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Cardinal
July 1st, 2011, 05:52 PM
Advice, please. I have Tb length fairly thin, maybe dry, hair, that I have box colored since the last Brontosaurus walked the earth.

It is auburn, and I have only colored auburn or reddish brown.
When I get new growth, it is silver/white.

Today I bought some Rainbow mahogany henna.
So, assuming I wait six weeks, and mix some coffee with it to tone it down,(as per instruction on box) and, of course, strand test for shade, ect,

How likely will I end up with the roots a glaringly different color than the rest of my hair?
Is there a way to ease into this?

Will it give me a root demarcation line?
Will it dry out my hair more?

Will my cat take one look at me and run screaming into the night?

If you were me...what would you do? (I am trying to switch off of box dyes to natural ones)

virgo75
July 1st, 2011, 06:15 PM
Collect your shed hair in a baggy for a couple of weeks then do a henna test on it.

Henna is permanent and tempermental.
Don't do it without testing first.

whitestiletto
July 1st, 2011, 06:22 PM
I've heard that grays can turn bright orange with henna... It will oxidize and darken to a redder tone in about a week, so don't freak out right away. Have you considered mixing in a wee bit of indigo to tone it down? Here's examples of lots of dif hair with henndigo (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=21272&highlight=henndigoed) mix. You might also research buxus (http://www.mehandi.com/shop/buxus/index.html), which can tone the color down.

Definitely second the strand test (http://www.hennaforhair.com/techniques/testhair/).

And congrats on switching to herbal care! I'm doing the same thing and matching my new shade to my old shade and figuring out the roots has been a little challenging, but oh so worth it for my hair health.

long&blonde
July 1st, 2011, 06:58 PM
Wow, So admire your courage!
Have been thinking of doing the same thing.
Sooo admire all of the beautiful henna heads on here.
But have box dyed blonde;15 till now;56.
Well, 2 years ago probable final box dye,started salon blonde;to match silver white roots coming in.
Salon blonde w/white roots goes well:
I too wonder;white roots w/henna?
How often will it need redone?
And the nonbox,mix your own,
Add this,add that,
Sounds like trouble to one who is good at getting into it!
I can't even make jello or bake cookies,
Sure I'll just whip up some henna & throw in some coffee!

Anje
July 1st, 2011, 07:08 PM
Definitely strand-test it first with shed hair. I don't know anything about your specific color blend, but pure henna tends to make grays fairly bright.

Also, be aware that henna changes color over a period of a couple days after application. It starts pretty orange and mellows out, usually by day 3, though I'd give it a week on the outside, just to be safe.

I don't know what the Rainbow instructions are, but usually I recommend that people use water or tea instead of an acid like lemon juice to mix their henna. I personally find the lemon really drying on my hair and scalp, and henna dye-releases well (and fast) with water.

silverjen
July 1st, 2011, 07:23 PM
Cardinal, my henna attempt turned my white hairs bright Irish Setter red. But I didn't have any indigo in my mix, and I think the Rainbow Mahogany does. The only way to know is to test!

Long&blonde, I found I would have had to henna every other weekend to prevent roots from showing. Waaaaay too much work for me. That's why my personal henna experiment was very short-lived. I'd rather go gray!

sedonia
July 1st, 2011, 07:44 PM
Several people have suggested saving shed hairs for strand testing, but that isn't going to answer the OP's question. She doesn't know what the henna will do to her virgin grey hair (that has yet to grow out of her head), and she can't test it because her hair is dyed.

Cardinal, you might want to read the thread on lightening hair with honey. The lighter you can get your dyed hair right now, the less the demarcation line you might get. What % of your hair is silver?

Henna does build up, so if you do your roots and they are too light an auburn after oxidizing, you can apply again, or increase the time you leave it on.

I do think that if you have a long term commitment to being a redhead (and you seem to have that), henna is the bomb. I love my henna'ed hair.

Cardinal
July 1st, 2011, 08:20 PM
Several people have suggested saving shed hairs for strand testing, but that isn't going to answer the OP's question. She doesn't know what the henna will do to her virgin grey hair (that has yet to grow out of her head), and she can't test it because her hair is dyed.
Yup.

Cardinal, you might want to read the thread on lightening hair with honey. The lighter you can get your dyed hair right now, the less the demarcation line you might get. What % of your hair is silver?
100%

Henna does build up, so if you do your roots and they are too light an auburn after oxidizing, you can apply again, or increase the time you leave it on. The reason I was thinking about darkening the mix, is that I can't go to work with a bright orange skunk stripe down my head. So I thought, darken it all, and the demarcation line won't be too noticeable. Then I read that if you go too dark, you lose the red. So I am shooting for dark auburn.

I do think that if you have a long term commitment to being a redhead (and you seem to have that), henna is the bomb. I love my henna'ed hair.

I would like to get to where I am just henna-ing the roots, and blending it in with my length.

Tressie
July 1st, 2011, 08:24 PM
I have no experience with henna, but I know I'm waaay too lazy to keep my roots up, and I would dread the mess and stains! (o:

Anje
July 1st, 2011, 08:40 PM
Sedonia, I assumed she was going to try applying it only to her roots. She'll have a noticeable demarcation line if she applies it to her length, you're right.

Cardinal, if you want to apply the henna to your length as well as your roots, you'll want to bring them to within closer shades of each other. Rather than honey-lightening though, I would suggest you first try a color remover like Color Fix, Color Oops, or Color B4. They usually have 3 steps to them, where the third step is a developer. Throw out that 3rd step; it's the only one that risks any damage in itself, and it's not necessary. That should help remove a great deal of the dye from your hair and give you a more even base.

Though it applies more to folks who have dark hair that was dyed with a permanent dye, I'll give the caveat that many dyes have a peroxide component that lightens hair's base color substantially, so the results after a color-remover aren't necessarily the same as the color of the hair that grows from your head. On the other hand, if your hair's already totally gray, it's hard to see that it'd be any lighter!

Toadstool
July 1st, 2011, 08:54 PM
When I've hennaed, the white hairs go bright orange and the dark ones don't. When I've hennaed over bleached hair, that's gone orange too.