Question for curlies, those who color and those who use henna...

[rock007junkie]

Hello lovely people!

I cut my hair about a month ago. Now it's curly. While transitioning to natural hair I used to henna every 6 months to cover the greys. While henna did a great job covering the greys I'm deadly afraid of its straightening effect on my hair since I am looking to keep my curls.

-For those of you who use traditional hair color and are curlies...do you experience this straightening effect from traditional hair color?
-How do you compare the effects of henna vs traditional color on your hair? The good and the bad?
-Things I could do to minimize the damage?

It if makes any difference I'm not trying to lighten my hair color (as you can see from my avatar is pretty dark with some reddish highlights from henna)

I would appreciate any and all advice. I haven't covered my greys in about 6 months and it's pretty noticeable.

[MissAlida]

I have 2c/3a hair, so it's wavy/curly. I do full head henna applications every 3 months. Henna does relax my curls a bit, but this relaxing effect lasts only 2-4 weeks for me. Then my curls become as tight as ever. I've never used any other dye, so no advice on that topic. Henna is great. I wouldn't worry if I were you. 3b hair is pretty curly, even is henna relaxes it a bit.

[bunzfan]

When I used to leave it on 6+ hours it relaxed my waves a fair bit but now it doesn't really as I leave it on typically only 3 hours, your mix can make a big difference too amla is fantastic for bringing back waves and curls.

[velorutionista]

I notice a bit of curl slackening right after I henna, but in about a week or two everything is back to normal (and I'm not super curly--more wavy than curly I'd say). I only leave the henna on for a couple hours, so that may have something to do with it, too.

[Firefox7275]

I am a 2a to 2c wavy. AFAIK I only lost curl when I fried the ends of my hair with repeat box dying. To minimise damage pre-treat with coconut oil and/ or hydrolysed protein (ideally wheat as per the published research but I suspect any would do).

[CurlyCap]

Thread I started with the same question:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=83073