I've got two headlamps, one of which has a red mode an they're handy for a great many things. But my experience is that they're just to bright in the cockpit. I make the most use of a pair of keychain LED lights strung on lanyards around my neck. I can shade it with the end of my finger to get just what I need and it's white for chart reading. (Magenta disappears in the red light.) It does take a hand to operate, but flying VFR at night I haven't had to do anything that required two hands and light.
Also, in the C-172C that I'm flying there is a cockpit light dimmer on the left side of the panel down low. It does both the red cockpit flood and the panel lights in the various instruments (some of which I still cant read without an extra light). I would not want to fly night IFR in this plane.
John