The most important thing to remember about dying with henna is that it is difficult to switch back to using other hair colourants. You can only cover it by dying it with a darker permanent colour, like brown or black. You can’t remove it with bleach, I tried and had bright orange hair, the bleach stripped my natural colour but left the henna intact. You might think now, that you want to be a redhead forever, but you might change your mind.

After a couple of years of dying with henna I eventually just dyed my hair dark brown, grew the hennaed parts out and then started to dye it lighter. It took a very long time to get my hair to the natural blonde I have now.

i’ve been dying my hair vibrant red for over a year now (mostly at home to save money, occasionally in the salon). more of a red than drew’s light coppery orange up there. not surprisingly, i have a lot of little flyaways and breakage now from all the abuse. i LOVE love the red, but whether at home or done by professionals, the color really doesn’t hold up that well past two weeks.

SO i’m curious about henna. a few websites say that body-art-grade henna hair color (as opposed to other henna hair colors) is the best– promotes hair strength, can be used on chemically treated hair, etc. but sites with info like that also tend to sell the product, so color me suspicious! the site says most hair stylists aren’t really familiar with henna, and there are misconceptions, particualrly about the “body art grade henna.” the other types apparently have the frightening possiblity of frying your hair clean off, or turning it frog green, which i’m just not, like, prepared enough emotionally to deal with.

a stylist i recently mentioned henna to reacted like it was to be avoided like the plague, and that after one application, other colors won’t take, or something. but wouldn’t i just keep applying henna?

i just don’t know what to believe! there’s also the consideration that i’d have to grow it out completely if i wanted to stop henna-ing. i’ve been in the process of growing out bangs for, like, ever, so i’m not kidding myself about what that process is like (kinda brutal). couldn’t i maybe dye over the henna with a darker, normal-type hair color till it’s all grown out though?

would the color probably (i know, diff ppl, diff results) last longer than a month? otherwise, what’s the point!

OR… is there a better suggestion out there for the longest possible lasting red hair color? i have maybe dark blonde/light brown fine hair (there hasn’t been enough real color showing for so long, im really not sure anymore!) i’d probably be happy with applying red color without lifting my natural color at all, to avoid damaging chemicals.

i did try buying color from a beauty supply company (tried it on a few diff occasions). it was so impermanent that it kept rubbing off on my pillow! and flowed dye out of my hair after every shower, not just after the first few washes.

so summing it aaall up:

henna = yes/no/how?

other long-lasting red suggestions?