Is it possible to henna blonde hair brown?

[CrystalStar]

Hiya everyone!! :) I'm kinda new here and as you can probably guess heehee, have no idea about henna at all. I've seen everyones stunning henna'd hair and stories of how it's saved their hair, and I hate to say it but my hair could do with some saving right now :p I've bleached my hair for 5 years to keep blonde, and I'm sick of the damage it's done now. However, I sorta hate my natural hair colour (pale brown) and was hoping I could henna it to a brunette type colour? :p I was hoping you henna experts could tell me if and how I could make up a mix to henna my hair a deep brown colour?

Thank you loads for reading if ya got through it all :D


Oh, and also will it do anything crazy and horrific to bleached hair? Once again, thanks :)

[baobhan sith]

I'm probably not the best person to answer, having never hennaed my hair, but untill anyone else gets here, henna only comes in one colour, which is red. Multiple aplications can give a kinda burgandy colour. To get all the variations without using hair damaging things, other herbs can be added to get a brunette colour, the most common being indigo. However, i have a feeling that indigo might turn bleach-blonde hair green. Or it could be salts mixed into henna (which are BAD). Or both. make sure you do a lot of research into it, and strand test!

[cobblersmaid]

You could try different mixes of henna, indigo, amla, and various other herbs, to try to get brown. It will be harder on blonde hair, so strand test everything. I would check out henna for hair, they have a great deal of info.

Also, keep in mind that while you can get brown tones, all henna mixes will have some amount of red. If you need a really ashy tone, with no red at all, I would not henna.

[Nightshade]

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it :(

Henna is going to have some red, and is notoriously hard to keep from going flaming orange on light hair, no matter how much amla or other herbs you use.

I know Iris uses a very nice brand of hair dye that's non-damaging. Perhaps you could ask her what it is?

[twilight]

actually i was doing just this very thing for quite a long time until recently switching to red (henna-only).

i was using a 50/50 henna/indigo mix to get dark brown hair on my naturally dark blonde hair. it does take a few applications to build up the depth of the color, and it's hard to get your roots to match (they tend to always be a bit lighter), but it is definitely possible. if you want really dark brown or black, look into the 2-step henna indigo method. it works.
amla can be added to the mixes if you want less red tones, also.

i recommend doing a lot of research before you go for it with henna/indigo... but the bottom line is yes, you can do it on blonde hair. check out www.hennaforhair.com (http://www.hennaforhair.com) if you can't find what you are looking for here.

(side note: i have also used Rainbow brand "brown" hennas and liked them--they already have the indigo in the mix so you don't have to do it yourself.)

[CrystalStar]

Thank you everyone for the wonderful answers!! :) Completely appreciated :D

Hmm, thank you all for the warning about turning my hair fiery orange, as nice as red hair is I don't want to look like a carrot heehee :p Another thing is I have no issue using anything natural other than henna, or any other herb to try get my hair brown like Amla and all :)

Thanks for the suggestion Nightshade, I'll ask her sometime :) Thanks again :p

And Twilight, yay I'm glad to hear that it actually is possible! Thing is I have naturally light brown hair so the roots wouldn't be all that bad :) It's just getting back to brown without further murder of the hair which worries me :p

[Flaxen]

I have used Avigal Henna (http://www.ballbeauty.com/avigal-henna-colors.htm) in the blonde shades, and they weren't too red, but my porous, once bleached ends did go slightly orangy. You could try their brown, but I would definitely recommend a strand test before you do your whole head. :agree:

[Naava]

I have been very succesful with using henna/indigo over my bleached hair :)

I had dark hair which I then wanted to get back to blond (my natural color) and when I was blond, I understood that it's just not the color for me (I know, amazingly stupid and bad for my hair). The problem was that parts of my hair were so bleached out that conventional colors didn't stick to it anymore. Then I found about henna and indigo and it really made a great difference. My hair is really nice dark blackish brown and the color is even. I was suprized how well it dyed my roots too.

