Evening out henna color over long hair

**tuulie** · April 2nd, 2020, 06:39 AM

I've been using henna for four years and have TBL hair. Initially I did three applications over full length and after that I've been doing my roots.

I'm having a bit of an issue where I have horizontal stripes in my hair where I've had different dyeing results. Sometimes I use henna from the freezer and don't get such a good dye release, twice I terped my henna and got darker results, some dye lots have been more red, some older freezer henna almost brown. It's not obvious if you look at all the hair, but is quite obvious if looking at a single strand.

Is there something you do personally to even out the color? Do you do like a yearly henna gloss over all the hair or something like that?

**Nightshade** · April 2nd, 2020, 08:56 AM

Oh interesting that you get such banded lines on your henna! I just do roots and there's no lines, but also my batches are all the same so that might account for the difference.

I think you have two options
- add more henna to your length to even it out
- try to remove some of the henna from the length to even it out then do a whole head application or gloss to unify

Obviously just doing a gloss would be easiest so perhaps best to start there

**tuulie** · April 2nd, 2020, 10:28 AM

Originally Posted by Nightshade

Oh interesting that you get such banded lines on your henna! I just do roots and there's no lines, but also my batches are all the same so that might account for the difference.

Yeah, I'm going to aim for more consistency from now on. Problem is I used to buy from henna sooq and I'm not sure them shipping to EU makes sense. I do overnight applications, maybe that also emphasizes the differences especially if there are differences in dye release. Another difference is that I used to be quite conscientious about dyeing, whereas in the last three years I've managed about every half a year.

**Nightshade** · April 2nd, 2020, 10:39 AM

Honestly if you can find a good source of henna closer to you, that's probably wiser (and I say this as someone that uses and loves Henna Sooq's products).

I'm not sure if you've seen my experiment on various types of henna, but the tl:dr is that if you treat all hennas the same, they produce similar (honestly, identical) results. From here on out, if you picked an easy source of henna for you to acquire and treated it the same every time I think your results will even out over time

**tuulie** · April 2nd, 2020, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by Nightshade

I'm not sure if you've seen my experiment on various types of henna, but the tl:dr is that if you treat all hennas the same, they produce similar (honestly, identical) results. From here on out, if you picked an easy source of henna for you to acquire and treated it the same every time I think your results will even out over time

I had not seen this - this is very useful as well as reassuring, thank you!

**Siv** · April 2nd, 2020, 12:24 PM

What about doing "highlights" with henna (I mean, vertical stripes, no bleaching!!) would that help disguise the horizontal stripes? (I've basically no experience with henna, I'm just posing a question!)

**tuulie** · April 2nd, 2020, 11:43 PM

Originally Posted by Siv

What about doing "highlights" with henna (I mean, vertical stripes, no bleaching!!) would that help disguise the horizontal stripes? (I've basically no experience with henna, I'm just posing a question!)

That's not a bad idea generally speaking, but most of my hair is at saturation so highlights wouldn't show up. :/