help... greenish hair (highlighting after henna)

[gi2121]

Hello everyone,

I read you a lot, but never post.

However today I reaaaally need help (and please excuse my bad english :o).

I put henna on my hair in november 2007. Since then, I put absolutely nothing on it.
Today I went to a hair-salon and had some highlights done. Because of the henna from november, I asked the hairdresser to do a test. She did, and I had just a tiny bit of the length that was greenish (my hair's length is about my chin). I said ok, we do the highlights and cut what's green. So we did, but then it turned out that a loooot of the hair length got that hideous greenish shade.
So we did cut quite a bit :(. The haircut is ok, but still, there is some green going on...
Please, what can I do to conceal it, since I know nothing can fix it? What kind of dye could I use? I didn't want the hairdresser to dye it immedialtely like she suggested, I prefered to quietly think about it and ask help to the real "pros" :p. I actually like the effect of the highlights on the "virgin" hairlength, what a pity if I have to cover my whole hait with dye again...

Thanks in advance for your help!!

[Kirin]

You should probably try a light henna gloss with only body art quality henna. I am not sure what henna you used before, but if the bleach of the highlights turned it green its possible it was compound henna.

Red will cancel out green very effectively.

For a henna gloss, use 2 tablespoons of BAQ henna and about a half cup to a cup of conditioner and leave it on for around 2 hours. It should give enough red to cancel out the green.

If your desire is to NOT use henna again, you can try a gloss of 1 teaspoon manic panic temporary haircolor in a half cup of conditioner, and let that stay wrapped on your hair for about an hour. EDIT: Forgot to add use a red shade, you might want to try a shorter time first, you can always do it again if it doesnt work the first time.

or, you could try a chemical color in "strawberry blonde" which should tone down the green of the highlights.

Lastly, you could also try a "red conditioner" one specifically made to enhance red hair, it might tone down the green.

[gi2121]

Thanks for the advice Kirin...
I read somewhere that a red tone could neutralize the green... and I really wanted to go away from the red :(. Too bad. So now I have to choose between greenish and red, I guess... :shrug:
And I don't want to use henna again. Henna is very nice, but when the time comes when you want to make a change, it's almost impossible.

[iris]

Thanks for the advice Kirin...
I read somewhere that a red tone could neutralize the green... and I really wanted to go away from the red :(. Too bad. So now I have to choose between greenish and red, I guess... :shrug:
No, no, not at all. If you use only a small amount of red, it'll change the green to a neutral, brownish, hair-colored color. It will NOT make your hair red, unless you use too much red.

Like Kirin said, start with a small amount of red and use more if you have to. You may find that your ends take up more red (so will take fewer applications to get to the neutral shade you want) than your midlength. It will be somewhat tricky to get it right, you really should go strand by strand and bit by bit to see where it takes you.

This works by the principle of the color wheel; red + green makes brown.

If you're uncomfortable working it out yourself (it is a lot of fiddling and trying to get it exactly right) you may be better off having your hairdresser do it for you. But what she'll be doing is exactly this: she'll add some red to your hair, without making it red (assuming that she knows what she's doing).

Iris

[gi2121]

I don't know if she knows what she's doing, and I'll tell you why: she suggested to cover my greenish ends with a light brown, not reddish at all. Following this color wheel principle, she should have suggested a reddish brown then. Problem is: my highlighted roots (virgin hair) are a very light brown, almost blonde, if I dye my hair with a reddish dye, the ends may look ok, but my highlighted roots will look red, and that's what I wanted to avoid... In the end, if I want normal looking ends, I will have to get red roots... oh boy... :(

[iris]

I don't know if she knows what she's doing, and I'll tell you why: she suggested to cover my greenish ends with a light brown, not reddish at all. Following this color wheel principle, she should have suggested a reddish brown then. Problem is: my highlighted roots (virgin hair) are a very light brown, almost blonde, if I dye my hair with a reddish dye, the ends may look ok, but my highlighted roots will look red, and that's what I wanted to avoid... In the end, if I want normal looking ends, I will have to get red roots... oh boy... :(
You should not apply the red stuff all over, - only on the greenish parts.

It is a pain to get it right. I'm sort of in a similar boat - my length is hennaed, I lightened the henna to a dark yellow with household peroxide, and now I have to tone the yellow to a dark ash blond shade to match my roots (about 15cm/6 inches). I use a blue/purple dye to do that; obviously I cannot apply the blue/purple dye to my roots because then I'd have blue roots :shrug:

Thankfully I'm a very patient person, so I do my toning strand by strand and bit by bit, only where it's needed, until it's exactly right. The blue stuff washes out over time so I have to repeat the process every two months or so. It is a pain but I think I'm more patient and more precise with it than any hairdresser would be.

Iris

[sibylla]

I think you have to wait for a while and let your hair repair itself a little before doing anything. Do a lot of oil treatments and no chemicals at all. Try WO for many days. To get rid of the green I suggest ketchup. I´m afraid adding henna might start a chemical reaccion and damage you hair.

[Aljona]

I've put henna on bleached and chemically colored hair before, and I've never had any problems with that as long as the henna is pure. I would suggest trying ketchup first, if that doesn't work maybe a henna gloss or one of those red tinted shampoos that are sold at salons.

[iris]

I don't think that ketchup would help. Ketchup works to get green out of swimmer's hair, but the green has a different cause there (it's copper ions that get into the water from the pipes - ketchup takes the copper ions out because it's acidic. It does not work by giving a red stain - ketchup doesn't stain hair red - it's the acidity that does it).

