I had been dying my hair with box dyes and (bad) black henna (I now know to only use pure and natural ingredients if I'm going to henna my hair, wasn't on LHC back then) for years. I have been growing out my henna for about a year now and my hair has an ombre effect (thank goodness its trendy at the moment). I had always presumed that I had naturally dark brown/blackish hair, but my new growth looks medium brown and when in the sun, a lightish-medium brown. I know cinnamon lightens hair but I never used it, only castor+olive oil and more recently amla oil (on my roots) and coconut on my length (as I ran out of olive to dilute my castor oil with). Could any of these oils have lightened my hair or could my hair have naturally changed to a lighter shade? Thanks