Green hair from buxus?

[AnnaPe]

I have quite a few grays by now which I constantly dye to make them go away ...
Last week I dyed my hair with a henna - buxus mix and my hair turned green! Why? :confused:
I have used henna for years and also tried buxus several times before and I have never gone green before.
I used the exact same henna and buxus that I have used before and I made my mixes in the exact same way. I haven't used any chemicals in my hair.

Could it have something to do about the water? (I was not at home when I dyed this time.)

Any ideas?
(And OK - it was not bright green, but definitely greenish in a not so nice way ...)

[Anje]

My first guess is that you did something that used peroxide within a short period before or sometime after you put the buxus on. Any Sun-In, highlights, conventional dye at all?

Buxus is the same dye molecule as indigo, I believe, and reacts the same way to peroxide.

[SleepyTangles]

I fear the henna in your mix never oxidized/was unable to work. Are you light haired? Also, can we safely said it was not some metallic salt in henna that reacted badly with water or your own hair?

[Rosetta]

My first guess is that you did something that used peroxide within a short period before or sometime after you put the buxus on. Any Sun-In, highlights, conventional dye at all?

Buxus is the same dye molecule as indigo, I believe, and reacts the same way to peroxide.
Actually, it's not supposed to; on the henna for hair site it's been reported that bleaching hair with buxus in it resulted in ash blonde, not any shade of green. So peroxide alone should not cause that either.

[Unofficial_Rose]

I've used a strong indigo mix over bleached highlights and got green highlights! If your henna didn't work properly for whatever reason then I can see how you could get green, since they are in the same family.

H4H can be a little disengenuous when it comes to potential negatives of things they sell. Then again maybe this was on the readers forum? Buxus does fade quickly so it's also possible you could just get an ash blonde if there wasn't much of it left in the hair to start off with. Luckily for the OP, buxus is much less strong and lasting than indigo!

[Rosetta]

^ That was in the forum, yes. Let me see if I can still find it! Ok, here it is (this "Bleaching after plant dyes FAQ" might in fact come handy for many!): http://forums.hennapage.com/node/59

(And anyway, they're always very frank when it comes to indigo > green (if bleaching or lightening over), so I don't see why they'd be any different about buxus ;))

Henna and indigo are two totally different plants, btw, so they're not in any way "in the same family", other than both being plant dyes.

[caribou55313]

I'm the one who tested a henna/buxus 2-step followed by bleach to see what would happen, and got ash blonde. I wouldn't go so far as to say you'd never see green if you bleach buxus-treated hair - if there is a lot of buxus in the hair I imagine it could happen. There just haven't been as many people on the H4H forum using buxus compared to indigo, and it's been unavailable for a while now, so fewer user reports about how buxus behaves.

Agree with Rosetta that indigo and buxus are different plants etc ... in addition, indigo gives a purplish-blue and buxus gives a greenish blue, as illustrated here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39335752@N04/3615394478/in/set-72157619485710101

To the original poster, I've had henna/indigo mixes come out greenish at first, until the indigo oxidized. Same with henna/buxus. If it stayed green for more than 24 hours, though, I think what happened is one of two things: either your henna didn't work well (wrong conditions, like too alkaline of a mix perhaps? or too short of an application time for adequate henna uptake, which is slower than with indigo or buxus), or you encountered a problem with mineral buildup in your hair. Sometimes the water you shower and shampoo with contains certain minerals that can collect in your hair and react with henna or cassia mixes to produce undesirable, unintended colors, like henna coming out brown, greenish, or even with black streaks. Using a mineral remover (and vinegar, baking soda, or clarifying shampoo is not effective for this problem) like Ion Crystal Clarifying treatment will take care of it. That costs about 3 bucks at Sally Beauty Supply.

To be clear ... it's not the water you used when dyeing your hair, it's the water that you've used over time PRIOR to dyeing your hair. I don't know if you have well water or treated city water, but either way, the mineral content can shift at certain times of the year, or when the municipal water treatment people add something to the supply.

[Neecola]

Using cassia turned my hair green -- in my case definitely due to the minerals. It mostly went away when I used the Ion Crystal treatment caribou mentioned. For some reason, my henna doesn't seem to be affected.