A question for the brunettes on board

[30isthenewblack]

Hello,

I've done a few searches on the board but I can only find posts from people who henna who have lighter hair and are going darker. I'm more interested in people who have black hair and their experiences with henna.

I have black hair and I want to use henna (my signature picture is from two years ago). Ideally, I'd prefer it to be a dark brown shade but as long as it doesn't go red or darker than it is, I'm not that bothered really.

I'm using henna more for the conditioning effects. A colour change would be a bonus. I'm open to using amla, katam or indigo or an additional ingredient to make my hair lighter. I don't know which one would be better.

I've got samples and did a sample test; one with henna and water and the other with henna and indigo and there was no colour change as far as I could see.

If there is an existing thread on this, please direct me to it. I've got the Henna4Hair CD and I've read Nightshade's article. Thank you!

[MonaMayfair]

Hi,
If your hair is black, the henna will only show up in strong sunlight (or maybe indoors under strong artificial light) as a red "glow"
It will still look black under normal light, but you'll certainly get the conditioning bonuses of thicker, stronger, shinier hair!

[Idun]

I think none of the herbs you mention can lighten your hair. Did you try honey lightening?

My hair is dark brown with a slight silver sprinkle and it does appear somewhat lighter after henna/cassia - but only in certain lights. I don´t really know why that is, because in reality it isn´t lighter than before. I dilute the henna a lot, the last time I used 5:2 cassia/henna.

[dfotw]

I have very dark hair too, and I've tried henna several times. The colour change is very small and only shows in sunlight/strong lights as a coppery red shine. Henna didn't lighten (or darken) my hair at all, but then again, dyes usually have a hard time with it.

If you want to lighten you hair to a dark brown, you might want to try honey lightening treatments apart from the henna, you might have more of a chance with that.

HTH!

[virgo75]

My hair is naturally black and I used to try all kinds of chemical dyes to lighten and change the color. After a lot of experimenting, I found that the only way to lighten my hair was with "bleach."

Until I used henna.

It's the only thing that lightened my hair other than bleach - which is strange to me because I don't usually use any citric acid, just warm water or tea. It's now a dark brown/red from middle to ends and dark brown w/orangeish red(orange being the gray hairs ) at the roots.

I'm actually missing my black hair but don't want to use indigo because my skin has yellow undertones and purpleish hair + yellowish skin = disaster.

[marisa]

My hair is naturally a dark, dark brown with some grey.
Henna definitely brightens my hair a bit more with each application. It gets very noticeably red. After about four hennas, my hair is a dark auburn.
I love it and leave it for a while, but then I miss my darker brown hair and do a hendigo gloss (using either lush caca brun w/olive oil or some dark brown light mountain with conditioner).
I still get the red highlights from the greys and the flare in the sun.
Love henna!

[cm006j]

I use Henna on black hair. It doesn't show up on the black parts, but it does show up on my white hairs (and my roots are mostly white now). It shows up a little bit through my length and on places where I guess I wasn't as effective at dying over my white. It looks like really nice red highlights in my black hair.

Edited to Add: My hair was naturally black, but since I went white at age twenty, I've been dying it with a chemical dye until about three months ago. So, I can't speak for how henna will react with virgin black hair...

[hmmm]

My hair is darker than yours and henna definitely shows up on it.
I've done waay too many applications for it to show up indoors in not-so-bright light, but under bright light and outdoors it's still quite red. And when I take photos with flash it's got a strange purple tinge which is pretty awesome

After the first three or four full-head applications it was noticeable enough for a lot of people to comment on it, especially when my head was back-lit. But now, only a few do. Or maybe they've got used to my subtly changing hair colour.

[30isthenewblack]

Thanks for all your responses guys! I am doing my second sample today with amla and henna so I can preserve my curl moreso than the colour change. That was another reason why I held off but I know that not everyone's curl is affected. As long as my hair doesn't go a gothic black, I'm happy

[blueue]

I have black hair and I have been hennaing for a while now. Even after multiple applications, my hair appears mostly black (albeit warm black) indoors but a lovely red-black in the sunlight

I have wavy-curly hair and henna does loosen up my curls a bit and almost completely eliminates frizz Good luck!