Trying henna for the first time *holding my breath!!!!*

[Bellalla]

Hi all, I am about to try henna for the first time and despite reading here and online intensely for probably and embarrassing amount of time (what else am I going to do while socially isolating?), I'm ready to take the plunge.
I just don't want to mess it up.

My hair history is similar to Nightshade's, naturally light to medium brown hair, similar texture, very fair skin, and a decades long history of sacrificing my hair health for the sake of colour. 5 years ago I chopped off all my hair to 1 inch due to damage. It's now just past shoulder length, and thanks to dyeing, it's already pretty damaged again.

I've been dying it "intense copper red" with 30 volume developer for years. The colour is gorgeous for about two weeks and then fades to a rusty flat colour. Also, despite being a beutiful colour, it's never actually the colour I want, it's always got this vague pink undertone to it, no matter how "copper" a colour I choose.

So now I'm going to try henna, not just to hopefully improve the condition of my hair, but also to get the colour I actually want. Like Nightshade though, I really, really, really don't want it to be too dark or anywhere near burgundy. I'm pretty optimistic that my results won't be burgundy as my natural colour isn't so much brown as almost a grey colour and has a ton of actual grey in it.

So I bought some Fire Genasi from the Nightblooming etsy site, read through Nightshade's entire thread about lightening henna, plus countless of her articles and blog posts.

Please let me know of anything I should be thinking of before hand, I really want to not make avoidable mistakes

[FrayedFire]

You sound like you're off to a good start. Fire gensai is already a gloss, but you can mix it with conditioner to gloss it further and build up layers in multiple applications to avoid too dark of a colour. Biggest thing I would suggest? Do it outside, because the mud will splatter and it S T A I N S if you don't wipe it up while it's still wet.

[Nightshade]

Sounds like you're doing eveything right The only thing that you want to keep in mind is that if your roots are substantially darker than your chemical red (many lighten) that your roots with Genasi might be darker and not as bright as the length.

You're safe from burgundy, and I'd be careful about cutting Genasi further. It'd be very easy to dilute it to the point where you aren't getting any color at all If you do have any questions, I'm happy to help!

[Bellalla]

You sound like you're off to a good start. Fire gensai is already a gloss, but you can mix it with conditioner to gloss it further and build up layers in multiple applications to avoid too dark of a colour. Biggest thing I would suggest? Do it outside, because the mud will splatter and it S T A I N S if you don't wipe it up while it's still wet.

It's still pretty darn cold up here in Canada, and I live in an apartment building, so doing it outside is kind of suboptimal. My plan was to do the whole thing in the bathtub. I have a high powered sprayer installed in my shower, so I'm hoping to just spray it down really well. Does it tend to stain grout, because my red hair dye certainly does.

[Bellalla]

Sounds like you're doing eveything right The only thing that you want to keep in mind is that if your roots are substantially darker than your chemical red (many lighten) that your roots with Genasi might be darker and not as bright as the length.

You're safe from burgundy, and I'd be careful about cutting Genasi further. It'd be very easy to dilute it to the point where you aren't getting any color at all If you do have any questions, I'm happy to help!

After spending hours on your site, it's a bit trippy having you respond directly, lol

My red doesn't seem lighter than my natural colour when I grow out enough roots to actually see it. My natural colour is really almost translucent, so it can look blond in some light despite definitely being brown, plus I have a fair amount of grey, so I'm not too concerned about my regrowth being darker.

I am however, concerned about the delination line showing through the henna. My dyed hair is all pretty much one shade of red, whereas with the grey and natural highlights, my natural colour is quite varied, so I feel like there will be a distinct line where the dye ends.

I'm wondering if a round of Color Oops might help with this?

[Bellalla]

Oh, and I definitely want to apply the Fire Genasi *exactly* according to your instructions.
There's a review on your site with a photo of a bride and hers is the *exact* colour I'm hoping to get.

If the Fire Genasi ends up being too light for me, can I just reapply it multiple times to deposit more, or am I better off using a different formulation? Based on my understanding of how the pigment deposits, I figured there would be no harm in just building it up instead of potentially over doing by adding too much henna.

I'm very happy to go very slow and incrementally with this process.

[Nightshade]

After spending hours on your site, it's a bit trippy having you respond directly, lol

My red doesn't seem lighter than my natural colour when I grow out enough roots to actually see it. My natural colour is really almost translucent, so it can look blond in some light despite definitely being brown, plus I have a fair amount of grey, so I'm not too concerned about my regrowth being darker.

I am however, concerned about the delination line showing through the henna. My dyed hair is all pretty much one shade of red, whereas with the grey and natural highlights, my natural colour is quite varied, so I feel like there will be a distinct line where the dye ends.

