I found my dream hair!! (Image heavy!)

[TambourineDream]

The length, the shine, the COLOUR (mainly the colour!!), this hair, belonging to Latvian model Helena Magone, is the most beautiful beast I have ever seen:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/tigerzi/resources/models/women/helena7dm5.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/tigerzi/resources/models/women/helenapola1gf8.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/tigerzi/resources/models/women/AmuletiJmocF7009.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/tigerzi/resources/models/women/helenacaps4uj1.png

There are loads more at the Fashion Spot (http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f52/helena-magone-48642.html) if anyone's interested!

Isn't it glorious?! I WANT IT SO BAD!

I've pretty much accepted that my hair just isn't the right type for the fine straightness, but maybe I can have more luck with colour?? I've seen quite a few ladies round these boards with hair that is actually similarly coloured, and probably in better condition too! The problem is, ideally I'd like to stay away from harsh chemical hair-frying dyes. I know people have achieved really beautiful, vibrant results with henna, but the other problem is that I have quite dark hair and I doubt henna alone will do much to brighten it up.
Here is a (really old and awful) picture of my virgin hair to give you an idea of colour, and my latest henna (bearing in mind there are vestiges of box-dye red as well as bleach on the ends):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/tigerzi/n284202799_212664_6094.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v67/tigerzi/Photo242.jpg
um.. please excuse the faces, heh. I had a bit too much fun with photobucket's editing stuff!

So would honey lightening affect the lightness of my hair enough to produce a 'deeper', more vibrant shade of red when henna-ed? Or is it a lost cause? :( Tell me your secrets red-heads; how do you achieve/maintain your fiery locks?

[lora410]

The color is the same as Nightshades henna mixture.

[Merkaba]

She's very pretty, her hair is gorgeous...very thin tho, both in hair and body lol

[TambourineDream]

I LOVE Nightshade's colour. I kinda assumed her hair was quite light to begin with (Nightshade?) but I guess it's worth trying the henna recipe to see if it can produce something even slightly as pretty on mine :)

I usually just use Lush pre-mixed henna, which I guess is the ready-meal version of the hair treatment world, lol... is BAQ henna a lot more vivid?

[TambourineDream]

Merkaba, I thought the same, her hair looks kinda straggly in the last pictures. Maybe it's because she's soo thin :/

[Hypnotica]

That is pretty much my hair but mine is probably a bit thicker and is shorter. And more of a blood red.

[Nightshade]

The color is the same as Nightshades henna mixture.


I LOVE Nightshade's colour. I kinda assumed her hair was quite light to begin with (Nightshade?) but I guess it's worth trying the henna recipe to see if it can produce something even slightly as pretty on mine :)

I usually just use Lush pre-mixed henna, which I guess is the ready-meal version of the hair treatment world, lol... is BAQ henna a lot more vivid?

I'm flattered to be compared to such a pretty lady :)

TambourineDream- BAQ henna IS a lot more vibrant than Lush or other premixed, however, the higher lawsone (dye molecule) content in BAQ means that it can get darker easier as well.

I have medium brown hair and I get a lighter coppery color with 35% BAQ henna, 65% cassia mixed with hot chamomile tea, left to dye release for 4 hours and then left on my head for 2-3 hours.

I made that switch from 100% henna as the henna (even with turmeric and other herbs in it) was far too dark. To illustrate (pardon the glow sticks, pics pop)

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?pictureid=17952&albumid=1288&dl=1220384171&thumb=1 (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=1288&pictureid=17952)

Here you can see the hair against my head is more coppery natural red, as opposed to the bun. The bun is the straight henna, the scalp hair is the henna/cassia blend.

And another shot of what happens to it in direct sunlight, you can see the color change here as well.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?pictureid=20634&albumid=1695&dl=1220991654&thumb=1 (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=1695&pictureid=20634)

I don't know if that helps you or not with your choice of henna or not :)

Oh! ETA: If you want to try to lighten your hair with honey, please do that BEFORE you henna. Henna makes changing the color of your hair much, much tougher.

[ilovelonghair]

I love Helena Magone's hair color, I wonder if that's her real hair color. I'm trying to get a really nice color with henna and cassia, but I'm very careful so I just do only short applications (of an hour), with half henna half cassia. I still haven't reached the color I want and still my hair looks brown instead of red in artificial light (maybe that is normal?), but in the sun it looks kind of ginger.

[Nightshade]

I love Helena Magone's hair color, I wonder if that's her real hair color. I'm trying to get a really nice color with henna and cassia, but I'm very careful so I just do only short applications (of an hour), with half henna half cassia. I still haven't reached the color I want and still my hair looks brown instead of red in artificial light (maybe that is normal?), but in the sun it looks kind of ginger.

The "Brown in artificial light" is very normal as fluorescent lights are actually green. As green and red are opposites in the light spectrum, the green light dulls down reds, and makes them look more brown :)

Henna, being more variable in different types of light than red dye, just exhibits this to a far greater extent than other types of red hair.

[sexyjacksparrow]

She does have pretty hair! I keep toying with hennaing as well, but I also like having brown hair.

[burns_erin]

If your hair is anything like mine, when the box dye leaches out more, your hair will brighten up abit as many box dyes strip color and then deposit color. I think your henna color is quite nice from what I can see. maybe focus on things to give your hair shine as that can brighten hair up considerably.

[Islandgrrl]

She does have gorgeous hair, doesn't she? I'd be willing to bet she's a natural redhead.

[kwaniesiam]

The "Brown in artificial light" is very normal as fluorescent lights are actually green. As green and red are opposites in the light spectrum, the green light dulls down reds, and makes them look more brown :)

Henna, being more variable in different types of light than red dye, just exhibits this to a far greater extent than other types of red hair.

Nothing really to add, I just wanted to thank you for FINALLY explaining why the heck my hair looks brown inside. It's these darn fluorescent lights, they're all we have in our dorm :rolleyes: I kept wondering why it looked like my henna had faded and turned brown...

[Nightshade]

Nothing really to add, I just wanted to thank you for FINALLY explaining why the heck my hair looks brown inside. It's these darn fluorescent lights, they're all we have in our dorm :rolleyes: I kept wondering why it looked like my henna had faded and turned brown...

:lol: Anytime. It's what I tell myself when I'm bemoaning how dark my hair looks, it's almost ALWAYS indoors, in crappy fluorescent lighting.

[theanti]

Oh man, that is so gorgeous, I would love to be able to pull off red hair!!

[ilovelonghair]

Thanks for explaining. My hair can look extremely dark in artificial light. As a dancer I actually find that really annoying, I like the nice red color, but because I mostly perform indoors, the color doesn't show. I remember when I dyed my hair red with chemical hair dye it looked red under artificial light, but even if I wanted to use chemical hair dye, nowaways you can't buy any natural looking red tones anymore in chemical dye, it's all those fake reds.