Coloring quandry

[Tovah]

My hair is fried and damaged from chemical coloring over so many years. I'm finally taking care of it and it's healing as well as can be expected. The issue is that I am not ready yet to become a Renegray, but am concerned about chemical dyes again. I would go the henna/indigo route but don't know if I have the fortitude to keep it up myself and am afraid that I wouldn't be able to get the color right or consistent.

Is there a gentle natural semi-permanent dye out there that I can use?
My hair is very fine and wavy/curly....fly away. Current dyed color is auburn but would like to start making it a bit browner to match my natural color so that when I do decided to let it grow out, it will be a gentler transition. I need to do something quite soon as I'm starting to look 'ungroomed'.

[Shermie Girl]

Henna and indigo is a definite possibility. It is very gentle and hair safe. Henna is totally permanent, indigo, less so. But a mixture of the two will give you a gorgeous dark auburn and be good for your hair.

If you want to stick with chemical dye, coating your hair with coconut oil before hand can help to protect it from damage. Also, doing only roots, rather than pulling the colour through your length and ends will put much less stress on your tresses.

There is lots of good info on henna and indigo in the henna and natural products forum. The thread for using coconut oil is also in that forum. All the info is sorted into easy to click links on the first page of the thread. :D

[girlcat36]

I'm in the same boat as you, Tovah. I use Natural Instincts semi-permanent, and I pretreat with coconut oil.
It seems fairly gentle on my fine, fragile hair. I am getting really tired of doing my roots every six weeks, though. I don't think I want to start using a permanent dye, because I think the transition to grey with a semi-permanent color will be easier. I will be 44 in a few days, but I don't think I will be ready to be a Renegrey until I'm 50(plus DH is a lot younger than me, and I don't want to look like his 'old lady' even though I am!).
I am about 30% grey right now.

[Tovah]

Thanks to both of you for the input. I have a box of Natural Instincts, but chickened out because it has peroxide. I didn't know you could pre-treat with oil. Although I would love to use henna, the fact that it's permanent troubles me because I will want to let the silvers come in eventually...just not now.

Happy Birthday girlcat :queen:<--birthday crown
44 is young! I'm 61 but only about 30% silver (I think). Now I've pushed off the grow-out to 70. Hopefully it will be mostly white by then.

[ravenreed]

I used semi-permanent for over a year. It can still cause some damage, even with the coconut oil. I used the oil and it did help though. The thing to remember is that you cannot go lighter with demi-permanent. The upside is that since I have stopped, a good portion of the color has faded, which is fine because there is less of a demarcation where my roots are.

I switched to henna and so far, so good. I am hoping that I will eventually end up with the color I want.

[girlcat36]

Thanks for the birthday wishes, Tovah! :)