My new project - lightening my henndigo

[Evie]

Right, so I thought I'd start this thread to keep track of my experiences trying to lighten my henndigo.

I must stress now:- I am not trying to lighten henndigo back to my natural blonde.

I am simply trying to get it to a light brown / goldish shade so it blends better with the new colour I want to use on my roots (I am aiming for shade 4 or 5 from here ).

Hair History:

I was born blonde (very blonde), and then as I went through my teens, my hair darkened and I did not like it. So, I started highlighting.....this carried on until I was 20.

Then, aged 20, I was at Uni for the first time, and looked around to see what felt like everyone going blonde. So, being me, I decided to be cool and different and dyed my hair nearly black .

The following years alternated between dark hair, and then lightening it back to blonde, and back again......

Then, I discovered henndigo....and took my hair back to a very, very dark brown (almost black....) to cut an ever longer story short, my hair has stayed this shade for a while.

Recently, I decided that whilst I did not want to go back to highlighting, I did want to start using a henna etc mix that was closer to my natural shade to make life easier. ....

....SO I decided to experiment, and try to lift the very dark ends of my hair as I went along! And I thought that it might help others in the same boat.

Here goes.....!

[Evie]

First experiment: using Colour B4 (similar to colorfix?)

(NB this was about a week ago.....)

Although sceptical as to whether this would work, I tried colour B4 (which I bought in Boots in the UK) on my henndigo.

Whilst it did not lighten very much, it was no longer purplish black....more a cooler dark brown.....hmmmmm interesting!

Second experiment: using conventional bleach over coconut oiled hair

Ok, ok I know that I risked frog butt green , I've been around henndigo long enough and read the horror stories.....

But I've often thought that if henna is red/orange, and indigo is blue, if you carefully, carefully lighten the hair a tiny bit, it must be possible to get a light brown / goldish shade similar to that which people have reported mixing henna and indigo dry and applying before dye release etc....(for more discussion on this, see the H4H forum ...although that has been updated recently and I can't find the thread....basically people were mixing half and half henna and indigo, leaving it for an hour, and then applying for maybe 2 hours....)

So, tonight I heavily oiled my hair with coconut oil, and then mixed my Jerome BBlonde bleach....I applied it and then left it ten minutes only, not the 90 min that the pack recommended!

When I rinsed, I was shocked that my hair felt pretty soft, and also that I had a range of tones on the light bits, from light reddish brown (I expected this of course with the henna, and it is a nice tone so this is good ), to an ashy brown (these bits maybe would have gone green if I'd left the bleach on longer) and even a few golden brown strands

Now, it is NOT a dramatic change. But it is there....I will try and get pics but it is a bit hard to do alone, maybe outside at the weekend if it is sunny so the tones show!

I am oiling overnight just to be on the safe side, and will report back on the condition tomorrow.....and then there is a break to pamper my hair before the next experiment.

The main thing for me this time is I am not expecting a dramatic change fast, I am doing this slowly! This is quite a change of approach for me, but in the end I really do not want to damage my hair so badly that I have to cut......

The journey continues!

[Francoise1606]

Sounds great! I would love to hear about your results and see pictures further along, because I have been contemplating on trying to lighten my hair as well. Although I would probably get different results since mine is dyed with lush henna in rouge and noir, which just made it brown. But I just really want to see my real color. Haven't seen it in 7 years since I was 13. Good luck on your project

[serious]

I can't wait to see pics and to hear how your further experiments go!

I've been henndigoing my salt and pepper hair for almost three years now, but since I'm getting more and more grays I plan to go natural in the future and it would be really nice to lighten the color without going green or destroying my hair!

Good luck!

[Evie]

Ok, so some pics so far....

This is pretty much what I started with....



And after the 2 experiments above, it now looks like....

This:



The flash is different (it is a differnet camera, sorry) but the lighter areas are there, it is so hard to photograph - I did not apply bleach uniformly all over, I focused on the ends, and on pulling it through strands to try and break up the dark tone, rather than have it everywhere, just in case it went green!!! It also has some oil in it too still.

Condition wise, I covered it in coconut oil and slept in it last night, then washed the oil off this morning with a normall shampoo and condish, and all seems fine, no breakage or snapping etc.

The next plan will be to do some sun-in (using Nightshade's method) on the front layers around my face, and maybe go over it with a strawberry blonde pale colour, but interesting so far! It is definitely ashier too, which looks more natural on me

[serious]

I can see the lighter parts!

pretty hair, btw

[Evie]

Thanks

It is so hard to show it - the major difference is that the red 'flare' from the henna is gone, and the almost black has lightened up to an ashier brown, but try to get that looking like it does IRL in a picture

[Evie]

So, and update on condition - so far, so good, no crispy ends or fried strands or anything like that....

I've tried again to show the colour difference in the lightened strands, but it is so hard to do! there are, if you look closely, some reddish gold strands showing in this bun....

Will try to get a pic in direct sunlight soon, which might help. There is much more tonal variation now, which should make growing it out easier....

[Evie]

this pic also shows it (excuse the messy waves, just taken down a sock bun with oiled ends - despite it being in good condition I'm still babying it a bit )



ETA the flash makes it look a bit grey in some areas, but it is not - still no direct sunlight, booo!

[serious]

Compared to your sig pic, it's definitely lighter!