Lurker, but kinda new

**serbus** · August 3rd, 2021, 02:10 PM

Hey, I've lurked the forums for a number of years and finally registered a few months back. I'm not a particularly social person. My hair is currently calf length and I've been growing it since 2012, when I'd cut it an inch short. My gray hair recently became more obvious so I've been thinking of dyeing it with henna. I've never dyed my own hair before, so I'm looking through the forums for advice. It feels especially daunting to do henna for the first time with 5 feet of hair, but I'm actually more concerned with how to maintain it. My hair grows really fast, and I have no idea how to touch up roots well enough for it to look good. I'm nervous about ruining years of work with all natural, silicone free hair. I love most of my hair the way it is now, but I'm hating the streaks of gray peaking through. I'm OCD with trichotilomania and one of my issues with plucking is that I feel the urge to remove hair that doesn't conform to the rest of it. Focusing on hair care has given me years of freedom from this urge, but the mis-matched grays are driving me crazy. Ironically, if all my hair were gray I'd have no problem with it. I figure dyeing my hair until I'm fully gray is better than getting bald patches again from an episode. Anyway, I'm here to hopefully find others who've done the same. I'd post a photo of my hair, since that seems to be the thing to do here, but my camera isn't working right now. So I'll have to do that later.

**lapushka** · August 3rd, 2021, 05:11 PM

Welcome!

Gray & henna is very difficult. Just putting that out there. Henna colors depending on the pigment in your own hair, and when that pigment is lacking it will color as it will on a light light blonde, so very very "orange". You can help that by coloring say every week to intensify the color, but with that amount of hair? I would not recommend it.

If you are really not wanting the gray? I would get chemical color.

But think about it first, if you have a tiny bit of gray and your hair color is mostly still there? I wouldn't!

**serbus** · August 4th, 2021, 01:35 PM

Thank you. That helps me know better where to start. The issue is not the gray specifically, but more that it creates an uncontrollable urge to pull my hair out, which is not something I think I'll be able to abstain from for the 12 years it's going to take for my hair to go gray. I wish there were a more hair-safe option. Chemical colours make me lose a lot of hair.

**serbus** · August 4th, 2021, 01:59 PM

Thank you. That helps me know better where to start. The issue is not the gray specifically, but more that it creates an uncontrollable urge to pull my hair out, which is not something I think I'll be able to abstain from for the 12 years it's going to take for my hair to go gray. I wish there were a more hair-safe option. Chemical colours make me lose a lot of hair.