Buxus dioica AKA katam

[Celebrian]

I thought that I read on H4H someone posting that bleaching Buxus turned the color Teal... not too far off from an indigo bleaching...

Yes, I read that the other day as well. Here it is, posted by 'guest':

Okay, so here is what I did.
1. I henna-ed my hair a total of 3 times.
2. Decided I wanted an ashier color so I used colorfix then did a buxus cassia mix over night.
3. Woke up rinsed and felt the color was too dark. Did a strand test with 40 volume bleach peroxide for an hour - the color came out perfect dark ash blonde.
4. Put the same bleach mixture in my hair for an hour- it came out with streaks of teal and special little patches of flaming orange.

What can I do to fix this? Will baq henna cover the teal?

This result doesn't suprise me really. I had a similar strand test result some months back (and promptly lost interest in Buxus!). As far as I can tell, Buxus is just the baby sister of Indigo - and the family likeness is pretty marked!

[annarose]

Hmmm, interesting.

I wasn't really expecting buxus to be much different than indigo, maybe turn a different color with bleach, which is just what it did on my hair .

[annarose]

Here's what prompted me to try a streak...

From H4H...

]"carrie

Site Admin

Posts: 2614

Re: Buxus & bleach?

Posted on: 12/09/2008 11:00 AM
Okay, so here are my previous hairball strand experiments:

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo...58323466OhHiPE

Today I used Jerome Russell bleach + developer for 30 minutes on the assembled strand of hennaed hair (that previously had been dyed for 30 minutes with straight dye-released buxus) and it bleached to a nice light orange.

The dark hairball (that had previously been treated for 1 hour of straight dye-released buxus) was bleached for 90 minutes (!!) and turned light ash blonde - not golden blonde, but ash blonde.

All the hair samples had small amounts of indigo from previous cassia/henna/indigo/amla treatments so the residual ashiness in the darker hairball could be from indigo, too. But considering how dark the dark hairball was from 1 hour of buxus, it came out pretty well - not distinctly green, but a natural looking light ash blonde.
Edited by carrie on 12/09/2008 11:02 AM "[/


So maybe the toner my hairdresser used was the wrong thing to try? But we couldn't leave the orange, it just wasn't natural looking at all.

[iris]

annarose, sounds to me like carrie just happened to hit on exactly the right proportion of buxus and henna - just enough henna so that it bleached out enough with that long bleaching session, and just enough buxus to cancel out the warm tones from the little bit of remaining henna (the ash indicates that there is some buxus left there). You can't count on that kind of balance to be struck any time you try something, KWIM? It's hard enough to achieve with regular toners, let alone with henna/indigo/katam.

There have been plenty of people who did a strand test with bleach over henna/indigo, got a nice color they liked, only to find that applying the same process to their whole head left them with green/blue/orange streaks. It's hit and miss, and you have to go by what you get. If you get orange, using a toner over it is the right thing to do . The only alternative to toner is to try to bleach further and risk damaging your hair beyond salvation.

[ljkforu]

I've been doing a henna 2/Katam 1/ indigo 1 gloss with heavy cones. I'm still not losing my katam the cones are keeping the slightly greenish ash tone that I need in place and it isn't fading.

[Anje]

Thought I'd give an update...

DH has been doing his goatee with henna (pre-dye-released and frozen as henna cubes) and katam (added in roughly equal amounts right before application), and the results are quite good. The new one isn't the greatest picture of him, but....

Before........................................Afte r


Why yes, we do have yellow walls.

[serabelle]

Whew, this thread is getting long! I've read it through AGAIN - but wanted to get some fresh answers, and if possible pictures..

Who here uses buxus to tone down the red in henna? I've been doing hendigo for six months, with only one whole head application, and then roots and glosses after that. I'm trying to figure out a way to tone down the hendigo red. I've been doing a 2:1 ratio.

(I did a hendigo today, even though last time it gave me a migraine. I made sure to ventilate really well, and so far so good.. no headache.)

Should I try to do a 1:1 ratio henna/indigo to get more of a chocolate brown? OR - should I try to do a buxus OVER what I already have? Thoughts? Ideas?

[Pierre]

Before........................................Afte r


Why yes, we do have yellow walls.

Ooo that looks pretty! I'm going to get some next time I buy something from Catherine.

[Beloved]

Serabelle, have you seen these pictures of hair dyed with buxus/henna/cassia in various amounts? It is on white hair, but still helpful I think.

http://www.mehandi.com/shop/buxus/index.html

[serabelle]

Serabelle, have you seen these pictures of hair dyed with buxus/henna/cassia in various amounts? It is on white hair, but still helpful I think.

http://www.mehandi.com/shop/buxus/index.html

Thanks Beloved - I forgot about those photos. I think I might just have to break down a do some serious test strands. I haven't ordered anything yet, but I'm due to get some henna soon so maybe I'll just order some samples..

I'm a little nervous to add another step to my routine, although today went really well. I only did hendigo to my roots, and it matched perfectly. I'm just tired of how RED my hair is now, the indigo seems to have faded on my length.

I'm wondering if I could do a 50/50 henna/buxus gloss.. or if I should stick to indigo and change my ratios? Too many decisions!

*sigh*

The only thing I miss about chemical color is that I didn't have to put so much thought into it! *laughs*