I just finished step two of dying my hair using a 50/50 mix of pure henna and indigo (also known as henndigo). The images above show you where I started (with WAY too much gray in my brown hair!) to using the pure henna only (WAY too much red!) to where I ended up (a nice shade of medium brown with NO gray!).
Not too bad for my very first time using henna hair dye, even if I do say so myself! I may even get brave (once I’ve given it time to finish doing whatever it does over the next few days) to add some darker color in here and there.
If you read the first post I did covering step one, you know that my hair had turned a very pretty shade of orange (I never did understand why they called my brother a redhead… IT’S ORANGE!).
This step had me more worried than the first one, mostly because everything I’d read told me that if I didn’t get the henndigo on fast enough, the indigo in it could possibly stop working… meaning I’d be spending another two hours turning my hair more orange instead of the medium brown I wanted.
That would NOT be cool!!
I left it on for two hours. That seemed to be the consensus on how long the indigo would take to stop processing before the pure henna took over.
It was a lot easier to wash out than what I’d read too! I’d bought some cheap Suave conditioner because that was supposed to make it easier to get the gunk out, but I didn’t need any of it. All I had to do was keep rinsing till the water ran clear.
I also didn’t wash it when I was done because the research I did mentioned to leave the indigo to process for a day or two first.
Here’s a pictures of how it turned out. It’s weird because the pictures make it look lighter than it looks in the mirror. But it’s not orange or green… so I’m happy!! I’ll take some more pictures over the next two days to see if it changes at all.
Have you ever used henna to dye your hair? How did it turn out the first time you used it? Let me know in the comments!
Take care,
Debi aka @GenXBrat
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I'm a passionate, down-to-earth gal who spends as much time as possible making fun of myself and the world around me. I'm a big kid with a lot of thoughts that I don't mind sharing AND, I love to teach. Anything. Everything. As long as it's fun. Warning: I was raised in a VERY sarcastic household so my sense of humor always leans that way. :)
But if I can make you think, make you laugh, or give you a moment to pause... life is good!:D
I love it! I was using the color that washes out in 30 washes because I hate the look of the new growth with permanent color. I stopped using color at all when the real-life Abby from NCIS was hospitalized with an allergic reaction to her hair color. My skin is slightly sensitive and I could see that happening to me so I have been reluctant to do anything and therefore have quite a bit of gray. When I was much, much younger, I was sure I would accept my gray with grace; to be natural. Now that I am faced with the gray, I am not so comfortable with it and it also seems to have a different consistency and I dnt like that either. I dont seem to be aging gracefully!
Thanks Linda!
And… first of all… I LOVE Abby! LOL
And I refuse to grow old without a fight. My grays started showing up earlier than I expected (mom died at 52 without a single damn one… I was regularly having her stylist hunt them down for me!). But they just make me look so much older that I’m not willing to do nothing.
I’d originally had my stylist coloring for me back to my natural color just because the Arizona sun was doing a bleach job so it made me looked washed out (I’m not a good blonde). 🙂
But the chemical dyes, combined with the sun and my age, just started making my hair feel super dried out…. didn’t want that either. But I’m really glad I found out about henna. I’m not completely in love with the color yet… but the softness and manageability (and the grays being gone!) are awesome!! I’ll be doing some more research to see how to lose some of the orange tint… but I do like it a lot (and my complication says he loves it so… of course what else would he say right?!). 🙂
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