Henna Thread, take two

**MissManda** · October 17th, 2010, 02:23 AM

I just did my second henna application on Wednesday and I am very pleased with the results. My hair is even darker now and is a lovely deep auburn. The last time I did a henna application, I used a mixture of 2/3 henna and 1/3 cassia while this time I did a full-strength henna. I like the full-strength henna even better and I plan on continuing with the henna applications on a quarterly basis or so.

I'll try to get DBF to take some pictures soon.

**punkcatknitter** · October 18th, 2010, 07:15 AM

I'm officially a henna head! Woo! (don't worry, I'm not a woo girl) Then intention was a gloss, but since I was intending to go darker eventually I used 4 tablespoons of henna and I can definately not call it a gloss. lol. I had a friend helping me and she was really freaking out at the orange 'glow' which was hilarious. I posted pictures in my album if anyone wants to see.

Who else on here is a natural blonde? I want to browse everyone's photos and ponder on how dark I'm going to take the henna and how dark or bright is possible.

**Nocturnal** · October 19th, 2010, 11:46 AM

Vinegar rinse on freshly hennaed hair - will it tone down the glow without affecting final post-oxidation colour? Because that's what I'm looking for. I am happy with the final colour, but I find fresh fire roots look funny. Any suggestions are welcome.

**GRU** · October 19th, 2010, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by Nocturnal

Vinegar rinse on freshly hennaed hair - will it tone down the glow without affecting final post-oxidation colour? Because that's what I'm looking for. I am happy with the final colour, but I find fresh fire roots look funny. Any suggestions are welcome.

ACV isn't going to affect the color. As the roots oxidize, though, the orange-fire will lessen a bit, more than likely.

**Nocturnal** · October 20th, 2010, 11:57 PM

Yes, it does. I was just wondering if there is a way to speed up the oxidation.

**HereIGrowAgain** · October 21st, 2010, 07:53 AM

Hello!

I've read through most of the pages (holy cow, 200?!?), and I haven't seen this question yet.

My hair is not long enough to do a test strand. There isn't enough to use clippings from a trim (since all my trims are actually dustings, with maybe 5 or 6 (literally) longer strands), and there is not enough to get caught in my brush to "harvest".

So, what do I do, ya'll? I'd like to go red, and I can always just go over it with indigo later to get it back to brown, so I'm not scared, but I have no idea how to figure out what it will look like!

I've seen the various mixes on hennaforhair, but all of them just say BAQ, not anything more specific. So, what do I do? My natural color is an ash brown, with lots of red and blond tossed in. It actually photographs auburn, looks brown indoors, and dark blond-ish in sunlight.

I do like my natural color, and eventually I'll go back to it. But, right now my hair is so short that I figured this is the best time to play around with it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. You can see my photos in my album, to get an idea of my coloring, if that will help you suggest a specific henna to try.

Thank you!!!

**brunette** · October 21st, 2010, 08:09 AM

You'll probably need to harvest from a hairbrush over the course of a week or three until you have enough of a ball of hair to strand test.

Failing that, you could apply a little paste to an inconspicuous part of your hair, behind your ear, or whatever, so long as you won't mind if it looks different afterwards but also will be able to check the colour change easily in a mirror or whatever. Just be sure to time it the same as you will when you apply it all over eventually.

**~bear** · October 21st, 2010, 08:57 AM

HereIGrowAgain - your hair color sounds sort of similar to mine. I agree with an inconspicuous spot on your head to test if you can't harvest enough hair. That said - I've never strand tested.

This is my natural (holy cow - 5 years ago!) color:

,

This is years later with Lush Caca Maroon:

This is my current color using BAQ Celebration:

,

**HereIGrowAgain** · October 21st, 2010, 12:10 PM

Thank you for the replies!

~bear, Celebration is the henna I've been looking at. I figured I'd need a higher dye content to get it to show on my brown hair. Your current color is really pretty!

ETA: I just ordered a sample of every sample available at hennaforhair. It'll take forever to get enough hair to test them all, but I don't want to pick the wrong color!

**YesitsReal** · October 21st, 2010, 09:44 PM

I already posted this on the Mehandi forum, but I'd like to know what you think, too. Thanks!

I'm trying to figure out which henna to use to color my hair, so I bought two samples from Mehandi: one of Yemen Light and one of Celebration. The lawsone content was very different (1.67% and 3.1%, respectively), so I assumed I would get very different color results--not so much. I just rinsed the henna off my strand tests, and they're pretty much the exact same color. I'm kind of confused. Will they be different levels of red once they oxidize?

Here's the method I used, in case that's where the problem lies:
1. Mixed small amount (less than half the sample packet) of henna with enough lemon juice to make a yogurt-like paste.
2. Set henna under heat lamp for about 1 1/2 hours for dye release. Got dye release when I tested it on my hand.
3. Placed strands in henna & coated. Placed coated strands in separate plastic bags, and placed one plastic bag in each jeans pocket. Waited about 4 1/2-5 hours, then rinsed.

I have enough sample left to do some more tests, but I'm running out of hair!

Any suggestions?