I unintentionally henna'ed my hair and I'm upset

[DropStitches]

Thanks all for feedback! DropStitches, yeah I think it must have been a henna-cassia blend, and I feel stupid for not checking the ingredients more thoroughly before slapping it on my head.

I do collect my shed hairs from brushes, so fortunately I have lots of tufts to experiment on, which I have already been doing. So far:
-soaking in 3% peroxide overnight did nothing
-citric acid + head&shoulders did nothing
-tea tree oil shampoo soak did nothing
-bile soap lightened it a bit but it reoxidised
-strong bleach made it bleach white-yellow - with lots of orange on top
-bleach + bile soap interestingly got almost all of the red out

I do hope that lots of sun in the summer and clarifying shampoo will fade it, since it was only 1 application of a blend. Right now I don't think I'm gonna bleach before August. I do kinda want to rip all of my hair out right now, because in a way I feel violated, but I'm going to take it slow. Sucks that I've got a big and formal uni graduation event in a couple of weeks, but that's life.

I do kind of see why henna people like it, my hair feels shiny and healthy and glossy, it's kinda nice. But I can't deal with the color

For what it’s worth - I think it looks like an absolutely gorgeous colour! But if you’re not happy with it, I guess that doesn’t help. From what I can see, though, it goes nicely with your skin tone - and the hair at your hairline actually looks a bit less red, and a little more dark blonde, so I could imagine your natural colour blending well with it as your roots grow in. Keep us updated!

[Nightshade]

For what it’s worth - I think it looks like an absolutely gorgeous colour! But if you’re not happy with it, I guess that doesn’t help. From what I can see, though, it goes nicely with your skin tone - and the hair at your hairline actually looks a bit less red, and a little more dark blonde, so I could imagine your natural colour blending well with it as your roots grow in. Keep us updated!

I was going to say the same thing, I know you're not happy with it and I hope removing it goes well, but I think it looks quite lovely with your skin tone

[KokoroDragon]

So sorry this happened to you! It really does look natural on you, but I understand how it would be jarring for your hair to be dyed a color you didn't want. I dyed the very ends of my hair with henna a few weeks ago (intentionally) and ended up not liking the color at all, so I can sort of understand how you feel (minus the surprise part). I hope you can find a solution you can live with!

[stardust lady]

First of all, it looks awesome! I totally understand not being cool with the orange though. I suspect you'll see some degree of fading, since you only used henna once. I've been growing mine out for a year and a half and, even after using it for several years, I still saw some fading over time. No longer as noticeable and I basically feel like I have my natural color back, since it's grown enough for the henna to be away from my face.

Things that helped:
-Sun-In treatments (see Nightshades post about this)
-Professional balayage

Things that didn't do much of anything:
-ColorOops
-Vit C treatments

I think a subtle lightening plus a toner to counter some of the orange would bring it closer to where you want it.

The good thing about henna is that it makes your hair really strong. I haven't been able to find a split end in years, even after all those treatments I did to try to strip out the henna, all the bleach, and I was using a lot of heat tools at the time too, and not brushing very gently. So it's kind of nice to have that extra strength on the lengths and ends!

[Aerya]

I'm sorry that happened! I think it looks lovely, but I understand the feeling of being stuck with a hair color you don't want.

I don't know much about henna, but I just want to urge you to stay away from the bleach. If the henna is super permanent, bleach likely won't lift the color all the way, but it will damage your hair and lift your natural color. If I was in your situation, I would try to fade the color as much as possible, and then try a toner eventually to cancel out the warm tones. I'm not entirely sure about the process of coloring over henna, but there are ashy toners without any developer which might work too.

[lapushka]

I think... it looks great, but that may be rubbing salt on the wound.

Anyway... Man, we say it here 100 times over but *always* do a test strand when it involves henna. Even with the red, you just *never* know what the blooming heck color it's gonna give you. I feel like we need to title our henna FAQ ("oh, and: test strand), well, at least have it somewhere in the title. LOL

What's done is done. And such long hair too.

Choices?

1/ Bleach. Possibly ruin a very nice pretty picture (&hair).
2/ Mess with it in all other sorts of ways.

Result = always *ruined* hair!

