Best way to remove henna? (just colored last night!)

[AmselJoey]

Hello all,

I hope it is okay that I am asking for help in my first post, but I thought it would be best to ask for advice before making further mistakes.

In my quest for natural haircare I decided to henna my hair last night. I used a light brown henna mixture that I bought from Morrocan Methods. Unfortunately, my hair is now way too dark for my pale skin.

I read that recently hennaed hair has the best chance for successful removal. I was debating between using yogurt or lemon mixed with conditioner to attempt to fix my hair. However, I wanted to see what all you hair experts recommend before jumping the gun!

I'm optimistic since I did this yesterday evening.

Advice please! :confused:

Thanks in advance :)

AmselJoey

[Ohio Sky]

I read that recently hennaed hair has the best chance for successful removal.
AmselJoey

I dont know where on earth you heard that. Try searching the boards for the henna removal thread, there are tons of people here who have ended up just cutting off their henna because nothing would take the stuff out. It depends largely on your hair type and what you use, though, and I know nohting about the Morrocan Methods stuff you used.

Some have had luck using honey, as it contains peroxide. Baby shampoo has also been used for its pH factor.
Search through the forums, theres a HUGE honey thread here somewhere.

Other than that, I would say theres a chance that it will fade down in a few days/weeks just with regular washing, but aas I said, I dont know about that specific brand.

[iris]

I'm not sure what to recommend - for just henna I'd recommend conditioner + lemon juice, but you say your henna was a 'light brown' mix so it can't have been just henna. Probably has indigo in it. Or something else, there's no telling, but I'd bet it's indigo. I don't know what lemon juice does on indigo. Probably not much.

The good news is that indigo tends to fade on its own. The bad news is that this is not true for everybody.

Well, I'd just shampoo it a few times in a row, with baby shampoo or dandruff shampoo if you have it, and then do a nice deep treatment, with or without lemon juice. Don't wait too long, the earlier the better.

And strand test, strand test, strand test next time, please, before you do your whole head.

Iris

[spidermom]

I don't know anything about the brand that you used. I did henna my hair once, hated it, and waited for it to grow out/fade out, which it did. Do some warm olive oil treatments. It pulls chemical dyes out, and perhaps it will help with the henna. It will certainly help with the condition of your hair, so you can't lose.

I do believe that in a few months your color will fade to a lighter shade, most probably.

[wolf girl]

I use MM Henna and it will fade in about 2 weeks. The indigo that is used to get the brown color does not stay very long. But the red will still be there.

[AmselJoey]

Thanks for all the advice so far!

I know I'm a moron for just dying it with no strand test...this is a lesson I have learned over and over again unfortunately. :(

What can I say I was addicted to dying my hair in high school and, even though those days are looong behind me, I still give in to temptation from time to time. :o

I will let everyone know how it goes.

[AmselJoey]

Darn it the red is what I hate the worst!

PS-Wolfgirl I like your cute puppy

[lora410]

I would give baby shampoo a try. It helped lighten my hair to a dark brunette hair and it that was dyed black.

[MeMyselfandI]

The white head and shoulders may help.

The honey thread has ideas for lightening henna.

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=148

[QueenBea]

My sister had luck putting shampoo on her hair and leaving it on for about 30 minutes--it faded it but didn't remove it.

This was with some brand we bought at Sally's--can't remember the type--but it was not a Body-Art-Quality. That's what I use now, and I think it's a lot harder to fade even a little :)

But the Sally's brand actually had directions for what they called a "shampoo cap" to remove some--shampoo, cover with a shower cap for 30 minutes, then rinse well and condition well.

It's worth a try anway---

Bea

[Riot Crrl]

I actually theorize that there may be value in trying removal methods sooner than later. I do not know how long it takes for lawsone to migrate inside the hair and bond with the keratin. It is possible it hasn't yet.

(Note use of "may" and "possible." And "I do not know.")

