Help me to break the hendigo circle, please!

[Lumienkeli]

The back story: I discovered my first grey hairs in my early teens. I was so proud! Mom had grey hairs, Dad was a salt and pepper from my earlyest memories, my grandmothers were grey too. I was proud of my grey hairs!
They were getting more and more. I didn't mind it, I was in peace with what I got. Friends and classmates started to make negative comments on my hair. I did not care with them until someone told me my hair is looks like I am not care with it. I felt it so unfair. It was clean and trimmed, what else I should do? Dye - was the answer.
I first use semi permanent dyes at my late teens (a year after that comment). It was fun, it colored very lightly my naturally dark hair, but faded fast and my greys showed through. I switched to permanent dyes and used them for a decade.

Then 4 years ago I switched to henna, then I found it too coppery, so I tried hendigo. Indigo is fading fast. Before every dye I watching my roots and feel sorry of my silvers. I hate to turn them that pumpkin madness, I hate to turn my natural dark hair to that warm brown color what is so far from my natural colors.

I found LHC by searching possibilities to dye ash brown with hendigo. I read a lot of threads and I found that orange is orange, everyone who was tried it had just temporary success. Or are there success stories? :)

So, I don't want to try out more mixitures if they will always turns to orange. I tried henna, than 2 part henna : 1 part indigo, then 1:1, 1:2, than two step henna and indigo which turned my hair black. No red tones for a month, but a wig like hair color.

So I want my own hair color back. I don't care if it is salt and pepper. I like silver and white, much more than yellow and orange.

The question is: How can I do that to avoid the "you are not care about your look" stages? This really hurt me.
As I see I have some options:
1) Go cold turkey. I will have a demarcation line, but the process will faster if I am not dye anymore. But I look exactly that I am not care of my look anymore.
2) Try to leave my (1:1) mixiture less and less time on my hair. It will makes my grey brigther and brigthet orange. (The indigo fades in two hair washes.) I would like to avoid it.
3) Make my mixiture more indigo heavy and mix it with cassia. Maybe 1 part of henna, 2 part of indigo and 3 part of cassia? Or what? I am tending to try this. Perharps the indigo fades and left me with light orange or yellow strands. I don't like it.
4) Dye my hair only where the silvers are the most noticable with the cassia lighted mixiture. I don't have grey hairs on my back of my head. (Or I don't know there are.) I have white locks on the top of my head (where else?) and above my ears. They would look really cool when the whole length will white but how are they looking in the in-between stages?

Do you have any idea what should I do and how?

[lapushka]

I think trying to get it out is going to be a PITA. Anything with indigo in it you can't bleach out because it's going to turn green/blue. You could try products like color oops or color B4, if you have that in your country.

N°2 & 3 seem doable! Make your mixture a gloss instead of a full-on treatment and put some more and more cassia into it. So you don't have a harsh demarcation line; the thing is even if you do that your grays will probably start showing through.

So it might be best just to grow it out!

[Agnieszka]

Other option what could work is covering your roots with wash out colours like Adore and growing it out that way.
I had similar situation (growing out bleached hair) and I just cut it off when roots were about 5cm. But that's a serious move :-)

[Lumienkeli]

Thank you for your tips!

I read about glosses, but haven't came to my mind that I could try to use my mix as a gloss. Wow, I will try it. It does not need anything what I haven't used before on my head. The worse thing can happen is not stain my hair. Thank you!

I am not going to use color removers. They are too risky in my opinion. I heard so much stories about weird colors and damaged hair, and I really don't want to risk to loose length.

[Lumienkeli]

Other option what could work is covering your roots with wash out colours like Adore and growing it out that way.
I had similar situation (growing out bleached hair) and I just cut it off when roots were about 5cm. But that's a serious move :-)
Thank you! You are so courageous. I know what a big decision to let your hair go and start it over from a short length.

If I can't reach what I want with
plant based dyes, I might try a wash out color, but before I use any I have to read about how those dyes are working on hair dyed before with indigo. I really prefer to use natural things, but I will keep in mind this possibility too. Thank you!

