Help on removing henna/indigo from hair?

[pullanmuru]

I would love to hear about how your lightening process is going as I'm going through the same thing! I've some souccess with Smart Beauty's Smart Colour Highlights, is has peroxide but also red Manic Panic type hair colour. It fades out the green...at least it worked on some areas on my hair. Other parts remained black but it didn't turn anything GREEN (like pure bleach did). Yeah, my hair's been to hell and back!!

[redheadlynn]

I got my henna out before with hair dye remover and bleach, but it completely destroyed my hair...especially the hair dye remover. And even then, my hair was still golden. And when I tried to dye a medium brown over it, it turned black. I honestly wouldn't recommend it. I had to chop mine off and grow it back from the beginning.

[PartyPickle]

KaliC714, as I'm in a similar boat I'd love to hear if you've had any non-green success with the Sun-In on the indigo.

[lisa33]

I HAVE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! *please read this* **i have almost COMPLETELY removed ALL of the henna from my hair!!!!!** i was just trying to cover up the red BAQ henna in my hair that i had tried everything to remove it (dandruff shampoo, lemon, hydrogen peroxide, honey, hot oil treatments... and nothing worked) . I made a cup of super-duper strong black tea b/c i read on the internet somewhere that you can dye your hair with black tea... anyway, i was leaning over the tub pouring it on my hair and i noticed bleeding henna. BRIGHT orangeish-redish henna dripping into the white tub. at first i thought i was hallucinating and it was just that the LOOKED like it was orange b/c it was in small drops so i compared it to the little bit of tea left in the cup at the bottom and the tea in the cup was DEFINETLY gold-ish and the liquid in the tub was DEfINETLY orange-ish. i finished my rinse and dried and looked at my hair in the mirror. The result was A LOT of the henna was removed from my hair. I was estatic and since i had been following the thread in here to get ideas, i wanted to share my findings with everyone. now for the minor details that i was too excited to mention before: my henna was BAQ with a henna compund over that and henna hut over that. and it was three months old. i don't know why it worked and i don't know how, but i swear it did any feedback??

[Bellatrix]

Ah, I recently indigo'd my hair and regretted it almost immediately. Because I just don't learn

I tried colour remover and it did nothing. Then I bleached for maybe 10-15 mins, and this did lift my hair to a very dark brown from black. I henna'd over this and I"m giving my hair some time to rest before I bleach once more. My hair is more streaky, but the bleach still lifted my hair overall so it's no longer black. I always saturate my hair with coconut oil before I bleach as well.

So, my advice for getting indigo out:

henna to infuse hair with protein, coat hair in coconut oil, bleach for 15 mins. repeat as needed...

[Unofficial_Rose]

I HAVE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! *please read this* **i have almost COMPLETELY removed ALL of the henna from my hair!!!!!** i was just trying to cover up the red BAQ henna in my hair that i had tried everything to remove it (dandruff shampoo, lemon, hydrogen peroxide, honey, hot oil treatments... and nothing worked) . I made a cup of super-duper strong black tea b/c i read on the internet somewhere that you can dye your hair with black tea... anyway, i was leaning over the tub pouring it on my hair and i noticed bleeding henna. BRIGHT orangeish-redish henna dripping into the white tub. at first i thought i was hallucinating and it was just that the LOOKED like it was orange b/c it was in small drops so i compared it to the little bit of tea left in the cup at the bottom and the tea in the cup was DEFINETLY gold-ish and the liquid in the tub was DEfINETLY orange-ish. i finished my rinse and dried and looked at my hair in the mirror. The result was A LOT of the henna was removed from my hair. I was estatic and since i had been following the thread in here to get ideas, i wanted to share my findings with everyone. now for the minor details that i was too excited to mention before: my henna was BAQ with a henna compund over that and henna hut over that. and it was three months old. i don't know why it worked and i don't know how, but i swear it did any feedback??

