An Expert Guide To Going Red When Your Hair Is Dark

Based on appearances alone, coloring your hair unicorn pink or mermaid blue may seem like a magical endeavor, but it's actually pretty straightforward, especially if you're naturally brunette. Generally, the process involves spending hours lifting your dark hair to light blonde, depositing bright color to your bleached strands, layering a gloss on top, and boom — you now look like (the cooler, grown-up version of) My Little Pony.

On the other hand, going red as a brunette doesn’t feel that simple. The color is complex, and if your hair is naturally dark, going scarlet red (like Madelaine Petsch) or creating copper tones (like Lindsay Lohan from back in the day) may seem way out of reach. But the pros say otherwise — and not only is your lifelong dream of trying out life as a redhead actually attainable, but hours of bleaching and damage may not even be necessary to get you there.

Ahead, we asked the experts to break down everything there is to know about transforming your strands from brunette to brick red — and every shade in between.