Successfully Removed Indigo from hair!

Hello all! I am new to this forum, just got approved. yay! So I have been henna-ing my hair for a while now, and I loved the beautiful auburn red I get from the color. Two weeks ago I got antsy to try out henndigo and be a dark brunette. I acted on impulse and did a 60:40 indigo henna over my hair. It turned out black. The first two days I loved the exotic change, then on day three I just wanted my henna auburn back. So ladies, moral of the story, if you want a change buy a wig. lol. I acted quick and was able to remove my indigo. Keep in mind I started the removal process after 4 days of having the henndigo, and I only had one application.

PLEASE CONSIDER THE CURRENT HEALTH OF YOUR HAIR BEFORE DOING ANY OF THIS! (damaged hair can't handle this too well!) Also keep in mind I had previously chemically treated my hair before henna, which may have helped with removing my color.

These steps may not work for you, but if it does I would LOVE to hear it. Let me tell you the steps I took!

My hair started out this color before henndigo:

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...enndigo2-1.jpg

After henndigo (black):

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...alsunlight.jpg

About 4 days after henndigo-ing I washed my hair with cheap shampoo twice (I normally only CO). It brought it to this color (soft black):

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...ovalblkbrn.jpg

The next day I did a shampoo "treatment" id call it. I used
-1 tsp of baking soda
-2 tsp cinnamon
-7 vit C tabs crushed up
-mixed with Head and Shoulders Shampoo (ohh baby feel the dryness)
I put a plastic cap over it and beanie, left the "treatment" on an hour. I washed it out with Nexus "Aloe Rid", washing twice. It looked like a medium reddish brown in the water
Used tons of conditioner and left it on for 15 mins, tinge of color washed out too

My hair ended a dark brown with reddish tints. Yay!

Next day: Yogurt treatment
-12oz yogurt
-4 tbs honey
-2 tbs cinnamon
Left it on under a cap and beanie 1 hour
Washed it out, slight blue tinge in water (which im glad, meant it was mostly indigo instead of the henna). Washed with expensive morrocon oil shampoo and conditioned.

Not much color change, more reddish tones in hair

Next day: Color Oops. left on 20 mins with plastic cap as package said. Did 5 shampoos (used aloe rid, redken and head and shoulders), rinsed out for 25 mins total, to be safe. Conditioned and rinsed hair. Damage is minimal.

Resulting color: closer to medium brown, warm color!

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...igoremoval.jpg

Next Day:
Shampoo cap (2 scoops bleach: 2 oz 30 volume developer mixed with equal parts head and shoulders shampoo).
Left it on for 20-25 minutes, washed hair, deep conditioned for 15-20 minutes. My hair had a little bit of noticable damage, but not awful. Mostly dryness.

Resulting color: Mix of medium brown, light brown and dark blonde. All with strong copper tones (which is okay!)

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...igoremoval.jpg

So there it is! I am planning on henna-ing over it again in probably another month. I didnt get any splotchy results, but all the stuff I did to it definitely didnt give me uniform color. I am okay with that though because I like the "natural highlights" look. After these results I am sure it will NOT remove henna, but I didnt want that anyways!

Keri

I removed my indigo today by pure accident, while giving myself a citric acid treatment. I have basically liquid stone running from my faucet, and lately didn't have time to play around with distilled water, and I hate ACV rinses. As I am planning to do a henna gloss tomorrow, I decided to get rid of the mineral buildup. I used 1 teaspoon of citric acid in 1 cup of distilled water, warmed it up and poured over my hair, squeezed out the excess, wrapped my head with saran wrap and a towel, and left it on for about an hour. Rinsed out, shampooed and conditioned (to get rid of any gunk, as I use Indian herbs exclusively now, no more shampoo for me!). Something seemed strange when I took off my old T-shirt used for drying: hair was brilliant red with no trace of indigo.

I used Lush Caca twice before, the initial application faded overall, the second one made the indigo stick, while the henna faded a bit. I've applied BAQ henna twice since, but I could still see the indigo lurking from underneath. Now I have cool red hair - I mean RED, lol.

That's really interesting, Blond on Blond! Did the indigo turn the rinse water blue/green? One thing I wonder about is whether you'll see any re-darkening in a couple of days ... sometimes a strong acidic rinse will temporarily re-brighten hennaed hair (as if it reversed the darkening from oxidation) but then it re-darkens ... please let us know if your hair stays red, will you? thanks!

Hey caribou, it's already darker than yesterday, but still lighter than before the citric acid rinse. It certainly wasn't a lot of indigo, like I said, the first henndigo application faded completely, the second one - considerably. I have ash blond hair, after the 2 application of Lush Caca it was dark brown, after fading a light/medium brown. So some of the indigo "stuck", but some did fade.

I can't tell you anything about blue/green water, my eyes were closed (acid being rinsed out!) and my head tilted, I could have been rinsing out diamonds and not noticed anything ;)

I will update in a few days, right now it looks like plenty of the indigo was removed, but it could be that it's temporary, like you mentioned.

This is really interesting! Posting as a bookmark for myself, because I plan to go henna red then henndigo black and I may need this some day. ;P Hell I might even do this procedure on a strand just to see if it works! Until then, hopefully this has reminded me to really commit before leaving red territory for black. But I get ahead of myself! I've still got to grow out my natural color. Oh, a curse on waiting for hair to grow. Wouldn't it be fun if we lived in the future where they'd figured all this out and grew an inch a day. Alas. ;P

Thank you for posting this. It's 6 years in the future and I am trying this thanks to you! I am gonna do the shampoo cap also, I don't even mind if the indigo turns greenish since i'm going navy/midnight blue over it. Thanks again!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by youngtundra

Thank you for posting this. It's 6 years in the future and I am trying this thanks to you! I am gonna do the shampoo cap also, I don't even mind if the indigo turns greenish since i'm going navy/midnight blue over it. Thanks again!

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If it's any help - I managed to use hydrogen peroxide type lightener (like sun-in) on several layers of henndigo without it turning green, but the henndigo's were done on previously chem.dyed hair and it was about a year since last application.