Does baking soda strip henna?

[kyraninse]

Sorry if this has been brought up before! Did a quick search and didn't turn up anything, but maybe I was blind?

It's been 3 weeks (?) since I last hennaed. This statement is to clarify that I'm not washing out residue from the henna-ing.

I did a strong baking soda rinse for my hair yesterday and forwent the lemon juice because we were out. I noticed later on yesterday night that my sheets were turning a faint orange where my wet hair was.

So, my question is: does baking soda strip the hair of henna? And if it does, which I really think it might, how significant would the strip be? I have black hair to start off with, so I had to pull out the white hairs to look, and they looked a wee bit lighter than before, but that might have been my brain playing tricks on me.

If done over a longer period of time, could this be viable as a way of stripping henna, not to the base shade, but to a lighter version after it's gone too dark after too many applications?

[Anje]

Nope.

What it might do is remove some of the resins that henna leaves behind. It may also make your hair look a bit lighter due to dryness (dry hair tends to look lighter, and baking soda is quite drying). It might even help remove the remaining bit of color that seems to be staining things for you, since it generally takes a few washes before the water runs clear, in my experience. But it seems to leave the henna color untouched for most people, myself included.

Make sure you follow up with an acidic rinse, like diluted vinegar. It will help keep your hair and scalp from being angry.

[madeline_]

I actually think it does. I've used baking soda two times since starting on the Movie Star shampoo, and two times my rinse water was orange. My last henna application was three weeks ago, so I don't think it was left-over resin.

I think it also made my hair a bit lighter, which is an added bonus.

[kyraninse]

Anje:

I do usually use lemon rinses afterwards because otherwise my hair does get angry :D But yesterday night I was out of lemon juice and didn't realize it until I was in the shower. Since it's been three weeks since my last henna and I've been washing it every other day -- do you think it could still be left over residue? Seems a bit unlikely, since there was no staining previous to this. But! The information on how dry hair looks lighter is very good to know. I have black hair normally, so I wouldn't have known :D

Madeline:

You too? I almost want to get someone with lighter hair to try this on their henna hairballs as an experiment. I don't know that it'd be viable to actually use on the hair a lot because as Anje said -- dude, that hair gets angry, and gnarly, but it'd be interesting to know for sure! Inquiring minds and all that.



-- To clarify! I only wash my hair with baking soda and lemon juice. When I've been using the lemon juice rinse afterwards, there was no staining, no orange water. However, yesterday night I used a lot of baking soda and I might not have been able to wash all of it out. Or because it wasn't neutralized, it just kept working on my hair. I used something ridiculous like a quarter of a cup baking soda to 2 quarts water because my hair was feeling oddly greasy. Also, I left my hair wet and bunned it instead of towel drying or anything.

[madeline_]

Madeline:

You too? I almost want to get someone with lighter hair to try this on their henna hairballs as an experiment. I don't know that it'd be viable to actually use on the hair a lot because as Anje said -- dude, that hair gets angry, and gnarly, but it'd be interesting to know for sure! Inquiring minds and all that.

I'm not sure, and I'm not about to start experimenting with it either. I'm not wild about baking soda, but since I haven't been able to find a proper clarifying shampoo that gets the same results as the Americans' Neutrogena, I'm stuck with it. I think I'll incorporate a baking soda wash into my routine about once every two weeks, because it does seem I have a lòt of buildup. Who knows, maybe it wàs henna resin that hadn't been washed out properly because I'd instantly covered it with so much silicone.

But if it does lighten from baking soda washes that I was going to do anyway, well so much the better then.