I'm wondering if a round of Color Oops might help with this?

Hahahaha my pleasure to respond directly There is likely going to be a bit of a line, but I think it has less to do with your color and more to do with how light hits it. Your chemically lightened bits are going to shimmer rather than shine and by contrast the virgin roots are going to look very smooth. I don't think it'll be glaringly obvious, just more that I don't think ColorOops is going to fix the issue

Oh, and I definitely want to apply the Fire Genasi *exactly* according to your instructions.
There's a review on your site with a photo of a bride and hers is the *exact* colour I'm hoping to get.

If the Fire Genasi ends up being too light for me, can I just reapply it multiple times to deposit more, or am I better off using a different formulation? Based on my understanding of how the pigment deposits, I figured there would be no harm in just building it up instead of potentially over doing by adding too much henna.

I'm very happy to go very slow and incrementally with this process.

I know exactly the picture you're talking about Just also keep in mind that henna shifts pretty wildly in the light, so you might get that color sometimes, but not others.

You can layer up Fire Genasi to get a richer color, but I'd say if you do it two or three times and it's not getting to where you want you're better off with a blend with more henna. The other option is that you could keep on with Fire Genasi, but add, say 10g of henna to each 100g pack of Fire Genasi each time until you hit on the color you want

[florenonite]

It's still pretty darn cold up here in Canada, and I live in an apartment building, so doing it outside is kind of suboptimal. My plan was to do the whole thing in the bathtub. I have a high powered sprayer installed in my shower, so I'm hoping to just spray it down really well. Does it tend to stain grout, because my red hair dye certainly does.

I apply it in the bath and wipe it down with water right away after I'm done. I haven't noticed staining in the grout, but as a general rule henna tends to stain organic materials, so grout should be safe. Don't quote me on that, though

[Bellalla]

Hahahaha my pleasure to respond directly There is likely going to be a bit of a line, but I think it has less to do with your color and more to do with how light hits it. Your chemically lightened bits are going to shimmer rather than shine and by contrast the virgin roots are going to look very smooth. I don't think it'll be glaringly obvious, just more that I don't think ColorOops is going to fix the issue




I know exactly the picture you're talking about Just also keep in mind that henna shifts pretty wildly in the light, so you might get that color sometimes, but not others.

You can layer up Fire Genasi to get a richer color, but I'd say if you do it two or three times and it's not getting to where you want you're better off with a blend with more henna. The other option is that you could keep on with Fire Genasi, but add, say 10g of henna to each 100g pack of Fire Genasi each time until you hit on the color you want

Excellent, thanks for this!

I'm actually pretty excited for the light shift effect of henna, I'm always coveting various red shades, I love everything from light penny copper to deep saturated red/auburn, and I'm very happy to sport any of them under any lighting conditions...just not burgundy. How dynamic henna is is a big part of the appeal, my least favourite thing about conventional dye is how non-dynamic and flat it tends to be, even highlights.

My natural haircolour is wildly different in different lighting, so I'm looking forward to having that back as opposed to the flat, one-note, middy red that it is the vast majority of the time now.

I figured some delineation line from dye to virgin would be unavoidable, but that's the same with pretty much any hair colour change, so if there's nothing I can do to combat it, I just won't worry about it. Also, my hair isn't very long, just barely shoulder length, and I have no problem keeping it this length and chopping the old colour steadily off until the delineation line is gone. Last time I changed my hair colour, I chopped my waist length hair to 1 inch. It was in very rough shape, it was a mercy killing.

I'm happy to hear the Color Opps probably isn't necessary, because I've read that it smells absolutely dreadful, plus, none of the local pharmacies have it and the hair supply stores are all closed due top covid. I ordered some, but have no idea when if/when it will get here.

I guess I was just worried about the red over the red part being very intense red, and the red over light brown part being a totally different shade. I don't have enough posts yet to see photos, so it's been hard to find any photo examples of how henna looks overtop of red dye to not-red hair.

However, you being the subject matter expert, if you say it shouldn't be an issue, then I won't worry so much about removing the red first.

[Bellalla]

Okay, I have another question that I'm not sure anyone can answer, but here goes.

Before I ordered Fire Genasi, I had already ordered Red Henna and Orange Red Henna from Henna Guys. The packages arrived and both claim to contain 100% henna???

I had assumed that the Orange Red Henna would be a cassia blend, but it doesn't indicate any cassia.

After reading Nightshade's test on different types of pure henna all basically producing the exact same result, I can't imagine one type would be orange and the other red??

Does anyone have experience with these products?