bright orange henna head help!

[firevegan]

Hi I'm Heather. I'm new to the boards, and will probably soon be an addict. =]

Friday morning I henna'd my hair. I just took a pic of it for you, so check out my avatar. I used mehandi's rajasthani twilight henna, over bleached brassy blonde hair. It's now Sunday, and I was wondering if it's going to oxidize much more than this? I'm looking for more of a deep dark, mysterious red.

Also when will it start locking in moisture and start looking glossy?

[Micayla47]

the color is beautiful! but if you want something darker, you can do another application. as for the texture, did you do a deep conditioner and/or vinegar rinse after you hennaed?

[akilina]

It will get darker with more and more applications. It takes time though. A deep conditioning treatment may help you out.
You did start with fairly light hair too. Henna doesn't go that deep cherry color especially after only one application on light hair. And for me...not even after 4 applications. Don't give up:)

[Alvrodul]

Henna can take up to a week to oxidize to its final color, so it could be that all you need is a bit of patience. Mu hair also started out nuclear orange, but now it's a nice, mellow, almost-burgundy color that I love.
The nice thing about henna is that it doesn't harm the hair, so if you really are unsatisfied with the color, you can do another application again soon - and leave it on for longer if you want a really strong effect.
As for when your hair will start to look glossy and healthy - henna is not a cure-all for your hair's ills. You need patience, and your hair needs pampering. Bleaching is very hard on the hair, and it can take months before damaged hair looks glossy and shiny again.
With your peroxided hair, you will need to find the right balance between protein treatments and moisture. For moisture, I recommend an SMT (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=128), in my opinion doing an SMT is an excellent way to finish a henna session. :D
You might also look into oil treatments, this is another excellent way to pamper your hair. But not all oils will work for everybody. Two popular oils here on LHC are coconut oil and almond oil. My hair hates almond oil, but likes coconut.
You might also consider combining hennaing and oiling next time you henna. I did so the most recent time I hennaed - I got wonderful results, and I also didn't end up with dry and itchy scalp as I usually do! :D

[MonaMayfair]

Starting with bleached hair, you'll probably need to do at least one more whole head treatment before getting a color you want. Don't forget it will get darker each time, so just do roots when you have the depth of color you want.

I didn't notice any conditioning benefits to henna until I'd done it about 3 times. The first time, my hair just felt very dry afterwards.
Actually I never really notice any amazing conditioning from either henna or cassia ( I still use cassia, I've stopped with the henna) Both of them made my hair feel thicker and stronger though, which is the thing I was most interested in.

For amazing shine and smoothness, I've found the best thing is catnip. My hair's got a mirror like shine since I've been doing catnip rinses.

[Anje]

It can take a while to cool down, but since you're going over bleached hair, you will absolutely want more applications if you're shooting for auburn.

How did you mix yours? I recommend using warm water to mix the henna rather than lemon juice, for a deeper red. Mine at least always seemed more orange and less red when I used acid. If you really want to get more moisture in there (I find henna rather drying, particularly if mixed with acid), I'd suggest mixing it with just a small amount of water, then add a bunch of olive oil until the blend is the consistency of brownie batter. The oil doesn't hurt the stain (seems like it enhances it if anything), and it will make it both more moisturizing and easier to rinse.

[firevegan]

@ Micayla47- I washed it out with shampoo twice, and slabbed coconut oil and argan oil on it with conditioner, and tried to let it sit for as long as I could, but I was so excited to go see what it looked like I couldn't hold out for more than 10 minutes. (It was my first time, couldn't help it. xD) I've never tried a vinegar rinse. I heard the pH levels of acid help hair, but that's all I know about them.

@akilina- My natural hair color is light brown. Would I have better luck getting that beautiful cherry color with my natural hair color? Or will this blonde underneath suffice after a few henna's?

@Alvrodul - wow it went from nuclear orange like mine to burgundy in oxidation? I'd love that. My hair doesn't like coconut oil :( which sucks because I just went and bought a giant jar last week. It likes argan oil though. I'll read up on the SMT treatment.

@MonaMayfair - Catnip? That sounds kind of cool but, since it gets cats high will it give me a headache or anything?

@Anje - I think I'll try that next time. I used fresh squeezed lemon juice and a tiny bit of water this time.


I can't view any of your pictures and the website won't allow me to view my own profile, does anyone know whats causing this?

[Alvrodul]

@ Micayla47- I washed it out with shampoo twice, and slabbed coconut oil and argan oil on it with conditioner, and tried to let it sit for as long as I could, but I was so excited to go see what it looked like I couldn't hold out for more than 10 minutes. (It was my first time, couldn't help it. xD) I've never tried a vinegar rinse. I heard the pH levels of acid help hair, but that's all I know about them.

