Should I henna or keep growing out my natural colour?

[divinedobbie]

I've been considering henna for many months now, and I've spent hours reading all about it. I'm tempted because although I like my natural colour, I feel like I could do better. Ofcourse I wouldn't mind the health benefits of henna either. I want to be absolutely sure before I commit though because of its permanence and I don't want to be growing out dye any time soon again.

This is my natural colour in a very recent picture, I cropped out the grown out dyed hair which is mostly below shoulders. My hair seems lighter and ashier since I've started growing it out, in all of my pre-dye pictures it seems darker and warmer.
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/570bf704-688f-4097-95fc-e69ce42b8a46_zps3672e98b.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/570bf704-688f-4097-95fc-e69ce42b8a46_zps3672e98b.jpg.html)

This is not a good photo but I think it's the only one I have from when my hair was dyed a very warm red-brown.
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/6e2e9f33-7d77-4a6c-87a5-cce46d8f8a3b_zps548a4305.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/6e2e9f33-7d77-4a6c-87a5-cce46d8f8a3b_zps548a4305.jpg.html)

Anyway, which looks best on me? Honest answers please, don't be afraid to tell me I look terrible in red!

I'd like a dark red-brown that is not overly red. I definitely do not want to go ginger, or traffic-cone orange, burgundy or cola red. Would I be able to achieve this with my starting colour? Something like these:
http://media-cache-cd0.pinimg.com/236x/46/67/55/4667559d6acab11314ff721aa2fa670a.jpg
http://www.voy.dk/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/40088_Kim_Smith_-_T-Mobile_Sidekick_LX_Launch_Partycelebutopia_161007_ 03_123_412lo.jpg

Does this thread belong in the "recipes, henna, herbal haircare" section?

Thank you everyone for putting up with me on LHC :flower: I know I talk a lot about myself but I just haven't found that happy place with my hair yet.

[ErinLeigh]

I love the warm brown. I wonder if a color like lush caca brun would be a good starter henna for you. If you like it you can start playing with henna/Amla/cassia mixes from there.

Both colors look great but the earth is gorgeous.
You are beautiful either way though. I am dealing with exact same wonderment and know its a tough call sometimes.
Good luck. :)

[elsieivy]

You look really nice in both pictures and I think both your natural color and the reddish brown suit you well. The reddish brown looks a bit more "dramatic" though. I think the colors you posted look like realistic possibilities with henna but I'm not sure the exact mix you would want. Don't forget that henna does tend to have at least a bit of an orange glow in certain lights so you might not be able to completely avoid orange if you henna.

[divinedobbie]

You look really nice in both pictures and I think both your natural color and the reddish brown suit you well. The reddish brown looks a bit more "dramatic" though. I think the colors you posted look like realistic possibilities with henna but I'm not sure the exact mix you would want. Don't forget that henna does tend to have at least a bit of an orange glow in certain lights so you might not be able to completely avoid orange if you henna.

I do want that dramatic look. I like standing out, which is why I think I can do better. :)

Here is another picture. This is before I had ever dyed my hair, so probably atleast 4 or 5 years ago. This is what I mean about my hair looking darker and redder before.
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/7ce428b4-9389-402a-ac60-9d61c9c702fa_zps79265250.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/7ce428b4-9389-402a-ac60-9d61c9c702fa_zps79265250.jpg.html)

[JS09]

I personally like both and agree with elsieivy - the reddish is a bit more 'dramatic'. If that's the look you're aiming for, go for it! I think your brown is quite similar to my regular colour (the picture is in yellowish lighting, so my natural colour isn't quite that warm) http://i1365.photobucket.com/albums/r757/JS694/Hair/OriginalColour_zps270a84fb.jpeg (http://s1365.photobucket.com/user/JS694/media/Hair/OriginalColour_zps270a84fb.jpeg.html)
And my turned out lovely! I do get slightly orangey tints in the sun, but it's mostly red
http://i1365.photobucket.com/albums/r757/JS694/Hair/2_zps9c3bd1d1.jpeg (http://s1365.photobucket.com/user/JS694/media/Hair/2_zps9c3bd1d1.jpeg.html)

I'm sure it'll look great on you though! :)

[DKSABS]

I've been wondering the same thing myself. My natural hair color is dark brown, but it's been bleached blonde for ~ 13 years (I can't recall the exact year that I started dying it). I love being a blonde, but hate having the very dark roots begin to show just a few weeks after the last bleach session. And I hate knowing that the bleach is causing damage to my scalp and hair that is already growing more and more thin.