[Flaxen]

This is from a post made by one of our members long ago, after hennaing her hair:

Yesterday I soaked my hair in warm mineral oil for a couple of hours and then shampoo with Suave clairifying shampoo. I hate the Suave stuff but I was out of the Neutragena and it's expensive to buy.

Today I went to Sallys beauty supply and got some clairifying crystals that you soak in warm water until you get this gel stuff. Applied it to all the crown hair and wrapped it in saran wrap and sat under the bonnet dryer for 45 minutes.

My hair is all back to it's original color and I got most of those white blonde high lights back too.

[Blueglass]

In my experience you can also henna over that with his marigold

[AmselJoey]

Bluegrass...have you ever tried that yourself? Either way, do you know what the resulting color might be? :)

I was expecting a MUCH lighter color than I got. I have had some success lightening it with conditioner and lemon. The only problem is I hate the red.

Live and learn! (hopefully since this is not my first hair color mishap :rolleyes:)

[Robinlyn]

Hello AmselJoey, I did the same thing 2 weeks ago! It has lightened up a bit and I have been doing honey treatments to lighten it up more. Please visit the honey thead there is a lot of info there! When I first did it, I freaked out! It was so dark! I've heard that fruit based strippers by a professional works as well. I've been too scared to go that route. My hair is fine and I'm afraid it will break off! Good luck and please keep us posted!

[DotDotDot]

Bluegrass...have you ever tried that yourself? Either way, do you know what the resulting color might be? :) <snip>

Strand test! :)

[Blueglass]

yes and no I have always mixed light brown with marigold, and latter gone back to marigold. At any rate use honey and pull as much since you don't like it. What is your underlying color? Prehaps you could go to a salon and have your hair decolorized? The result of the two colors is golden-brown a very reasonable color.

[Unofficial_Rose]

I think there is definitely some value in trying to remove it before it's oxidised, as RiotCrrl says.

I've over-hennaed to burgundy and something that removed it is plain yoghurt, on dry hair the wrapped with cling-film for 3 hours or so. This took me back to a coppery colour, and didn't redarken again, unlike the lemon and conditioner.

Good luck! If it's boxed henna mixed with hot water it may fade on its own. But I'd definitely try plain yoghurt :flower:

[ktani]

AmselJoey

I wrote an all in one, recommendations post on honey lightening, because the Honey thead is so long.

If you are interested in honey lightening, the post link is now in my signature, below.

[LadyMoon11]

Oh dear... I think it will be difficult for your to totally remove it. You have received some good suggestions so far, though.
I had to try and lighten up my henna a bit. I was going to try and go back closer to my natural color, but I decided to stay red. :)
Anyway, I used honey and mineral oil on my head each night for a little over 1 week and was able to lighten the darkest, burgundyish henna color. I was a little upset that my henna had become so saturated and was leaning more toward a burgundy color, which is not so good with my complexion,. I was very happy with the results. I left the mineral oil and honey on my head overnight each night. After a little over a week of this I was left with a more neutral red, less saturated color. After a week on being left alone, the color did not red-oxidize to a dark or burgundy red again. Two nights ago I used 50/50 cassia and henna mix on my hair and it kept the color at a perfect red level.

Basically I just wanted to just share that i did have some noticeable success using mineral oil and honey. I gooped it on. I did not heat it (being as I believe heat will reduce or ruin the peroxide levels in honey), I just mixed it and gooped it on my head, wrapped with saran wrap and a towel, and went to bed.

HTH- and good luck. I hope you are able to at least get your hair to a nice color level that you can work with. You'll probably still have a bit of red for a long time no matter what you do- but you should be able to work with it some. :flower:

[mellie]

I have had success lightening too dark henndigo with honey as well!

[wintersun99]

...I've over-hennaed to burgundy and something that removed it is plain yoghurt, on dry hair the wrapped with cling-film for 3 hours or so. This took me back to a coppery colour, and didn't redarken again, unlike the lemon and conditioner...

