please help! henna/matching natural hair colours

[StickToYourGuns]

Hello everyone I am fairly new to this community although prior to joining I lurked here for a while. I can't remember if this has been posted although im sure it has been somewhere along the way...

I have been growing out my natural colour for 10 months now and I am loving the journey! I believe I have dark blonde hair although its still tricky to tell as I only have a few inches of roots. With a lot of events coming up I thought of using henna to match up my colours but I cant seem to find a dark blonde in any health shops. (maybe its popular?) My question is if there is even a natural dark blonde available in henna and if there is, do you think it will match mine? I am not overly keen on another grow out. open to other suggestions to naturally match up my hair.

Thanks in advance. :) http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/ag110/StickToYourGunss/IMG_6331_zpsrryim0k7.jpg (http://s1301.photobucket.com/user/StickToYourGunss/media/IMG_6331_zpsrryim0k7.jpg.html)

[Rhoward]

Henna is orange/red, your natural hair doesn't seem to have a lot of red in it? You can add indigo to try make it brown but it will still flare red and i think it would go darker than your natural colour anyway - leaving you with roots which you don't want. 10 months is a long time and a lot of growth so please think carefully before doing anything. You could get demi-permanent foils (hairdresser or a beauty supply store and do it yourself, you look somewhere between a level 6 and a 7, id go with a 7 natural to be safe) in your natural colour to help you deal with the grow out and still look pretty.
Good luck

[hennalonghair]

No you might want to either leave it as is or use cassia. It leaves a subtle yellow colour that many blondes and brunettes prefer

[Seeshami]

If you french/dutch braid it you should hide most of it and it will look like sun lightened. I was married with about as much roots and because of my bun and butterflies and ribbons in it you can't tell I had roots

[meteor]

Another vote against henna in this case: it would probably make your bleached ends pretty bright red-orange and your roots more subtle auburn-ish, and it would not remove the demarcation line.
There are a few options I'd suggest looking into:
- getting low-lights (balayage or foils) to break up that demarcation line a bit and lengthen your roots further down;
- using temporary, deposit-only veggie dye like Manic Panic or Pravana (strand-test first!);
- rocking the ombre look (it looks nice!) or using all sorts of headband braiding, French/Dutch braids or other forms of styling to distract attention from the demarcation line.

[Lavendersugar]

Nothing natural can really help here if you want to keep your roots virgin. You can use a semi dye to even it out. Keep in mind true semi colors do not use a developer so, do not use the store box stuff. Those are demi color. Of course you could use a Demi. You might even like the effects of using a Demi color. They can soften lightened hair and add nice shine. My goto was always Ion, it runs a bit dark but a nice line that makes it easy to mix two of the colors if needed.


Henna and indigo will still give you an uneven look unless you apply it to all of your hair. Cassia will not do much to even it out as the deposit is extremely light unless you do lots of applications.

and Welcome to the community! :)

[Anje]

Don't go with henna. Your color is far too cool. I suggest getting a professional colorist to match your length to your roots.

[endlessly]

Unfortunately, I can't seem to think of any natural methods for you to color your hair to match your roots. Henna is meant to turn orange-y red as a few others have suggested, which definitely isn't going to match the root color in your picture. My only other suggestion if you truly want to change the color of your length for this one event is to use a non-permanent or wash-out dye in your matching color. It still contains chemicals, but isn't going to cause nearly the amount of damage regular hair dye would since it doesn't contain ammonia. And, it will wash out within 1-2 shampoos, so that's a plus as well.

Otherwise, like Seeshami recommended, wearing your hair in a french or dutch braid will make it look more sun-kissed and that way, you avoid the mess of having to color it. It's a bit difficult for me to tell just from looking at your picture, but there doesn't seem to be an extreme color variation from your roots to your length, so I think an up-do of some sort would look very pretty if you don't want the added stress of color-treating.

Whatever you decide, best of luck to you!

[Rosetta]

Agree with everyone here - henna isn't really the way to go to match dark blonde roots.