I love both of the colors in the links you posted, and would love to be able to achieve that color with henna. It would be nice to stop bleaching and start enjoying the benefits of henna, but like you, I'm afraid of the possibility of my hair turning carrot orange or cola red, etc. I'll be following this thread to see the feedback you get from others. I think your hair looks really nice in the photo where it was dyed warm red-brown

[JS09]

DKSABS, have you tried a strand test for yours? It'll give you an idea of what it'll look like :)

[DKSABS]

DKSABS, have you tried a strand test for yours? It'll give you an idea of what it'll look like :)

JS09, I haven't tried a strand test yet. I've heard it might work out better for me to try to first get my hairdresser to dye the bleached hair as close as possible to my natural color and then henna from there. I've been blonde for so long now, that most of my coworkers have never seen me with dark hair and many of them who find out I dye my hair are surprised that this isn't my natural color. I'm debating about maybe getting lowlights first, so it wouldn't be an overnight drastic change back to dark hair, and then gradually go all dark.


I love the warm brown. I wonder if a color like lush caca brun would be a good starter henna for you. If you like it you can start playing with henna/Amla/cassia mixes from there.

Both colors look great but the earth is gorgeous.
You are beautiful either way though. I am dealing with exact same wonderment and know its a tough call sometimes.
Good luck. :)

How does it work when someone starts with one henna mix and then tries different mixes from there? Is there a new line of demarcation every time you try a new mix, or does the new mix end up applying one single consistent color throughout all of your hair once you apply the new mix?

divinedobbie, sorry for highjacking with my own questions. I agree that both colors look really good on you. Can't wait to see your "after" pix if you decide to henna.

[divinedobbie]

I've been wondering the same thing myself. My natural hair color is dark brown, but it's been bleached blonde for ~ 13 years (I can't recall the exact year that I started dying it). I love being a blonde, but hate having the very dark roots begin to show just a few weeks after the last bleach session. And I hate knowing that the bleach is causing damage to my scalp and hair that is already growing more and more thin.

I love both of the colors in the links you posted, and would love to be able to achieve that color with henna. It would be nice to stop bleaching and start enjoying the benefits of henna, but like you, I'm afraid of the possibility of my hair turning carrot orange or cola red, etc. I'll be following this thread to see the feedback you get from others. I think your hair looks really nice in the photo where it was dyed warm red-brown

I'd definitely test strand first - ugh just thinking of carrot hair makes me want to run away from henna. I've had brassy orange hair before from a bad bleach job and it made me look like I was terminally ill. I think what would be a good option for us too is henna gloss, that way we get that nice warm tone without the really strong orange glow (hopefully).

[divinedobbie]

I did one of those virtual makeovers,this is the closest I could get to the colour I'd want. Realistically, I probably wouldn't want it to be quite so red.
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/makeover_zps2fd40b3a.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/makeover_zps2fd40b3a.jpg.html)
DKSABS - have you tried one of the makeover tools online to see how you'd look with red hair? No need to apologize for hijacking my thread. It's nice to know there's others with the same dilemma as me :).

[DKSABS]

I had a bad brassy orange experience years ago too, and it was ugly. My Mom tried to put highlights in my hair herself when I was in high school, and she pulled my hair through a cap and kept leaving the bleach on longer and longer because it was supposed to give me blonde highlights but I think it was going through red stages. When all was said and done, my hair that had been "frosted" was silver/white/grey looking, and I was only 16 years old. I remember the other kids singing "Frosty the snowman" when I got on the school bus. We were living in Iceland at the time, without many options. As soon as we got back to the states, a couple of months later, I decided to choose a box of dye that looked closest to my natural color and just go back to natural. The box that had a picture that was identical to my own hair color was Loreal "Light Ash Brown". It turned my hair extremely dark right after I dyed it, but it faded to a really pretty auburn color after a few days. Then, there was an obvious line when that tried to grow out, and I had gotten lots of compliments on the color, so I kept using that same box dye all the way through the last 2 years of high school and through college. The brassy orange happened when I finally decided to grow it out to my natural color again. I don't know if it was harsh shampoos, or chlorine or what caused the brassy orange, but it was such a relief when it was finally gone. The fact that so many people seemed to really like it when it was a pretty auburn color is what's making me consider switching from bleach to henna now.

[DKSABS]

I did one of those virtual makeovers,this is the closest I could get to the colour I'd want. Realistically, I probably wouldn't want it to be quite so red.
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/makeover_zps2fd40b3a.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/makeover_zps2fd40b3a.jpg.html)
DKSABS - have you tried one of the makeover tools online to see how you'd look with red hair? No need to apologize for hijacking my thread. It's nice to know there's others with the same dilemma as me :).

No, I wasn't aware they had virtual makeover tools online. Please share the link! I'd love to try it out. I wonder how often people are actually able to match the actual color to the color seen in the virtual makeover tool.

[hennalonghair]

I personally like the more dramatic reddish tone but that's a bias answer.

