Refreshing faded color between hair coloring

As a continuation of my last post, I thought I would share some tips on how to refresh hair color between hair coloring. I just recently went back to my actual natural color (but still coloring to cover grey!) after having been a number of different shades of red. As some of you may know, red is a very hard color to keep. I developed a few tricks to refresh my color so it would stick around until my next coloring. My favorite product for this is Ion Color Brilliance Semi-Permanent Hair Color found at Sally Beauty Supply stores. The semi-permanent name is a bit misleading, IMHO, however. There is no developer. It is a temporary color, that they say qualifies as semi IF you use heat. However, even then, it's still not a semi IMO! It's pretty much just straight pigment that will temporarily stain the hair. Heat opens the cuticle so it penetrates deeper into the hair shaft, causing it to take, and last, a little better. I found one bottle lasted me a while, because I didn't use it according to the instructions. Instead, I would add some to my weekly gelatin protein treatments, or if I decided to skip those, I would add it to some condish and leave it on for an hour or so. When adding it to my protein treatment, I would add enough to turn the gelatin a deep brownish red. I never really measured. It would work best if I used the blow dry version of the protein treatment, but it worked fine with out blow drying. When I added it to condish, I would do a 50-50 mix, wrap in plastic and use my dryer on low for 10 minutes or so then just leave it on for another 50 minutes. One treatment would last around a week for me. I wash my hair every 2-3 days, so if you wash more often, it will fade quicker. You can also add a little to your shampoo/co-wash and/or condish every time you wash to help prevent fading. It works pretty much like those shampoos and conditioners that have added pigment to prevent fading.
I had meant to get around to trying out the Ion Color Brilliance Brights in red to see if that added more of a punch since my hair is dark and I think it would have blended nicely, but decided to go back to dark brown for winter before I had the chance. I do plan to try it out the next time I go red though.
Food coloring works too, but it takes a good eye for color to get it the exact color you want, and works best for refreshing red. Beet juice and cranberry juice are also good for temporarily giving reds some extra oomph.
Triple strength coffee is good for brown. As is strong black tea. And I have heard chamomile is good for blonde, though I have zero experience with being blonde.
To use these types of refreshers (coffee, teas, juices) you hang your head back over a large bowl, pour the liquid through your hair, wait a minute or two, and repeat using the liquid that was collected in the bowl. It's easiest to just use two large bowls to pour the liquids over your hair, instead of pouring the liquid from a bowl back into a smaller container, than replacing the bowl to collect the liquid again. At any rate, you will repeat pouring the liquid over your hair anywhere from 5-10 times. And let it dry in your hair if you can, even using a little heat to help it penetrate the hair shaft.
You can also try these refreshers on non-color treated hair to give some added dimension without using chemicals. You can even mix-and-match if you like, using cranberry or beet juice to give brown or blonde hair a reddish tint, or darkening blonde hair with coffee, or even adding a bit of light highlights to brown hair with chamomile (light brown hair, I don't think it will work very well for darker hair).
These are my favorite techniques, though I have tried the refresher masks/glosses and other such products made for refreshing color. They work just fine, but I found that the Ion Semi works just the same, is cheaper, comes in a variety of colors, and you can adjust the intensity.