Took the plunge- I ordered henna

[MafiaPrincess]

I just ordered a kilo of yemeni from henna sooq.. Eek I am doing it.

So.. should I redye my hair with the box of dye I've used for years to start with a colour I enjoy..

Or I'm assuming I should start my henna experience and see what colour I get after an application an oxidation and if I'm not thrilled More layers of henna in future?

[CaityBear]

Do a hair test first. That's the easiest way to take the plunge and still stay a bit safe. :P I have naturally dirty blonde hair so I made sure to test first because it was a huge change. Granted, I started with LUSH henna so it wasn't as great of a change. But now I use Yemeni (also from Henna Sooq; good stuff!) and I love it.

There's no use dying your hair with the box dye before you henna because I'm assuming you're not going to do that each and every time when you need to do your roots. Just try to do a test first, such as hairball from your brush, or if you're kind of a rebel and not too worried, you could just do a strand on your head to see how it'll turn out.

Good luck! Take before and after pictures!

[MafiaPrincess]

Awesome, thank you.

Makes sense to not box dye it first. I've been looking at my icky fade out colour for too long haha. I read on other threads to strand test on a hairbrush ball (brilliant idea I'd never thought of). Do I mix up a tiny bit to do this and then mix up a lot more to do my hair later?

[Dreams_in_Pink]

Strand test is important. Don't make the same mistake as mine and apply it all over your hair. Henna is permanent, very permanent actually. If i were you, i'd even wait for a few month to see the color it oxidizes to. I loved my red when i first did it, but then it started to go darker and darker, till it finally decided on the black-red which is never my shade

[CaityBear]

You can do either really. But you will have to wait a while after the strand test. But if you did mix it all up, then you could just freeze the rest until time to do all of your hair.

Personally, I just mixed up a tiny bit to do the strand test and let it sit for a week maybe? I wasn't too worried about the color it'd be after oxidation because I wasn't worried about not liking the colour. Then I mixed up the rest of the henna.

[MafiaPrincess]

Cool. Thanks ladies. I hope it doesn't oxidize to a bleh colour I don't really want to wait a month after strand testing

I just found the henna hut thread and now I'm wondering if I should have started with their vibrant red as that is more my style.. but I've ordered yemeni so I shall start there.

[princessp]

Cool, can't wait to see pictures!

[CrisDee]

Here is my standard advice for someone trying henna for the first time. I give this advice not as some kind of henna genius or expert - quite the contrary, I give this advice as somebody who ruined a head of APL chemically dyed hair by making all the standard henna mistakes! I whacked it all off to a super short pixie in March '09; kept it short for six months til all the chemical dye was grown out & cut off, then began growing again in September 09. So now my hair is 100% henna-cassia, with a color I like. Definitely post pictures of your results, and best of luck!

[Dreams_in_Pink]

Warning 3 - your days of using heat to style your hair are over, at least if you want to keep the color uniform. Heat styling, particularly with flat irons or large barrel curling irons, darkens henna'd hair to a winey burgundy. Found this out the hard way and ruined a head of shoulder length hair, had to hack it all off and start over.

THAT explains why my hair went black-red!! Do follow her advice!

[MafiaPrincess]

Thank you. Good advice. Can't say I own any heat styling anything so least I won't darken my hair that way Might have redone my whole head more than once without this advice though.