I'm wondering about applying yogurt to DRY hair, as opposed to freshly washed/towel dried hair... what, if any, difference would one expect? I've applied yogurt to towel dried hair in the past, but would be curious as to why you chose to apply to dry hair? Cheers

[Gladtobemom]

My Dsis uses their light brown and it fades really fast.

She has sort of dark blonde hair that's kind of an ashy color.

When she first does her henna, it is like a medium brown with reddish glints. After about 3 days, the red part gets less orange and more brownish. After she washes and does her normal stuff for a week or so . . . her hair looks like a light brown with strawberry blonde highlights.

Note, She does do SMT's that contain honey, but not much.

[Unofficial_Rose]

Hi - I only did this as it didn't occur to me to apply it to towel-dried! Plus I would shampoo out the yoghurt afterwards.

It did work, but took several attempts. At least worth trying first as it lifts out the henna without peroxide, which would make it more permanent, even though it would lighten it.

Another thing which I've found removes some henna is the coconut milk soak, appiled in the same way. It is also very conditioning. might do it myself today as I use a very light hendigo gloss to cover my few greys but want to not get too much buildup on the length and get too red instead of brown.

[wintersun99]

Hi - I only did this as it didn't occur to me to apply it to towel-dried! Plus I would shampoo out the yoghurt afterwards

ah, gotcha - I tried it on freshly washed, dry hair, last night and didn't notice a difference (between wet/dry) in the end results...

[jojo]

Ive used head and shoulders with good effect in the past to lighten box dyes.

Also soaking your hair in olive oil, wrap in cling film and blow over with a hair dryer for a few minutes to heat it up, leave in overnight lifts box colour so might henna,

[<She>]

I'm bringing up this thread because I want to post a link about henna removal. Now, it says all the things we know here, but it's a fun site, nevertheless.
http://www.mookychick.co.uk/style/removing_henna.php

[AmselJoey]

Hi all,

I thought I would give an update about my personal henna removal quest...just in case anyone might be wondering! :p

I first tried conditioner with honey for several hours, which did lighten my hair color substantially. Next I tried yogurt, mineral oil, a crystal gel treatment from Sally's, and washing with both baby and dandruff shampoos (though not in that particular order). Unfortunately, none of these methods seemed to have much of a result.

To make a long story short I have a good friend whose a hairdresser and she helped me out. She dyed it twice , once with a chemical dye and the second time with a henna) and it now looks MUCH better.

There is now not any red except in the sun and my hair is overall a nice brown color.:joy:

Thanks for all the suggestions!

AmselJoey

[Flaxen]

Thanks for the update, and I'm glad to hear you're happy with your hair! :grin:

[wintersun99]

Thanks for the update, and I'm glad to hear you're happy with your hair! :grin:

Flaxen, are you a henna user? I don't think I knew that (assuming you are) :)

[Flaxen]

Flaxen, are you a henna user? I don't think I knew that (assuming you are) :)
I was for a couple of years. I used Avigal henna, golden-reddish shades (yeah, I know, lol), and while I liked the way it made my hair feel, the color just really clashed with my skin tone, and then it started to get too dark. Now, I don't color at all. :smile:

[Elettaria]

I did a henna gloss and later a henndigo gloss on my medium brown hair, and found the colour was a bit too dark and red. I tried a cardamon lightening treatment with a bit of cinnamon thrown in, which may have lightened it a little (plus I think the indigo may have been fading out on its own). Last night I used 1/2 tsp baking soda in my shampoo, left that on a few minutes, then applied a modified SMT (molasses, conditioner, aloe vera, plus amla and coconut powder to make it a more usable consistency, and 1/2 tsp powdered rhubarb root for colour). To my delight, my hair is now pretty much the colour I wanted, a warmer version of the original brown with copper and gold lights. I wish I knew exactly what the baking soda did, though; it's harder to work out when you try several components at once.