Color issue - I don't know what to do!

[Lemur_Catta]

Hello everyone.
I am thinking of dying my hair, but I don't know how and if it would damage my hair too much. So I'm asking you for an advice.
First, let me say I have very light skin with freckles in the summer.
My natural color is dark brown, but I have always liked red so, when I was 14-15, I started dying my hair with semi-permanent, the ones you buy in stores that should last 6-8 shampoos. They always had something permanent in them, so even if I stopped using them people asked if I had dyed my hair red.
Then I decided to lighten my hair, but I was foolish enough to try to do it myself (I have never liked hairstylists, because they could never cut my hair the way I wanted). I bought a lotion who was something like water, chamomile and a little bit of hydrogen peroxide. You simply had to put it on your hair after washing, as a leave in, and shampoo after shampoo it would become lighter.
It kind of worked, even if my hair was dry and damaged. Everyone around me said I had beautiful hair (it was light brown, I'll post a picture) and that the color really suited me.
Then I discovered henna, and that was the trouble: the first time I did it, my color was wonderful, but as the months passed the roots became more visible and so I had them dark red, almost brown, while the ends where brighter and redder.
Then I made a stupid mistake: I went to an hairdresser asking to come back to my natural color, with some lighter highlights. I went out red with orange highlights, a fringe and a horrible haircut.
So I started hennaing my hair again, but I had again the same problem: the highlighted strands would become bright red while the roots would be almost brown, with the red only visible in the sun.
I tried henna + indigo, but that would become too dark.
I still have this problem, and it is really bothering me, expecially when I wear my hair in a bun, because the bun is redder than the hair in the scalp, it looks like I'm wearing a hairpiece.
I am tired of it, so I am considering chemical dying to even the color. I know I have to wait since I have hennaed my hair 20 days ago, but I still don't know what to do.
My options are:
1) leave thing as they are and keep using henna
2) chemically dye my hair dark brown (my natural color) and eventually highlight (I would dye at home and then go to the salon only for the highlights)
3) chemically dye my hair dark red so it would be even, let some months pass and then restart henna
4) chemically dye my hair dark brown and then stop using any other dye

or any combination of the options above.
My first concern is that my ends are already very damaged and I have many split ends so I would not want to damage them more, but I need to even the color some way.

You can see my hair now in the avatar, and that is the color everybody I had about 2 years ago.
http://img211.imageshack.us/i/sve1.jpg/

[Redheaded Raven]

Hello everyone.
I am thinking of dying my hair, but I don't know how and if it would damage my hair too much. So I'm asking you for an advice.
First, let me say I have very light skin with freckles in the summer.
My natural color is dark brown, but I have always liked red so, when I was 14-15, I started dying my hair with semi-permanent, the ones you buy in stores that should last 6-8 shampoos. They always had something permanent in them, so even if I stopped using them people asked if I had dyed my hair red.
Then I decided to lighten my hair, but I was foolish enough to try to do it myself (I have never liked hairstylists, because they could never cut my hair the way I wanted). I bought a lotion who was something like water, chamomile and a little bit of hydrogen peroxide. You simply had to put it on your hair after washing, as a leave in, and shampoo after shampoo it would become lighter.
It kind of worked, even if my hair was dry and damaged. Everyone around me said I had beautiful hair (it was light brown, I'll post a picture) and that the color really suited me.
Then I discovered henna, and that was the trouble: the first time I did it, my color was wonderful, but as the months passed the roots became more visible and so I had them dark red, almost brown, while the ends where brighter and redder.
Then I made a stupid mistake: I went to an hairdresser asking to come back to my natural color, with some lighter highlights. I went out red with orange highlights, a fringe and a horrible haircut.
So I started hennaing my hair again, but I had again the same problem: the highlighted strands would become bright red while the roots would be almost brown, with the red only visible in the sun.
I tried henna + indigo, but that would become too dark.
I still have this problem, and it is really bothering me, expecially when I wear my hair in a bun, because the bun is redder than the hair in the scalp, it looks like I'm wearing a hairpiece.
I am tired of it, so I am considering chemical dying to even the color. I know I have to wait since I have hennaed my hair 20 days ago, but I still don't know what to do.
My options are:
1) leave thing as they are and keep using henna
2) chemically dye my hair dark brown (my natural color) and eventually highlight (I would dye at home and then go to the salon only for the highlights)
3) chemically dye my hair dark red so it would be even, let some months pass and then restart henna
4) chemically dye my hair dark brown and then stop using any other dye

or any combination of the options above.
My first concern is that my ends are already very damaged and I have many split ends so I would not want to damage them more, but I need to even the color some way.