[CrowningGlory]

It sounds as if you regret giving in to your friends' comments (and what kind of friends were they to say such hurtful stuff anyway) so maybe you need to be strong in your own mind about why you're doing it and not allow their comments to hurt. It's been a long time since those hurtful comments and perhaps your friends now are more mature and wouldn't say such things. And if they do, really it is up to you how you wear your hair.

I suggest you have a search of The Salt and Pepper Thread: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=16951 as there are members there who have grown out dye and henna. Ask your question there because some will have personal experience and perhaps some helpful suggestions. Braids or twists either side of the face can help disguise the line when growing out dye. Also, I found that shampoo bars helped my henna fade quicker but not everyone will have the same experience.

If it were me, I'd probably go cold turkey and find ways to style the hair so it looks more intentional. Any other option is just going to extend the growing out period.

[spidermom]

If you want your own color back, just let it grow in. Think of some snappy, wicked come-backs for people who harrass you about it. It's YOUR hair. It's YOUR life. Do what you want, not what other people want. I'd probably be saying something like "Oh, are we criticizing each other now? Is it my turn? Well I think you look like you don't care about how you look anymore because you're too fat"(or whatever).

[ReptilianFeline]

Since I've stopped using regular shampoo, I sometimes mix some henna and indigo in my poo mix. The henna is old and it's in my hair for about 10 minutes or so, but it does seem to leave a slight strawbery blond effect on my grey roots. I think something like that might also work in order to soften the transition when growing out your own colour.

[Lumienkeli]

Thank you for your replies and kind words.
Yeah, the simpliest would be just let it grow. After I chopped my hair in december to chin length now I have the shortest hair in 20 years. Perharps it is a good start. And well, my hair is weird colored yet. My ends are black, my roots are medium brown and silver. From my roots my silver hairs are already orange for 5 cm long, because the indigo faded. Not looks nice. Looks failed hair dye.

The braids sounds interesting, especially beacuse I am worried more how the transition would look, not to show my silvers. I started to read the Salt and Pepper thread last week, but that is so long thread, so to search there would be more effective, than just read. And I will say hello there too! :) Just to know that I am not alone with this "crazy hippi idea" is so encourageous!

I also can try a more agressive shampoo, than what I am useing now. I never tried shampoo bar, but there is a nice lady in town who make soap bars and also shampoo bars. I migth buy one next time. I am useing a natural shampoo without SLS and such things.

Oh, and if I decide just to let it grow I can cover (with a gloss perharps) if I really feel my look untidy... let's see.

Thank you! I feel better! I have some options! And I have 6 months at home with my little daugther before I go back to work.

[lapushka]

A sulfate shampoo might help "attack" the henna and remaining color a bit more. But it's not going to get rid of the orange at your roots, I'm afraid. You can barely get henna out, so I wouldn't go there.

The suggestion of doing semi permanents until it's grown out is a good one, I think!

When I was growing out medium ash blonde dye, it helped me tremendously to dye it a dark ash color. It evened it all out and I felt I could go places and be among people (we had our Christmas party at the time and my hair looked dual tone and horrible).

[hennalove]

The question is: How can I do that to avoid the "you are not care about your look" stages? This really hurt me.
As I see I have some options:
1) Go cold turkey. I will have a demarcation line, but the process will faster if I am not dye anymore. But I look exactly that I am not care of my look anymore.
2) Try to leave my (1:1) mixiture less and less time on my hair. It will makes my grey brigther and brigthet orange. (The indigo fades in two hair washes.) I would like to avoid it.
3) Make my mixiture more indigo heavy and mix it with cassia. Maybe 1 part of henna, 2 part of indigo and 3 part of cassia? Or what? I am tending to try this. Perharps the indigo fades and left me with light orange or yellow strands. I don't like it.
4) Dye my hair only where the silvers are the most noticable with the cassia lighted mixiture. I don't have grey hairs on my back of my head. (Or I don't know there are.) I have white locks on the top of my head (where else?) and above my ears. They would look really cool when the whole length will white but how are they looking in the in-between stages?

Do you have any idea what should I do and how?

I can relate to taking comments to heart. First, they are not your friends if they hurt your feelings. Second, it is your hair so do what makes YOU happy not them.

My hair is naturally dark with gold highlights but now if left alone salt and pepper, about 20% grey. That grey makes using indigo difficult and henna always turns clown orange on greys. I have done several hennas since the first of the year, a couple of hennigos and a couple of 2 step henna/indigo and still getting indigo fade. As much as I like my greys, I really love the textural/conditioning effects of the henna so won't be going back anytime soon.

