About a year ago I decided I wanted to stop using chemical dyes on my hair. I had been bleaching highlights and coloring with Manic Panic or Ion Brights for many years, but I finally decided I wanted my whole head to be a deep, dark crimson. I tried a few drugstore boxed dyes. When those didn’t last long I would do Manic Panic over the fading dye and I also tried some salon quality dyes with 20 vol. or 10 vol. developer (hoping to just deposit color) but nothing lasted very long, making this ll an exercise in wasted time, money and disappointment (well that and the fact that our shower pan seemed to be permanently stained red/pink/purple).
Looking for an alternative, I was drawn to Henna but had been told for years that Henna would not work well over chemically treated hair. That and the fact that once you use Henna, you can never bleach another strand again before growing out your hair and cutting it off.
Thanks to Google, I was able to clarify some of these myths. You can Henna over previously chemically treated hair, but your result might be inconsistent or unexpected. And you can bleach/highlight/dye over Henna, but your result might be inconsistent or unexpected. I’m ok with that and willing to cut length from my hair if I damage it too much (been there, done that).
Armed with those factoids and tired of my dry, frizzy and faded hair, I bought my first box of Henna, Light Mountain Naturals Light Brown, after reading that my faded but very reddish hair might go too red or too orange if I went with a straight red Henna. This turned out to be a mistake for me because Hennas that are designed to turn out shades of brown or burgundy often have Indigo added to them (blue/black). My hair grabbed more Indigo than Henna, leaving it an odd greenish-black. I wasn’t too worried because it takes two days to see the final color result. It stayed too dark, and too greenish for me, but to the non nit-picky observer, it was an ash brown. (Note: I didn’t bother strand testing because I have too many different conditions of hair on my head to make it worth my time…and I’m not afraid of an unexpected result.)
I was ultimately going for Burgundy, so I tried that next. Again, same mistake choosing a color with Indigo in the formula! I just hadn’t realized that until after doing the Burgundy. Again, my hair seemed to want to hold onto the black more than the red and my hair was a darker ash brown. I then learned that if you re-apply Henna frequently or over a long period of time (particularly if it has not faded much), the color builds and gets darker each time. I wasn’t thrilled with how dark my hair was, but the condition felt AMAZING and I was happy overall because it did lose most of the green tinge after trying Burgundy. I wanted it more red but didn’t want to keep going darker.
After this, I made a discovery…you can use Manic Panic or Ion Brights or other semi-permanent vegtetable-based dyes over Henna! For insurance, I washed my hair with dawn and did a lemon juice rinse to strip out as much of the Indigo as possible and used Manic Panic’s Rock ‘n’ Roll red. It showed up very nicely and lasted a good 3-4 weeks before it began to fade. After that, I decided I would alternate Henna and Manic Panic (or similar) every 4-6 weeks or so to keep the reds brighter and the condition very silky. I switched to plain old Red from Light Mountain at that point as well, since I was clearly in no danger of my hair going too orange and at this point, if it were to do that, I know I can use a vegetable-based semi-permanent to tone it down.
Fast forward to today…I hadn’t done any Henna or color in over four months…was just too busy with the holidays and new year. Now there’s a lot of outgrowth that is virgin hair, or has only been Henna’d once. I had a pot of Manic Panic and a box of Light Mountain Red. I contemplated mixing them together so I would avoid Henna’ing today and having to do the MP in a few days. I researched and the consensus seemed to be that it didn’t really work well to do this, but that people have had success with red Kool-Aid in Henna. No red Kool-Aid on hand, I found a box of Ameri-Color Gel Food Coloring that I know is at least five years old and have been meaning to replace. I hadn’t ever even opened the Super Red. Bam! I used the half-ounce bottle in my Henna after developing it for an hour, and slapped the mixture into my freshly washed twice, non-conditioned hair.
My hair is about bra-strap length but layered and very fine…so I only need half a box of Light Mountain, however, I just can’t seem to remember to mix up only half. I have a lot leftover and can’t help but keep eyeing the dogs. 😉 If only they’d sit still.
I only left it on an hour…that’s about my limit although I know some people swear by leaving it on 4+ hours or even overnight. I can’t even sleep with a pair of socks on, so a head full of goop wrapped in plastic and a towel would be a no-go for me! I shampoo’d and condition (I know some people don’t wash right away)) and it turned out really nice…a little coppery but that definitely toned down after 48 hours. My hair feels like silk and is so smooth and healthy-looking. Unfortunately, the red food dye seems to have had no effect on my hair, but when I have time, I’ll probably give it additional oomph with some Red Passion Manic Panic. (Picture taken about one month after applying henna and after a 4″ haircut; yes, I’m at the range but it’s the only picture I have of the back of my head! You can see light red highlights close to the ends…that is where my hair had bleached highlights previously. Overall I’m very happy with the color and dimension henna has on my hair!)
