I've been reading articles that state that the use of hair dyes may cause cancer. I've been coloring with the box for years. I dye my hair blonde from a box.

If I use Henna in my hair (blonde) and color only the roots, will that conflict with the color from the box? I don't want to wind up with some crazy new color in my hair.

Teatime :heart:

Depends on what your natural color is. You can never go lighter with henna as it has no capability to lift hair color the way you do with ammonia and peroxide.

Pure henna will always give you some tone of red - it can be tempered with other herbs/additives to give more brownish or goldenish colors, but almost always with some type of red hue to it. Henna + indigo can bring you to black if you have naturally dark hair (even though I'm don't think that's what you're after since you say you've been going blonde).

A good source of info on henna (albeit still somewhat under construction) is:

http://www.hennaforhair.com

/Fia

Thank you, Fia!

Teatime

Two years ago I wanted to switch from drugstore color to something more natural. I used Light Mountain Color the Gray henna about 4 weeks after my last coloring of L'Oreal Open. I used Strawberry.

My hair turned greenish-black. It was the most horrible thing in the world. I RAN to supercuts and got it all cut off like Demi Moore in "Ghost".

Be VERY careful will henna over chemicals. Very careful! Do more then one strand test.

I am tempted to try henna again, because it's beautiful on hair and I love it on my body. But I'll never forget flipping my hair back and looking in the mirror to greenish-black!!

Here's the story, if anyone missed it:
cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/01/28/hair.dye.reut/

Green hair? That reminds me of Anne of Green Gables. Poor thing! Your wavy hair is lovely now, though!


I have black hair and use black henna (indigo) to darken up the faded ends. However, I would be very careful using henna on light hair. I think the Light Mountain instructions give advice on removing the color in case of mishap, but it also says it doesn't always work. Something about Crystal Light Lemonade.

I colored my hair for a long time with salon permanent color. The last time I colored was in June of last year. I decided to try henna in the fall, and did - after doing a strand test on both the colors of henna I was considering. There was nothing hideous, so I took the plunge. I was very happy. I just re-hennaed a few days ago.

I did my whole head, not just the roots. What I noticed is that there is a slight difference in the way the henna looks on the previously dyed length, and the roots that have grown in without any chemical coloring ever having been on them. But this doesn't bother me because it is very slight as I said.

I am much happier with the henna. I get much less "color tangles" than I did from the chemicals. (Except that when I hennaed this time I didn't detangle my hair before shampooing, and you don't use conditioner prior to putting the henna on - oh what a tangled mess that was! Duh!) Also, the henna is a protein treatment for the hair. I'll never go back to chemical coloring.

Tea Lady

Oh, I tried, I tried. Several times, and the crystal light mix (crystal light + conditioner) didn't work for me and the green, and it buuuuurned my scalp! You don't want to depend on that to fix any henna mistakes!

Read that Henna for Hair forum, it's very good. And make sure you do the strand tests on lots of hair from your hair brush. Save up rats of hair for this.

Henna is beautiful and good for your hair if your hair is natural...but can be unpredictable over chemicals...There are people who have gotten great color and those (like me :( ) who've had absolute disasters. Don't be like me!!!

You never know............. :?:

Henna can be unpredictable. The only way to know for sure what it is going to do is to strand test. You could apply it to a small section of hair, or collect strands from your brush/ comb until you have a nice little wad of hair to test with.

I colored my hair with "box" color (Natural Instincts I believe) and used henna not too long after. I got great results. It's worth strand testing to find out.

Ah, cowgal, that tempts me! It's success stories like that, and the fact that I have several hundred grams in my freezer right now, that make me want to tryyyyyiiiiit again!

I love henna, the mixing, the haylike smell, the designs, the whole process. I really wish I could do my hair too!! If I could go a good 3 or 4 months without coloring, maybe I'd try it again. I've heard it can go "Lucille Ball" red on gray hair, but then I look great in "Lucille Ball" red! :)