In your case, you have a few options. Continue with henna and let it build. The more layers the darker the colour. Your greys will only stay that bright orange on henna day, then oxidize darker. With greys, definitely a 2 step henna/indigo works better than a 1 step hennidigo. With the 2 step, leave the henna in for at least 4 hours then do your indigo. Make sure you don't use any product like conditioner or oil for at least 48 hours after the henna/indigo then wash as normal. There will still be some indigo lift but after a few treatments, you should be able to get the colour you want. At some point the indigo will stick, it just takes patience. Be warned that once indigo sticks, it sticks! Like henna it will continue to darken.

I have been using Zenia (Indian) henna that gives a very good stain and I always freeze after dye release before using. The lawsone in henna sticks to the keratin, the indigo sticks to the lawsone. I don't know whether you will get good results using cassia and indigo but you won't damage your hair trying. My plan is to up my henna to Red Raj henna with very high lawsone content. Alone, Red Raj gives a ruby rather than orange colour to greys so that may be an option for you. Multiple applications of Red Raj will take your hair to a deep burgundy/cherry cola without having to use any indigo.

Now, if you want to go back natural I recall someone reporting they had good results lifting henna which would also lift the indigo by using multiple hot coconut oil treatments. You could try that. It wouldn't hurt your hair and there would be no chance of it turning any funky colour. HTH

[lapushka]

Now, if you want to go back natural I recall someone reporting they had good results lifting henna which would also lift the indigo by using multiple hot coconut oil treatments. You could try that. It wouldn't hurt your hair and there would be no chance of it turning any funky colour. HTH

That is the first time I've heard of this. It actually kind of shocks me because 2 high-lift bleaches weren't even getting that henna out of my hair (it was still faintly orange, so I had to dye over it with a light brown dye, and later my hair melted off from bra strap to chin). Yes, that happened. :(

[hayheadsbird]

Now, if you want to go back natural I recall someone reporting they had good results lifting henna which would also lift the indigo by using multiple hot coconut oil treatments. You could try that. It wouldn't hurt your hair and there would be no chance of it turning any funky colour. HTH

I might give this a go! I have about 7 inches natural hair and the rest is still henna. You can only really see it in good natural light, so i could pull it back into a pony tail and just try out on the length.

[Lumienkeli]

A sulfate shampoo might help "attack" the henna and remaining color a bit more. But it's not going to get rid of the orange at your roots, I'm afraid. You can barely get henna out, so I wouldn't go there.

The suggestion of doing semi permanents until it's grown out is a good one, I think!

When I was growing out medium ash blonde dye, it helped me tremendously to dye it a dark ash color. It evened it all out and I felt I could go places and be among people (we had our Christmas party at the time and my hair looked dual tone and horrible).

Your hair is beautiful! I surprised that your hair suffered that much. I think it was so hard to you and you managed to grow that beautiful hair! Wow and Congratulations!

I didn't mean that I want to use regulalry a harsh sampoo, but I might try my husband's anti danduff shampoo.

The washable hair color sounds good if I can use it on indigoed hair. In May there will be a wedding where I should be look polished. (My husbands brother is the groom.)

My next hendigo day would be in two weeks. Until that day I will wash my hair twice (I wash my hair weekly - good if I want to use wash out dye in the future :) ), I can give a go to the SLS shampoo. Why not? It shouldn't do any harm. I mean one single use surly not. My husband use it for years.

[Lumienkeli]

In your case, you have a few options. Continue with henna and let it build. The more layers the darker the colour. Your greys will only stay that bright orange on henna day, then oxidize darker. With greys, definitely a 2 step henna/indigo works better than a 1 step hennidigo. With the 2 step, leave the henna in for at least 4 hours then do your indigo. Make sure you don't use any product like conditioner or oil for at least 48 hours after the henna/indigo then wash as normal. There will still be some indigo lift but after a few treatments, you should be able to get the colour you want. At some point the indigo will stick, it just takes patience. Be warned that once indigo sticks, it sticks! Like henna it will continue to darken.

