chellis
October 16th, 2010, 09:45 PM
Hi All,
I am a 'longtime lurker' who finally decided to join becuase I rely on and refer to this site so often. I started growing my hair again after a coupl eof years of keeping it short after donating it, having had long hair pretty much all my life. It's now just above waist length, and curly, presently more or less reddish gold. At the longest, I could just sit on it ('classic' length).
I have been experimenting with color. For some time I used henna, only leaving it on for 10 minutes and got technicolour hair. Even though I have experience with natural dyes with wool, it never occurred to me to use other things on my hair. So, when I cut my hair, I discovered that my medium red-gold had faded to a depressing beige - so called 'sandy blonde', very uninspiring.
So I was looking for a marigold colour, mixing marigold blonde with: a tiny amount of henna; ditto turmeric (bad idea, it had a greenish cast and was 'highlighter yellow'); and finally rhubarb. Now I use mostly rhubarb and a small amount of cassia. The key for me not to get an orange cast was to use green tea instead of water and ACV.
I spent a lot of time trying with a small amount of success to get the orange henna tint out of my hair - it worked, I think becuase I never used but a tiny bit and my hair tends not to hold onto colour. straight 3% peroxide in a spray bottle finally did it. So I have a lot of sympathy with the ladies here who have worked so hard trying to get henna out of thir hair (and failing or suceeding, keeping the length or chopping).
I never thought I would say I didn't want so much red in my hair! being a natural redhead. But now I am 47 and I find the softer colour more becoming. I intend to 'fade to blonde' with cassia and then maybe tint my hair strange colours with Manic Panic (grow old disgracefully....)
I'm not really into hair products; I tend to make my own shampoo,gel and conditioners. I'm a very 'back to nature' sort of girl - never got over that from the '70s!:eyebrows:
I wear my hair up mostly at work, now that it's long enugh to fly about and get caught in things, and I tend to experiment becasue I like to wear vintage clothes, so I read a lot of old magazines and vintage living websites :eek:
This henna and hair ****** runs in my family. My daughter started hennaing her hazel-coloured hair (or rather, I did at her request) at age 14; she is now 20. Her hair is tailbone length and curly.
I want to thank all the awesome women here who have contributed so much to my hair journey, with their knowledge, experimentation, and sharing.
I am a 'longtime lurker' who finally decided to join becuase I rely on and refer to this site so often. I started growing my hair again after a coupl eof years of keeping it short after donating it, having had long hair pretty much all my life. It's now just above waist length, and curly, presently more or less reddish gold. At the longest, I could just sit on it ('classic' length).
I have been experimenting with color. For some time I used henna, only leaving it on for 10 minutes and got technicolour hair. Even though I have experience with natural dyes with wool, it never occurred to me to use other things on my hair. So, when I cut my hair, I discovered that my medium red-gold had faded to a depressing beige - so called 'sandy blonde', very uninspiring.
So I was looking for a marigold colour, mixing marigold blonde with: a tiny amount of henna; ditto turmeric (bad idea, it had a greenish cast and was 'highlighter yellow'); and finally rhubarb. Now I use mostly rhubarb and a small amount of cassia. The key for me not to get an orange cast was to use green tea instead of water and ACV.
I spent a lot of time trying with a small amount of success to get the orange henna tint out of my hair - it worked, I think becuase I never used but a tiny bit and my hair tends not to hold onto colour. straight 3% peroxide in a spray bottle finally did it. So I have a lot of sympathy with the ladies here who have worked so hard trying to get henna out of thir hair (and failing or suceeding, keeping the length or chopping).
I never thought I would say I didn't want so much red in my hair! being a natural redhead. But now I am 47 and I find the softer colour more becoming. I intend to 'fade to blonde' with cassia and then maybe tint my hair strange colours with Manic Panic (grow old disgracefully....)
I'm not really into hair products; I tend to make my own shampoo,gel and conditioners. I'm a very 'back to nature' sort of girl - never got over that from the '70s!:eyebrows:
I wear my hair up mostly at work, now that it's long enugh to fly about and get caught in things, and I tend to experiment becasue I like to wear vintage clothes, so I read a lot of old magazines and vintage living websites :eek:
This henna and hair ****** runs in my family. My daughter started hennaing her hazel-coloured hair (or rather, I did at her request) at age 14; she is now 20. Her hair is tailbone length and curly.
I want to thank all the awesome women here who have contributed so much to my hair journey, with their knowledge, experimentation, and sharing.