Goodbye Henindigo - Hallo PPD hairdyes ! 'Grey' reflections...

[Celebrian]

How is everyone else doing now?

My update:

I've located a hair lightener with a difference (apparently) and am strand testing it now. It's by Daniel Field and it's called Natural Lights. It claims to lighten hair by as much as 5 shades with less damage than normal bleaching kits, and burbles on about seaweed additives and avocado oils: however, it does contain hydrogen peroxide!

So, if the strand test goes well and doesn't melt or fry, I'll put that all over the hair for general lightening. After that, I'll 'fill' the hair by applying a light, warm red semi-permanent color and return some red tones (cancelling out a few green lights that were left over from a bleaching a few months back. Funny thing is, henna never managed to get rid of those, hence a PPD dye following the hair lightening!).

After that (assuming I still have hair) and having hopefully restored some uniformity to my overall haircolor, I'll pause and reconsider my options re continuing with PPD stuff, or recommencing some type of henna mix.

That's all for now folks - wish me luck!

[SpiralingWaves]

Good luck! I hope it works out for you!

[mellie]

I am curious about the lightener, please keep us posted and post photos if you can! :-)

[Kirin]

After doing the natural insticts, I'm canning chemical color for good. The rash / hot scalp I had afterward just isnt worth it. I forgot how much the stuff smells too! My eyes were watering.

I ordered and got a half kilo of Rajisthani henna, and I've gone back to marinating..... for now

[iris]

New developments, cool! Good luck!

[mellie]

Kirin, I hear ya, I can't stand the burning/rash of chemical color either. Either I am super sensitive or just have an extremely low pain threshhold..... :-)

Hope your scalp heals up quickly!

[zift]

Oh Celebrian I hope everything goes well for you and you don't get much damage after all the stuff.After all there's hydrogen peroxide in that product right?
A question popped in my mind, is there such a thing as a hairdresser that applies henna? Could it be possible to go there and have your roots done without giving it excessive time and energy?

[Celebrian]

Oh Celebrian I hope everything goes well for you and you don't get much damage after all the stuff.After all there's hydrogen peroxide in that product right?
A question popped in my mind, is there such a thing as a hairdresser that applies henna? Could it be possible to go there and have your roots done without giving it excessive time and energy?

No darling zift, having a hairdresser would still involve me mixing the henna, guiding the stylist, sitting for hours brewing and rinsing, rinsing, rinsing forever - whether at home or at salon! Either way, it all = TIME, and I'd like to cut these routines down. Saying all that, I haven't written off the henna at all: I just want to lift some of the darkness out. And yes, I'll get some green lights because of the indigo. Henna didn't cover those that well before, hence I will use a red PPD dye first as the filler - and then henna or whatever.

So, Here I go - strand test = hair still strong, no over-stretching, breaking or melting; some greenish lights (as expected); not overimpressed with the degree of lightening really. Perhaps a whole head application will do better.

Either way, my husband will be sad to find me lighter when he comes home. But, I've warned him, and said that we'll liase a comfortable level of darkness that we both like, once I've stripped some of it out.

Gulp. I'm dreading this actually. Not because of 'melting' hair, but because I don't like myself too light in color. Hope this 'lightening' stage is reasonable and not too drastic!

Ok, I'm going in now - wish me luck dear friends.

[wintersun99]

Good luck to you! (will we get to see a picture *evil grin* ???)

An update for me as well: I haven't henna'd yet (since stating that I was going to quit) and the root growth is not bad, but there are silver's there and I'm not sure I can live with that yet, so I'm back to debating. I tried chemical dye (Loreal something) about a month ago to cover some henna growth and get hair back to all brown ... and the color lasted a grand total of 2 weeks - washed right out - permanent dye, it was. (Which, I suspected it might, I have not had good luck covering henna with dye, it never sticks)

Sooooo, not sure what to do ... I'm thinking of just covering the growth at the part line (on top of head) only, and not worrying about the rest of the hair for now - really, it's only the silver at the part line that bugs me.... don't know

[CopperHead]

This is all so familiar to me. I have tried several chemical dyes to even things out, and gone back to henna and even henndigo. My last chemical dye session caused a very sore scalp and a black eye, so I am learning to deal with my orangey roots and burgundy length. I never could get the dye to cover the henna all the way and stick. The red always came back through. I have decided that if I can't beat it, I will just join it and learn to live with the several colors I have going. I wear my hair up most of the time, so it really isn't that big a deal.

Best of luck with your lightening, Celebrian! Let us know how it turns out.