[divinedobbie]

No, I wasn't aware they had virtual makeover tools online. Please share the link! I'd love to try it out. I wonder how often people are actually able to match the actual color to the color seen in the virtual makeover tool.

http://www.clairol.com/en-US/virtual-makeover This is the one I use. To get the red hair above, they said I'd need to use 4G golden light brown. Right I hope no one actually picks out their dye based on that, but it's a good tool just to see what you'd look like with different colours.

[DKSABS]

Thanks for the link! I went around the house just now looking for old photos of my natural hair and what it looked like with the Light Ash Brown dye that turned it auburn colored.

This is what my natural color looked like (in 1987, lol):

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff396/DKSABS/Mobile%20Uploads/image-10.jpg (http://s1233.photobucket.com/user/DKSABS/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image-10.jpg.html)

Another shot of my natural hair color (circa 1991):

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff396/DKSABS/Mobile%20Uploads/image-14.jpg (http://s1233.photobucket.com/user/DKSABS/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image-14.jpg.html)

This was when I had used the Light Ash Brown dye in high school:

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff396/DKSABS/Mobile%20Uploads/image-13.jpg (http://s1233.photobucket.com/user/DKSABS/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image-13.jpg.html)

I really don't know what my natural color would look like if it grew out now. Most of it is still as dark as it was in the 1991 and 1987 photos, but I'm seeing some grey hairs in the roots now.

[DKSABS]

I think I'd be happy if there was some way to guarantee that I could get that same auburn color from high school back by using henna.

ETA: I just tried to play around with the hair color tool, but it won't let me choose any brown or red shades because they're all more than 2 shades different from my current hair color. They provide a phone number and say I need to call and talk to a color consultant for help.

[ravenheather]

I really like the red on you. I would go for it.

[umbrellabones]

I love the red!

[momschicklets]

Gotta say I *really* love that red/brown color on you...very pretty!

[florenonite]

Straight-up henna won't give you the look you want. On your starting colour you'll get RED. I wouldn't recommend a henna gloss, either; my natural colour is very similar to yours and henna glossing most certainly did NOT give me a warm, rich reddish-brown. It warmed up my colour a bit, but didn't darken it at all, and there was a definite ginger tinge, especially in sunlight.

[battles]

I thiiink I have a similar natural color and general coloring as you (eyebrows, eyes, possibly skintone?) and henna didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped on me. Let me see if I can edit my face out of some pics and post for you.

Edit: All the pics in my length shots album are after henna but indoors. Couldn't find any others. :(

[Anje]

Honestly? I think you do better with your natural color. It looks fairly cool to me, and while you don't look bad at all in the pics with darker and warmer hair, it also strikes me that you're wearing some makeup to help make your features pop. You could certainly henna, but I think you'll be more tied to wearing makeup if you do so.

[divinedobbie]

I think I'd be happy if there was some way to guarantee that I could get that same auburn color from high school back by using henna.

ETA: I just tried to play around with the hair color tool, but it won't let me choose any brown or red shades because they're all more than 2 shades different from my current hair color. They provide a phone number and say I need to call and talk to a color consultant for help.

Oops I forgot to tell you. That's the one very frustrating feature. If you want to see how dark red would look for example (even if in your picture you have blonde hair), you need to go to the little option on the bottom that says "change your starting colour", click it and change your starting colour to medium or dark brown so that it will let you try on a colour within two shades of that.

[divinedobbie]

Straight-up henna won't give you the look you want. On your starting colour you'll get RED. I wouldn't recommend a henna gloss, either; my natural colour is very similar to yours and henna glossing most certainly did NOT give me a warm, rich reddish-brown. It warmed up my colour a bit, but didn't darken it at all, and there was a definite ginger tinge, especially in sunlight.

Any pics when you did henna? :)


I thiiink I have a similar natural color and general coloring as you (eyebrows, eyes, possibly skintone?) and henna didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped on me. Let me see if I can edit my face out of some pics and post for you.

Edit: All the pics in my length shots album are after henna but indoors. Couldn't find any others. :(

I actually really like the colour you got, especially the last picture. I think I'd be happy if I could get that colour. What was your recipe?

[florenonite]

Any pics when you did henna? :)



Afraid not. This was five years ago; since then I've gotten a new computer, deleted them from my camera's memory card, and this place crashed and lost my pics.

This is the best I've got, from about a year after doing the gloss (ignore the crappy hemline; it was my first self-trim :p):

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz270/frogggyh/Short%20hair/100_2302.jpg

The colour had faded a lot by this point, but you can see that it's more of a strawberry blonde than anything else.

[VanillaTresses]

I'd like a dark red-brown that is not overly red. I definitely do not want to go ginger, or traffic-cone orange, burgundy or cola red.

Because of this, I would tend to say 'no.' Your natural color is beautiful, by the way, and supremely flattering!

[divinedobbie]

Afraid not. This was five years ago; since then I've gotten a new computer, deleted them from my camera's memory card, and this place crashed and lost my pics.

