Semi perm dye over faded henna

[BrianaFineHair]

Has anyone ever had a semi perm dye applied over faded henna? I'm curious about this. Any comments, testimonies?

[Zombiekins]

I've done semi-permanent dyes over fresh (within a month or two) and not so fresh (six months or more) hennaings!

If you go darker there won't be a problem, you'll get pretty much the color in the bottle, but it'll fade fairly fast depending on brand, how long you left it on, whether you used heat, etc... And I've noticed that henna always seems to shine through in bright light conditions.

The last one I did was with some Ion semi-permanent dyes picked up at Sally's (dark brown with red, dark brown with violet, and a bottle of Beyond the Zone in the bright red thrown in), all mixed together, and left on clean (well...it was washed the day before, that counts) dry hair for about an hour. It covered my hair beautifully, making it a dark luscious red/purple color that wasn't black, but wasn't brown either - just dark. My complaint is that it began to fade immediately (as semi-perms do), and my towels got purple on them until it was completely faded out three weeks later.

Also, I've got a permanent story too. I used herbatint (or naturatint? one of those) permanent hair color in black and it dyed my hair just fine, one even black layer, and faded out a wee bit over the next two weeks to a more natural dark color, and eventually faded out to the point my length looks the same as it did before dying.

And in ultra-mega bright light (we're talking blinding sun here) my hair shines red, despite how dark the length is in normal light. Here is a good example of what I mean (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sangzombie/3720147703/). The roots are henna, and you see that dark area starting about 1/2-3/4" out from them? That's black - about a month, month n' a half from the herbatint application. Going all the way down it's black from that point on. The sun was shining through the windows so hard you can see how blown out the picture is on my face and arms (and the white in the background), and the henna just overtakes the black in it. Crazy, right?

So, yeah, you can use semi-perms just fine (though to lighten you'll have to bleach...good luck trying to get the henna out that way), but they'll fade (it's in their nature) and henna overtakes all - muhahahaha. :P I'll still use them when I've got something coming up and don't have the time to mess around with henna.

[SharkDisco]

I have lots of wiry grey hairs that are extremely resistant to henna, so I usually dye with a semi-permanent (Clairol's Natural Instincts) once every couple of months, and apply henna (from Lush) a couple of times in between to keep my hair shiny and strong. I haven't had any problems at all - in fact, the combo makes my hair feel amazing. If you haven't been using compound henna, go for it!

[BrianaFineHair]

Wow, Zombiekins, that is an wild photo! From what you and SharkDisco have said, seems there will be no harm done, which was my concern.

This is for my daughter. We'll wait a few months so the roots can come in really good before going to our hair stylist. I had a short talk with the lady and she mentioned trying a semi perm color.

My daughter's hair is light brown. She has henna red now, so I'm not even sure if our aim is to go darker or lighter to match her natural color at this point. I hope not lighter, because we do not want to inflict any damage. We won't do that.

We did all of the other natural lightening techniques with just minor results.

Rainbow Henna was supposed to "fade", but that word can mean different things to everyone, I suppose. Our mistake was believing it would fade a lot more than it actually has. We'll wait about 2 more months.

Thanks ladies! :)

[Zombiekins]

Wow, Zombiekins, that is an wild photo! From what you and SharkDisco have said, seems there will be no harm done, which was my concern.

This is for my daughter. We'll wait a few months so the roots can come in really good before going to our hair stylist. I had a short talk with the lady and she mentioned trying a semi perm color.

My daughter's hair is light brown. She has henna red now, so I'm not even sure if our aim is to go darker or lighter to match her natural color at this point. I hope not lighter, because we do not want to inflict any damage. We won't do that.

We did all of the other natural lightening techniques with just minor results.

Rainbow Henna was supposed to "fade", but that word can mean different things to everyone, I suppose. Our mistake was believing it would fade a lot more than it actually has. We'll wait about 2 more months.

Thanks ladies! :)

Nope, no harm done! I'm with SharkDisco, the combo even seems to make hair stronger. I'm under the impression conventional dye does little "positive" for hair (and at best doesn't harm it), but henna definitely has made my hair more durable and the semi-perms don't inflict any damage.

