Want My Shiny- Copper Penny hair back

[PineappleJello]

When I was younger my hair had such a nice red tinge to it, and it was so very shiny. I keep getting comments from my dad how even though my hair has gotten shinier this last bit it's no where near as shiny as in my childhood.

I am kind of interested in Cassia or Henna, but I don't really want the hassle of retouching roots. I also don't want to go lighter, or darker, just redder. But my biggest problem with trying henna or cassia is that I have 100% virgin hair, and it always has been.

Is there any other options? I do notice a bit more of a red color in the weeks following an ACV rinse, but not enough.

[YesitsReal]

You could try a henna gloss--a teaspoonful (ish) of dye-released henna in a whole bunch of conditioner. It should warm your color up just a little. There's a lot of information in this forum if you search for "henna gloss" (Just a tip--the $1 three-gram samples of henna from Mehandi are enough for me to do a gloss on my fine BSL hair. It's a light gloss, but if you decide to do that, I would just get a couple of sample packets to start instead of getting a bigger package, unless you plan on doing a LOT of glosses).

Or you could try cassia for shine, but cassia doesn't really have much of a color, and if you have red hair, it probably won't show at all.

All that being said, do your strand and allergy tests before you do a whole-head application!! They're a big help in getting an idea of exactly what you want to do before making a big commitment.

[kwaniesiam]

A very weak henna gloss or a cassia/henna combo with a weak stain may give you a bit more oomph to your red. Nightshade has written an excellent article on coloring your hair with henna and herbs, check it out in the articles section.

[JayLee]

I second the henna gloss. That way you can work your way up to the color you want.

[AreWild]

I agree that a henna gloss sounds like what you're looking for. It should spice up the warmth you already have, but wouldn't be dramatic enough to need root touch up. I did a few glosses and was very happy with the results, so happy that I decided to go all in. :)

It's perfectly okay to dabble in henna with a gloss and avoid a full treatment if you only want a tiny bit of color, or truly don't want to keep up with root maintenance, but try not to get hung up on having "virgin" hair. The definition of virgin hair varies so much anyway, it's more important to be happy with your hair. Technically, even if you only do a gloss a small amount of lawsone does bind to your hair and it won't be virgin anymore. But if it improves your hair's overall condition and makes you happier with it, then why worry about a label? I hope that makes sense, and I don't mean to offend. I valued my virgin hair too, until I realized that worrying about keeping it virgin kept me from enjoying it.

[PineappleJello]

And I suppose if I were to use Lush's Reincarnation shampoo (which has henna in it) my hair would be no less a virgin than if I were to henna gloss.

I really like the idea, when I say I value my hair's virginity I think deep down it might also mean that what I really value is the maintenance free aspect of virgin hair. If henna glosses don't need touch-ups then I might be sold on the idea (following extremely extensive research on it

[Anje]

Yep, start with a henna gloss. At most, don't use more henna than a 50/50 mix with cassia if you want it to stay bright and coppery. (ETA: That is, if you ever decide to slather your head with straight henna mud, use a mix rather than the pure stuff. Feel free to just use henna for a gloss.)

I'm not sure what your base color is, but if you used to be coppery, you might be able to do henna without having noticable roots much. I'm a redhead who's been getting steadily darker and browner the last few years, and it takes an inch or two of growth before my roots are noticeable, and that's using pure henna. I literally go about 4-6 months between doing root touchups, just because it's not obvious. If your results are just a touch redder than your natural color, you might have a similar experience. (FWIW, I've got a simple method for root touchups... Part hair in a +, braid the 4 sections so they're loose at the scalp, slather henna mud on roots with a squeeze bottle. Works fast and is about as minimally messy as henna gets.)

[Heartwillfollow]

I use cassia imbetween my root touch ups and it adds a nice golden color to my henna, and to my root areas.. I'm totally lazy so I only do a root touch up ever two and have gone 3 months and just do a full head of cassia every 3 or 4 weeks... To me it brightens my current color and adds gold tones.. If you need to add some depth to the red I recomend doing a henna with cassia gloss,, if you just want to brighten the color you have I would try just a full head of cassia first.. Some people find cassia very drying so be prepared to rinse the cassia out and put on some conditoner to just sit and then rinse out.

[CherrySilver]

You can also do strong herbal rinses which will help to boost your reddish highlights. I've tried calendula, hibuscus, rosehips, saffron and others as a final rinse, either alone or inconjunction with other conditioning herbs/acv.

The upside is that you're not stuck with the results (like henna), and it won't do anything permanent to your virgin hair. Downside is that you have to do it on a regular basis to maintain your results. Me? It's sop (standard operating procedure) that I've incorporated this into my wash routine (kinda like taking your make-up off before you go to bed).

Oh, my hair (like yours) is red, but not nearly as bright as it was when I was a kid. The herbal/acv rinses have taken care of that!