Will Heat Styling Turn Henna Brown?

**LongForLife** · June 26th, 2010, 07:45 AM

This is the first time I have ever hennaed my hair. Today is 2 days after I did it. I have a wedding to go to today and was planning on curling my hair with a curling iron, which I rarely do. But I do not want to lose this lovely dark auburn color and turn it brown by doing so. Will the curling iron turn it brown? Or just oxidize it a little faster, keeping the red? Thanks for any help!

**CrisDee** · June 26th, 2010, 07:49 AM

DON'T DO IT! The curling iron will turn it burgundy, and in a way that's very uneven - the roots will remain the color they are, and the hair will get more and more burgundy down the length as it gets closer to the metal. I ruined my hair doing that, it's one of the reasons I cut it all off to pixie last year

**LongForLife** · June 26th, 2010, 07:53 AM

Wow! Thank you!! So does that go for anytime you have henna, or only right after you first do it? I don't style it very often, but pretty much always have a curly up do for weddings... I'm hoping this doesn't mean that I can't ever curl it now!

**LongForLife** · June 26th, 2010, 07:56 AM

Oh, also, does the burgundy show up right away, or at a later time? i have 2 tests strands from when I tested the henna coloring... I wonder if I could test one of them to see if it changes it to a bad color, or if it takes awhile to show the change.

**halo_tightens** · June 26th, 2010, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by LongForLife

I'm hoping this doesn't mean that I can't ever curl it now!

Even if you do find that you can't use a curling iron anymore, you could learn other methods that don't require heat! I'm talking wet sets with large curlers, rag curls, pin curls, and so on. I've seen lots of info here about various ways of producing curls without heat.

**LongForLife** · June 26th, 2010, 08:49 AM

Ok, thank you! I'll look into some of those for the future, hopefully I can find another way that will work for me.

I was really wanting a curly up-do today, as its been a really long time, and its my friends wedding. I wish I knew what a curling iron would do, and if it showed up instantly.

**tofuowl** · June 26th, 2010, 09:33 AM

I've used heat on my hair twice in my life, but since I started using henna:
I flat-ironed it once for a convention (years ago, bad, I know :P) the day after henna-ing it, and I had curls put in it for my wedding, three days after henna.

I didn't notice any color change whatsoever! My hair usually stays pretty coppery for a good week before it deepens to more of a red, and that same progression held true after using heat. My hair is substantially lighter than yours, but I don't see any reason why the heat would speed up the oxidation significantly--i certainly don't believe it would be an instant change.

**Fractalsofhair** · June 26th, 2010, 09:49 AM

Use it on the lowest heat possible, or wet/dampen your hair and blowdry it on cool with foam curlers in it.

**caribou55313** · June 26th, 2010, 04:22 PM

The darkening happens right away. It may just be accelerated oxidation. Only direct heat (flat iron, curling iron) will do it, not a hand held or bonnet style hair dryer.

Here is a photo of my hair right after I curled the ends with a curling iron - the upper part of my hair is lighter, the ends browner:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39335752@N04/4223195728/

**CrisDee** · June 27th, 2010, 05:58 AM

I guess this is a bit late, as your event was yesterday. But my darkening happened right away, and was much more pronounded than Caribou's. I didn't get a pic of it, and as I mentioned, I cut it all off anyway. If I were you, I'd just leave it down - your hair is spectacular as is!