This is the best I've got, from about a year after doing the gloss (ignore the crappy hemline; it was my first self-trim :p):

http://i834.photobucket.com/albums/zz270/frogggyh/Short%20hair/100_2302.jpg

The colour had faded a lot by this point, but you can see that it's more of a strawberry blonde than anything else.

That colour is beautiful! But judging from my past experience with blonde hair, it wouldn't be very flattering to me. I really admire people who can pull that off.


Because of this, I would tend to say 'no.' Your natural color is beautiful, by the way, and supremely flattering!

I might end up just ordering some henna and doing some strand tests, but even then I don't find it very accurate or a good representation of what the whole head would look like. I'm not a risk taker at all. I do so badly want to try it though! I've been growing out my natural hair for over two years and it'd be a waste if I fudged it up and had to restart growing it out. But if I don't try it, I might regret it in the future. Decisions, decisions...Also I can't get over how much lighter and ashier my hair looks now. I always wanted hair this colour and now that I have it, I kind of want my warmer/darker locks from a few years ago. I should be more careful what I wish for ;) Or maybe I'm just not used to my colour yet, it's been two years but I still feel as if I don't really know my natural colour. I haven't seen my full natural colour in over four years so I'm just placing it within the realm of brown.

[divinedobbie]

Honestly? I think you do better with your natural color. It looks fairly cool to me, and while you don't look bad at all in the pics with darker and warmer hair, it also strikes me that you're wearing some makeup to help make your features pop. You could certainly henna, but I think you'll be more tied to wearing makeup if you do so.

You've got me really curious about the "Ditched second comment -- lost track of who posted what pics" :p but here is the "makeover" pic I did, where the only variable changed was hair colour (ie. no makeup, same lighting etc):
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/makeover_zps2fd40b3a.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/makeover_zps2fd40b3a.jpg.html)

[ErinLeigh]

I guess that's why the lush caca brun came to my head. I hear they can fade so it seemed a little less scary and since it should add brown tones I thought if done in a gloss it wouldn't be as dramatically orange. I wish I knew for sure though about these things. I am so eager to see how your test strands come out. I am so ready to jump in myself but am trying to figure out what mix would get me warm without a lot of orange. I am hoping for brown and strawberry.

Seems a lot of us a are getting spring fever and wanting a change. Your hair so beautiful naturally also that even if you left alone you would still be dramatically gorgeous. :)

[mira-chan]

Henna is going to give you orange red not a warm brown as a standard and a cool deep red if you layer it. Also be prepared for the upkeep. Henna takes a longer dye time than commercial color and the mud preparation. I do it occasionally because my hair shade doesn't show much difference between henna and no henna in color (slightly more auburn tint added.) Your hair has a bigger color different so if you don't want to grow out, you'd have to take into account the root dying time. Also henna usually does not fade, and can't be removed easily. So you have to be real sure if you want to do it.

Since you just grew out your previous dye, I'd say hold off. You can always henna later but you can't undo henna. Wait until you're sure.

[divinedobbie]

I guess that's why the lush caca brun came to my head. I hear they can fade so it seemed a little less scary and since it should add brown tones I thought if done in a gloss it wouldn't be as dramatically orange. I wish I knew for sure though about these things. I am so eager to see how your test strands come out. I am so ready to jump in myself but am trying to figure out what mix would get me warm without a lot of orange. I am hoping for brown and strawberry.

Seems a lot of us a are getting spring fever and wanting a change. Your hair so beautiful naturally also that even if you left alone you would still be dramatically gorgeous. :)

Lush caca brun sounds really good but I'm going to go research it and see if I can find some photos of people who have used it. It would be really convenient because they ship from Vancouver so it would take like 2 days for it to get to me. Plus I'm moving to Calgary, and they have a store there! That would be perfect. They even accept paypal!! (which is the first thing I always check before I get excited over something). I want to atleast do test strands with it and see how it goes, even if I don't end up doing my hair, at least I'll know what could've been so no regrets (I hope).

I am also following your thread to see how your colour goes. Hope it works out well :cheer: I am definitely feeling spring fever, I'm even rebuilding my wardrobe too.

[eva888]

I guess that's why the lush caca brun came to my head. I hear they can fade so it seemed a little less scary and since it should add brown tones I thought if done in a gloss it wouldn't be as dramatically orange. I wish I knew for sure though about these things. I am so eager to see how your test strands come out. I am so ready to jump in myself but am trying to figure out what mix would get me warm without a lot of orange. I am hoping for brown and strawberry.

Seems a lot of us a are getting spring fever and wanting a change. Your hair so beautiful naturally also that even if you left alone you would still be dramatically gorgeous. :)


I second the Lush Caca Brun. I used it as my first henna and it is very subtle and not too gingery. If you use pure henna alone your hair will warm up too much and you will not get the color you're going for. You might be interested in some pre-mixed hennas - I know that hennahut.com has some that can get you a deeper red.