The way I see it is this. Grow it out. Work with semi permanents to "cover" it up, until it grows out. May have to buy you some professional color for it, research it properly for a while. I think it's more positive, rather than bleaching it out, which is a route I wouldn't take!

It's light enough to cover with pretty semis (natural colors), or do something "fun"!

[Bat]

Thanks all for feedback! DropStitches, yeah I think it must have been a henna-cassia blend, and I feel stupid for not checking the ingredients more thoroughly before slapping it on my head.

I do collect my shed hairs from brushes, so fortunately I have lots of tufts to experiment on, which I have already been doing. So far:
-soaking in 3% peroxide overnight did nothing
-citric acid + head&shoulders did nothing
-tea tree oil shampoo soak did nothing
-bile soap lightened it a bit but it reoxidised
-strong bleach made it bleach white-yellow - with lots of orange on top
-bleach + bile soap interestingly got almost all of the red out

I do hope that lots of sun in the summer and clarifying shampoo will fade it, since it was only 1 application of a blend. Right now I don't think I'm gonna bleach before August. I do kinda want to rip all of my hair out right now, because in a way I feel violated, but I'm going to take it slow. Sucks that I've got a big and formal uni graduation event in a couple of weeks, but that's life.

I do kind of see why henna people like it, my hair feels shiny and healthy and glossy, it's kinda nice. But I can't deal with the color

It does suit your skin tone but I completely understand not liking a color
I'm told brown hair suits me but I can't stand having it on myself

[sarana]

Just to give an update on the situation:

It's around a month from the henna incident, and things have calmed down a bit. There was definitely some "orange shock" panic going on, and the colour did probably mature into a more natural shade by itself, but I did try several different colour removal techniques as well.

I did in total 4 Colour B4 treatments. I'm not entirely sure how much of an effect these had, but the colour is definitely a lot lighter now than it was in the beginning. In dim light you can't tell it from my natural shade, but in sunlight there's still a definite orange tint to it. (You know how henna works, the lighting makes a huge difference.)

I also tried a little bit of Sun-In, but I kept the amount very conservative and I'm glad I did, because it seemed to just lighten my natural hair under the henna and bring out the orange even more

Overall it's now at a place where I can live with it, and I think it's entirely possible that over time and washes and UV most of it will come off eventually, since it was only 1 application.
I think I may experiment a bit with blue-green shampoos or maybe some very light ashy toner. I don't need to change it anymore, it's fine, but I just feel like the warmth doesn't work with my cool-toned wardrobe that well.

Edit: oh, and the pretty severe demarcation line and patchiness is completely gone now, thank goodness. Those were pretty bad in the beginning since I didn't intend to colour my hair and just slapped the stuff on randomly.

[cowgirllong]

I am glad it has calmed down. I used to henna my hair and was worried about what it would look like growing out. At a certain point, I just didn't notice the henna anymore. I am pretty sure that when I quit using it, it started fading.

Our hair is so personal and such an important part of how we express ourselves. It is hard when it doesn't look right.

[sarana]

1 year anniversary update!

So quick recap: I tried to do a cassia treatment, but it was henna and I ended up with orange hair. Disliked it a lot, and threw everything but the kitchen sink at it (from oil to colour remover to vodka). I think SOME red may have been removed by the first 1-2 colour remover sessions, the rest did nothing. Tried some Sun-In too, with mixed results: the colour lightened a bit, but it also made the redness more visible in a way.

Then I tried mixing some blue and green hair dye into my conditioner, but it didn't give a very nice result either; it was patchy and muddy and didn't even cancel out the red that well.

Over 1 year it has faded quite a bit by itself, but not all of it is gone, and never will. So I'm just going to wait 7 years to grow it all out lol. As you can see in the pic, it's nowhere near as red as it was in the beginning, but in certain lighting it still obviously reflects an orange shine, and the strands themselves are still darker and warmer than naturally.

I think I may continue to experiment with the DIY blue shampoo occasionally, and maybe some sun-in, but it has faded enough now that it's manageable.

The colour itself was pretty and Tauriel-like in a way, but my skin undertone and all of my clothes are cool-toned, so I found the orange distressing