Thankyou so much for this! I like my henndigo but the colour gets too dark and purplish. I'll definitely give this a go. How long did you leave the tea on for?

[KaliC714]

Lisa33, did you have indigo or just henna in your hair?

Unofficialrose, sorry I haven't been on in a while! My college started and I've been pretty busy with my classes.
I do have an update, though. I've been using sun-in every other time I wash my hair (I wash my hair every other day, so that equates to once a week). Here's what I've noticed: my hair isn't at all damaged, from what I can tell. It doesn't feel any different, and it doesn't look any different, so that's good. I did get a trim and had some layers put back into it, but I don't think I had more than an inch taken off. As for the color, my results have been very mixed. My bangs are almost blond in some areas. my hair, throughout, has pieces of red mixed in. The majority, however, of my hair is still completely black. It actually blends okay and I haven't noticed any blue/green cast at all, so those are pluses, but I think I've unfortunately given up on sun-in completely.
For about two weeks before using sun-in, I tried the honey lightening that Ktani mentioned, and basically had the same results--lightened pieces but overall still very dark.
I'm sort of at a loss right now. A few days ago I picked up a box of hair dye, Revlon's strawberry blond. My idea was that the peroxide would lighten my hair and the red tone would negate any blue cast. I did a strand test, though, and nothing happened. Still black. I've been in between color fix and bleach. I know a lot of people are very against bleaching henna/indigo hair, but my hair is (ironically) healthier than it's been in years, and if I were to ever bleach this would be the time. I was thinking bleach, coupled with a red toner from SB after might do the trick, but I'm not sure about it, mostly because I've never used bleach before.
As for colorfix, though, I did use color oops (same thing, different brand, I think?) a few years ago when I had a similar problem, and it turned a light green at first and then after a few days went back to black (this was without the lotion they say not to use). So, even though I don't want to ignore it as an option, I feel like it would probably not help.

Does anyone have or know anyone who has had experience with bleaching henna/indigo? At this point, I don't really care if my hair ends up green if I can dye over it with a light red to help negate the green.

[Bellatrix]

Hey, I just posted about bleaching my hair! Honestly, if your hair is in good condition, I think you should at least try a strand test.

The bleach did lift my indigo to a dark brown, though it also gave me lighter brown hilites. I plan to bleach it once more for a few mins to lift it again, then henna over

[KaliC714]

Hi Bellatrix! Can you give me more information about it, like what kind of indigo treatment did you use (henna and then indigo or mixing the two?), how long the indigo was in your hair before bleaching, and by how many shades do you think it lightened? Oh, and what strength was the bleach developer and how long did you leave it in for? Did your hair have any sort of green cast to it/was it very damaged? Thank you so much!

[Anje]

I HAVE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! *please read this* **i have almost COMPLETELY removed ALL of the henna from my hair!!!!!** i was just trying to cover up the red BAQ henna in my hair that i had tried everything to remove it (dandruff shampoo, lemon, hydrogen peroxide, honey, hot oil treatments... and nothing worked) . I made a cup of super-duper strong black tea b/c i read on the internet somewhere that you can dye your hair with black tea... anyway, i was leaning over the tub pouring it on my hair and i noticed bleeding henna. BRIGHT orangeish-redish henna dripping into the white tub. at first i thought i was hallucinating and it was just that the LOOKED like it was orange b/c it was in small drops so i compared it to the little bit of tea left in the cup at the bottom and the tea in the cup was DEFINETLY gold-ish and the liquid in the tub was DEfINETLY orange-ish. i finished my rinse and dried and looked at my hair in the mirror. The result was A LOT of the henna was removed from my hair. I was estatic and since i had been following the thread in here to get ideas, i wanted to share my findings with everyone. now for the minor details that i was too excited to mention before: my henna was BAQ with a henna compund over that and henna hut over that. and it was three months old. i don't know why it worked and i don't know how, but i swear it did any feedback??

Whoa, really!?!?!? I definitely need to test this... Or bug someone who has mohair to do a controlled study!