My only other suggestion if you truly want to change the color of your length for this one event is to use a non-permanent or wash-out dye in your matching color. It still contains chemicals, but isn't going to cause nearly the amount of damage regular hair dye would since it doesn't contain ammonia. And, it will wash out within 1-2 shampoos, so that's a plus as well.
Actually, a wash-out dye will cause no damage at all; anything deposit-only, i.e. not containing peroxide won't.

[leilani]

Don't go with henna. Your color is far too cool. I suggest getting a professional colorist to match your length to your roots.



This!!!
I was in your boat exactly a year ago growing out pale blonde with ash brown roots. And I eventually went for color conditioners and felt blah about the results (was even but flat and monochromatic) so went for henna for more "pop" and oh my god I wish I had just gone to a colorist in the beginning and asked them to carefully match my length to my roots and (or balyage low-lights) and then used some purple toner from time to time to fight any brassiness, and then just waited. And trimmed monthly.

Henna is a nightmare. Go for one of those two options from a stylist or just wear it up and forget about the blonde bun/French braid until it's gone.

[Chocowalnut]

Hello! Your hair is very pretty. I am also growing out my natural hair color which seems to be about the same as yours. My advice is, don't use henna at all. You've worked hard on that new growth- don't touch it. If anything maybe you could use a dark blonde dye on the length only to match it. You can find one in Sallys or something. Or enjoy the ombre look, which would look good on you since your length is lighter and your hair is straight. I have henna on my length and have about the same amount of roots as you. Good luck :)

[Chocowalnut]

Oh and you might also like to participate in this thread:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=51155&page=646

All about growing out natural color :)

[Alex Lou]

I'm going to agree with those saying to use a deposit-only dye to avoid damage. I believe that all the lines for gray coverage are deposit-only, right? Shouldn't be too hard to find a match. If it's a more permanent dye, I would get a couple shades lighter than your root color to look natural as it grows, since roots have a tendency to lighten up a little bit as they grow out.

[Islandgrrl]

Henna is not going to be a good choice for you. If it's pure henna, it's always red. If it s not pure henna, in my opinion, it's a crap shoot. Also my opinion...if you want to match your lighter length to your darker roots, see someone who specializes in color correction.

[Rosetta]

Actually, I may have spoken too soon, as there actually are some henna products that could maybe be used to match to dark blonde - like this Khadi "Middle blond" henna colourant: http://www.indien-produkte.de/product_info.php/info/p270_Khadi-Hair-Color-Middleblond.html

Although bleached hair might absorb more than it should and become too red, so it's still a bit of a hit and miss.

[Anje]

Actually, I may have spoken too soon, as there actually are some henna products that could maybe be used to match to dark blonde - like this Khadi "Middle blond" henna colourant: http://www.indien-produkte.de/product_info.php/info/p270_Khadi-Hair-Color-Middleblond.html

Although bleached hair might absorb more than it should and become too red, so it's still a bit of a hit and miss.

Thing is, even if someone has a dye formulated that might match, it is going to vary significantly based on the color hair it's going over. And most of these dyes are fairly warm tones, and few have reliable staying power besides henna (which will be bright orange in a blend on light blond hair like hers), so you can expect them to fade orange over time, and reusing the same dye will build it further toward red......

In short, trying to match hair with natural dyes (other than black, perhaps) is frustrating at best and has the potential to make things worse. It's soooo individual, inexact, and prone to looking different in different lights. Conventional corrective dyeing is just plain a better option in terms of pain and suffering.

Now, if the OP wanted to go brilliant red and just wanted to fade the transition, that's what henna would be great for. :)

[Rosetta]

^ Yeah, I know all that, that's why I said "could maybe be used" ;)
(Anyway, I plan to try that product I linked to at some point, as I'm intrigued whether it'll really give a middle blond result, so maybe I can then report back :))

[Anje]

:D Fair enough. I think I was stating it for some generic reader rather than you specifically. (I'm rather prone to lecturing.)

[Rosetta]

Of course, and I'm sure it's useful info for others, but as you quoted my post, I felt a reply was due ;)