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

[DropStitches]

I’m very new to posting here, so apologies if it’s in the wrong place or has been covered before. My hair is dark brown, with an ever-increasing sprinkling of silver, as can be seen here. As you can see, it is currently in a terrible stylistic no-man’s land between pixie and bob, and both the length and the greys have really been getting me down – so I’ve been thinking about cheering myself up with some henna!

I tried henna (specifically Lush Caca Rouge) a few years ago, and it turned my hair a dark, cherry cola colour. This was the only photo I could find from that time – I was getting arrested in a play, to explain the dramatic expression! I did like the colour, but I’ve always dreamed of having more gingery, fiery copper hair. I just think it is the most beautiful colour hair can be!

My question is two-fold:
1) Do you think I even could pull off copper/ginger hair with my colouring?
2) How much do you think I would have to lighten up my base before I could achieve it?

My current plan (after some obsessive, lockdown research, including reading Nightshade’s excellent eBook) is to cautiously lighten my base a bit with a Sun-In-like product by John Frieda, and then try a mix of henna + cassia. My understanding is that I could then try lightening further with the Sun-In if the colour is still too dark, and maybe try another mix with more henna to make it redder… Is there anything I’m missing?

It’s quite difficult for me to do a strand test, as I don’t have all that much hair to test! I’ve been trying to collect hairs to experiment upon, but have only amassed a pitiful few so far. Oh – also, all my products are in transit, and things have been taking an age to arrive through the post here in France, so I have no idea when I’ll be able to do this, but I figured it would be good to draw on the wisdom of the longhairs in the meantime! If anyone has any personal experience going from dark brown to copper, I’d love to hear about it.

[lapushka]

I don't see that many grays.

I'm thinking your hair might be too dark for a copper color, that would be my only worry.

[DropStitches]

I don't see that many grays.

I'm thinking your hair might be too dark for a copper color, that would be my only worry.

Thanks, lapushka for the feedback! And that’s really nice to know that it doesn’t look very grey - I’ve been quite self-conscious about it. I like the little flashes of silver when my hair was buzzed, but these witchy streaks, I’m not so sure about!

I know it might be an uphill struggle to get to copper (& it might not even suit me if I get there!), and I do want to super duper slowly with any lightening (a large part of chopping off my length was bleach damage) I figure if the initial results are too subtle, I could always amp up the henna in the mix I’ll be using?

[Bellalla]

You would have to lighten *quite* a bit to get copper, which isn't very difficult to do if you don't mind the damage to get there, but you would be committing yourself to a very involved two-step root process very frequently since your roots would be stark within just a few weeks.

You *might* be able to get the lightening you need with just the Go Blonder spray, but it would take several applications, which would be very very difficult to consistently do on roots.

If I had your colour and was that committed to maintaining a light colour, I would probably get my roots professionally lightened.

As for whether it would suit you? I'm not totally positive copper would, but I feel like a deep Auburn would be stunning, which might be doable with Go Blonder spray.

[CoriKali]

I actually think the dark cherry cola color was gorgeous, and could be achieved without any lightening! I’m also growing out from a buzz cut because of bleach damage, and in the past I’ve repeatedly made the same mistakes with bleach over and over again that at this point I just don’t think it’s worth it at all, and very counter productive to hair growth in the long run.

My favorite hair is just virginal, unprocessed hair, but while I haven’t started developing grays yet I understand the want for color coverage that maybe I haven’t had to deal with yet. I think a lovely wine red henna over your dark hair would give it a beautiful color. ☺️

[DropStitches]

You would have to lighten *quite* a bit to get copper, which isn't very difficult to do if you don't mind the damage to get there, but you would be committing yourself to a very involved two-step root process very frequently since your roots would be stark within just a few weeks.

You *might* be able to get the lightening you need with just the Go Blonder spray, but it would take several applications, which would be very very difficult to consistently do on roots.

If I had your colour and was that committed to maintaining a light colour, I would probably get my roots professionally lightened.

As for whether it would suit you? I'm not totally positive copper would, but I feel like a deep Auburn would be stunning, which might be doable with Go Blonder spray.

Gahhh, I'm sure you're right! Isn't the grass always greener/more coppery on the other side?! I spent a few years dyeing my hair almost every colour of the rainbow (except orange, which is why I'm still not sure if more gingery tones would suit me), and I did a professional to do the bleaching, though not that often, as I was pretty relaxed about looking a bit rooty! It's a good point, though - perhaps I should wait till my hair's a bit longer and then I could do an ombre effect on the ends... It just seems to be growing at a snail's pace, and I have far too much locked-down time on my hands to obsess about it! Thanks very much for the feedback, Bellalla!

[earthybee]

red wine henna from henna color labs would turn the whites a true red and leave your dark hair dark. It's what I use every now and then. Straight hennasooq henna at times too. I go back and forth. I think your hair is beautiful as is but I cover my whites too so I get it

[DropStitches]

I actually think the dark cherry cola color was gorgeous, and could be achieved without any lightening! I’m also growing out from a buzz cut because of bleach damage, and in the past I’ve repeatedly made the same mistakes with bleach over and over again that at this point I just don’t think it’s worth it at all, and very counter productive to hair growth in the long run.

My favorite hair is just virginal, unprocessed hair, but while I haven’t started developing grays yet I understand the want for color coverage that maybe I haven’t had to deal with yet. I think a lovely wine red henna over your dark hair would give it a beautiful color. ☺️

Oh, thanks so much, corikali, that's really kind of you! It was a pretty colour, wasn't it, and it's good to know I could get it without wreaking havoc on my hair... How are you finding growing out a buzzcut? How long was it before you buzzed? I'm feeling pretty frumpy and unattractive about mine at the moment, which I think is where a large part of these dreams of henna come from - if I can't change the length, I can at least change the colour and get rid of the greys!

[DropStitches]

red wine henna from henna color labs would turn the whites a true red and leave your dark hair dark. It's what I use every now and then. Straight hennasooq henna at times too. I go back and forth. I think your hair is beautiful as is but I cover my whites too so I get it

Ooh, that's good to know! And thank you very much for the compliment, earthybee - your hair looks like a glossy glory in your avatar!

I think I might start off with a cassia-heavy blend, to see if that does anything at all, and then I can always increase the percentage of henna and/or tinker about with lightening if (as I suspect) that doesn't show up on my dark hair.

[Bellalla]

Gahhh, I'm sure you're right! Isn't the grass always greener/more coppery on the other side?! I spent a few years dyeing my hair almost every colour of the rainbow (except orange, which is why I'm still not sure if more gingery tones would suit me), and I did a professional to do the bleaching, though not that often, as I was pretty relaxed about looking a bit rooty! It's a good point, though - perhaps I should wait till my hair's a bit longer and then I could do an ombre effect on the ends... It just seems to be growing at a snail's pace, and I have far too much locked-down time on my hands to obsess about it! Thanks very much for the feedback, Bellalla!

Lol, yeah, I've done pretty much every colour except orange too, lol. I have done strawberry blonde and deep copper red, but not orange, which is like, the one colour I don't really want.

I really do think a deep auburny/copper would look great though.