Can I/should I make my dark brown hair copper?!

[lapushka]

lapushka I love the phrase 'salt shaker' - I've never heard that before and I'm definitely stealing it! You're definitely right - I think the stuff we nitpick about our own appearances are often completely invisible to others, or might even be seen as desirable.

It's from the "salt & pepper" thread. I think it's often used there.

[MusicalSpoons]

I think the stuff we nitpick about our own appearances are often completely invisible to others, or might even be seen as desirable.

This leapt out at me - upon seeing your picture I thought 'oh wow those sparklies are so beautiful!' Yes they're definitely visible because of the lighting and the contrast with your hair, but that's a major factor in what makes them beautiful to me. (Incidentally I've often noticed that with indoor lighting, greys do hide themselves whereas whites don't as much.) It also occurred to me that if you were to henna without lightening, they would be an awesome base for red/orange sparkles sprinkled throughout! But I have no experience of henna so I've no idea how it would turn out on your dark hair.

However, it is your hair and acceptance of any of these kinds of things cannot and should not be forced

My suggestion as someone who is at the tail end of growing out a pixie is to have an idea of what you want to end up with once it's long and make decisions based on that.

...

So try to get a vision of what you ultimately want from your longer hair, and start brainstorming either ways to get there, or options that are reversible enough to get there in the future.

Oooh that is truly excellent advice, up there with other classic LHC pearls of wisdom!

[DropStitches]

^ I think that's really the issue, it can be so hard to grow out a pixie and feel at all happy with your hair.

I chose the extra long route of cutting it very frequently to try and maintain a shape I didn't hate. It dramatically prolonged the grow out phase, but I don't regret it as I had some fun styles along the way that I would have never tried otherwise. I even did a chin bob with bangs, which was a lot of fun for a short time.

That was my pre-pandemic plan, too! I've had two trims over the past seven months, and I think they did actually help a lot to stop my hair growing into a fluffy ball (post buzzcut) or mullet (as it became more of a pixie). Since I can't get my hair cut now (well, apart from having a go myself with nail scissors, but I want to steer clear of that!), I'm going to have to embrace it as it is.

So try to get a vision of what you ultimately want from your longer hair, and start brainstorming either ways to get there, or options that are reversible enough to get there in the future.

Wise words indeed! When I try and picture my 'dream hair', the problem is... it's basically someone else's hair! Specifically someone with long, flowing copper hair. And for some reason they are walking barefoot on a beach in this vision, but that's beside the point! I do like the look of dark hair with a copper ombre/balayage, which I guess is what would eventually happen if I decided to grow the henna out. Whatever colour it is, I would love it to be healthy hair, so I shall try to remember your advice and focus on the end goal.

This leapt out at me - upon seeing your picture I thought 'oh wow those sparklies are so beautiful!' Yes they're definitely visible because of the lighting and the contrast with your hair, but that's a major factor in what makes them beautiful to me. (Incidentally I've often noticed that with indoor lighting, greys do hide themselves whereas whites don't as much.) It also occurred to me that if you were to henna without lightening, they would be an awesome base for red/orange sparkles sprinkled throughout! But I have no experience of henna so I've no idea how it would turn out on your dark hair.

However, it is your hair and acceptance of any of these kinds of things cannot and should not be forced

Thank you so much, MusicalSpoons! It's very heartening to know that they look beautiful to other people! I think you're right, and I might try applying the henna+cassia (when it eventually gets here) without lightening to see how that looks. I've heard it takes a few applications for the cassia in particular to 'stick' to greys, so it might be a lengthy process.

[MidnightMoon]

Thank you for the compliment
I actually had experience with previous dyes not being good enough to lighten my hair and leave a bright colour, but I think it was just the brand. I've always wanted blue hair but never had it. At most, I had a sort of teal ombre at one point because of deposit dyes over bleached hair. That looked cool, but one of my bosses didn't like it, and I wore my hair mostly up anyways.
But I'm feeling more the orange/red these days.

[DropStitches]

Thank you for the compliment
I actually had experience with previous dyes not being good enough to lighten my hair and leave a bright colour, but I think it was just the brand. I've always wanted blue hair but never had it. At most, I had a sort of teal ombre at one point because of deposit dyes over bleached hair. That looked cool, but one of my bosses didn't like it, and I wore my hair mostly up anyways.
But I'm feeling more the orange/red these days.

Blue hair was one of my favourites! But my hair did eventually start to feel quite thin and sad from the bleach.

[Zanthia]

Your hair definitely wouldn't go copper overall, but the greys would. You have hardly any greys. It looks like that gently sparkly/metallic fabric some party tops and dresses are made from, do you know the sort I mean, it's normally shimmery black with either gold or silver sparkles? Little silver highlights. I think they would look good with henna, too. I used to have just a few greys, and I think it looked good hennaed like that - it made the overall colour look more natural somehow, like it brought it together?

