To Henna or not to Henna?

Hello everyone! Here's a little history since this is my first post. I've made the descision to let my hair grow long (yay) after I once again gave into temptation and used Elumen dye on my hair (which is 25.5 inches long). I didnt want to dye my hair but because i have a few gray at my temple I definately HAD to cover them up (I'm only 22!) and my hair dresser told me to use elumen becasue it was supposed to be very gentle and non damaging. Well I dont think it damaged my hair any more than it already was but now I want my virgin hair back (of course). She says there is a special process specific for elumen to remove the dye completely but Im not sure if that is damaing. Underneath the elumen I have about 4-5 inches of natural hair.

Anyways onto the henna question. I have read that henna is all natural and not damaging for you hair but I didnt consider it because I have natuarally medium brown hair and I hate red undertones (my hair has more blonde undertones to it naturally). But I just went to http://www.hennaforhair.com/ and saw that it does cover grey quite well and with certain mixes you can get a decent brown. Right now Im using a dye from a health food store called herbatint to only cover the grey hairs. It claims to be a herbal haircolour that is gentle on hairand does not contain ammonia but does contain hydrogen peroxide in the developer. It does cover grey well without fading.

I would only be using henna on my grey spots not on my entire head and I was just wondering where I can get all the ingredents I would need to make a brown WITHOUT the red undertones.

Thanks:)

You need missrini for this-surprised she hasn't answered already! Try pming her. 

Hello and welcome, Trish!  

I've never heard of Elumen dye.  But I have heard that applying henna to hair that has already been color treated can have unpredictable (and/or unpleasant) results.

Applying chemical dye removers is probably harsh.

How much contrast is there between the dyed hair and the un-dyed hair?  If the difference isn't too great, maybe leave it alone?  (Sorry, coloring products is not my forte.)

Well....I'm glad you asked

As long as you use BAQ henna (and if you've been to hennaforhair, I'm sure you know what I'm referring to), then there should be no problems with using henna over the top of chemically dyed hair.  I am 99.9% sure you won't get a reaction, but I would still get a hairball (from the shower or your brush) and test it on there first.

Now, as for your mix to get a nice brown....you will need to use some indigo with the henna.  How much indigo you use will determine the final outcome, but for a medium brown I'd say about a 50/50 mix would do nicely.  You can also add other things such as Tumeric (sp?) which will give some nice warm yellow tones.   I don't have direct experience with this...but walnut powder is supposed to be a very effective brown dye too, but can  cause allergies in some ppl.

If you just want to dye the grey parts of your hair, then I would suggest using full strength mix on those parts, and then glossing your hair with the rest of the mix (ie....mixing it with conditioner or yoghurt to dilute it's dying capacity but will give a nice conditioning treatment to the rest of your hair).  If you find there is obvious colour difference between your roots and the rest of your hair, then you could always gloss again with no problems (the same day if you want to!).

Henna and indigo can be obtained through the sellers listed on hennaforhair and Turmeric can be obtained from the supermarket.

Hope that helps you!  Please let me know if you need any more info.

(Am posting a new thread about my friend's henna/indigo experience soon....so stick around!)

Thanks Missrini!!   I have been doing as much reading up on henna as I can in between studying for exams  lol

I did find a post...although now I cant rememeber where, that had said a whole bunch of women had thier greys turn bright orange and they stayed orange no matter how much indigo they put ontop. That kinda scared me off!!

Henna sounds perfect because it will actually strengthen my hair and I can cover my grey. Right now I have a *few* (maybe 30) grey hairs scattered at the temples and the herbatint covers them fine (I only dye about an inch at the roots where the greys are). While I use up all of whats left of that I'll definatley be reading up on henna so that when its time to get more I'll know which way I want to go.

Thanks for your help!!

Trish, the grey hairs do go a bit fluro for me for the first two days.  Bear in mind that I use just henna (no indigo)...so I would imagine that using indigo would further prevent this.  Certainly my friend Sarah (who recently did the henna/indigo thing) had some greys to cover and she didn't get any fluro hairs.

Btw...my fluro hairs oxidise to a nice copper colour after about 48 hours...so it's not a problem