Goodbye Henindigo - Hallo PPD hairdyes ! 'Grey' reflections...

[Tai Shan Fan]

Celebrian, I've just this thread though and know the greens await me should I ever try to lighten my indigo hair. You've really been through the mill with this and thanks for posting what happened on your journey.

You know, after reading experiements of people here and elsewhere with herbs, do you ever wonder if all greys are not the same. It seems to me that those with naturally fair hair when grey, take up herb colour easier than those grey-hairs that belonged to a dark hair colour. It takes quite some time for my greys to take up colour, yet I hear of people who get golden hues after a short time with a henna gloss.

Has anyone else noticed this?

[tiny_teesha]

Now i think i read somewhere once there is a black coconut oil that stains hair instantly or something? I'm looking into it right now, that may be helpful perhaps.
I also want to state that people have had success steeping some rosemary and sage and spraying it on thier roots daily for a month and then just weekly to maintian, when you stop spraying it will slowly fade back to grey. goodluck!

[Shanarana]

I am sitting with boxed hair colour in my hair right now. I don't do henna because of all the work and upkeep so I just do my roots when I can't stand it anymore. I do not want the greys so I just do the box thing when I have to.

[Celebrian]

Celebrian, I've just this thread though and know the greens await me should I ever try to lighten my indigo hair. You've really been through the mill with this and thanks for posting what happened on your journey.

You know, after reading experiements of people here and elsewhere with herbs, do you ever wonder if all greys are not the same. It seems to me that those with naturally fair hair when grey, take up herb colour easier than those grey-hairs that belonged to a dark hair colour. It takes quite some time for my greys to take up colour, yet I hear of people who get golden hues after a short time with a henna gloss.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Thanks Tai Shan Fan. Glad it helped you.

Yes, I've also wondered if blonde greys respond better to herbal colorants. Aren't blonde hairs individually finer than brunette ones? Not sure...

What do you mean about the golden hues with henna glosses? Are you referring to blondes only, or everybody?

I'm a brunette 'greyer' who can certainly get a soft golden red with one application of henna over the greys. My problem is that I don't want to be red: I want to be dark, hence the indigo fiasco.

[Tai Shan Fan]

What do you mean about the golden hues with henna glosses? Are you referring to blondes only, or everybody?

I've heard on this board of fair haired folk who do henna glosses to blend the grey into their other hair and seem to get a golden hue with a henna gloss applied for a short time, ie under 10mins. I've started a thread on this, actually, so I'm hoping people will chip in their their own experiences.

For me, it takes 1 hr-1.5 hours of full strength henna to colour my greys and yes then they're orange and like you I look terrible in any shade of orange or varient and that's why I use indigo as a 2 step process to kill the red.

By the way, as you know indigo is a very fine powder and because of this I now wear a mask when I'm weighing it out until I've finished mixing in the water. Obviously I take it off to apply, but have it on just while that fine powder is most airbourne.

[Rosetta]

I know this is a very old thread, but the issue is not "out of date" by any means, so I hope it's ok to resurrect it

I was happy and excited to find an actual thread about the "combination" way, i.e. using both henna and chemical dyes! I just posted yesterday about this on a thread in the Henna section, which, now that I think of it, was not a very good place to post it (but I was responding to another message there)... I'll just repost the main parts of my message:

For me the thing is, I love the effects of henna, the shine etc, and the fact of it not having chemicals, but the true colour of henna is really not what I want, not anymore, it's just too orangey - or with repeated applications, too burgundy/dark, which I don't like either. So at the moment I'm thinking that perhaps I could use both! Henna for conditioning benefits (and a bit of base colour), and chemical dyes to tone or fine-tune the colour. I wonder if there are others who do that, i.e. use both henna and chemical dyes?

(Just a note, I'm not covering grey though, as I don't have any yet, in case this makes any difference.)

I have a question--does anybody dye their hair red with chemical dyes, and then go over it with henna for conditioning and shine (I think that someone mentioned thier friend doing this with henndigo earlier in the thread)? I just can't seem to get a color that I want with henna

And after reading through this thread, I now see there indeed are (or at least were) several people who actually do that, like the above poster! Encouraging.
I'd love to know if those who did it here are still doing it, i.e. using both?

I only know of Naturtint, and Aubrey Organics that are low/possibly non PPD dyes. There may be some others, but google these two and see what you find.

Tints of Nature and Herbatint are also low PPD dyes (in fact I'm more familiar with those than the ones mentioned here). Just to spread the info
edit: and a UK (?) brand called Smart Beauty claims most of their permanent shades, including two red ones, to be non PPD (http://smartbeauty.eu/index.php?/Fre...tain-ppds.html).

[Loviatar]

I know this is a very old thread, but the issue is not "out of date" by any means, so I hope it's ok to resurrect it

I was happy and excited to find an actual thread about the "combination" way, i.e. using both henna and chemical dyes! I just posted yesterday about this on a thread in the Henna section, which, now that I think of it, was not a very good place to post it (but I was responding to another message there)... I'll just repost the main parts of my message:

For me the thing is, I love the effects of henna, the shine etc, and the fact of it not having chemicals, but the true colour of henna is really not what I want, not anymore, it's just too orangey - or with repeated applications, too burgundy/dark, which I don't like either. So at the moment I'm thinking that perhaps I could use both! Henna for conditioning benefits (and a bit of base colour), and chemical dyes to tone or fine-tune the colour. I wonder if there are others who do that, i.e. use both henna and chemical dyes?

Rosetta,

I am looking into henna and indigo to get black, but I know I weill have the red henna 'glow' so I was considering using a semi-permanent chemical colour (Wella Colour Touch) over the top to tone it down. The Wella is also a far more natural black than indigo, but I know that my hair loves henna. I think Wella over henna alone wouldn't be a proper black, but Wella over henna-indigo would.

[Celebrian]

Well, currently, I'm going to the hairdressers monthly to have my grey roots done, PPD style! My hair is a gorgeous, customised (and very shiny) mid gold brown with reddish cast to it. Every three/four months, I henna the hair from ears downward - mainly for the strenthening and conditioning. It doesn't affect the color radically, and I just get a goldish toner run through on my next hair appt. So, I take the best I can from both worlds!

[Kristin]

I was alternating between henndigo glosses and chemically covering grey roots for awhile. Then I basically went back to chemicals (only on new growth)...then I tried to go back to henndigo only. I'm now at the point where I think I'll be going back to chemical color for roots combined with henndigo glosses once a month or so. The henndigo (full strength) alone often doesn't cover my greys- even if I leave it all night- and I end up with too much red.

[MidnightStar]

I just read this whole thread and I must say it was extremely informative and entertaining!
I am having many issues with covering my silvers. My natural color is brown-black, so they are very prominent and I just don't like seeing them. I did henna/indigo, and I hated the smell and the time it took. It did, however, cover my silvers when I did the traditional two-step. Last year I switched to using Manic Panic in blue, and then Pravana Vivids in blue - the idea was to get a blue-black color, which I got, and cover the silvers, which it did, for a little while. Also it washes out pretty fast, so everything gets stained blue.
I'm interested in Lush Caca Noir, if it doesn't smell like the icky henna/indigo I'm used to, but sad to see it doesn't really cover the silvers? I'm also a bit wary about putting too much indigo in my hair - I prefer it dark, but if I ever change my mind one day I don't want to end up green.
So I guess covering silvers isn't really the point of this thread, but I'm interested if anyone's found a way to do it??