Hi everyone! Here I am again seeking advice.

I was looking through this forum and found so many great pics of Hennaed hair. I decided that I simply must Henna my hair and as soon as possible. I found out where I can find indian stores in my area and I looked up some recipes for the color I liked.

So my question is, since I used drugstore box color in the last 6 weeks, will Henna be safe to use?
I haven't used permanent color in a long time, most of my hair is covered in Natural Instincts 30 day color. I did bleach my hair about a year ago, but I think a lot of it is cut off by now.

My hair is a very light brown naturally and a dark brown from the Natural Instincts... will henna even take on this hair?

Please share all your opinions!

In my opinion, henna will take on your hair, but it probably won't be super-bright. It will probably be a dark auburn on your dyed hair, with lots of red in the sun. Your re-growth will probably take the colour up a bit better, making it brighter/lighter than your length.

Because you have commercial dye in your hair, you MUST MUST MUST do a strand test. Henna that contain mineral salts can do nasty things with dye residue. Start collecting shed hair, and you'll need to mix up a small quantity of henna and test the hair-ball. This will give you an idea of colour, too.

Nightshade posted a test you can do to determine if your henna has mineral salts, I'll go find it for you.

-- Natalie

ETA: Here it is! (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=45&page=24) Scroll right down to the bottom.

I agree with strand testing on shed hair. I was very tempted last year to henna as well. After my test I looked and looked and didn't see any color difference so I didn't do it. My hair is very dark with red highlights already.

Just remember that henna should be regarded as *permanent*. Not like hair-dye-permanent where there IS a way to get it out and salvage your hair, with henna, often, there isn't.

There is the rare person for whom henna just does not stick, but on most people it is never, ever coming off, short of methods that will pretty much require cutting some, or most, your hair off in the end.

So be very VERY sure you want to do this. Henna is best not done in a rash of excitement. Check out the henna article in my siggy for more information :)

Not trying to put a damper on your excitement, but I've just heard one too many "OMG! I wish I'd never hennaed!" stories. If you like to change your hair color, henna isn't for you.

Yes, it's permanent and you should strand test to make sure you like the color.

One thing though, if your henna contained metal salts, it's my understanding that adding metal salts to other metal salts on the hair, or adding them to bleached or peroxided hair, is not where the problems generally occur. It is the other way around. Bleach or peroxide (and/or ammonia) on hair that already has metal salts in it, is the point at which extreme awfulness could happen. If you want to bleach or peroxide (or use commercial or salon products containing these) at some point in the future, THAT is where the horror stories happen.