Personally, I love your natural color, and it's so nice that you've grown it so long! I know how you feel though. I am also always trying to change my hair and spice things up. Whatever you choose you'll look great! :) Good luck!

[stachelbeere]

hey divinedobbie, personally, I prefer your natural ash brown - but mainly because I am growing out the colour you might want to achieve (let's swap!).

anyway, since we have a fairly similar virgin hair colour you could have a look at what your hair might look like if you hennaed it. so check out a few photo albums I uploaded:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=11664
http://s1299.photobucket.com/user/stachelbeere/library/ash%20brown%20roots%20and%20henna

keep in mind that the bottom 1/3 was dyed really dark brown once, then 'ruby' red. Only the upper part is henna only and the rest is virgin. I always did full henna applications, kept the henna on for very long but the closer to the virgin hair, the less henna layers there are.

if I were you, I'd experiment with red manic panic just so you see how you feel not having your natural hair colour.
But I do think you look nice with auburn hair :)

[arihS]

I think both colors look fine on you, surely henna would look good. However I do like your natural color more, maby even much more. It fits you very well, looks natural, and it makes your eyes come out more too. I do understand your doubts though, I think I´d also wait until I´d know it for sure. But I can also imagine that you´d be happy both ways, so in that case, it wouldn´t matter what you decide:p

[divinedobbie]

My biggest worry is that my starting colour is not dark enough to achieve that dark red-brown I want. I fear it'll just turn orange-y instead :(. Here is a good representation of my natural colour:
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/87da1321-f655-4928-b3dc-a93eb72c2a83_zps1a0a012b.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/87da1321-f655-4928-b3dc-a93eb72c2a83_zps1a0a012b.jpg.html)
Anyone have a good guess whether I'll be able to get the colour I want using henna or a gloss on my virgin hair?

[divinedobbie]

hey divinedobbie, personally, I prefer your natural ash brown - but mainly because I am growing out the colour you might want to achieve (let's swap!).

anyway, since we have a fairly similar virgin hair colour you could have a look at what your hair might look like if you hennaed it. so check out a few photo albums I uploaded:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=11664
http://s1299.photobucket.com/user/stachelbeere/library/ash%20brown%20roots%20and%20henna

keep in mind that the bottom 1/3 was dyed really dark brown once, then 'ruby' red. Only the upper part is henna only and the rest is virgin. I always did full henna applications, kept the henna on for very long but the closer to the virgin hair, the less henna layers there are.

if I were you, I'd experiment with red manic panic just so you see how you feel not having your natural hair colour.
But I do think you look nice with auburn hair :)

I did use manic panic once but it gave me a colour I wasn't fond of, too much on the fake side of a cherry cotton candy kind of colour -- if that makes any sense :p thanks for links to the photos, a picture is worth a thousand words, so helpful!

[eva888]

Ahhhh I posted the wrong thing!! I meant Lush Caca Marron! That's what I used, and I think that's what will get you closer to the color you are looking for. Lush caca brun is mostly indigo and much darker.

[Bagginslover]

Take a look in my albums. My avatar is my natural colour, I've been using Jamila henna for around 2 years now. I don't think my hair is far off yours (naturally) and the result looks similar to your goal :) (ignore any bright orange streaks-I purposely bleach bits for those, just look at the darker colour ;) )

[~Abi~]

My natural color is very similar to yours. Here's a couple pictures of the color I got with henna. this is after two applications of henna mixture: 50% ground coffee, 30% Jamila henna, and ~20% indigo.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10937&d=1400164828

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10936&d=1400164824

[DKSABS]

My natural color is very similar to yours. Here's a couple pictures of the color I got with henna. this is after two applications of henna mixture: 50% ground coffee, 30% Jamila henna, and ~20% indigo.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10937&d=1400164828


Pretty hair color! The beach in your first photo looks a lot like the beaches where I live (Fort Walton Beach in the Florida Panhandle).

[ErinLeigh]

I'd definitely test strand first - ugh just thinking of carrot hair makes me want to run away from henna. I've had brassy orange hair before from a bad bleach job and it made me look like I was terminally ill. I think what would be a good option for us too is henna gloss, that way we get that nice warm tone without the really strong orange glow (hopefully).


Honestly though the more I think about it, your natural color suits you just as well as the dramatic colors do. It's a great color and has just a hint of lightness that is perfect for summer. You could always wait until fall to decide to give you time to really see how you feel. I need to get to bottom of thread to see where you are in the decisions. :) You are so very beautiful its hard to see any option not being great.

[~Abi~]

Pretty hair color! The beach in your first photo looks a lot like the beaches where I live (Fort Walton Beach in the Florida Panhandle).