Now, if you want to go back natural I recall someone reporting they had good results lifting henna which would also lift the indigo by using multiple hot coconut oil treatments. You could try that. It wouldn't hurt your hair and there would be no chance of it turning any funky colour. HTH

Thank you! With the two step henna and indigo process I have black hair as result, and yes, the indigo faded just a bit. But black is too dark. I have very light skin and blue eyes. If I use only henna it is always orange at my roots. It builds up over time, but it turns burgundy over 8-10 applications, which is 8-10 months and similar in centimeters. So at the roots my greys stay orange. I tried to find a mixiture with I can achive light ash brown, but as I am reading more and more in this subject I start to belive that henna is the red dread if someone wants ash color.
I can't make strand test on my own hair, but I have some wool (virgin wool, only combed if that is the right word). I can make tests on that to see how the henna-indigo-cassia works in practice. Because if I can achive a color what not dissonant on me I can use more and more cassia to ligthen the color over time and make a long transiton to my natural hair. That would be the perfect option.

[Lumienkeli]

My wool strand tests are failed. I used the following mixatures:

3part cassia, 2 part indigo, 1 part henna: I made two samples, one I left the mix for 1 hour and another for two hour. Both of them turned carrot orange.
I made a second step with pure indigo one of the samples above. It is moss green after rhinse! I am courious how it looks like a few days lather.
I made an only indigo sample just to check is my indigo works at all. It turned my wool greyish blue. And this is my best result.
I have one more test is running at the moment, a pure henna application for 6 hours, but I can't left any mix on my head that long. So I am just playing with that peace of wool :)

So I tending to just grow my hair out and if I really need I will use wash out color. I found a promising (not too harsh) one, but I will strand test to check what it will do with my hair.

[enting]

It sounds like you've figured out a plan. While growing your hair out, braiding or fancy buns or using parandi will demonstrate that you care for your hair very much. A lace braid along the hairline can help mask the color change. Parandi can also ease the demarcation lines depending on the colors and styles you choose to do. Early on when it's just roots, wide headbands can mask the demarcation, too.

[Lumienkeli]

It sounds like you've figured out a plan. While growing your hair out, braiding or fancy buns or using parandi will demonstrate that you care for your hair very much. A lace braid along the hairline can help mask the color change. Parandi can also ease the demarcation lines depending on the colors and styles you choose to do. Early on when it's just roots, wide headbands can mask the demarcation, too.
Thank you for the tips! I really like braids and buns, so it is good to hear that they are work in practice! That is a very good point that if someone cares to spend time to braiding it should look that she cares with her look! It is a great boost for me!

I spent days to searching google salt and pepper transiton and grey hair styles. The fully salt and pepper and white and grey looks sogood smooth on everyone. The transition period is the hard time, but there are so many ways to make it easyer.
The wide headband is a good idea, I will try it! Thank you!

[enting]

There's a Salt and Pepper (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=16951) thread here on the forum, too. It's epically long, but there are lots of pictures of transitioning from dye to salt and pepper and styles that might work. You may want to check it out if you haven't already.

[Lumienkeli]

There's a Salt and Pepper (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=16951) thread here on the forum, too. It's epically long, but there are lots of pictures of transitioning from dye to salt and pepper and styles that might work. You may want to check it out if you haven't already.

Thank you! I started to read the Salt and Pepper thread and the Giving up dye/bleach thread too. I can't see a lot of pictures because I am a new member or because lots of old photos are no longer aviable. But thos conversations are encouraging. Good to know that I am not alone. It makes me stronger! :)

[hennalove]

That is the first time I've heard of this. It actually kind of shocks me because 2 high-lift bleaches weren't even getting that henna out of my hair (it was still faintly orange, so I had to dye over it with a light brown dye, and later my hair melted off from bra strap to chin). Yes, that happened. :(

IIRC one of the members on the burgundy henna thread used the oil method to lift the henna because it got too dark. If you do a search for removing henna from hair it brings up the same recommendation to use multiple treatments of the heavy oils like coconut oil. I love my henna so go very light on coconut oil just in case, usually just an occasional light scalp treatment with it. My guess is that the coconut oil method to remove henna effectiveness will depend on lawsone content and how many henna applications have been used. When pushing to the burgundy, multiple henna applications are used.