How to turn black hair into dark brown using henna and indigo?

[violenttradwife]

Hello everyone, hope you are all well.

Around a week ago I dyed my hair black using the two step method of henna and indigo. I would now like to dye my hair a dark, rich and deep brown. Has anyone successfully went from black hair to dark brown with henna and indigo, and if so how can I achieve such thing? I have tried looking around in the forums but it is all on achieving black hair, and none on dark brown.

Appreciate the help.

[Velouria]

There's nothing you can do to immediately lighten from henndigo black to dark brown, as neither plant dye can lighten hair, but only deposit color. And no chemical color or lightener that could lighten your hair to brown is safe to use on hair treated with indigo, which reacts badly with peroxide and any lightening agents (often resulting in green hair.) However, indigo fades fairly quickly, so your hair should start fading from black to dark brown all by itself. You might be able to speed up the fading by heavily oiling your hair, and/or using non-color-safe shampoo, and/or leaving your conditioner in longer before rinsing.

Then, when the indigo fades to the point where the red from the henna (which fades little if at all) shows through it, you can henndigo again, this time using less indigo and more henna in order to achieve dark brown. IIRC, you don't need to do a two-step process to achieve dark brown, but can simply mix the indigo and henna together. I'll see if I can find a henndigo recipe for dark brown.

ETA: I found the proportions on Henna Sooq's site. 70% indigo with 30% henna, in a one step process, for dark chocolate brown (under the section headed "You can color your hair naturally!) Very hot water will dye release henna within 15 minutes (which is indigo's ideal dye release time in hot water,) so I wouldn't bother mixing and dye releasing the henna separately as they say to, only to later mix the indigo with hot water and add that to the henna mix. I'd just mix both powders together with very hot (preferably distilled) water and wait 15 minutes before applying. I also wouldn't recommend using any acidic liquids (like green tea or vinegar,) as they recommended for the henna portion of the recipe. Acidic liquids are unnecessary to dye release henna and they weaken indigo. 3 to 4 hours also seems like it might be unnecessarily long to leave it on; you might want to look more into that online (not just on this forum.) https://hennasooq.com/blog/complete-...na-and-indigo/

[violenttradwife]

Hi Velouria thank you so so so much for the response! You’ve given me hope. Thank you immensely.

[alewyn]

Velouria's response hits the nail on the head! I just wanted to pop in to say, in case there was any ambiguity, that you should absolutely not use any chemical lightening agents (like peroxide or bleach) on your hair, since it has indigo on it. It will turn green!

[shelomit]

Some people find indigo to be very colorfast, whereas for others it fades within a couple of months. The best thing (presuming you don't want to chop) would be to wait a while and see where you are after that point. Sunlight can speed the process up a bit. Any kind of chemical lightening is a BIG no-no after indigo, though, as others have pointed out above.

Ultimately, hendigo--with a lower proportion of indigo than you used the first time!--might work if you are looking for a cool dark brown. If what you want is a dark mahogany/"cherry cola" color, that comes from repeated applications of henna.

[Nox_Inber]

If this was your first application of two step henndigo, then there's a chance of it fading. I remember needing a few applications of henndigo to get the black permanent. But once it stuck, it stuck. Maybe you'll get lucky and it won't take to your hair very well