Yeah, I think Rainbow Henna, for all it's additives still has henna at its heart and "fades" only so much as actual henna does - which is to say 'not nearly at the same rate as other "permanent" hair dye methods!'

Good luck with your daughter's hair. Sounds a lot like my starting color. Light brown (which I *hate* soooo much on me, hence the coloring. :p) shot through with gold.

[sycamoreboutiqu]

Yeah, it works fine.

I have to touch up my roots sometimes with a semi-perm red just for appearances sake, until I can do my henna app and it works great. The semi-perm fades fairly quick and by that time I am ready for a henna and it is all good.

[Evilynn]

I suppose it's a case of YMMV, but on me it was nearly impossible to get a normal semi perm to stick on my henna'd hair. I used L'Oréal Casting in burgundy and/or mahogany and walked around with burgundy on my regrowth and henna on the ends. I wonder another vegetable dye would've stuck better...

[BrianaFineHair]

Just thought I'd update you ladies on our visit with stylist yesterday.

DD went in for a trim today and our hair stylist told us that she can see already that DD is a light brown and that she could do a semi perm light brown to match those roots when they come in a bit more. She asked us to wait a couple more months to be able to get an even better look at her natural color before proceeding. She's such a good stylist. I really like her. She also wants us to give the henna a bit more time to fade.)

She told us that the semi-perm would fade some, but if DD does not like that stark root contrast, it's a good option for her.

So, that will be our plan.

[Isilme]

I don't know how you feel about permanent dyes, but you could lok into Elumen. A dye that is about as permanent as henna. But doesn't contain peroxide and comes in several colours form what I have heard. It could be a little bit tricky to find but I'm sure you can order it online and test on hairballs. Also, keep in mind that while semi permanent dyes are less damaging than permanent, they still contain peroxide. Maybe I have already told you all of this, if so just ignore, my memory isn't always doing a good job;)

[BrianaFineHair]

Hi, Isilme :) I'll have to Google that Elumen. I've never heard of that before. No worries, I don't recall that you mentioned semi perm dyes containing peroxide, so that is good info to know. Thank you. :)

[Earelia]

Old thread, but I was reading up on ammonia and peroxide free dyes and stumbles across it. Herbatint's site says not to use over henna. I wonder why...

[kwaniesiam]

Old thread, but I was reading up on ammonia and peroxide free dyes and stumbles across it. Herbatint's site says not to use over henna. I wonder why...

Herbatint contains metallic salts that react horribly to other chemicals, particularly those in compound hennas. It would be safe to use over body art quality henna, anything is safe to use over BAQ as long as you are 100% sure it was pure.

[celebriangel]

I was going to henna, then (as I think it won't be as bright as I want) brighten it up with manic panic-type vegetable dyes. I have naturally light/medium ash brown hair to begin with, but most of it is permanently dyed bright red. Good idea, Y/N?

[cameronscurls]

i was also thinking of putting manic panic over my heanna's hair.. im not sure if it would make it too dark though :/

[celebriangel]

I don't think it would make it any darker...and anyway, manic panic (if you don't bleach/make your hair porous/use heat) "covers" your hair, so it will just wash out after a while unless you're blonde/have very porous hair - which you won't if you've henna'd. At least, that seems to be what happens, that henna just stops other stuff from sticking.

Which is quite cool, really, because then you can have whatever colour and not worry about whether or not it will wash out...

(did some research, y'see)

[Earelia]

Ahhh, thanks for the info kwaniesiam.

You're makin' me want to drag out the ol' Peter avatar...

[Quezie]

I use a conditioning vegetable based dye over my henna which doesn't damage my hair at all.

Also, it comes in an array of colours; bright reds, deep reds, purple reds, purple, pink, etc.! :P

[akuamoonmaui]

I use conventional dyes along with henna, I haven't had any adverse reactions. I keep both colors quite close. Lush caca marron, and light golden brown for the dyes.