Is this colour really right for me?

[lajsa]

I've started thinking about my hair colour - henna red. The problem is that I absolutely love the colour itself, but I'm unsure if it really fits the rest of my natural colours. My virgin hair is more like grey-brownish, and I definitely don't want to go virgin. I have green-blueish eyes, even though they look a bit dark in pictures, and my eyebrows are pretty dark (and very unkempt...). The red hair somehow looks off to me. What do you think?

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=6577&pictureid=96522

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=6577&pictureid=96521
(Hair's a bit gunky since it was washing day but yeah.)

I love red hair, but if it looks weird I'd probably change it. I was thinking of maybe indigoing it black if that would fit better. What do you people think? I suck at these kind of things. My mother says black hair would make me look paler, and I suppose it would... but I also like black hair in the way it can look really shiny :D

Or can I do something about the rest of my colours to make it look better? I don't know how to word it, but my eyebrows and eyes sort of... they kind of have a "cold" colour, or something, and the hair is "warm". It looks strange.

I do love the red, but I get this feeling it looks very 'dyed' on me. Also, it seems to look dirty really fast, probably because the slightest amount of oil seems to make the colour dull, which annoys me :p

Or am I just being paranoid?

[Tiina]

I think a kind of deep brown would suit you better. Black might appear too harsh.

I believe there are henna mixes which are more brown than red if you don't want to use chemical dye.

[Ylvalie]

I really like your haircolour! :)
There are probably colours that suit you better, but if you like your hair that way, stick with it.

How about tweezing your eyebrows a bit and/or a reddish eyebrowpencil?

[mystgirl]

I am of Swedish descent as well, and I had the same problem with henna. I have a very pale cool complexion, and dark gray/blue eyes. My natural hair color was platinum blonde until my second child was born, then it turned a very dark ash blonde, which my hairdresser told me was "as close to gray as you can get without being gray". Yeah, thanks!

I thought the henna looked wrong with my coloring as well, so I decided to work toward full saturation. The darker henna gets, the cooler the color becomes, so what I am going for is that dark cherry red/burgandy color. I'm not there yet, but it is already much better than it was when it was lighter red, so I know I am headed in the right direction. The important thing is to use 100% henna instead of a boxed mix if you want full saturation of color. I'm sorry I don't have photo's for you.

Now my only problem is that my hair grows really fast, and my roots look really gray against the dark henna. But there's no way I'm going back to my own blah color. I love being henna red! :D

[lapushka]

The henna isn't bad, but if you're thinking of going darker, don't!

I think it's a pity you don't want your own color. :flower:

[spitfire511]

I like the red - and agree that coloring your eyebrows might be the thing make it look a little more natural. Can you henna brows? I know nothing about henna!

I'm a natural redhead and I have blue eyes as well. I don't see skin tone or anything as a problem with red hair for you.

I also think you'd look stunning with a deep, rich brown. :D

[Isilme]

I think it suits you well:) But I also think that tweezing your eyebrows a tiny bit and use henna on them would make it look better. The upside with this is if you don't like it you can just neglect your brows and they will return to their normal state in a few weeks!

Don't go black, it will be too harsh against your featues. If you would like a change I think a honey blonde would be good for you.

[jaine]

If you do want to tweeze your eyebrows please let a professional do it and then you can follow her shape! It's only about $15.

Get a picture of yourself in daylight so the skin color is realistic and then go to taaz.com to try different hair colors and see what you like.

I agree that pure black would be too harsh. My natural hair is so close to black that most people just go ahead and call it black - but pure black looks way too harsh even on me.

[milagro]

The color is lovely but I agree you would look better with a bit cooler shade. This one is too yellow for your color scheme. Maybe light red-brown?
And I second and third that black is too harsh and dark for you.

[vanillabones]

I actually really like it and think it looks fine and will look perfect if you groom and maybe tint your eyebrows to make it all flow =) I have a cool brown natural color as you and hated it until just a couple months ago hopefully you'll consider going back someday it just would make everything so much easier.
I love your long hair :D

[NouvelleNymphe2]

IMHO your current hair color seems to suit you well. it goes very nice with your skin tone, and though i can't see your light eye color i bet it brings out your eyes as well. i agree with the others about reshaping your brows a bit and adding some color or lightening. lots of girls on here seem to lighten. i have naturally jet black eyebrows with light brown hair (that has lots of gold to light blond natural highlights) and i just go with it. i'm afraid putting anything to lighten them would turn them orange because they are so dark. so yah, do what feels right. it looks lovely on you. you have very pretty features.

[UltraBella]

I think a darker rich brown would suite you well, but not black. I think it would be too harsh and when your roots start showing the upkeep can be rough.

