scalawaggirl
February 17th, 2009, 07:19 AM
First off, apologies for the lengthy post. Here is a little background because I just discovered how much darker the very back of my head was (only the section at the back, not anything below it).
On Sunday, I did my roots with my henna/cassia mix and left it on for 4 hours. Then, I applied a henna/cassia gloss mixed w/yoghurt to the length for another hour (will be doing this from now on; the shine is amazing). I did one full-head application before this exactly 3 weeks ago but my roots were already more than 3/4" grown! Yowza! Not complaining, mind you.
When I was looking at my hair before bed, I noticed what a lousy job I'd been doing on the roots at the back of my head or so it seemed! I'm totally confused because this section is much darker than any other part, even the very bottom under layer. Ugh! :rolleyes: It looked like I did not even apply henna/cassia to this area even though I'm certain I did. ;)
I'm wondering, if anyone else has noticed this odd phenomenon. It is doubtful due to to my old grown-out hair color though, as I mentioned, my under-canopy is noticeably darker. I believe this has happened, to some degree, from how I used to color - before I did henna/cassia, I had colored my own hair w/a combo mix of Wella Charm using a 30% volume developer so there was some lift going on. I did all of my roots once a month, on average, and then pulled the color down for the last 10 minutes over the top canopy (over previous highlights).
However, my question/quandary is why aren't the under layer "roots" also lighter? Seems like they would also be growing out similar to the ones on the top of my head and, as such, a visible line of demarcation. Hmm. I don't spend a lot of time in the sun so there would be no natural lightening happening as in my youth.
Oh, and although one might think I'd have thought about or discovered this before, well, I was not as obsessed about my hair as I am now so there you go. I routinely examine, comb and fawn over it these days. It's a sickness, I tell you! :o
So, I did a lightening using the 30% volume developer (from another recent LHC thread), which I diluted 1:1 with RO/DI water. I soaked the very back of my hair after sectioning it out and then blew it dry on warm heat until damp. Given that it didn't seem to be doing much, I put straight 30% developer on the same section and repeated. Now, I wonder, if I should've used hot heat rather than warm. It turned out fairly well with no damage that I can tell but the dark section remains; albeit, a bit lighter but the henna shows up better now, IMO. Prior to doing anything, I had put an oil mix including coconut on my hair. It was on the heavier side at the back of my head so maybe that was the culprit, as well.
I'm seriously considering doing another application of 30% volume developer but this time, I would use hot heat rather than warm. It did seem to lift the darkness while leaving the henna but it was a small shift, as I mentioned.
Finally, I'm not totally freaked out about it since it sort of looks as though I intended to create the major highlights that appear from the bright orange/auburn streaks. They are all over my canopy and make it appear that my hair is quite brightly colored (I like this) over a darker color that is my under canopy. I suppose my goal is to get the variations to a closer comparison rather than bright vs. dark. I would add that, if this were an actual line of demarcation, I would definitely be flipping out. ;) Please share your thoughts on this and how you think the color difference looks.
Here are pics of the situation:
Back section where the main problem lies. This is a before/after lightening w/the 30% volume developer. Also, the white balance is a bit off in the first pic and you can see the oil, which is not in the 2nd pic so please keep that in mind.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/scalawaggirl/Hair/Backsectionlightenbefore_aftercompa.jpg
Full head shots before/after. The first is after I did the roots and henna/cassia gloss. The second is from this morning so 1.5 days oxidation so far. Again, the color comparison is variable due to lightening and also the elusive complexity of henna but I can tell that my ends have definitely lightened up. They are a dark auburn now (from very dark, almost wine-colored) but I can see the henna/shine much better.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/scalawaggirl/Hair/Fullhairaftertouchupbeforelightento.jpg
Lastly, these pictures show some of how the color variations look with part of my hair pulled back after lightening. Real life color is more like the 2nd pic, IMO, though you can't really see the darker henna color.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/scalawaggirl/Hair/Colorvariationsafterlighten.jpg
On Sunday, I did my roots with my henna/cassia mix and left it on for 4 hours. Then, I applied a henna/cassia gloss mixed w/yoghurt to the length for another hour (will be doing this from now on; the shine is amazing). I did one full-head application before this exactly 3 weeks ago but my roots were already more than 3/4" grown! Yowza! Not complaining, mind you.
When I was looking at my hair before bed, I noticed what a lousy job I'd been doing on the roots at the back of my head or so it seemed! I'm totally confused because this section is much darker than any other part, even the very bottom under layer. Ugh! :rolleyes: It looked like I did not even apply henna/cassia to this area even though I'm certain I did. ;)
I'm wondering, if anyone else has noticed this odd phenomenon. It is doubtful due to to my old grown-out hair color though, as I mentioned, my under-canopy is noticeably darker. I believe this has happened, to some degree, from how I used to color - before I did henna/cassia, I had colored my own hair w/a combo mix of Wella Charm using a 30% volume developer so there was some lift going on. I did all of my roots once a month, on average, and then pulled the color down for the last 10 minutes over the top canopy (over previous highlights).
However, my question/quandary is why aren't the under layer "roots" also lighter? Seems like they would also be growing out similar to the ones on the top of my head and, as such, a visible line of demarcation. Hmm. I don't spend a lot of time in the sun so there would be no natural lightening happening as in my youth.
Oh, and although one might think I'd have thought about or discovered this before, well, I was not as obsessed about my hair as I am now so there you go. I routinely examine, comb and fawn over it these days. It's a sickness, I tell you! :o
So, I did a lightening using the 30% volume developer (from another recent LHC thread), which I diluted 1:1 with RO/DI water. I soaked the very back of my hair after sectioning it out and then blew it dry on warm heat until damp. Given that it didn't seem to be doing much, I put straight 30% developer on the same section and repeated. Now, I wonder, if I should've used hot heat rather than warm. It turned out fairly well with no damage that I can tell but the dark section remains; albeit, a bit lighter but the henna shows up better now, IMO. Prior to doing anything, I had put an oil mix including coconut on my hair. It was on the heavier side at the back of my head so maybe that was the culprit, as well.
I'm seriously considering doing another application of 30% volume developer but this time, I would use hot heat rather than warm. It did seem to lift the darkness while leaving the henna but it was a small shift, as I mentioned.
Finally, I'm not totally freaked out about it since it sort of looks as though I intended to create the major highlights that appear from the bright orange/auburn streaks. They are all over my canopy and make it appear that my hair is quite brightly colored (I like this) over a darker color that is my under canopy. I suppose my goal is to get the variations to a closer comparison rather than bright vs. dark. I would add that, if this were an actual line of demarcation, I would definitely be flipping out. ;) Please share your thoughts on this and how you think the color difference looks.
Here are pics of the situation:
Back section where the main problem lies. This is a before/after lightening w/the 30% volume developer. Also, the white balance is a bit off in the first pic and you can see the oil, which is not in the 2nd pic so please keep that in mind.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/scalawaggirl/Hair/Backsectionlightenbefore_aftercompa.jpg
Full head shots before/after. The first is after I did the roots and henna/cassia gloss. The second is from this morning so 1.5 days oxidation so far. Again, the color comparison is variable due to lightening and also the elusive complexity of henna but I can tell that my ends have definitely lightened up. They are a dark auburn now (from very dark, almost wine-colored) but I can see the henna/shine much better.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/scalawaggirl/Hair/Fullhairaftertouchupbeforelightento.jpg
Lastly, these pictures show some of how the color variations look with part of my hair pulled back after lightening. Real life color is more like the 2nd pic, IMO, though you can't really see the darker henna color.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/scalawaggirl/Hair/Colorvariationsafterlighten.jpg