Can henna be the solution to my problem!? Opinions please!!

[Aireling]

Hello everyone!

I hope that you are all having a good hair day! I have been reading the threads on here for about a week, after i discovered this forum by accident whilst researching how to treat my peculiar and delicate hair. Finally i have joined, so hopefully i will find some good advice on here and can start treating my hair naturally and get away from all that chemical junk.

I'll explain briefly, i have always chopped and changed my hair, during university i changed colour and styles frequently and it was becoming a little damaged. Though i have always had very healthy and thick wavy hair to play with. After uni i started working abroad, first in Finland in -0 temperatures, as low as -50°C, and then Italy for the summer. The temperature change seemed to be a bit of a shock to my hair, and it really started thinning a lot. In the same time i had decided to grow out my natural colour, also to see what it was as i'd not seen it in a few years, and to try and have long hair again.

I met my Italian boyfriend and he persuaded me to stay, so i settled in Italy. The climate change seems to has thinned my hair dramatically, also maybe the stress of changing country, language, habits etc. Earlier this year i suffered a bout of alopecia and lost clumps of hair from the nape of my neck. it got so bad that i only had hair on the top of my head, though leaving my hair down you didn't notice much, it just looked like i had very thin and wispy hair. Fortunately it seems to be re-growing and i now have lots of tufts of baby hair as well as my longer hair that had remained. (I refused to cut it all off to let it all grow out together, i couldn't bear to after trying re-grow my hair for the last 5 years)

Sorry this isn't as brief as i thought! Basically now I am getting married soon, February 2016, and i am starting to panic about the state of my locks! I have wanted to dye my hair for a while but i am scared about using chemical dyes on my already delicate hair. Also, being of Irish decent and having blue eyes and freckles, i would like to be a red head again: So this has lead me to the conclusion that using Henna to re-inforce and treat my hair naturally and giving it a red sheen seems the perfect solution. I am just hesitant about having some strange reaction and or having a bad resulting colour as i have heard that it is difficult to colour or change after using henna.

I would love some advice, or your opinions on what i should do! The wedding is coming up fast and I am already dreading the wedding photos! I really am not happy with my hair and i want to feel confident on my special day...

HELP!!!

[Seeshami]

Henna is orange to red. The first time it will probably be orange. It is also permanent. Yes it will fade some but you have to go to great lengths to get it completely out. I don't know if a red color is going to make you happier with your hair. It won't change the length. You won't notice a drastic difference in the thickness of it. I did henna for a year and loved it and then got a wild idea I needed my natural color back in my life. I bleached it out and now I henna ombre so I can have both.

If you don't mind a little more gold tone possibly I would start with cassia and treat your hair with that. A little hair spa day might help you find a comfortable place with your hair.

[Nightshade]

It does sound like you're a good candidate for henna. :) Your best bet is to make sure you do some strand testing to get the shade of red you want, and the do your roots only from there.

That aside, make sure you're eating well. All the henna in the world can't make up for a good diet with enough protein and silica to grow hair!

[Anje]

It might not hurt to get checked out by a doctor. All the hair loss makes me wonder if something besides the stress of living in Italy is taking a toll. Low iron levels and thyroid hormone issues are some of the most common problems that cause hairloss. Both are quite treatable too, and hair generally comes back once everything is corrected.

I regard henna as being mostly a dye, not a strengthening treatment. Certainly, strengthening is a nice side effect, but some people find it drying, many people shed extra hair after they've applied it... There are a lot of unknowns to consider if you come at henna for any reason other than wanting to use it to make your hair more red. But it sounds like you do. Just be aware that henna really doesn't lighten hair, so if your hair is dark, it will stay dark; if your hair is very light, it might look very orange after henna. (Henna also starts out looking more orange for a few days after application, then settles down to something more natural. Don't be alarmed when you first do it.)

[Aireling]

Thank you both, I think I will make the dive and use henna, at least to get a bit more glow and vitality back. Oh, I know for the length I have to just be patient, and hope that it doesn't come back. For that I will have to work on my zen a bit :)

Oooh yes a spa day sounds like a good remedy! And thanks for the tips nightshade, is there anything in particular that I could implement in my diet that has a lot of silica? I am vegetarian but I eat a lot of beans/rice/lentils and green veg to get protein. Sorry, I should probably delve through the forum!

I was actually inspired a lot by a post of yours that I saw in a henna/cassia forum and I think I will follow your advice and start with a mix so I don't go too dark. Then I can always top it up. I can't wait to get started and get past the bad hair doldrums
:)

[Aireling]

It might not hurt to get checked out by a doctor. All the hair loss makes me wonder if something besides the stress of living in Italy is taking a toll. Low iron levels and thyroid hormone issues are some of the most common problems that cause hairloss. Both are quite treatable too, and hair generally comes back once everything is corrected.

I regard henna as being mostly a dye, not a strengthening treatment. Certainly, strengthening is a nice side effect, but some people find it drying, many people shed extra hair after they've applied it... There are a lot of unknowns to consider if you come at henna for any reason other than wanting to use it to make your hair more red. But it sounds like you do. Just be aware that henna really doesn't lighten hair, so if your hair is dark, it will stay dark; if your hair is very light, it might look very orange after henna. (Henna also starts out looking more orange for a few days after application, then settles down to something more natural. Don't be alarmed when you first do it.)


Thanks, I did get blood tests done and they didn't find anything unusual. I even got cortisone injections in the bald spots that seemed to speed up re growth. They assured me that they had no idea why I was losing hair and pegged it down to stress. I admit I did feel slightly more stressed than usual, but nothing I couldn't handle... It's seems to be passing now, I am getting my hair trimmed more frequently until the re growth evens out a bit.

Oh and thanks for the tip about orange, I think I would prefer coppery tones, not too red or orange in either direction. I will have to experiment a bit

[Isilme]

Do a strand test and then if you like it you can do a henna gloss and go from there, when you have reached your desired saturation only apply henna to the roots as it will continue to darken and get a richer shade with every application, until you hit burgundy. The thinning and shedding doesn't sound very good at all, maybe consult another doctor.

[Rowdy]

You might want to check out Nightblooming on Etsy for pre made henna mixes