Where Oh Where has my BROWN henna gone?

[Aromatic]

Hi dear community!

I hope for help. :waving:

My hair gets really nice treatment (just natural cosmetics, oil, a really good brush) and I wish it were nicer to me too. But no.

I try to henna (henndigo every other time) my hair brown. Thats all I want, a 'boring', simple brown. For my sake whit a red glow. Actually I just want my own original haircolor back.

The problem is, that the last half still suffers from a bleaching trauma. Yes, I confess that I wanted to be blonde for once in my life. :crazyq: (It's a hundred or at least 4 years ago.)
I suppose, thats why the color sticks so badly. (Even normal drugstore or hair-dressers color won't last too good.) After 2 or 3 hairwashes I'm red-brown, which I like too, I'd be fine, if it stopped here. But after another 3 or 4 washes the ends turn kind of orange. As my skin is cool-toned so you can imagine how pretty that looks.


So I felt, I need to open a thread for all of you out there, who are working on the project: Brown hair with henna.
Be united to be stronger! :joy:
Please write down all of your tricks.


Here are some pictures of my changing hair color:

One or two henna sessions - fading:

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/272/hvergleich1hm5.jpg

More fading - less brown, more red:

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/466/hvergleich2ot7.jpg

So far my best result - thats what I want! Freshly hennad:

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/707/hphf132081rc9.jpg


Last henna result - nice but very non-lasting:

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/798/hphf263081av1.jpg

[zift]

Aromatic,your color looks awesome whether brown or reddish brown.
I myself try to get a dark brown color with henndigo and right after the process it's the most beautiful dark brown/black and after three weeks it's a very reddish brown. Indigo fades for me so not a successful one here.Will wait for answers impatiently!

[squiggyflop]

hmmm so your ends till have dye damage from 4 years ago? my ends are also bleached (repeatedly i might add) and my henna is lighter there... perhaps your hair is resistant to the indigo... it looks like the henna has stuck on your hair rather well.
there are other herbs that can be used for dying hair. (check nightshades article).. have you looked at the mixes page of hennaforhair?

[squiggyflop]

here is a page at henna for hair (http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/katharineg/)... the site says that amla will make the henna more brown i think (http://www.mehandi.com/shop/amla/)
look at all the pretty colors! (http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/index.html) scroll dow to view

[mellie]

Your hair is beautiful!

Re: getting a good solid brown; have you tried doing two-steps? This helped me when I was using BAQ henna. (I would first do a henna only treatment, then the next day do the indigo and amla treatment). Here's my results and you can see how well it took on my gray hairs:

Before:
http://portlandviolin.bizland.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/natgray.jpgAfterhttp://portlandviolin.bizland.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hendigamla2.jpg

Now I just use Dark Brown (or Medium Brown) Rainbow Henna which gives me the color you see in my avatar in only one step, but some folks here are against it (although I really like it), and you probably cannot get it in Germany either.

Hope that helps!

[Javadandy]

here is a page at henna for hair (http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/katharineg/)... the site says that amla will make the henna more brown i think (http://www.mehandi.com/shop/amla/)
look at all the pretty colors! (http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/index.html) scroll dow to view

Squiggyflop has a good answer. :) Here's how it worked for me... hope this helps. I have highlights and about 20% gray in my natural med-dark brown hair which goes down to my lower back, just below BSL. My first henna was hendingo with amla all purchased from HennaforHair. It was perfectly brown. It grew very quickly and before I knew it - it was time for a touch-up. Well I was lazy and just did henna, Jamila, which made my hair pretty darn red, and my gray roots orange. I did an amla pack 3 times and toned my red hair back to auburn brown within a week. Amla is cool because it is nourishing (at least in my experience) and helps with the growth and totally helps tone the red. If you hendingo, putting amla in your mix means when some of the indigo washes out you won't have strong red left over, more of a bronze type color. I have only henna'd 3 times so far, but IMO the amla won't hurt your hair, will make a hendingo less red and save you from so much red as your hair fades. There are a lot of great mixes on the hennaforhair page. Good luck.

Marian

[Aromatic]

Thanks everybody!! I hope that we can share more experiences here...

Allright! I have to get Amla. Luckily I found a german onlineshop.

And thanks for the link to hennaforhair. I love the ideas they have for a better smell. I'll definitley try that!