my mom's hair... halp

[Fethenwen]

Well yesterday she did finally decide to stop bleaching her hair, and hennaed it. But, it turned out horrible! Her roots didn't take any color at all, and the rest turned orangy. It's like her hair didn't really absorb that much color.
So, she will soon go and buy some regular color dye it with to get it more dark. But I wonder if her hair could be saved with more henna? And if there is something that should be put into the henna mix to make it more effective?
I wonder if her hair has been bleached too much over the years to be saved with henna. I must say it looks awful either way, it is in terrible shape. Or is it because her hair is gray for the most part that makes the henna behave this way?

I would rather not have her color her hair with chemical color ever again if it can be prevented, but of course, if nothing else helps I guess it is the only way to make her look decent :no: aw man.

[LadyEliza]

I didn't henna my hair because of the orange that it goes when you have grey hair. I imagine it's the same over heavy bleach.

Don't think that if your mother has to dye her hair using a "chemical" dye her hair will look bad. It probably will help a lot. They coat the hair and will give it shine that it probably doesn't have.

Only - having bleached it will absorb the colour more then it would if it hadn't been bleached, so get a lighter colour then you think she needs. NOT lighter then it is! You don't want to be adding any more bleach. Just get a shade or two lighter then you want it to be.

Good luck!

[brok3nwings]

Usually when the hair is bleached hairdressers have to fill in the hair first and then put the colour other wise it wont result in a natural colour. This is because ALL of the pigment has been taken off.. i think it is called a filler or something. (maybe someone could answer you that). So this is the first step that made everything go wrong. Then there is another factor IMO that is Henna is red but again if you dont have any pigment probably it will be orange. So, i think you should ask someone with henna experience but i believe you would have to use indigo to make a darker colour.
I woudnt put any chemicals because they dont react very well to henna and besides if her hair is already THAT damaged...

[Madame J]

You might want to talk to one of our henna gurus quick before she tries to cover over it with chemical dye. There's some sort of reaction with metallic salts in some hair dyes, so she might have a problem. I don't know enough about it to be much help, but I bet Nightshade, or one of the other lovely henna-savvy members might be able to tell you if this is an issue.

[Fethenwen]

Hmm, ok, thanks for the advice. I think I will try to keep her from harming her hair further until I know for sure what to do.

[Milui Elenath]

I can't really help as I'm a newbie to Henna and my hair was always red but I'm sure someone is bound to ask. What henna did you use? Was it BAQ (body art quality)? 100% Henna?

On the grey note, my greys seem to hold the Henna better than the natural reds.

What colour was she after?

[Fencai]

Don't put the chemical dyes over the henna. It could possibly get worse. The metals in the chemical dye won't react well with the henna.

Is there any way that you could post pics of it so we can see? It might help us a bit more.

Also, (and I know this was already asked) what kind of henna did you use, and what was your mix (if you mixed it yourself)?

When I went from platinum blonde to henna, it took me about 3 full head applications to get a decent coverage and color. I had been bleaching my poor hair for the past year once a month with 30vol bleach/developer. I had almost white hair because it was so bleached.

[Fethenwen]

She used 100% henna, the same as I'm using. She wants to achieve a color that looks more like mine.

I just got a picture. She found it a bit funny to have people on the internet helping her hair :p But she is willing to listen to you guys.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=2829&pictureid=39729

As you can see it hasn't taken much color, and not darkened any since yesterday.

I have suggested that she would try and henna it a few more times, but she's gone a bit skeptic towards henna now. Even if she has used it for a long period of time in her youth.

[ChatoyantLocks]

Her hair doesn't look that bad. I think her color turned out different from yours partly because her hair was a different color than yours to start with.

I've never worked with henna, so do get opinions from people who have some experience with it, but it seems like another treatment with henna will darken it somewhat. I'm not sure she can match your color exactly, since you have different hair to start with, but I would think she can get a deeper color.

[marialena]

I agree with ChatoyantLocks (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/member.php?u=15982). From that picture I can't see any problem. Did she wanted to make her hair darker or perhaps darker but a little redder?
In the first case I would used indigo over he first henna application in the second case I would used henna with cassia and a little indigo in in order to achieve a light brown ( to dark blond ) result.
In any case have in mind that you can't have immediate results on bleached hair.

[Fencai]

I agree, I think it looks fine.
i would do a few more full head applications (with sufficient time to oxidize in between) and let it go.
If she's looking for redder, then just keep hennaing. If she's looking for more brown, then you'll have to add the indigo.

[Akiko]

I am sorry your mother's hair did not turn as you expected.

I wonder that her length took up color a little better because the cuticles were roughed up (damage). If I remember correctly healthy gray hair has denser cuticles. So that might be the reason why her roots remained almost intact.

I did 8 full head henna (and indigo gloss) applications in 5 months. I only applied 75 minutes or so. But even after 8 applications, my silvers stayed copper orange.

Silvers are known to be resistant to henna. Much more difficult to color than non-grays. I think hennaing silvers can be exasperating. You need to touch up every 3 weeks or so. And if grays don't get colored too well, you have to apply longer or/and multiple times to even out. Or just live with much lighter orangy roots. This is one of the major reasons I quit using henna. The more silvers I get, the more orangy my hair will be.

Some people seem to have success getting darker color. The only way to tell is to strand test. You can try henna with higher dye content. I am sorry. I cannot offer much help.:(

[lora410]

That is kind of strange that the roots didn't take. Typically henna works miracles for damaged hair

How long did you let the dye release? and did you use really warm water when mixing? I once didn't use warm water and my henna diddn't release well and when it did I got barely any color.

How long was it on her head? I leave mine on no less then 4 hours

If she has mainly gray it will be an orangey. She may want to mix some indigo with it to make it a darker red. or reapply henna often to darken it up. The more she hennas the darker it will get. With her gray roots though her best best is probably henna and indigo mix, which you can get the kits at Mehandi.com

[danacc]

I second the suggestion to post in the Recipes, Henna, and Herbal Haircare (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21) discussion forum here. There are lots of folks with henna experience there.

In the meantime, a couple of points:
- Since it was 100% BAQ henna, there won't be any "odd" reactions to hair dye. Having said that, henna is stubborn. I've read it can be difficult to get nice results using dye on top of it. Most colorists are not familiar with it, and may not want to deal with it. It won't turn green or anything, though.
- Indigo is another story. From what I read, any sort of bleaching once indigo is used can cause green hair.

So right now, your mother has some options. If you put indigo, that will limit the options. Indigo may get the shade she wants, but if it doesn't, it's even harder to change. Definitely do strand tests on some shed hair (or discreetly snipped hair) before doing a whole-head application of anything.


And I think her color looks fine, but if it's not what she wants I certainly understand looking for a way to get a different shade.

[heidi w.]

Two suggestions:

Generally, it's not good to color, then color again in rapid succession. Not sure about henna, but the issue we have here is henna and bleached hair.

1. Visit Long Hair Loom, main guestbook. Lots of folks there henna and have lots of experience.

2. She may well, at this juncture, consider seeing a color specialist (not to be confused with the average hair stylist...you want a person with a lot of experience in coloring hair only, in all types of circumstances), and one that has experience with henna! It'll be worth the money. You don't want her hair breaking off!

heidi w.