRED! Also, super-bright without straying into neon-dayglo/ronald mcdonald territory.. my hair is nowhere near as slinky and smooth as those girls and I don't want a big dayglo bush effect hehe, just a nice punchy true red. I had presumed you would need a ton of bleaching on my hair to achieve that effect though.. hence my elaborate plans for bleach baths and MajiRouge/Contrast and what have you.

The last one is something I swing towards sometimes as it's what I used to aim for with all my box dyes for years and years (before I saw the light haha) - also the nature of my work may mean I may not get away with super-bright hair, I'm not sure. It's not in the rules but I work with a lot of elderly people and need to come across as approachable and professional, and build trust quite quickly. I know from past experience than unfortunately, anything slightly "abnormal" appearance-wise can hinder that 🙁 but that's a topic for elsewhere, sorry! Back to my reds.. so I love the first 3, looking for bright red, orange not pink based, but as true a red as possible.

My friend just gave me some directions vermillion she has going spare. Am off out to get decolour now, will see how that goes and probably use the vermillion on top as it looks okay from googling it and may as well give it a blast! Would be so awesome if it went super-red just with that and I will be eternally in your gratitude wicked pixie and intempestivity! If not I shall pop over to bleach form and work out my next step.

I'm going to check out the Adore dyes now, got the directions vermillion sat in front of me so may as well use that first but I have heard Adore mentioned a few times now so will take a gander at the thread you linked. 🙂

Thank you again for taking the time to help me out, much appreciated! <3

Will post pics of decoloured, vermillion-ed and final result (if different) once I work out how 🙂 xxx

(Bottom one looked darker on my phone but you get the idea. I love looking at hot red haired ladies, was a very enjoyable hour spent  *loveeyes*

I guess I could go an intermediate red, not super-red like the first pics but a dark vivid kind of red, then if I wanted to go for bleach bath and something like Adore Crimson..

So many reds it's making me dizzy 😀 off to decolour, wish me luck...

Thanks again for all your help  *thx*

Moderator combined posts.

I'm not sure where you're based, but unless you're in one of the few countries that www.beeunique.co.uk (the website that runs this forum) can't ship to, you can get SFX from this site, and get it sent to you.  Not all colours are in stock at the moment, but I *think* (without having checked the website) that Blood Red is in stock.  If it is, this is a nice, deep  red, with I believe, a pink base, and it's great at covering and evening up an uneven base. I used it as part of a mix over a mid-ginger base.  I'm not sure of quantities, but I used Blood Red, SFX Devilish, Adore Intense Red & Adore Truly red, and this is how it came out:

EDIT: nope, my mistake.  BR isn't in stock at the moment.  But I believe there is a delivery of some SFX colours expected within the next few weeks.  There's more info in the 'Website News & Updates' section of the forum.

I agree with Mindi, I think Blood Red will suit what you're after.  Maybe with just a touch of Candy Apple to brighten it up a little.

The trick to getting a true red is getting a balance in the base colour--so if you're putting it over gingery/orange hair, a pink base will balance with the orange and get you a true red.  If you're putting it over yellow/pale yellow hair, you need to mix a pink based and an orange based red together to get a true red.  Vermillion pulled heavily orange on me when I put it on pale yellow hair, so I think over orange hair it will be a very orange-red and less of a red-red, particularly as it fades.  Though Directions has changed a lot of their formulas recently, it might not be as orange as it once was.

I'd wipe any plans for Majirouge or Majicontrast to be honest. It seems completely unnessary processing.

Majirouge washes out quickly, you'll lose the vibrancy. I used to live off 6.66 in my salon days, and I can honestley say stuff like SFX sticks way, way better than a permanent. I know, i know, it's weird logic.

Majicontrast itself for virgin hair too - you can get some hefty damage on processed and previously bleached hair (i've strand tested it myself) you should only ever use it on new roots, but in all honesty, the cheaper, more blended method would be to use a low bleach and a semi of your choice.

This time last year I was red, I used Crazy Colour fire. Whilst I didnt find it lasted very long (I find Crazy Colour the poorest for staying around) I used to buy in bulk as it was cheaper, and I had a lovely red that was bright outdoors but nice and formal indoors.

Thank you lovely people! Sorry I didn't respond to your very helpful posts, my internet has been down. I'm trying to upload photos from my phone but can't find the right USB lead so bear with me - will try to explain what has happened!

Thank you so much for the advice about ditching the Majicontrast, definitely won't be necessary and I have no wish to kill my hair with overprocessing..

I used two boxes of Decolour at the weekend and the outcome was a kind of mid-light brown with a ginger tint. Not as gingery/light (or as streaky!) as I remembered it going with Colour B4 but my memory could be wrong.. The bottom half where the black dye had been was still stubbornly a few shades darker than the rest but I thought what the heck and covered it all in Vermillion (Intempestivity, you are so right, Vermillion is *orange* red! Too orange for what I ultimately want, definitely, but it's a start at least 🙂 ) My hair is now a kind of red-mahogany shade with a bright orange-red tint in sunlight. By far the reddest I've ever got it before, with all my permanent box-dyes, so *thank you*  *lovestars*

However, still got a way to go to reach my coveted true red..

(Sorry, my descriptions are pretty crap I know, will replace them with photos as soon as I can).

I'm not going to go for another Decolour sesh for several reasons, not sure it would have much more effect (my virgin hair is very dark brown and this came out mid-light brown, think that's the best I can expect for the lifting effects of box dyes and I can't imagine it going any lighter with multiple attempts!) I do still have the darker bottom half but that dye is stubborn and Decolour may not work, is expensive, and each time I use it it delays the next stage for at least a week.. so bleach bath it is this coming weekend 🙂

*edit* sorry, was asking for advice about adore reds but intempestivity already advised crimson / ruby red, I missed it. will maybe get both and have a play, thank you very much! When SFX comes back in stock I might give blood red a whirl.. so many reds, so little time!