Thank you! And we were on vacation at Hatteras Island, Outer Banks, NC. We like it a lot down there, it's quite beautiful; I'm sure where you live is too!

[cat11]

your hair looks really nice with the deeper reddish shades, in my opinion. it compliments your eyes too!

[divinedobbie]

Honestly though the more I think about it, your natural color suits you just as well as the dramatic colors do. It's a great color and has just a hint of lightness that is perfect for summer. You could always wait until fall to decide to give you time to really see how you feel. I need to get to bottom of thread to see where you are in the decisions. :) You are so very beautiful its hard to see any option not being great.

Thank you :) :flower: I've decided to stay with my natural colour for now. I've ordered some cassia and I'm going to try that for a while to see how I keep up with it, and how much work it would be. The main reasons I've decided to hold off on henna right now is
a) about half my hair has been bleached, dyed, and bleached again and it's very porous. Henna would probably make me orange on the hair nape-below and I don't particularly fancy that.
b) This will make me sound really dim-witted but I have always done full-head dye applications and never did just the roots. I knew henna darkens with repeated applications, so I realized that I'd have to do just the roots. But for some reason, I didn't realize at all that I'd have to do roots everywhere. Somehow I figured that doing the roots meant just dyeing the hair part. And suddenly it dawned on me that hair grows everywhere and that just complicated things a lot. (Laugh if you want :p) I guess that's why I'm trying cassia first to see how it goes.
c) I borrowed some extensions in a dark red-brown colour and I draped them over my face, and in my opinion it did not look that great. I have no idea why because when I actually dyed my hair that colour way back, I loved it. And when I look at all the picture when I had red-brown hair, I looked good.

[divinedobbie]

My natural color is very similar to yours. Here's a couple pictures of the color I got with henna. this is after two applications of henna mixture: 50% ground coffee, 30% Jamila henna, and ~20% indigo.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=10937&d=1400164828

When I first saw that picture, I was on my phone with a little screen. I thought that the sand was snow and I was like "gosh that baby must be so cold wearing only that!!" hahah. The sand looks so white and lovely though :)

[divinedobbie]

Okay so I might have totally changed my mind about point c). My friend (she's a hairdresser) let me take home a bunch of extensions to try on at home and show my family for opinions and I got to try them in natural light this time (instead of her bathroom) and I'm actually in love with red hair! Darn it. I took some pictures, don't mind all the clips holding the extensions onto my head.

Natural hair (makeup):
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/abccf4bc-089d-44f1-a212-9bb98570eedb_zpsb315c140.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/abccf4bc-089d-44f1-a212-9bb98570eedb_zpsb315c140.jpg.html)
Red hair (makeup):
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/8b69b11c-359a-4ece-9b1c-41fc974147b2_zps1283b21f.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/8b69b11c-359a-4ece-9b1c-41fc974147b2_zps1283b21f.jpg.html)

And because someone mentioned that I might feel that I can pull off the more dramatic red look when I'm wearing makeup, I also took no makeup photos for comparison.

Natural hair (NO makeup):
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/fe92f01b-8ee6-46c8-9189-c0665b514ce1_zps769dc447.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/fe92f01b-8ee6-46c8-9189-c0665b514ce1_zps769dc447.jpg.html)

Red hair (NO makeup):
http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab33/divinedobbie/6af51d29-f9e9-4cbc-a839-795d6b6fb537_zpscfe0da93.jpg (http://s847.photobucket.com/user/divinedobbie/media/6af51d29-f9e9-4cbc-a839-795d6b6fb537_zpscfe0da93.jpg.html)

[ErinLeigh]

gah I am as bad as you at making decisions. I love the red. lol

[DKSABS]

Wow! When I looked at the first two photos (with makeup), the hair color actually looks the same to me, natural and with extensions. When I look at the photos with no makeup, I can see the difference in the hair colors, and I really like the red the best. So beautiful either way!

[DKSABS]

When I first saw that picture, I was on my phone with a little screen. I thought that the sand was snow and I was like "gosh that baby must be so cold wearing only that!!" hahah. The sand looks so white and lovely though :)

The sand is pure white here too, and looks just like snow. We took a picture of my first baby crawling on the beach in a bathing suit and people used to look at the picture and think we had our baby crawling in the snow half dressed.

[divinedobbie]

gah I am as bad as you at making decisions. I love the red. lol

Nice to know I'm not the only one :p To some people it seems so insignificant and they change colours or styles on a whim but it's always a painful and lengthy decision for me.


Wow! When I looked at the first two photos (with makeup), the hair color actually looks the same to me, natural and with extensions. When I look at the photos with no makeup, I can see the difference in the hair colors, and I really like the red the best. So beautiful either way!

