Making hennaed hair brighter?

[EtherealJane]

Hello,

I've been hennaing my hair for about a year now. I usually henna only the roots every one and a half to two months. My hair color is naturally a medium brown? I think there are still some photos of my hair in my album that show the unhennaed color. I LOVE how my hair looks when it's first hennaed--that really bright red color. Over the course of the month or two before I re-henna, my hair seems to turn more... brown? Like, when I went to the DMV and they were filling out height/weight/hair color, she put my hair color as brown :(

Would dying my whole head for the second time help brighten the color? Any other suggestions for making the color brighter/more red?

[Salmonberry]

You could try a henna gloss if you feel like the color is fading or getting duller. A Henna gloss is where you dilute the amount of henna you use by adding conditioner, cassia, yogurt or some other substance you want to put on your hair. It's like doing a deep treatment with a bit of henna in it. A couple tablespoons of dye released paste should suffice. Leave it on for an hour or two, or however long you would leave a deep treatment.

Another thing I've found with henna is that it doesn't look bright or reddish indoors, but out in the sunlight it shines a bit more red. They probably have florescent lighting at the DMV, which can be notoriously unflattering for henna.

[cmg]

Would dying my whole head for the second time help brighten the color? Any other suggestions for making the color brighter/more red?
No, henna will not brighten your hair. It will darken your hair with every application. For a brighter color you would have to bleach some off.

Removing henna is really difficult. This is what I did about a month ago as an experiment:
I removed some henna with a fluid paste made of Epsom salt and water, put this on the hair for one hour, kept warm. I have porous hair, this may not work for you at all. It did remove a lot of henna and I had to rinse for quite some time. After this my hair was no longer in the "burgundy-range" of henna. I thought the outer layers of cuticles, now depleted of any color (since my natural color is white), would come out dull, so I decided to fill those with color again. I used cassia for this. The trick worked. The hair came out brighter, with a vivid shine. The cassia had deposited some yellow stain on the hair. I dont know how long it will last, but it has lasted for a month now. I have since then done one or two root applications, they were a lighter mix than before.

So it can be done, but I dont know what difference it will make on your medium brown hair.

/ CMG

[Karo]

I remember rinsing my hair with apple cider vinegar and it looked a lot brighter

[HylianGirl]

I wonder if an orange manic panic-like colour would work... never tried it, just wondering

[Shatam1]

I wonder if an orange manic panic-like colour would work... never tried it, just wondering

I use manic panic all the time to avoid doing too much henna. The best color would be Pillarbox red if u want an orangey effect, others use vampire red which I find too rosy for me. I guess it has more blue in it, orange goes better with my complexion. Some people mix both colors. Hope that was helpful:applause

[Nightshade]

I had better results with doing a 65% cassia, 35% henna blend for a more coppery color. In fluorescent light, though, it still tends to look very brown (because fluorescent light is green).

Lightening up my henna with Sun-In helped a LOT with keeping it brighter and more coppery. I even touch up my new growth with it once or twice a year :) My natural color is medium brown, and I end up with this:

Indoors:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nHwyXre8dbY/UBwrx2zEVUI/AAAAAAAAC-4/-xA86O-gQOk/s640/V-Cut-After-1.jpg

Same day, just stepped outside:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-xyLaAmbKBwU/UBws8R71kfI/AAAAAAAADAo/NC7XrlfhbBo/s640/V-Cut-Cropped.jpg

[Bagginslover]

Adding more henna will make the red more noticeable, or at least, it did for me. It will make your hair darker overall, but the red will be brighter (brighter, not lighter, there is a difference ;) ). It took 3 full henna applications for my red to really show in all lights, but it still can look dull brown if I wear a colour that doesn't contrast to it (reds and pinks, blue-purples, black and turquoises all make it appear very bright).

[HylianGirl]

I use manic panic all the time to avoid doing too much henna. The best color would be Pillarbox red if u want an orangey effect, others use vampire red which I find too rosy for me. I guess it has more blue in it, orange goes better with my complexion. Some people mix both colors. Hope that was helpful:applause

Thanks for the tip! I'll henna as soon as my henna arrives on the mail, I guess I'll get some pillarbox red manic panic from time to time to keep it brigter, I don't like the rosy tint either. I considered mixing it with cassia too, but I already ordered henna and amla about a month ago and it still hasn't arrived (I'm used to it, things take a long time to get here when they come from other countries). I guess I'll mix it with cassia on my next root aplications, and maybe do some full head cassia only applications to keep it coppery later, because I don't want to wait more for the cassia to arrive x.x :impatient:

But thanks on the manic panic colour tip ^-^ is it true that it bleeds on the towels and pillowcases?

[Iolanthe13]

Seconding the Sun-In suggestion. My hair is a couple of shades lighter than yours, but I use Sun-In to lighten the roots further before henna-ing. I doubt you could achieve the same medium copper without lightening more drastically first, but you could certainly get a decently bright auburn.

HylianGirl, if you don't want a rosy tint, you might be happiest waiting for the cassia to arrive and doing a 50-50 mix. It tends to be difficult and damaging to deal with henna that's gone too dark...

[SleepyTangles]

Do you use a very acid liquid to mix your henna? Acid liquid boost the color for the first days, then darkens making it more brown. Plain water/tea is better in the long run for a bright colour IMO.


Also, what kind of henna do you use and how many full-head application have you done? I find there's a point in which more henna applications stop to brighten the colour and just darken it... If you haven't reached it, maybe an application more will help boosting the red :).
Also, I second the suggest of clarifying with some ACV, that really brings out the shine and the colour of the hair!

[HylianGirl]

Seconding the Sun-In suggestion. My hair is a couple of shades lighter than yours, but I use Sun-In to lighten the roots further before henna-ing. I doubt you could achieve the same medium copper without lightening more drastically first, but you could certainly get a decently bright auburn.

HylianGirl, if you don't want a rosy tint, you might be happiest waiting for the cassia to arrive and doing a 50-50 mix. It tends to be difficult and damaging to deal with henna that's gone too dark...

I might do that then... thanks for the help!