Catastrophic, nuclear hair disaster and a good attitude

[Spitfire]

Sorry I vanished without warning. I was gung-ho to grow and make friends on here but a hair tragedy made me abstain from even thinking about long hair for a while.
I had been using straight henna, then decided to switch to henna/cassia to prevent it from getting too dark. I ordered ginger blonde from Henna Color Lab and it was amazing. They have such a great product...until one day I ordered a batch and something went disastrously wrong.

I left it in for my usual 1.5 hours.

I ended up with greenish dark brown hair. My light copper locks were fried and looked like a rusted, green, oxidized penny. I have no idea what went wrong. I emailed them and asked if it was possible that it was mispackaged and that I had been spiked with indigo by mistake, and they said each batch is individually packaged so there wouldn't have been a mix up, but I don't know. The inner package even had its label saying "ginger blonde" as usual. It smelled right, as far as I know (I have a weak sense of smell).

My APL locks had to be cut to ear length. The ends are still greenish brown. I'm getting more of that color cut off soon into a mid ear bowl cut this week.

The good news is, I look awesome in super short hair, and I get to try it out and enjoy it before deciding to grow it out again. I'm not sad, just a little angry that my hair turned such a weird color with a previously trusted product.

-Nothing changed in my water AFAIK.
-I was not using any new products on my hair.
-I did not mix it with anything different (just hot water as usual).
-I did not mix it in a metal bowl. Same plastic bowl as always.
-I put an extra bit of the same mix on a set of human hair extensions afterwards to see if it would do that to them too, and it did, so it wasn't just my hair.


Word of warning. Even if you've used the product before, strand test anyway. You never know.

Ps. Anyone know what could have happened?

ETA: I am not in any way bashing or dissing Henna Color Lab. I love their products and I'm sure whatever happened was probably my fault, as far as I know. I would recommend them to anyone, as I've never had any trouble before. They're awesome, but something just... went wrong.

[SwanFeathers]

wow, that sounds like the batch got contaminated somehow (salts maybe? chemists please help!) I totally agree with strand testing, but Im glad you are enjoying this side trip on your hair journey! any chance we'll get to see this super cute style?

[shelomit]

I know jane_marie is dealing with some odd greenish tints after a combination of henna and semi-perm. Here's her thread (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=152708)--I didn't follow it closely, so I'm not certain what recommendations she got.

Sad to hear you got such an unexpected result from a product you trusted. I would weep!

[0xalis]

Oh my gosh what a nightmare!!!! Good thing I vowed to keep my hair virgin from now on, let this thread be my reminder lest I ever be tempted by even the most natural of dyes!!!!! :( I'm so sorry that happened, really glad you're at least enjoying the short hair for now though!

[Hexana]

This sounds like it IS ther fault. If you used it like every time before, you knew what you were doing and you would noticed if you were doing something different.
Glad that you can have such a positive attitude about it, I would probably drop all my marbles and scream.

[SleepyTangles]

So happy you took it in stride and are enjoying your current length! There are a lot of shorties and not-so-longhaired-yet on the board, we'll keep each other company :cheer:

Sounds like you got a mislabelled batch of indigo!
No matter what they say, if it's inside an air-less pack it's probably been packaged in the country of production, to preserve the freshness. And it's totally possible to have a mistake.
Was the paste dark and leaking blue or green liquid while on your head?

For future users: do few rounds of dish soap washes straight after. Let it sit for a while and rinse with reasonably warm water. It works better when it's fresh, tough...

[paulownia]

I did some quick research on the green:D
Indigo, or some metallic salts... surely copper and chlorine give the greenish shades ( swimming pools, hello:p)
There is some remedies... Sleepy Tangles is right, using strong shampoo ( preferably chelating).
Other sources mention using acidic rinses. Coca cola :D.
Tomato juice....
It's supposed to work after a close encounter with a skunk too:rollin:

[lapushka]

OMG that is terrible, and from no fault of your own.

Maybe even the "oldies" should strand test... right? I mean if there is a lesson to be learned here, at all. :)

The good thing is that you recover from hair disasters. I once after (bleach, henna, chemical dye) had a chemical cut & burn, so bad the doctor prescribed me a cortisone lotion for my scalp. I had to chop bra strap to chin, but... it grew back again, and slowly but surely I got over it.

But I swore never to ever color my hair again, and here we are, all virgin and all grown out.

Good luck on your journey!

[Bat]

oml I'd lose the will to live after something like that! good luck in your new journey if you decide to grow again

[Jane99]

That is so terrible. Whatever the problem was... I hope you leave a negative review, others who buy that product should be aware... thank you for sharing!

[sipnsun]

Wow, I'm so sorry this happened to you but glad you are rocking the shorter cut with such a terrific attitude! You'll be long again before you know it (if you choose to grow again) and I hope you enjoy the journey and different looks along the way. Great advice about strand testing even if you've used the product for years. Welcome back!