@akilina- My natural hair color is light brown. Would I have better luck getting that beautiful cherry color with my natural hair color? Or will this blonde underneath suffice after a few henna's?

@Alvrodul - wow it went from nuclear orange like mine to burgundy in oxidation? I'd love that. My hair doesn't like coconut oil :( which sucks because I just went and bought a giant jar last week. It likes argan oil though. I'll read up on the SMT treatment.

@MonaMayfair - Catnip? That sounds kind of cool but, since it gets cats high will it give me a headache or anything?

@Anje - I think I'll try that next time. I used fresh squeezed lemon juice and a tiny bit of water this time.


I can't view any of your pictures and the website won't allow me to view my own profile, does anyone know whats causing this?
You won't be able to see albums until you have 25+ posts.
As for my color - bear in mind that the "nuclear orange" stage was when I first started to henna, and that is 2 1/2 years ago. Which means a number of long applications (though nowadays I do full strength application only on roots, and a gloss on the length)
Also, my hair was darker than yours when I started hennaing (natural color is dishwater dark blonde) which would help to tone down the brightness a bit.

[Peonyrose]

Hi everyone! I've just done the same in the last week - hennaed my shortish bleached hair x 3 now and it's heading towards a deeper bright warm red/ auburn. I' m an ex- henna head - just spent 2 yrs growing out the henna / chopping it off, doing double process platinum blondes etc etc, but you can't beat how healthy and shiny that henna makes it feel. Going to grow it long again now and for me with fine fine hair really the only way to get it past my shoulders is using henna. Now I'm just going to have to resist doing full head apps as last time I went into full colour saturation with a dark cool burgundy result ( using henna for hair henna and jamila). The interesting thing is that this time I used old henna that I had saved from previous henna days that was 3 years old and it still gave intense dye release. It had been kept unopened in a dry dark spot probably about 18' celcius.... So I agree with the above posts - repeat it about 2-3 x and you'll get the colour u want. I now use chamomile tea for liquid too as the lemon can really start to dry your hair out and it' s not necessary, and unless you have your own lemon tree you can end up buying a lot of lemons!

[Peonyrose]

P.S. I forgot to add that my natural colour is about a 7 ( ie dark blond) and I really got to around a 4-5 on the colour scale with henna and the occasional hendigo gloss previously.

[pullanmuru]

This is what I've been wondering...If you need 2-3 or even 4 full head application to get darker stronger (and less orangey) colour on blonde hair, then what to do with those new roots when they grow? Certainly one application on the roots only will only leave them orange! Do you need to do the roots 2-3 or 4 times, every time??? That's a lot of work I think.

I'm wondering this because I have a medium blonde hair and my roots are always lighter than the rest of my hair and IT'S SO ANNOYING and I'm thinking about moving to Manic Panic 'cos at least it gives me even colour from roots to tips (although otherwise it's annoying 'cos it's so messy and it dyes the scalp and shower and towels and sheets and fades pretty quickly too...)

[Peonyrose]

I never really seemed to have that problem, maybe I did my hair fairly frequently, it all just seemed to blend fairly well. I usually dragged the henna through to the ends for at least an hour so maybe the pre- oxidation orange halo was more evenly distributed, and then after oxidation the roots blended well. I think the lighter the hair the more likely the problem.

[MonaMayfair]

@ Micayla47- I washed it out with shampoo twice, and slabbed coconut oil and argan oil on it with conditioner, and tried to let it sit for as long as I could, but I was so excited to go see what it looked like I couldn't hold out for more than 10 minutes. (It was my first time, couldn't help it. xD) I've never tried a vinegar rinse. I heard the pH levels of acid help hair, but that's all I know about them.

@akilina- My natural hair color is light brown. Would I have better luck getting that beautiful cherry color with my natural hair color? Or will this blonde underneath suffice after a few henna's?

@Alvrodul - wow it went from nuclear orange like mine to burgundy in oxidation? I'd love that. My hair doesn't like coconut oil :( which sucks because I just went and bought a giant jar last week. It likes argan oil though. I'll read up on the SMT treatment.

@MonaMayfair - Catnip? That sounds kind of cool but, since it gets cats high will it give me a headache or anything?

@Anje - I think I'll try that next time. I used fresh squeezed lemon juice and a tiny bit of water this time.


I can't view any of your pictures and the website won't allow me to view my own profile, does anyone know whats causing this?


Here you are firevegan, info on catnip. Hope this link works. If not, just google "catnip for hair long hair community" I find it quicker to use google than to use the search facility on this site, it's not very user friendly!

http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/part-3-of-4-on-innovative-approaches-to.html

Ktani used to be a member here, she left recently which was very sad, because she was an amazing expert on lots of hair related things and she was great about answering my silly questions!
Catnip shouldn't give you a headache, though everyone's different of course. Henna always made me feel a bit sick (probably the smell)