The green in gi2121's case is most likely due to indigo - a lot of store-bought henna mixes have indigo in them, even if it's not stated on the package. Indigo is blue and it combines with the yellow in bleached hair to a green color.

Once you've bleached over indigo, it's really not coming out anymore. Bleaching seems to push it into the hair or something. Ketchup will not get it out. To put red in for canceling out the green, you need something that really stains the hair red, - ketchup doesn't do that.

Iris

[Kirin]

What you could do, is use manic panic in red, 1/4 teaspoon to about a half cup of conditioner and mix it up. then use a tinting brush to paint it on only the green parts of your hair, let it sit ten minutes, rinse it out. If it doesnt get rid of all the green, try again with another application for ten more minutes, and so on.

Manic panic is temporary, when you dont want it there anymore, or if you accidentally go too far with the red, it WILL eventually wash out.

if you do it lightly, the red CANCELS the green, turning it to a neutral (light brown), not red, unless you over use the red.

[iris]

What you could do, is use manic panic in red, 1/4 teaspoon to about a half cup of conditioner and mix it up. then use a tinting brush to paint it on only the green parts of your hair, let it sit ten minutes, rinse it out. If it doesnt get rid of all the green, try again with another application for ten more minutes, and so on.

Manic panic is temporary, when you dont want it there anymore, or if you accidentally go too far with the red, it WILL eventually wash out.

if you do it lightly, the red CANCELS the green, turning it to a neutral (light brown), not red, unless you over use the red.
:agree: :agree: :agree: This is the way to go.

[Riot Crrl]

Possibly light, porous, bleached hair can cling on to some of the MP not so temporarily... but using it diluted and for 10 minutes should help ward that off.

I saw MP has two brown shades now, I was thinking of using it to tone my henna a little. I know that's what indigo is supposed to be for, but I only used it once and had a slightly weird scalp reaction, then it rinsed out.

[Nightshade]

What you could do, is use manic panic in red, 1/4 teaspoon to about a half cup of conditioner and mix it up. then use a tinting brush to paint it on only the green parts of your hair, let it sit ten minutes, rinse it out. If it doesnt get rid of all the green, try again with another application for ten more minutes, and so on.

Manic panic is temporary, when you dont want it there anymore, or if you accidentally go too far with the red, it WILL eventually wash out.

if you do it lightly, the red CANCELS the green, turning it to a neutral (light brown), not red, unless you over use the red.

I vote for this too. Judging by the green reaction, I'm guessing that a hair dye you used in the past or a compound henna you may have used had silver nitrate in it, which is a cause of green (http://www.hennaforhair.com/science/whatsinit.html).

For the manic panic reds, I'd go towards something in as true a red as you can possibly find, staying away from orange-reds and purple-reds.

Best of luck :flowers:

[kwaniesiam]

I'd suggest Pillarbox Red as far as "true" red manic panic shades, or Vampire Red if you can't find that. HTH :)

[gi2121]

Iris is right on this one: I had a mix of indigo + henna 7 months ago. I fully understand the green now, it's so obvious: blue + yellow= green, I should have known better... And in fact, I did know there were some risks, but I wanted soooo badly to change my looks, and I can be so stubborn about these sort of things...

Thanks everybody for your advice, really.
What I know is I'm staying away from henna and from indigo, definitely.
I'm doing nothing for now, my family tells me the green is only noticeable if someone watches closely enough and/ or knows what happened. So I'm crossing fingers, expecting that no one at work will notice (now THAT would be embarassing :o).
I'm letting my poor hair rest a bit. My virgin hair itself is not very strong, so imagine it with henna + indigo and now bleached to green, I suppose I better leave it alone for a while if I can.
Then in some time maybe I'll try to fix it with a red shade.
Actually I don't know what's manic panic, is it a brand of hair dye? Never saw it here in my country.

I KNEW there were some risks. Just tell me WHY I had to be stubborn :rolleyes:. Now I'll have to wait forever to grow virgin hair out, or I'll have to cut it super short :shrug:.
Live and learn...

[gi2121]

Just one more question: it's green, it's done, I know. But is there a way to make it fade a little bit? Oil treatments? Intensive moisturizing? :confused:

[iris]

I don't think people generally have had any luck in getting post-bleach indigo green out, but it doesn't hurt to try oil treatments etc, of course.

Your family is probably right that it's not all that noticeable. If you take a look around you at people who have virgin hair, you'll see that natural dark blondes or brunettes often have a greenish tint to their hair naturally. Green is in the realm of natural hair color. It's just completely out of fashion right now, people think of it as 'blah' etc. But if you look at movies from the seventies, you'll see that ashy color was in fashion then, and it often has a green tone to it. My natural color is sort of greenish, too. It doesn't have to look weird.

Manic panic is a brand of 'unnatural' or 'rainbow' hair color (true red, blue, green, yellow etc.). Other brands that are similar are Special Effects, and Stargazer. You can find them on Ebay. Where I live, they are sold in 'alternative' clothing stores (the kinds where goths and neopunks buy their clothes), and sometimes in 'ethnic' hair stores.

The dyes themselves are completely non-damaging, they only deposit color, they don't have peroxide or ammonia. Sometimes people will say that these types of dye are damaging, but IMO that is just because the way they are usually used is over bleached hair, - the bleaching part is damaging, obviously. But you can also use the dyes over unbleached hair (with less vibrant results of course, depending on how light your natural color is) and used that way they do no harm.

Iris

[Blueglass]

Try that manic panic, just as a glaze. Sounds like it will really help you. Needless to say, You don't want indigo, if highlights are in any way, prehaps, in your future.