So I've henna glossed my hair three times so far and I love the color. But after 4-8 weeks the red color seems to fade a little. I've read in some journals that the author's henna gloss fades too after this time. But I always thought that Henna builds up on hair and that the color become deeper with every treatment. That's what I don't want, I'd like to keep my color.

Ah yes, I add a bit of citric acid to my henna mix and do an AVC afterward, because I heard that helps to make the henna stay.

Adding acid to the henna mix can inhibit the colour. Do you clarify/wash your hair before doing a gloss? Henna do fade some on my hair to.

Thanks, Hypnotica for your adive. I always thought it was good to add acid to my henna. I wash my hair every day so, yes, it's maximum 24 hours "dirty". Before I henna I wash with a normal Sulfate shampoo, normally I just use a herbal one, so it's like clarifying.

I see good result with a weak baking soda solution before doing henna.

My henna glosses fade, too, though applying henna mud doesn't so much. I don't have a whole lot of help for you on that, though. I can say that I've done several henna glosses over the last months and no longer have a line between natural color and my hennaed color, which is nice. They just fade into each other.

Just one last question: does henna gloss build up like normal henna does? Because it fades, it can't be really building up, right?

I'm told to watch for build up even in glosses. So far my few glosses haven't built up, and I've seen some uneven (unfortunately!) fading in my glosses.

My henna glosses have built up. I didn't notice it for a while, so I did full treatments every time. Eventually, I noticed that my ends are much redder than my scalp hair. However, my treatments don't fade as quickly as yours (it takes months, and even then, it only fades mostly on the white/silver hairs), so maybe it does not build up as much on your hair.

I think that my henna glosses fade a little bit, but it's hard to tell since I'm a redhead anyway. Someone would have to be paying an inordinate amount of attention to my hair color to notice, even though *I* notice.

I think that my hair has a more golden tone since my last gloss and I can't figure out why since it's the same henna powder in the same proportions in the same conditioner as every other henna gloss I've done.

I never get a fade from henna, either gloss or full on henna mud. What kind are you using, and how old is it?

Incidentally acid in the mix HELPS dye uptake, it is the recommended mix (usually lemon juice). I dont even add acid in mine, as it dries out my hair something fierce, and still its permanent.

I've had lightening of henna though, after SMT's and cholestrol treatments, however this is temporary, it reoxidizes back to flame in a couple days.

Chances are perhaps your henna isnt the freshest. Just a guess tho.