Thank you! I'm one of those people who will keep thinking about something over and over until I do something about it. Like when for literally 8 months I kept wondering whether I should cut my hair or not. I finally did, and thank goodness I have peace and quiet in my mind now...until I started thinking about henna and now it's going to be all I think about until I take the plunge and henna. I definitely do like the red a lot. My worries right now are going orange over my bleached hair, maintenance of doing roots, and increased shedding because of rinsing henna out. I'll get to test the latter two when I get my cassia and try that for a month or two. If that works out, I'll probably move on to henna. So impatient now :lol:

[maborosi]

They both look really good on you- the red looks really nice with your skintone- it's perfect. If red is what you want, go for it!

Henna is not really good if you want to avoid the orangey color- so strand test first. I don't know what kind of color you'd get from your starting color. I almost wonder if a gloss might be the way to go for you.

~maborosi~

[DKSABS]

Nice to know I'm not the only one :p To some people it seems so insignificant and they change colours or styles on a whim but it's always a painful and lengthy decision for me.



Thank you! I'm one of those people who will keep thinking about something over and over until I do something about it. Like when for literally 8 months I kept wondering whether I should cut my hair or not. I finally did, and thank goodness I have peace and quiet in my mind now...until I started thinking about henna and now it's going to be all I think about until I take the plunge and henna. I definitely do like the red a lot. My worries right now are going orange over my bleached hair, maintenance of doing roots, and increased shedding because of rinsing henna out. I'll get to test the latter two when I get my cassia and try that for a month or two. If that works out, I'll probably move on to henna. So impatient now :lol:

I'm the same way. I keep waffling back and forth on whether to continue bleaching my hair blonde, or to get lowlights instead when I'm due for the next root touch up, or to ask my hairdresser to try to use a chemical dye to get my hair as close to my natural dark brown as possible and then start using henna or a henna/indigo blend after the dye back to dark brown, or to just try to use a henna/indigo blend right away to try to get back to my natural color. All but the first one would be a change, and all but the first one would be more healthy for my scalp and hair than just continuing to bleach. I'm talking myself into a change, but just have to figure out which change to go with when it's time to bleach the roots again in a week and a half. I wish we could have a guarantee that our hair would turn out looking beautiful and healthy and the perfect color if we just went ahead and did the henna.

I've done 2 Cassia applications so far and liked the results. That's what is really making me want to go with henna because the effects are more long lasting with henna. I'm not sure what you mean about being able to test the latter two when you try Cassia. There shouldn't be any maintenance of roots with Cassia at all. It doesn't change your hair color unless your hair is white/grey/silver or extremely light blonde, and the effects wash out in less than a month even if there is a color change. As far as the issue related to rinsing it out, I used the mermaid soak method in the bathtub and then used large quantities of cheap conditioner and it was pretty easy to wash out without too much excess manipulation. I can see where it could be difficult if you tried to just rinse it out in the shower from the dreadlock state, but it does come out pretty easy if you soak in the tub first and then use gobs and gobs of conditioner.

[divinedobbie]

maborosi I have been thinking of a gloss too. I've also been pondering cutting the henna with indigo but I'm not sure of the ratios and I've never heard of a hendigo gloss.

DKSABS Even though cassia won't give me any colour and require root touch-ups, I'd like to "pretend" the cassia is actually henna and try doing the roots to see how hard it would be and see if I'd have the motivation of keeping up with it monthly. I've been wondering - wouldn't a mermaid soak colour your bath tub from the henna? P.S. I vote for chemically dyeing your bleached hair back to your natural colour, and then henna-ing from there on. I think trying to hendigo over bleached hair would be pretty risky in case something went wrong.

[DKSABS]

Yeah, I agree now that trying to apply henna/indigo directly to the bleached blonde hair would probably be a big mistake. I'm leaning towards getting lowlights instead of bleaching again when I'm due for a root touch up in ~ 1.5 weeks. Will probably get a small amount of lowlights this time, and then add more lowlights at my next appt around 6 weeks later. After that, I'll either take the plunge and go all the way back to dark brown all over or decided to continue with the highlight/lowlight process. I read an article that said you should get highlights after every 3d or so set of lowlights, and doing that will keep you from having an obvious line of demarcation since your hair ends up being a mixture of light and dark. This would be more healthy than what I'm currently doing since we wouldn't be coating my entire scalp with bleach every 5 weeks like I've been doing for the past decade.


maborosi I have been thinking of a gloss too. I've also been pondering cutting the henna with indigo but I'm not sure of the ratios and I've never heard of a hendigo gloss.


I was just reading Nightshade's article on Herbal Hair care and found these recipes and instructions for how to do glosses and how to make Hendigo at the following link:

http://archive.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=51646.

I'm assuming a Hendigo Gloss would be a combination of these two.