I also think plain henna would give you a result like the pic from your play! That's similar to how my hair looked when I used to henna it without bleaching and without greys, my hair is a bit lighter than yours naturally, but that kind of burgundy glow, I used to get that. I'm not sure what's in that lush product, is it just henna and oil?

I, like you, see my true self, inexplicably, as having long coppery hair and running barefoot down a beach. Haha! We must have watched the same film at a formative age or something. I can't think who the actress would have been.

I used to bleach and henna it and it was very annoying. I can't recommend it really, but if you're more patient than me (and most are...), go for it! I do think as long as you're careful about hennaing only oiled/oily hair, which I still am, the henna does help against some of the bleach damage. But otherwise it could be x2 the drying. I stopped bleaching when I started growing my hair out, and I tried to blend the colour in a bit with milder bleach on the bottom of the dark parts and neutral henna on the top of the bleached parts. But then after a year I started going really grey at the temples. That's nature's bleach! Now my bleached ends, which I still have, are the same coppery/ginger colour as my greys. But because the light hair is still mixed with dark hair, the overall colour is between ginger and auburn. Being dark haired, we just can't get that colour without some kind of lightening, whether bleach, sun or greying!

So, you could try bleach + henna, or just time + henna! But I wouldn't mix bleach and cassia, the effects counter one another in my experience, and it sounds like you want as red & light as possible. Henna + cassia gave my greys my natural chestnut brown colour.

[DropStitches]

Your hair definitely wouldn't go copper overall, but the greys would. You have hardly any greys. It looks like that gently sparkly/metallic fabric some party tops and dresses are made from, do you know the sort I mean, it's normally shimmery black with either gold or silver sparkles? Little silver highlights. I think they would look good with henna, too. I used to have just a few greys, and I think it looked good hennaed like that - it made the overall colour look more natural somehow, like it brought it together?

I also think plain henna would give you a result like the pic from your play! That's similar to how my hair looked when I used to henna it without bleaching and without greys, my hair is a bit lighter than yours naturally, but that kind of burgundy glow, I used to get that. I'm not sure what's in that lush product, is it just henna and oil?

I, like you, see my true self, inexplicably, as having long coppery hair and running barefoot down a beach. Haha! We must have watched the same film at a formative age or something. I can't think who the actress would have been.

I used to bleach and henna it and it was very annoying. I can't recommend it really, but if you're more patient than me (and most are...), go for it! I do think as long as you're careful about hennaing only oiled/oily hair, which I still am, the henna does help against some of the bleach damage. But otherwise it could be x2 the drying. I stopped bleaching when I started growing my hair out, and I tried to blend the colour in a bit with milder bleach on the bottom of the dark parts and neutral henna on the top of the bleached parts. But then after a year I started going really grey at the temples. That's nature's bleach! Now my bleached ends, which I still have, are the same coppery/ginger colour as my greys. But because the light hair is still mixed with dark hair, the overall colour is between ginger and auburn. Being dark haired, we just can't get that colour without some kind of lightening, whether bleach, sun or greying!

So, you could try bleach + henna, or just time + henna! But I wouldn't mix bleach and cassia, the effects counter one another in my experience, and it sounds like you want as red & light as possible. Henna + cassia gave my greys my natural chestnut brown colour.

Oops - I hadn't seen your response, Zanthia - thanks so much! That's very useful to hear about your experience of bleach then henna... I've been pondering what to do, and have decided not to lighten my hair - after all, part of why I cut it all off was to get rid of bleach damage. I love your formulation of 'just time + henna' - that's such a nice way to put it!

I am in fact strand testing as I type (after I finally collected enough shed hairs for a decent-sized hairball) - I will report back on how it turns out. I decided to use straight henna in the end, after everyone's excellent advice.

[DropStitches]

Ok - strand testing is done! Here is my charming hairball before testing - there are quite a few grey/white hairs in with the brown-y black:

And here it is after:


I mixed up my test batch henna with with a chamomile and linden blossom herbal tea, let the dye release for about an hour, then steeped the hairball in it for five hours. I LOVE the colour - it is a rich auburn, and the white hairs are fiery ginger.....

... buuuuut I don't know if the colour might be too warm for my skin tone?

Maybe if I lightened my eyebrows a smidge? I had (chemically) dyed auburn hair many years ago, and I felt like my eyebrows gave the game away...

...though looking at this old photo, it could equally be the inches of dark root that make the auburn look unnatural!

Perhaps I shall continue to ponder for a bit.

[jane_marie]

For what it's worth, I think your flecks of silver are really gorgeous.

I highly suggest not bleaching your hair and then putting henna on. I did that. It was a bad idea. I feel like doing henna on top of bleached hair simultaneously locked in dryness and has blocked out conditioners. I have no proof of that though so your miles may vary.

I hope you find a solution that works for you.

[Obsidian]

The auburn looked nice, I think the henna will good. I suggest coloring your eyebrows too. I henna mine when I do roots.