Things to consider before dying hair..?

A lot of this depends on how natural you want your hair to look.  While there are a great many people who dye their hair black, there are precious few people who can wear it and have it look natural.  Then again, this might be exactly what you're going for :)

 

If you end up having your heart set on black hair and want it to look natural, I'd encourage you to go "almost black,"  with an extremely dark brown and do soft black lowlights.  It'll give you the color that you want, but it won't be as severe.  I've known a few people who have done that, look fantastic and you'd never know it wasn't their natural color. 

 

The red that you're considering would actually look very nice on someone with your complexion.  I would stay away from the brighter coppers and lighter orange reds, as they can look out of place on those with darker complexions, for all over color. If you stay more towards red pigments, as opposed to orange, I actually think it'd be quite striking and the red pigments would bring out the green in your eyes. 

 

I'm still gonna keep the black (or should I say..."almost black"? lol) colour in mind, but I'm definately steering towards the red colour the most. & once you go black, you can't go back, right? Atleast not without causing some serious damage to your hair. I love the black colour with a blue-ish tint though, it's gorgeous! Ahh well. Maybe one day...!

 

Is red a hard colour to get rid of? I've heard previous stories of it being a nightmare to dye over. I'm just being really cautious incase I go for it & I end up hating it!

 

Red... red is my haircolor nemesis, in a lot of ways.  Once it's in the hair, it's extremely hard to remove and most people have to settle for neutralizing it or risk killing the cuticle to get it out.  I don't recommend killing the cuticle.  BAD news.  However, I just recently went from level 2 red brown to level 7 neutral blonde, so it's completely possible.  It took a lot of color remover, bleach and tons of violet pigment to do it.  If you decide to change colors after going very red or very dark, I strongly suggest the use of a color remover.  They're designed to remove artificial pigments and will do so very well, often with a lot less damage than bleach.

 

Also, if your hair is already porous, a demi permanent dye might be a good idea for the first application.  In my experience, it sticks to the hair very well and will last for quite a while.  If you decide that you hate it, demi-permanent colors are much easier to remove.  If you fall in love with the new color, you can always go over it with a permanent dye.  Personally, I love demi colors.  It's like playing dress up with my hair :)

At this point, you might be well served going to a stylist for a color consultation, even if you intend on doing the color yourself.  He/ she can look at your hair and take your natural/ current color and condition into account. You likely won't get a formula, but you can get a good idea of how hard the colors would be to remove and ideas for what base colors you'll want to use.  I also second the idea of trying on wigs.  It's fun and you'll get a very good idea of what colors you like.

 

Best of luck with this.  Doing a drastic change can be very stressful and I hope that you love your hair, no matter what color you decide on.