[Kat]

Do you have any of the powder left that you could send them? I would, if they insist nothing could have gotten contaminated. (They might still keep insisting, but, they might also look at/test it and find you were right.)

[Bri-Chan]

Terrible! Definitely it was not your fault, you did nothing wrong. I didn't appreciate their not truly caring about. But I'm glad you like short hair on you.

[Nightshade]

That is really terrible!

I do wonder if it isn't possibly that you have hard water / mineral buildup in your hair? That can for sure make cassia turn green, and removing the minerals will also remove the green cast.

ETA: for things like this I recommend a blend of Vit C and citric acid and that normally does the trick.

ETAx2: I heartily agree with strand testing every time, too!

[lapushka]

Do you have any of the powder left that you could send them? I would, if they insist nothing could have gotten contaminated. (They might still keep insisting, but, they might also look at/test it and find you were right.)

Yes, but who is to say they're going to be honest about it? :shrug:

[Nightshade]

I have to admit, it's hard not to be sad at the "THE SELLER IS THE UTMOST EVIL HERE" attitude. :(

Every time I've had something like this happen? It was on the customer's end, unwittingly, to be sure---and to be VERY clear I'm not saying any of this is Spitfire's fault-- but things like mineral buildup or other things totally out of my control have been at the root of every case I've encountered like this.

Contacting the seller, asking them to check for a mixup and contamination are totally called for, and if it was my product I'd want it returned so I could do my own strand testing--but in this case I feel like even if the product was returned and they tested it and said 'it's fine' nobody would give them the benefit of the doubt.

[sugar&nutmeg]

Had the real-hair extensions also been washed 'enough' times, in the possibly-hard water, to get mineral buildup? Disclaimer: I have no idea how extensions are cared for, or how many times would constitute 'enough'. But it's an important point, imo, for the 'control' test to be valid.

I don't like these kinds of unsolved mysteries.

[Spitfire]

First of all,
Thank you all so much for the well wishes and kind words. It's definitely been a shocker but yes, I'm totally still enjoying the shorty lifestyle for the time being and I'm doing my best to keep my chin up! :)
This community is awesome and so kind and supportive. Thank you, all of you.

Now for the technical stuff.
So, the real-hair extensions were washed with some different products at some point than my real hair, and they've been washed a total of 3 times. We have a water softener, and the water here tends to have high iron content so we use a salt (!) to combat the iron. I've used henna here before with no problems but things can change. I do clarify but I don't know if it's enough. I would always clarify before henna. Now, I wasn't using a swimmers treatment like Malibu C or anything, just a strong sulfate shampoo.

I'm probably not going to bother sending in the remaining powder, it did not leak any weird bluey color, so if there was indigo, it wouldn't have been much. Maybe it was indeed something to do with the water reacting with the cassia and turmeric as Nightshade is saying. I immediately thought about the water when I saw the weird color.

This whole thing is crazy, but eh, what can you do... when life hands you weird hair, make cool hair? lol, idk, that was dumb, but you get the general idea.

I'm going virgin hair from now on. That's it. Never again with the dye stuff. :p

[lapushka]

I'm going virgin hair from now on. That's it. Never again with the dye stuff. :p

Best decision I ever made, and I also made it after a dye disaster. I never looked back. The fact that it was so horrible made me persist to never ever color again.

Growing out was fun, though. Not. :p

ETA/ You have to understand I have / had always hated my hair color (cigarette ash tint IMO) and I dyed it so many (natural) colors over the years, going from black to light blonde. It was never to my liking. Nothing lasted for long. And that was also the problem. Dye is great if you can stick to a shade and do the upkeep. Changing your mind every couple months? Not so much. Oh well.

[Deborah]

ETA/ You have to understand I have / had always hated my hair color (cigarette ash tint IMO) and I dyed it so many (natural) colors over the years, going from black to light blonde. It was never to my liking. Nothing lasted for long. And that was also the problem. Dye is great if you can stick to a shade and do the upkeep. Changing your mind every couple months? Not so much. Oh well. - from Lapushka

Lapushka, your hair color is definitely NOT 'cigarette ash tint'. It is instead a BEAUTIFUL, rich, very dark brown. Don't sell yourself short.:flower:

[lapushka]

ETA/ You have to understand I have / had always hated my hair color (cigarette ash tint IMO) and I dyed it so many (natural) colors over the years, going from black to light blonde. It was never to my liking. Nothing lasted for long. And that was also the problem. Dye is great if you can stick to a shade and do the upkeep. Changing your mind every couple months? Not so much. Oh well. - from Lapushka

Lapushka, your hair color is definitely NOT 'cigarette ash tint'. It is instead a BEAUTIFUL, rich, very dark brown. Don't sell yourself short.:flower:

You are a sweetheart! :flower:
Maybe it's because I have not liked it for most of my life that I made that association?

Thank you! :D