You can see my hair now in the avatar, and that is the color everybody I had about 2 years ago.
http://img211.imageshack.us/i/sve1.jpg/

There is a sun-in thread that talks about Nightshade doing a lightening to her hennaed hair...Here. (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=19317)

I also lightened my own hennaed hair by using tomato juice, lemon juice, honey and a small amount of peroxide.

It worked well for what I needed. It sounds though as if you might need to just do a roots only application of color once it gets to the point that you want...
Have you tried any of the other natural lighteners like yogurt or camomile tea?

Good luck.

[ChrissieM]

I have a feeling I'm going to be in your shoes in about a year.....I'd been chemically coloring my hair redder for years, not realizing (because I'm dumb) that it was bleaching the hair slightly before depositing color, which would then fade. I love henna because of the non-fading red, but now my natural color is growing in a WHOLE lot darker than I remember it from 15 or so years ago. :( The henna over that part is much darker, almost brown. It looks fine now, but I might have to think about some honey lightening treatments or sun-in before henna next time to see if I can get a bit brighter red.

Now, how many full head hennas have you had? I think that the color on the length will eventually even out with the roots with more applications because the color builds. Or you could just grow it out two-toned. There's a two-toned support thread on this forum somewhere. If you used chemical dye once to get the length back to natural, then hennaed over it, you would probably negate the chemical damage.

[Lemur_Catta]

I didn't know this SunIn, because it is not sold where I live, but I read about it and it looks like the lotion I used to lighten my hair, because they both contain peroxide. It dried my hair, so I don't know if it would be a good idea to use it again, even if I could try and see if I can obtain a redder color. I also have 10vol. peroxide, the one that it is used as disinfectant, and I thought I could use it, it seems gentler than the 40vol peroxide my mother uses on her hair when she dyes it.

[SimplyLonghair]

Sun in is a lightening spray in. I have used a 10vol peroxide on hair, it is the most gentle. Good luck.

[Lemur_Catta]

I have a feeling I'm going to be in your shoes in about a year.....I'd been chemically coloring my hair redder for years, not realizing (because I'm dumb) that it was bleaching the hair slightly before depositing color, which would then fade. I love henna because of the non-fading red, but now my natural color is growing in a WHOLE lot darker than I remember it from 15 or so years ago. :( The henna over that part is much darker, almost brown. It looks fine now, but I might have to think about some honey lightening treatments or sun-in before henna next time to see if I can get a bit brighter red.

Now, how many full head hennas have you had? I think that the color on the length will eventually even out with the roots with more applications because the color builds. Or you could just grow it out two-toned. There's a two-toned support thread on this forum somewhere. If you used chemical dye once to get the length back to natural, then hennaed over it, you would probably negate the chemical damage.

I think I had more than 10 full head hennas, but the only way I could even my color was using henna + indigo, but I didn't like the color obtained because it was too dark. Chemical dye and then henna would be a good idea, but it would be dark red and not bright.


Sun in is a lightening spray in. I have used a 10vol peroxide on hair, it is the most gentle. Good luck.

I think I'll try the peroxide next time I shampoo. Do I have to use it as it is or diluted in water?

[Deborah]

You know what, my hair looks like yours naturally. For no known reason, my hair grows in dark brown, but as it grows longer it keeps turning redder! So, when my hair is up in a bun, my bun always looks a good bit different from the hair right out of my head. :shrug:

So you may look a lot more natural than you think! You can probably let your natural color grow in with a lot less effort than you think. It's possible that you will have a line where the color changes. Maybe you could just have that small area streaked or something to blend it in. Then just let it grow! You'll eventually end up with all natural, healthy, shining hair. Just a thought. :flower:

[SimplyLonghair]

Well when I was younger we just kind of sprayed some in like Sun in or painted in on like highlights, but don't leave it on too long as it Is peroxide. I would strand test first. Way back then I couldn't have told you if it damaged my hair or not. :silly: So test first. :agree: