Red hair was the first thing that I really took the time to figure out how to paint. I saw red-haired Libby painted extremely well on the Hasslefree Miniature's website and took special note of the brush strokes an the colour. Then I went out and looked very closely at reference pictures, and so my red/orange hair scheme was born!
Natural Orange Hair? I'm not so sure, but it looks good anyway!
The first thing that I noted when I looked closely at 'natural' red/orange hair was the fact that it goes from deep, dark red up to a very light yellow. The yellow parts are those that the light is shining directly on, while the darkest red parts are in the shadows, as expected.
It is not an easy formula to copy, but should be helpful in any case!
As with all miniature painting, it's important to highlight carefully. In the above I feel I almost put on too much yellow in that last phase there... Some quick tips:
One example of a figure I painted with this paint scheme. I'm pretty happy with it.
I've done many different styles of red/orange hair, but this is certainly one of my favourites, and it's especially good for the future or apocalypse period figures. It's also good for any period on figures that you really want to pop.
Just as a note, this scheme is specifically for very bright, highly-saturated orange hair. If you're looking for something a bit more like something you'd expect to see in the dark ages, then this might not be the perfect mix. In that case, remove the actual orange step, and instead mix the red-brown directly with the dun (pale yellow).
And that's it, hope it was interesting if not helpful!