Need help with hair tinting

[et--cetera]

Hello ladies,
As you can see in my avatar picture, my hair is dyed a very, very light blonde. About two months ago I tried to match my roots (a natural ash blonde) with a chemical dye and it did absolutely nothing but tint the platinum a bit more towards the ashe spectrum. Now, I have roots again and really want to match them so that I can then just focus on hair health and try to grow long, virgin hair that doesn't have a horrible grow out line.

Here is where I need help.

Is it possible to color or "tint" my hair using a cassia type treatment or coffee/tea?

[et--cetera]

Posting to push this up because if I can I'd like to do something today.

[Warda]

I think you can do something like that. Where I am from, people use chammomile to lighten their hair. I dont know how big the effects will be. I think it varries and you cant really know before you try. I have brown hair and it gives me some good highlights. However it is certainly not a treatmet. It might actually be a bit drying but I dont think its damaging. A deep conditioner will fix it. I dont knoe if thag really helps. But I think that might be used all over the mediterranean so maybe somrone else will help with that.

[Vanilla]

Cassia is going to make your hair more golden, not less. I would seek a professional colorist to try to match your length to your roots as best as they can.

I lived with a harsh grow out line on my blonde hair for 2 years, as my colorist couldn't bring my previously red hair back to a neutral blonde.

[massivecnqstdr]

I just went from your color to my natural dark blonde. You have to "fill" the hair first. You use a orange or gold tinted protein filler OR a orange/coppery demi-permanent color first, then layer the dark ash blonde color with a permanent. Its kind of difficult to do at home. If you don't want to risk grayish or uneven color, I would go to a professional. Of course, its really damaging. If I shampoo my hair, it feels like a brillo pad right now! I don't think cassia will give you enough color to do anything, but you may have luck using a light brown plant dye formula like Rainbow Research and just dilute it in conditioner or cassia. Do keep in mind that anything with henna will always lean at least a little bit warm, though, so it won't perfectly match your regrowth. Also, with plant dyes, be ready to eliminate blonde as an option. They are almost impossible to get back to pale blonde later. I thought that was a good thing for me, though, as anything that discourages me from going bleach crazy is good!

[Springlets]

^ when I was growing out my natural color, I tried many a time to use what I thought was cassia or "neutral" henna, but it always made my hair reddish brown, no matter how little I left it on, and it always took weeks to get out. I don't recommend using plant-based items at all on previously bleached hair, unless you want to go a for a red or brown shade. I did occasionally use Herbal Instincts and other non-permanent dyes to match my roots to at least get an idea for how it would look when it was grown out more. They can be pretty cheap, and if you're careful, they can last quite awhile. You probably want to go for a level 7 or 8 champagne/beige blonde. Depending on how brassy or golden your hair currently is, the dye will react to it. If your hair is really brassy (bordering on orange/red) then ash might be a good choice. If it's still fairly normal, then beige, or even neutral will be fine.

[et--cetera]

Just thought I would give everyone news on what happened.

I went to Wholefoods to buy the henna I've used before and had good luck with only to find they no longer sold it. Bought a chocolate color and figured I'd do a strand test as well as a neutral for conditioning. Well, it's a good thing I did a strand test because the strand went pretty purple. Figured I'd just leave it and cilp it out if it didn't oxidize differently or fade. I put in the neutral "henna" and while that usually really helps my hair, it doesn't seem like it did much of anything this time. Also, the henna strand that went purple, completely washed out!

I think my hair is so damaged that I can do nothing to it :(
I really just want to get it somewhat touchable again but really I'm considering shaving all of it off.

[massivecnqstdr]

I would go to a stylist and have them color correct it, then cut off whatever didn't survive. I think sometimes its easiest to start over. I'm sorry! :blossom:

[curlytwirlykate]

Alternately, you could grow the roots out a few inches or so, and get highlights foiled into them. That way, the demarcation line will be less of an issue in the future, and you can retain your length. But the first six months are sooooo hard! (It's where I'm at, now!).

[et--cetera]

I would go to a stylist and have them color correct it, then cut off whatever didn't survive. I think sometimes its easiest to start over. I'm sorry! :blossom:

But since I've done the henna on it (the neutral) wouldn't it still react badly with the metals in chemical dye?

[massivecnqstdr]

It shouldn't, no. Your color may be slightly less predictable, but unless you used plant dyes that were not pure, they should be fine together. I have chemically dyed over henna, cassia, and buxus years ago and had no trouble other than the color always being warm toned. If you are worried, certainly do a strand test.

[aanka]

You can make coffee rinse after washing. It takes time to darken the hair, though. The recipe I know is to make coffee from two heaped tbsp of coffee and 500 ml of water, left for a couple of minutes on your hair and rinse with water. You can also add a teabag of black tea, but I've heard it can be drying.

[Firefox7275]

Your hair is likely overly porous, the protein that henna bonds to is partially gone, it's likely some parts are more porous than others. Invest some time doing hydrolysed protein treatments and coconut oil soaks on dry hair. Other beneficial ingredients for colour damaged hair include ceramides, 18-MEA and panthenol. I wouldn't get any more permanent colouring done, that could completely fry your hair and have it turn to stretchy noodles or break off.