"Glosses- A gloss is similar to a color enhancing SMT, with the focus on color more than conditioning. To make a gloss take 2-3 TB of your desired herb (powdered seems to work best) and add them to a cup of cone-free conditioner, or plain, unsweetened yogurt. Mix the into a smooth paste and let this stand until you see dye release (or a day or so if you don't). Putting it someplace warm to sit (like on top of your computer tower) will aid in dye release. Note: this works better with conditioner as yogurt tends to go really sour. Apply to dry or damp hair, wrap in plastic wrap, and leave on for as long as you wish. Rinse using only conditioner. As with other methods this may require several times to build up to the desired color."

Henndigo- A mix of henna and indigo. Gives a deep brown with a touch of burgundy. Works best on brunette shades. . For information dealing specifically with henna, please see the article Expressions with Henna- Coloring Hair Naturally. Please see the chart at the end of this document for what color this may give on your natural hair color.
40% Body art quality henna
60% Pure indigo powder
3TB Amla powder
Apple cider vinegar
Mix the henna up, using a splash of ACV and then warm water (or coffee or black tea) until it is the consistency of pancake batter. Allow for dye release (the top layer of the henna will turn dark). In a separate bowl prepare the indigo by mixing the powder with warm water and allow it to sit for 5 minutes as you prepare the amla. In a small dish mix the amla with water and microwave for 25 seconds. Mix the henna paste, indigo paste and amla paste together, blend well. Wrap your hair up on top of your head in saran wrap; let sit for 3-4 hours. Rinse well and condition.


I don't know yet if Henna or Henndigo would stain the bathtub or not. I'm hoping it wouldn't stain badly if it was cleaned up as soon as you're finished rinsing. Some people also report dipping their head in a bucket or their stainless steel kitchen sink instead of their bathtub to soak the Henna off.

[divinedobbie]

Take a look in my albums. My avatar is my natural colour, I've been using Jamila henna for around 2 years now. I don't think my hair is far off yours (naturally) and the result looks similar to your goal :) (ignore any bright orange streaks-I purposely bleach bits for those, just look at the darker colour ;) )

Just went through the thread again and went back to your post because I love your siggy so much, what a beautiful colour, length, and texture! I also realized that you have more than two albums, I only saw the cosplay and ficcare one and I didn't realize that there was a "more" option. :doh: The colour you have in all of your "Length shots" album is absolutely heaven. If I could only get that colour I would be happy! Your ficcare album totally threw me off though, because in the pictures it looks like your hair has those orange streaks(which upon your instructions I ignored :)) but then the hair in the bun looks cola red and the hair on your canopy (aka out of the bun) looks brown so..is all of it hennaed and theres that much colour variation?

[divinedobbie]

DKSABS - your idea sounds like a really good one, doing lowlights with a rotation of highlights definitely makes sense. Good luck to you, I will be following your journey in the other post to see how everything goes :).

Thank you for the article too, it was a really good read. I've decided that a gloss wouldn't be a good idea because I learned that cutting henna with conditioner will produce the same effects as a lower lawsone content henna which would be orange/copper. If there's one thing I'd hate more than anything it's going orange, I'd rather my hair goes purple...or black..or anything but orange :couch:

I've ordered some henna and I'm trying to collect shed hairs but I never lose any hairs in my comb (ever since I switched to a bone comb, absolutely no shed hairs in it) so I'm trying to pick them off my pillows and coats. At this rate it'll be another year before I have enough to do any test strands so I'll probably end up testing some tiny sections of hair on my nape. And just dye the very tips of my hair to see how henna would do on my bleached ends so if it goes terrible wrong, I'd just have to cut an inch off or so (better than ruining all my hair I say).

[DKSABS]

Ha ha. I just told my husband tonight that if he sees any of my hairs laying around not to throw them away because I'm collecting them. He said "They're EVERYWHERE", then he asked why and I simply said "for experiments". He said "you'll have to give me more to go on than that..... Now that you've brought it up, tell me the rest." I told him that I'm eventually going to try Henna and maybe some Indigo, and explained all the benefits to using plant based materials instead of chemical bleach all over my scalp. Then I said that if a mix would give me hair that looks like the comedian "Carrot Top", it's far better to find that color in shed hairs than on my own head. He just laughed and teased me and said he can't wait to see all the wild colors my hair will turn and he will be taking pix and might actually upload them to Facebook (and he never uploads pix or anything else to Facebook. The ONLY reason he got a facebook account was so he could see pix of our grandbaby.). Having my hair turn bright orange is one of my worst henna fears too.

[florenonite]

That colour is beautiful! But judging from my past experience with blonde hair, it wouldn't be very flattering to me. I really admire people who can pull that off.



I, uh, couldn't pull it off :lol: It's why I only did the one gloss.

I should clarify that the lighter ends were blonde prior to the gloss (yay, sun-bleaching); it's not like the henna lightened it. The mid-lengths were my natural blonette roots at the time of the gloss, and they were definitely more coppery in the sunlight.