How do I get a more orange henna?

[teldira]

Hey! I recently just went back to redhair after having it black for somewhile.
Ive went through the bleaching process and then procceeded to color it with henna(100% henna). I always always wanted it bright and orange like for example Merida from Brave (hehe) and read online that 50/50 henna cassia mix would be the recipe for that.
So i mix these together and add camomill tea and then let it sit overnight (10hrs~).
I apply and wait 3 hours to then feel the disappointment of this brownish/orange hair.
Now my hair was quite light before the application and wasnt brown, now im afraid that if i henna again (which is what i want to do) that ill never get that bright fiery colour i wanted. Do i bleach again and redo henna?

Ill try to post pictures if i figure out how.

[teldira]

I tried to get some pictures but i feel like it isnt true to its colour irl.
https://gyazo.com/f7fea5b00e157a59951be605b5146475

https://gyazo.com/b0238bd273404067c2626beaf0a76298

[akurah]

Those pictures are pretty bright and pretty orange.

The problem with henna is how it looks depends on the lighting. When I used to henna my hair it had quite a bit of orange to it in the sunlight, but was so dark it tended to look almost purple in indoor lighting.

[Jane99]

Your hair does look really nice and akurah is right about the lighting... my avatar pic is henna in the sunlight and the signature pic is my hair in the bathroom incandescent light. It changes color. People have mixed results with bleach and henna. Maybe try looking at the cherry cola thread for ideas on how to make a more intense shade. People do things like add hibiscus and freeze dye released henna. Senna as opposed to cassia has more of an intense yellow tint. But henna still has a brownish tint to it even if it is a reddish/orangeish/brownish tint especially once it oxidizes. Nightshade has a ton of good information on her Nightblooming blog.

[Nightshade]

Like others have said, it's just the nature of the beast. Here's my hair, all shot on the same day, just in different types of light:



Indoors and in the shade it can be very brownish. One of my coworkers was actually taken aback the first time she saw me in the sun because she's used to seeing me in an office with greenish lighting.

[Shorty89]

Nightshade makes a great point. My hair can look brown indoors or bright red outdoors. I'd maybe do a higher concentration of cassia in your mix if you want a lighter orange. Maybe 60/40?

[Nightshade]

Nightshade makes a great point. My hair can look brown indoors or bright red outdoors. I'd maybe do a higher concentration of cassia in your mix if you want a lighter orange. Maybe 60/40?

I think that's a good ratio. mine is 65/35.

[teldira]

Thank you all for the answers! It sure looks different with lightsources, but i think i still want a more orangey/red color and ill probobly try a different henna/cassia mix. Maybe 30/60 but skipping the camomill tea?

[Nightshade]

Thank you all for the answers! It sure looks different with lightsources, but i think i still want a more orangey/red color and ill probobly try a different henna/cassia mix. Maybe 30/60 but skipping the camomill tea?

The chamomile tea won't affect the color either which way. Add it if you want the conditioning, skip it if you don't like the smell

I did a whole series of these, soaking mohair in various powdered herbal muds (so much stronger than tea) and you can see that chamomile does pretty much nothing:



compared to a few that cast a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaint stain:



Compared to various hennas I tried:

[jane_marie]

compared to a few that cast a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaint stain:

Off topic but does Billberry's stain have any lasting power?