Used to be bright auburn as a kid/youth, now at 48 my hair is solidly brown>>>>

[maborosi]

Nightshade gave some very sage advice here!

1) How do you avoid harsh lines of demarcation?
Henna doesn't have as harsh of demarcation lines IMHO, unless you are doing a straight henna treatment and going for something very different from your starting color.
But I'm gonna second Nightshade's advice here.

2) How do you avoid color buildup and consequent two toned hair (bright lighter roots and darker red length).
Try to stick with roots-only applications as much as possible. Henna will build up with repeat applications, and if you're using more concentrated mixes this will be more apparent. I'd say stay away from 100% henna application because you very likely don't need it- you can probably get by with a good henna/cassia blend.


3) IYE/IYO what is the best brand of henna?
I have always liked henna from Hennasooq.
Nightblooming does good mixes if you're looking for a specific color. I use Rusalki.

[EggLover]

Just did. Thank you! )

[DropStitches]

Hello EggLover! You’ve had a lot of sage advice already - I will just add one thought: with henna, any grey hairs you have will become beautiful red highlights. Starting henna two years ago has made me love my greys for this reason - with time, my hair is becoming more and more red (my natural colour is dark brown).

If you haven’t already, I’d start collecting your shed hairs to do a strand test on - see what you think of the colour, maybe trying out different ratios of henna to cassia if that’s the route you’re thinking of going down. Nightshade has a very informative ebook, which I highly recommend.

I should note that I’m pretty biased, as I love everything about henna - how soft and shiny my hair feels with it, as well as the colour. It definitely does look different in different lights, but I find that quite fun! Also, after the first application, I’ve only ever touched up my roots, and I haven’t had trouble with demarcation lines, or the colour darkening.

[Nightshade]

Hello EggLover! You’ve had a lot of sage advice already - I will just add one thought: with henna, any grey hairs you have will become beautiful red highlights. Starting henna two years ago has made me love my greys for this reason - with time, my hair is becoming more and more red (my natural colour is dark brown).

I'm right there with you on that. I've been fighting a decades-long battle at this point to have see-from-space copper hair and the more whites I get, the brighter my copper is