How often can I henna?

[Satyria]

I've been using chemical dyes to color my hair black but now I'm switching to henna and indigo. I've heard that hennaing often it can build up on hair making it dry and coarse. :hmm: I was planning on hennaing once a month but now I'm a little bit suspicious.

[mellie]

Oh yes, once a month is fine! I do it once every three weeks because that's when my grays start to peep out.

You can always switch between roots-only and full-length too!

[serabelle]

Just know that once you get to your desired color depth, there's really no need to do full length applications. It doesn't fade like chemical dye. I didn't do my hair for two months, and while you could see the roots.. the rest of the color BARELY faded, if at all. I suggest doing full length applications until you find the color/depth you like - then only doing roots as needed.

At that point, you can do a gloss on the rest of the length. (A couple of tbsp of henna mixture combined with conditioner or something like that.)

[khyricat]

I do full head applications every 3-4 weeks and have for more than a year this go round.. last time I did henna I went several years that way... I have almost black hair with whites and the whites look like red highlights and with the continuing full head applications are darker further down, so blend more and I get compliments all the time on the look...

[burns_erin]

The reasons why people, a few/some, seem to have problems with long term repeated full length hennas is one of those much debated things. i personally go with the idea that the mix is too acidic, as that is what the problem turned out to be for me, but then and again everyone is different. Roots only is probably a good suggestion, but you may need to get someone who has indigo experience on that as i beleieve there is some fading with the indigo but not with the henna. Overall though there seems to be for most people no long term damaging effects of repeated full length henna applications, some people do it several times in a week to get the desired saturation, YMMV.

[Akiko]

I do full henna and indigo gloss applications, but have not experienced any texture change so far. I don't add anything acidic to my henna mix such as lemon juice. Just simple henna with water or tea. But I am not a long-time user. So I don't know how it might feel like several years from now.

I accidentally bleached my hair and wanted to get back to my natural color. That's one of the reasons I started using henna and indigo.

I experienced indigo fading first two or three applications. Redness of henna became visible 3 weeks after the application. But after a couple of applications, indigo does not fade on me anymore.

About 3-4 cm of my roots have never been bleached chemically. Now my entire hair looks quite blended and natural.

http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq15/kurupika/RIMG0008-2.jpg

[MandaMom2Three]

I have to say Akiko, that has got to be some of the prettiest hair I have ever seen!!! Look at that shine!!! I would never have guessed it had ever been bleached!!

[Akiko]

I would never have guessed it had ever been bleached!!

Thank you, MandaMom.:flower: I used a temporary hair color, which said it will wash out after xx washes. Well, it did not. Obviously, I did not read the ingredients on the box well. It did bleach my hair.:mad:

My DH also complained my hair looked dull. Now it's shinier than ever before. I know henna is not for everyone. But I sure loooove it.:love:

[Fireweed]

If you are not worried about what your hair colour well become over time ,or if you already have very dark hair, then you can put the henna on full head every month. Henna glossing well darken your hair colour over time if used every month. Henna is very hard to try remove and when I was done with it, I had had to cut it out in the end. I had only used it for 3 years.

[Isa-belle]

I henna every 3-4 weeks. My hair looks best if I henna every 3 weeks. As Fireweed says, it really depends on your natural colour. My hair is very brown, so I'm not worried about darkening effects :) I do add things to enrich my mix so it is not drying at all for my hair.

[ilovelonghair]

I was just thinking of posting a question about how often to do henna. I do it now every 6 weeks and that's because of fading. I leave the roots longer then the lenght. But need lenght too for color touch-up

[Satyria]

Thank you all! My natural color is dark blonde but I like my hair black. So the color depth is not a problem for me. The darker the better. :D I think I need to do several applications to my roots in a short time so I get the right color. That's why I was wondering is it ok to do so often. :)