How to Ruin Your Hair-- Don't do what I did (story time)

[cassidy_2711]

So you probably clicked on this because you want to read about my hair mistake or have one of your own. Well let me tell you what happened. Two years ago I henna'd my hair with a pack of straight henna, no other color. It was a beautiful red color and was super soft and manageable. I'd say my hair was just above bra strap length. I had also given up using shampoo (I made mine from clay). This isn't the bad part though... Over the summer I decided to color my hair with wine-red henna from henna color lab. I really recommend this color it does exactly as it says it does. So over the summer my hair was now an ariel mermaid red. As summer ended I needed to get an important picture taken. I did not want ariel red hair for this picture... So guess what I did... I bleached my hair. Not with bleach from sally's, but I made it. With baking soda and peroxide. I put this on my hair about 3 different times for five minutes each time over the course of a few weeks. While this did get the henna out it made my hair dull and frizzy. I didn't notice too much damage at first. Then to top it off I had my sister put color oops in my hair too see if that would get the remaining henna out. After that we boxed dyed it an ashy brown to see if it would get the red out. While it wasn't super ginger red anymore it was a very pretty fiery copper red. I trimmed the ends after that and my hair was soft and bouncy from the hair dye. Over the course of a month I had used light brown henna on my hair in hopes to rid the red but it was still a red tint. Forward to today my hair past my bra strap length by about an inch ( I trimmed frequently), but I have so many splits and it gets goofy. Then that winter my clay shampoo dried out my hair too much and made it very goofy, so I started to use soap nuts. Soap nuts work for me at my house, but not with the water at college. Right now in my situation I have to shower with water that has been treated with chlorine (in college) so that doesn't help much either. I am trying to grow my hair out to my waist then maintain until I cut out the rest of the henna. So lesson of this hair story is do NOT make your own hair bleach, and only henna your hair if you are very committed to the color. If anybody else has a hair story they'd like to share comment below. ;)

[LittleQuill]

Did you want to remove the initial henna, or did you have to do it just for this photo? It sounds like an awful lot of trouble and work for one photo. If it had been me, I would've been all, "Hey, I like this colour and it's annoying as ponies to remove, so I'ma keep it, thanks." Lol. Thanks for the story! Also, did you manage to get it all out in the end? :)

[LadyCelestina]

For next time (and yes I made the mistake of permanently dying my hair for something little then regretting as it takes years to grow out), get a semi permanent dye. :D

[stachelbeere]

The peroxide on hair sounds like a nightmare!
I wouldn't had a different approach - photoshop the hair on the photo and done :)

[cassidy_2711]

Did you want to remove the initial henna, or did you have to do it just for this photo? It sounds like an awful lot of trouble and work for one photo. If it had been me, I would've been all, "Hey, I like this colour and it's annoying as ponies to remove, so I'ma keep it, thanks." Lol. Thanks for the story! Also, did you manage to get it all out in the end? :)
I didn't have to remove it for my picture but for my own personal reasons I did not bright red hair for senior photos. It turned into a copper color which was very pretty and suited me well.

[Kae612]

Oh wow...yeah I am terrified of bleach. This story has underscored that heavily. I almost used henna on my hair, but then after I bought it I realized I wasn't committed to the colour and got temporary vegetable dyes instead. I'm very happy I did that!

My worst hair damage lately has been due to swimming and not properly clarifying my hair for oh several months (bad bad bad, I had no idea what anything was at the time and had a 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner and it did not go well and everything was straw-like and gross for like a year), and then constantly wearing my hair in a side English braid that of course bits would fall out at the part where it goes over my shoulder so now I have a nice "face framing layer" on the other side from breakage of that side getting loose and getting caught in coat/bag/everything.

[lapushka]

Yeah, anything mixed with BS is usually not a good idea. I'm sorry you went through all that. :flower:


Forward to today my hair past my bra strap length by about an inch ( I trimmed frequently), but I have so many splits and it gets goofy. Then that winter my clay shampoo dried out my hair too much and made it very goofy, so I started to use soap nuts. Soap nuts work for me at my house, but not with the water at college. Right now in my situation I have to shower with water that has been treated with chlorine (in college) so that doesn't help much either. I am trying to grow my hair out to my waist then maintain until I cut out the rest of the henna. So lesson of this hair story is do NOT make your own hair bleach, and only henna your hair if you are very committed to the color. If anybody else has a hair story they'd like to share comment below. ;)

I think it might be best to join the microtrimming thread. Explanation is there, but basically you frequently trim, just about half your growth off, that way you get rid of damage, but you also continue to grow hair.

And by now I'm betting every oldie on here is sick of me sharing my damage story, but believe me, did it all, came out with 2 chin length bobs on various occasions and a chemical cut & burn one time, so... did it all, henna, indigo, bleach, regular dye, all mixed too. So... no wonder. ;) Anyway that's all past me now. I was classic from September 2015 - November 2016 and am back to hip length now, growing towards classic again (let's first get to TBL, right).