[lajsa]

Thanks for all the tips! (I would have answered earlier but my computer had an internal meltdown and LHC wouldn't let me log in from my dad's pc for some reason)

I really do like my current colour and I would love to keep it. Do you think hennaing my eyebrows would make it look more natural? I wonder how my eyebrows would look if I did henna them. They're not perfectly black, like my natural hair colour they're a bit greyish somehow.

[oktobergoud]

I like the colour and I think it suits you! :) Noooo black!
Also, some people here recommended putting henna on your brows but I've tried that a couple of times and it did nothing for my brows, only stained my skin there for 2 days or so! :s

[AnnaJamila]

Another "no" for the black. Black hair can look good on fair coloring, but it has to be very porcelain fair, not a rosy color like what your pictures look like. Also women with dyed black hair can look reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally washed out without makeup. I vote for a dark auburn/red, I think that would look the prettiest!

[einna]

I think it looks pretty good, but would look even better if you colored your eyebrows or something.

[Anywhere]

It looks a tad off to me but it may be my monitor. I think I'd prefer to see it a stronger red. I won't say anything about going black, I love black hair but I can't picture it with your features.

[DuckyDot]

I think a brown-red would look good. But your hair looks fine, I LOVE the color! I agree with the eyebrow tweeze+color suggestion to make it look a bit more natural. :)

[lajsa]

I think I'll try a brow henna and see if it does anything for me. :) I've got a week off from school the week after the next, so I think I'll do it then.

Yeah, I don't think black would really fit me either. I'm not really that porcelain pale like you said, AnnaJamila :p

[dropinthebucket]

I had the same problem with henna. I LOVED the colour, on its own, but it didn't work on me. I would say you are a "cool" (blues, greys, greens - do you tend to wear these colours, as well? many "cools" are naturally attracted to them). The "warm" henna, in my opinion, is fine but something neutral or ash might suit you much better. Again, just my opinion!

[lastnite]

I agree black would look too harsh. I think darker colors in general would look harsh on you,and the red now looks fine. I actually think a cooler blonde shade would look nice but that would be damaging. I have similar coloring to you, so I'm interested in what others say. Right now mines is a bit darker copper color than you have, some days I think it suits me, other days I'm not so sure.

Trying the eyebrow route first is a good idea... my eyebrows need more upkeep then my hair sometimes. I wax them, trim them and lighten them (when I'm not being lazy). It makes a big difference in general when I keep up with them. I haven't hennaed them though, I'm afraid of having bright red eyebrows :)

[Nymph]

I also agree with others here about the eyebrows. That's the only thing that stood out to me, I think your haircolor suits you really well. Though you don't necessarily have to color them with henna, just bleaching might be sufficient.

[Pierre]

You can henna brows, but you have to do it more often, because brow hairs grow to completion much faster than scalp hairs. I henna about once a month; if I hennaed my brows, I'd have to do them once a week. Same with mustaches.

Don't try hennaing your eyelashes. You can't do it without getting henna on your eyeballs.

[NouvelleNymphe2]

also brow filler pencils come in lots of different colors

[Hala]

I think your hair looks WONDERFUL. It also looks very natural--you look a lot like an Irish/Norwegian girl that I was friends with.

Back when I had silly platinum blonde hair in a damaged Courtney Love mop (ah, 1992), I talked to the hairdresser about dyeing my dark, thick eyebrows and she said that just having them shaped and thinned a tiny bit, and then using a lighter fill pencil would always look better. She was right.

I've been using Celebration henna on my very very very dark hair, and have found that it's a much cooler red... not at all orange. This isn't entirely what I want, but it might work well for you!

[Kaelee]

I think it looks great on you!!!! In fact, I was scrolling down waiting to see the pics of your DYED hair color then realized that WAS the dyed color! It looks completely natural. Don't worry.

And my eyebrows don't match either (I'm a henna head) but they never DID. My brows didn't match my virgin hair and the carpet NEVER matched the drapes so to speak. So don't worry about that either. ;)

[lajsa]

Thanks for all the compliments :D

As a matter of fact, it wouldn't matter to me if the hennaed eyebrows grew out quickly since that means it would just disappear faster if it looked awful :p But I'm thinking I'll attempt to tweeze my poor brows first and see if it makes a difference. They're pretty wild right now, as you could see on the pics :eyebrows: I've never actually done much with them before except for plucking the hairs that were growing way out of line... and I've kept them from becoming one thick unibrow :D

Oh, and I would definitely not ever attempt to henna my eyelashes so don't worry :lol: I've never even used an eyeliner out of fear of poking myself in the eye, so I definitely wouldn't put any sort of loose uncontrollable substance anywhere near my eyeballs :D

Perhaps a filler pencil would be easier but I have a vague memory of trying one with the result of it not looking very good. Maybe it's a matter of practice, or getting the right shade? :undecided

[ooo]

I'm afraid it's just too orange for you.

