Getting the orange out of hair... Darkening hair

[mediumhair]

I was wondering if there's a way to get my hair to dark brown naturally. My natural hair is about medium brown but since it has an orange tint to it it doesn't suit my complexion. I finally realized that instead of always going for golden or lighter hair in the past that I would look nice with dark brown hair with no mention of highlights or orange/golden in it. That's how my hair was before I first dyed it 3 years ago and got it sun bleached, etc. So how exactly can I do this without dying my hair?

[kdaniels8811]

You could try a hendigo mix but read up carefully, it is permanent like no other hair color and strand test to be sure you are happy with the shade. There is tons of information on this site about henna and indigo, my hair is colored with it - from a lighter shade of brown - and I am very happy with it but the color does not fade or go away, it is very permanent. With that said, henna is wonderful for conditioning and adding tons of shine. Good luck and ask lots of questions, many knowledgeable peple here.

[Themyst]

That's what I've been doing - I wanted to use henna to strengthen my hair but didn't want the orange. So I've been doing henna glosses, getting some orange cast, so then I do a quick, weak indigo gloss and it goes back to medium brown (with nice reddish highlights!)

It has been impossible for me to get an accurate pic. But I keep trying! If I ever get one that shows the true color, I'll post it.

[burns_erin]

I will play devils advocate here, there is really NO WAY to get dark brown hair using henna without getting some form of red or orange. You can probably push the tint more red THAN orange, but there it is...Henna is STRONG and it is inevitably red/orange.

[Anje]

You might be able to apply just katam (Buxus dioica) to your hair. It's kind of a gray-brown tone. I don't know how well it will "stick" without henna, and it does fade over time, but it's definitely both darkening and ashy colored. Indigo is also an option, but it tends to have more of a green-gray-blue stain, which looks totally weird without henna to turn it more brown. However, henna+indigo will definitely have orange tones in the sunlight.

ETA: Your other option, if you don't want to use any kind of dye (including plant dyes) is that you can always let your natural color grow out again. If it's important that it stays ashy with no red to it at all, you will probably want to cover your hair when you spend significant periods of time in the sun, so it doesn't lighten from the sunlight.

Another ETA: We have a Buxus thread, but if you want pictures, there are some nice images of white hair dyed with buxus in various combinations with other plant dyes and by itself at Mehandi.com (http://www.mehandi.com/shop/buxus/index.html).

[mediumhair]

Thank you. I am not going the hena route. I don't have orange hair. I have gold type of highlights that are very noticible only because of my roots(my roots have no gold/red/orange shade). My hair grows very slo.