Is it possible to get auburn, but not orangey, hennaed hair??>>>>>>

[Shae]

I've used henna in the past for glosses and always end up with hair a little more orange than I'd like. How can I obtain a nice med auburn? I adore Julianne Moore's hair for reference.

tia!

Edited to add that I love the shade of my hair in my profile pic, but it is box color and the pic was taken hours after coloring. It faded almost immediately and I want a more hair healthy alternative.

[Iolanthe13]

I think people who do multiple layers of henna tend to go through an auburn stage before the burgundy stage. You might find adding amla to the mix tones it down a little, but don't add too much or you'll just get brown. Definitely strand test! How dark is your natural colour?

[Shae]

Thanks for replying! My natural shade USED to be a med auburn, however with age (I'm 38 ) it's really dulled and faded! It's now a light/med ashy auburn.

[Iolanthe13]

Hmmm, from what I've seen people with light auburn or strawberry blonde hair do tend to get quite a bright colour at first from henna. My guess is that you would need multiple layers to get something deeper. I hesitate to recommend indigo since so many here have experienced disasters trying to remove it.

[Alvrodul]

I would suggest more layers - that will give you darker and redder shades.
And when you get to the color you want, go roots only!

[cmg]

I second that. But also you could experiment with glosses: One teaspoon each of henna and indigo in one cup of condish - kept on the head for ½ hour. The effect will not be lasting. If you like the shade, then go ahead and repeat or do full treatments with these proportions.

PS
I'm talking dry powder here, mixed in all at once. You don't have to bother with dye release or anything for a light dye effect. You can up the concentrations to tablespoons and doubling the application time if you want more effect.

/ CMG

[syrahna]

I've got a few layers of Red Raj (never left on for more than 2 hours, frozen-and-thawed) on my light ash brown hair. I'm a light auburn, I'd say. Not a bit of orange. The longest hair on my head I can barely tuck behind my ears, so I haven't worried too much about getting to mahogany - I'll cut it off before it goes that dark, or I'll switch to a henna that's less likely to go mahogany. But for now, I'm a subtle sort of auburn redhead if I'm not in the sun, and I love it. People don't realize it's not natural unless they seem me oxidizing on days 1-3.