How To: Burgundy Wine Hair Without Bleaching

It's Fall and with this amazing season comes a love for all things rich in color. The trees know it too. After craving a rich red hair color for some time now, I finally figured out a concoction that worked perfectly. 

I knew I wanted a deeper color to eventually happen, rather than a vibrant one alike my Atomic Turquoise days. After spending hours filtering through burgundy shades with no instructions what so ever, I took it upon myself and what I knew as far as hair color. 

I decided about 3 weeks beforehand to color my hair a warm brown to rid any of my left over bleached blonde. Starting out with a deeper base gave a tad bit of leeway to the pigment and kept the final color from being full on red. 

Now, time for the instructions... Let's start by noticing that I have fairly long and thick hair. This means I needed at least two jars of Manic Panic to cover my head. It just so happened to work out perfectly because I ended up mixing two colors for my desired look. 

The red I chose is called Vampire Red; the deepest red Manic Panic had to offer. Since I wasn't going for a full on red, I decided to throw in Purple Haze. Hopefully everyone here knows that purple is made by mixing red and blue. I added the purple in hopes that both shades' reds would mend while the blue base in Purple Haze deepened the overall color. (Yay for success!)

After mixing the two shades in a bowl, I applied the mixture evenly and wrapped my hair in a bandana for about 90 minutes. I've never personally slept in Manic Panic, but I've heard it's fine if you do. Sticking with the 'I Don't Want Vibrant Hair' plan, I opted to leave it in for less than 2 hours and rather cover my head with fabric than a plastic bag. (Plastic bags help to hold the head and process the color.)

That was literally it. The only issue I had was staining the purple all around my face. Yes, they tell you to put a protectant on your skin, but I bet you didn't even know the jar had directions! I found it funny that the red wasn't really sticking around on my skin. I looked like what I would imagine Jim Carrey did after wiping off the blue pen in Liar, Liar. Anyway, I hope this helped anyone who is craving that buzzed about burgundy hair color. 

*Notes, Tips & Discretions:

Removing the bleaching process keeps the damage at bay, and also the color. (The lighter the hair, the more vibrant of an outcome.) One of Manic Panic's most versatile shades is Vampire Red. Versatile meaning it turns out really deep on any hair color; black or dark brown may be subtle and only noticeable in direct light. I'm not sure if Purple Haze is the same way, but it gave me the color I wanted regardless. 

I've colored and bleached my hair many times as well as using Manic Panic. All hair types react differently to products and I take no responsibility for how your hair may turn out. I am no professional and suggest following the advised instructions of a strand test.