Dark Root / Henna Help

[Wrathgara]

My natural hair is dark brown. When I applied Henna 2/3 weeks ago, my hair was faded light brown/red, so the henna took to it very well, and I have the copper red perfect hair hue /color for me.

As my roots are super dark, I tried a henna/amla/paprika/tumeric blend on roots only , left on hair for 3 hours , rinsed out but to my demise, my dark roots are still well, dark.

I need to hear from people who are in the same predicament: have dark roots but light copper henna hair.

I don't think a honey treatment will work however I read somewhere lord knows where, about someone using peroxide or sun in?

Could you please direct me to this thread if you know what i'm talking about or provide advice on what to do? Thanks in advance!!

[Medievalmaniac]

Nightshade, our Henna Seeress extraordinaire, is the author of the thread you are looking for:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=19317

[Wrathgara]

Fantastic , thank you so very much!!! This being said, I love the color and don't wish to use sun in the whole length, I just want ways to make the roots less dark so that the henna will take to it.
I have the perfect color / texture/length i just need tips for covering dark roots..

There is a post somewhere where someone used peroxide ? I was thinking of lightning it with a blonde hair kit maybe but I really wanted to stray from chemicals.

Thanks again in advance!

[k8tea]

My daughter is in the process of using Sun In to lighten her medium brown locks so that when she does her next henna her former blonde streaks (which are a lighter red now) will blend in more seemlessly with her hennaed medium brown hair. The Sun In is very gentle and this gives you more control...you'll probably need to do it a few times for the right amount of lightening for your dark brown hair...all this being said many people prefer honey lightening because because of it's naturalness and gentleness...the bonus thing about henna though is that it can help repair any damage caused by peroxide of any type.

[Dolly]

I have the same issue. HOWEVER, my length is not copper, just a med/dark red. I decided that I don't want to lighten my roots every time they start popping out, because that is worse than the upkeep I used to have with chemical dyes. So, I have decided that I am going to layer henna in order to make it darker until it more closely matches my roots. Then, I can root touch-up every 6-8 weeks or so to hit the grays and lay a hint of red on my dark brown roots. At the rate I am going, 1-2 more whole head apps should do it! YAY!

[Wrathgara]

file:///Users/natalieblouin/Desktop/photo.jpeg

testing to see if you guys can see the color

[Wrathgara]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55672995@N04/5382896982/
This is the color i want to maintain and LOVe. The girl on the left is the color i want to avoid.
You can see the dark roots starting. I'v tried to do henna only at roots and did not succeed.

Any comments or suggestions would be great!

[Dolly]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55672995@N04/5382896982/
This is the color i want to maintain and LOVe. The girl on the left is the color i want to avoid.
You can see the dark roots starting. I'v tried to do henna only at roots and did not succeed.

Any comments or suggestions would be great!

I've taken a look at your pics in your album, and really the only way to get that color on your dark roots is to lighten them with honey, peroxide, sun-in, or SOMETHING. There is really no way that henna (with amla or anything else in it) will lighten your natural color. Henna only goes darker, not lighter. What you are asking is do-able, but it will take a lot of work to keep it up.

[Wrathgara]

@ Dolly: LOVE your hair color. Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this "situation". I have figured out that yes, a little extra work is needed but figured out how to do it albeit not naturally as I intended... I used a box of store bought dye that I used prior to using henna, halved it , applied it to my roots, left it in for 30 minutes, rinsed and PERFECTO!
I intend on using henna to liven my hair up when the roots start fading with a mix of Casia to maintain the coppery color :)

It is a TON of work but so is being blonde which I maintained for 3 + years so it's not that big of a deal for me , I AM looking forward to the summer months when my hair stops growing so quickly as I already have my desired length!

Hope this post helps someone as much as the info on this site has offered me :)

[Dolly]

@ Dolly: LOVE your hair color. Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this "situation". I have figured out that yes, a little extra work is needed but figured out how to do it albeit not naturally as I intended... I used a box of store bought dye that I used prior to using henna, halved it , applied it to my roots, left it in for 30 minutes, rinsed and PERFECTO!
I intend on using henna to liven my hair up when the roots start fading with a mix of Casia to maintain the coppery color :)

It is a TON of work but so is being blonde which I maintained for 3 + years so it's not that big of a deal for me , I AM looking forward to the summer months when my hair stops growing so quickly as I already have my desired length!

Hope this post helps someone as much as the info on this site has offered me :)


Well, congrats on obtaining the results you wanted!

And thank you for the compliment!

[in_technicolor]

I have a similar situation - my hair had been previously dyed with a store-bought box dye, and the red in it faded so fast that I turned to henna. However, now that my naturally darker roots are coming in, I'm going to have to lighten them to match. I'm trying to lighten all of my hair actually, planning on giving that sun-in trick a shot. Hopefully I can just target my roots more and the color will blend without too much effort.

Good luck!