[slz]

I think it looks great on you!!!! In fact, I was scrolling down waiting to see the pics of your DYED hair color then realized that WAS the dyed color!
Exactly my thoughts when I read the post : OK where are those pics ?! And then I realized that was it :p. Don't worry about the eyebrows, a lot of non dyed people do not have matching eyebrows neither, and to me dyed brows look anything but natural.

[spidermom]

I don't like the red on you. Try some temporary colors before you take the plunge to permanent.

[McFearless]

I think it will look even better with a couple more full-length applications. That and a smile.

[lajsa]

I have been checking a bit on taaz.com where I tried on a few different colours, and I think I definitely would look better in a somewhat colder shade. The thing is, I don't want to go back to chemical dyes (bottom half of my hair is different from the rest of my hair, being more porous and feeling more damaged, just because I chem-dyed it up until I discovered the henna). How can I get a colder shade with just henna and indigo and that kind of thing? Is a colder shade of red even possible (I really like red haaaaaaair :p) or would I have to go brown or some such?

[ooo]

a colder shade of red is possible, but it always washes out to a warmer red.
mixing blond henna, cassia and katam might make a cooler shade.
ever thought of just putting a few highlights in? twice a year would do the trick and you could try to only touch up the "roots" every time.

[lajsa]

Hmm. I don't really like the look of highlights on me though :/
I've also been thinking that maybe I should let my virgin colour grow out sometime, since that would obviously be the most natural-looking one for me, but 1) I have a lot of henna now so in that case I'd rather use all that first, and 2) I don't like the thought of my "boring" hair growing out while the henna is still there (it'd just make the virgin hair look duller :p) so in that case I think I'd probably have to either buzz it all and grow from virgin (which I've been thinking of, since about half of my hair is pretty porous and weird from too much chemical dye) or just cut it pretty short and gradually get rid of the henna. This is difficult. :p

At the same time, I like my henna... :p

[ooo]

have you thought about mixing your henna with some cassia and a lot of conditioner? that makes it wearker, but you still have the benefits.

[Maddy25]

Honestly I would have thought it was natural, I think it suits you perfect :) Its such a soft red too, gorgeous.

[Rowanne]

Looking at your own colours I see medium/dark tones, perhaps a degree of softness too. Although I don't think your hair colour is really that bad it does look a little too warm and bright (= too orange, as someone said). It's difficult for me to say more. When trying to define your colours soft natural daylight is best as it's pretty neutral.

I would think black would look too harsh on you, brown might be better if it's not too warm. Matching your eyebrow with your hair usually makes the hair colour look more natural IMHO, so tweezing and hennaing your eyebrows sounds worth trying if you want to keep your current colour.

I agree that virgin hair would probably look dull next to henna, so if you ever decide on going virgin with your colour you might want to dye your hair close to it's natural colour first. I have no idea on how chemical dye will work on henna though.

This is just my two cents, hope you'll find the colour that you're happy with! :flower:



I don't know how interested you are in learning your colours more thoroughly, but I'll give you a few links just in case.

The colour analysts used to categorize people into four seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn) until it was understood that most people are a mix of two seasons. The theory is explained in a nutshell here (http://www.prettyyourworld.com/colortheory.html). The site has a free quiz to help you find your season, just look at the bars on your left.

Here's (http://stylemakeovers.com/colorquiz.html) a link to another seasonal colour quiz. Informative, quick to do, but no pictures to help you.

If you have a lot of time on your hands, try this site (http://www.thescienceofpersonaldress.com/index.htm). If you just want to try their test, click "Questionnaire" on your left. There's a link at the bottom of each page that'll take you to the next phase. I think this site is the most informative but it'll take some time to read everything they have. Personally I disagree in some points - I think your season doesn't have to determine the type of shoes you can wear - but they have amazing eye and hair colour charts to help you find your season.

[Anje]

Your coloring actually looks quite a lot like mine, though I think I'm a bit warmer-toned. My hair was naturally about that color until I hit my 20s, though it's darkening now.

I don't think black would be a good idea at all, but if you wanted to try, say, a 50/50 mix of henna and buxus, I think you could cool the color down without making it too much darker.

I'm going to disagree on matching your eyebrows... I've seen hennaed eyebrows and I'm not really a fan. I don't think I'd do well dyeing my hair black to match my eyebrows, and I think the look would be too high-contrast for you. Take a look at the colors recommended for "Summer" coloring -- I think that's probably where you fit best.