Something odd happened when bleaching my henna-ed hair

**lollipop21** · July 23rd, 2017, 03:02 PM

So I've had around 2-3 applications of henna in my hair for about a year now and about 1-2 applications of indigo (no retouching and used the reddest henna from mehendi) over previously bleached hair. So I've been on the journey to remove the henna from my hair for about a month now because I wanted to try ash toned colors. My hair is naturally black and the henna had grown out to about mid ear. I've tried color oops, honey treatments, mineral oil and alcohol, hard water shampoo, and clarifying shampoo and nothing has worked. Although the color oops removed most of the indigo and a black box dye I had over my hair. So I decided to just bite the bullet and bleach my hair to hopefully lighten it up to a point where I could tone it (using elemen ab@9 and @6). A family friend whose a hair stylist was able to get olaplex for me.

The weird part is that when I bleached my hair, after I washed it out and before I applied the no.2 my hair was dripping orange! At first I thought I spilled some of the no. 1 but nope my hair was dripping orange. I was just wondering if this has happened to anyone before?? The same thing happened when I bleached again at a lower volume. The thing is it stops dripping orange as soon as I apply no.2 or any deep conditioner/ protein treatment. I'm hoping there's a way to exploit this without going back in to bleach my hair! Any ideas? Or explanation of what happened? Please ask if you need anything clarified!

**leayellena** · July 24th, 2017, 04:17 AM

why is everyone eager to grow out henna? I can understand the hate when you color your hair with random supermarket hair dyes but henna is natural. it helps growing your hair, it keeps your hair shiny, etc.
Why is everyone eager to dye hair anyway?
Bleach?! Oh God... I´d better use what I can trully use: hair masks, conditioners, leave-ins, black tea rinses... not even making diy hairmasks anymore. I better eat that food.

just saying...

**Rhoward** · July 24th, 2017, 04:26 AM

I've got no idea why it was bleeding so much orange even after you rinsed the bleach out, just good luck I guess. Actually you're really lucky that the left over indigo in your hair didn't show green/blue tones. Thank your lucky stars and buy a lottery ticket.

**lapushka** · July 24th, 2017, 04:40 AM

Originally Posted by lollipop21

So I've had around 2-3 applications of henna in my hair for about a year now and about 1-2 applications of indigo (no retouching and used the reddest henna from mehendi) over previously bleached hair. So I've been on the journey to remove the henna from my hair for about a month now because I wanted to try ash toned colors. My hair is naturally black and the henna had grown out to about mid ear. I've tried color oops, honey treatments, mineral oil and alcohol, hard water shampoo, and clarifying shampoo and nothing has worked. Although the color oops removed most of the indigo and a black box dye I had over my hair. So I decided to just bite the bullet and bleach my hair to hopefully lighten it up to a point where I could tone it (using elemen ab@9 and @6). A family friend whose a hair stylist was able to get olaplex for me.

The weird part is that when I bleached my hair, after I washed it out and before I applied the no.2 my hair was dripping orange! At first I thought I spilled some of the no. 1 but nope my hair was dripping orange. I was just wondering if this has happened to anyone before?? The same thing happened when I bleached again at a lower volume. The thing is it stops dripping orange as soon as I apply no.2 or any deep conditioner/ protein treatment. I'm hoping there's a way to exploit this without going back in to bleach my hair! Any ideas? Or explanation of what happened? Please ask if you need anything clarified!

When bleaching first the red pigment goes, but if that doesn't go completely you are left with an orange stain. That is why henna needs full strength bleach to get it to go from the hair. That it spills henna is odd to me, though.

I bleached out my henna with 2 x full strength bleaches and still I had orange left in my hair, so I decided to dye over it with a light brown (you can't go blonde over a red pigment). Shortly after that I got a chemical cut & burn (but that's me and my hair).

In any case, I would just tone it now, and not "mess" with it anymore. If it's still red/orange, go with a brown tone.

That is *exactly* why henna is so hard to remove, the pigment *lasts* like... no other!

**Obsidian** · July 24th, 2017, 10:00 AM

I tried bleaching my henna out a few months back and I didn't get any orange drips. The henna lightened but not to the point I could tone or even color over it without going really dark.

I gave up trying to grow it out and recently got a pixie. I still have henna ends but I'll trim it off over the next few months. For me, even though I love henna I got tired of the upkeep and I miss my natural color, plus I want to see just how much gray I have now.

**MidnightMoon** · July 24th, 2017, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by leayellena

why is everyone eager to grow out henna? I can understand the hate when you color your hair with random supermarket hair dyes but henna is natural. it helps growing your hair, it keeps your hair shiny, etc.
Why is everyone eager to dye hair anyway?
Bleach?! Oh God... I´d better use what I can trully use: hair masks, conditioners, leave-ins, black tea rinses... not even making diy hairmasks anymore. I better eat that food.

just saying...

Hating the colour has nothing to do with whether it's good for you or not. People get tired of things, and dark roots+brassy tones looks awful IMO.
And about dyeing hair, again, you get bored, you want to experiment. Some people don't some people can look the same for 50 years no problem, just as some people need to change their style, makeup, hair colour, move to another country...
I only have one life, and if i'm curious and want to try a new look for myself, why not?

**lollipop21** · July 24th, 2017, 04:56 PM

Ahhh so it seems like this orange dripping is an oddity, just curious to see if that meant the henna was "loosening" or something. I think it's light enough to put the ash toned elumen dyes over to tone it down, it's around a level 7 or 8. Probably keep that and treat my hair with olaplex stand alone treatments and protein and deep conditioning treatments until I bleach it again sometime in the fall or winter. Plus apparently the ash toned elumen dyes don't stay too long. Also considering just playing up the orange and coloring it to a ginger never done that before!

**Rebeccalaurenxx** · July 24th, 2017, 07:41 PM

I would tone it and then leave it alone. Bleach is a, tricky and awful thing for hair. I dont touch it anymore.

**lapushka** · July 25th, 2017, 05:13 AM

Originally Posted by lollipop21

Ahhh so it seems like this orange dripping is an oddity, just curious to see if that meant the henna was "loosening" or something. I think it's light enough to put the ash toned elumen dyes over to tone it down, it's around a level 7 or 8. Probably keep that and treat my hair with olaplex stand alone treatments and protein and deep conditioning treatments until I bleach it again sometime in the fall or winter. Plus apparently the ash toned elumen dyes don't stay too long. Also considering just playing up the orange and coloring it to a ginger never done that before!

I would not bleach it again... I just... wouldn't. BTDT, regretted it profusely as I got a chemical cut & burn and I tell you it's not pleasant. I had to call my GP (primary care physician) and he prescribed me a cortisone lotion to ease the burn. It was *that* bad! Also I went from BSL to chin length as my hair just... cut itself and fell off.