I have been using 1/4 henna and 3/4 indigo, so my hair is pretty dark. It has a little redness to it, but I love that :)

Of course everyones hair is different and what worked for me might not be as good for everyone else :)

[manderly]

I've used Rainbow Henna in dark sable on my brunette hair for a darker brunette.

It is a lovely (dark brown) color but it does seem to fade a tad. I get orange when it fades, but I'm not sure if that is because I've previously done BAQ red henna and that's peeking through, or if the Rainbow fades to reddish orange. I attribute it to the BAQ I've used.

[CrystalStar]

Naava, that sounds amazing! Is it possible you could tell me how you make up your mix? :) I'd possibly add a bit of Amla cause I think someone on this said it tones down the red! Thank you very much! :D

Heehee, and Manderly, thanks for the suggestion but I think I read somewhere that boxed henna can turn bleached blonde hair pretty horrific colours :p Is that true?

[GlassEyes]

Heehee, and Manderly, thanks for the suggestion but I think I read somewhere that boxed henna can turn bleached blonde hair pretty horrific colours :p Is that true?
I beleive that's from Compound henna, and that stuff would do a LOT more than that.

Boxes that contain pure henna/herbs only shouldn't turn your hair any more horrific a color than hennaing over bleached hair would. I'd take Nightshade's advice on this one, and if you still want to do it, strand test first, and make sure the strand isn't on your head. D:

I hennaed over my bleached hair, but I had already dyed it a light brown by then, so I don't know.

And I believe the color Iris uses is called Elumen, and it's a deposit only dye that gets darker with reapplication.

[Unofficial_Rose]

I've henndigo'd over bleached highlights and it worked out just fine.

For a golden brown gloss, mix a teaspoon of BAQ henna with a teaspoon of indigo, then mix the dry powders in enough conditioner to cover your (also dry) hair. Then leave it on for half an hour, no more or it'll go too red. This method was invented by someone called Kristina on Henna for Hair, and many people simply didn't believe it would work because of lack of apparent dye release etc. It'll tone your bleached bits a light golden brown, and if you keep repeating, you can build up to a darker brown. It does fade, but that at least stops it from getting too dark.

When you've built up to a dark enough colour, just do your roots for a bit. Sorry I don't have any photo's, but it does work. Improves the condition of bleached hair no end, too!

[Unofficial_Rose]

There you go - I don't have a Flickr account but my avatar is from last year when I used this method to gradually get to this colour over bleached highlights. It all blended nicely and I am still using this method.

My profile pic was the blonde before I henndigo'd over it.

[CrystalStar]

Sounds great unofficial Rose, but if you stopped doing it now would you still manage to keep the colour or would it all wash out? :)

Thank you everyone for the time you took to answer :)

[happymommy]

My Avatar is Rainbow Dark Brown henna over my much highlighted dark blonde/light brown hair. Rainbow does make a light brown henna if that is more your style. It's a mixture of henna and indigo. I did not have a problem with it fading and it turned out to be a very nice chestnut brunette.

I've since, however switched to full on henna. I use Karishma which I get at my local Indian retailer. While I know BAQ would be best for quality, I love love love the deep auburn tones from the Karishma. I only get cheeto orange around the very edges of my hairline for a day or so until it oxidizes.

Mellie has some lovely pictures of her Rainbow Dark Brown as well.

[Unofficial_Rose]

Sounds great unofficial Rose, but if you stopped doing it now would you still manage to keep the colour or would it all wash out? :)

Thank you everyone for the time you took to answer :)

Not all of it - actually I went extra-dark brown for a bit because I was into that look for a while, then pulled some of it out with a coconut cream soak - it faded to a goldish, slightly reddish brown but still looked pretty decent. In fact these days I'm using Surya henna cream in golden brown, which has some dodgy petrochemicals but since I have my layers of henndigo I felt brave enough to use it. Think I'll henndigo next time as it's better for the condition though!

[neon-dream]

Lush do caca brun which makes hair brown and contains henna.