Successful henna removal. Yes, you are reading this correctly.

[RavenRose]

I recently discovered this thread!

I have been using Henna for almost 3 1/2 years, Mostly full head applications, and recently in the last few months with hibiscus.

My hair is naturally a med ash blonde (level 8ish) becoming platinum with sun. It is baby fine, thin, and not porous- Henna has actually been the only dye stuff I have been able to keep in my hair for more than 6 weeks without fading back to ash blonde. I love the burgundy red colors- they work very well with my coloring, but I am low maintenance, and my hair fragile, so I didn't often use box dye, and I developed an allergy to it, so I went a few years as my natural blonde until I discovered Henna and feel in love.

I love Henna for it's conditioning and strengthening properties. I love the deep red color, But I even after all this time I have never achieved the burgundy/wine color that suits my skin one with Henna alone. The Henna never got past the auburn stage. The hibiscus help get the color I want, but it always faded within a week or so.
I am more of a low maintenance person, so having the hibiscus fade so quickly was quite a disappointment.

So despite my love, I have decided to end my affair. (Although I can't promise it will stay that way)

My last Henna/hibiscus before deciding to return to my natural- http://s221.photobucket.com/user/pag...place&sp=false
If I could keep it this color without hassel I would stay with Henna indefinitely!

I had let it fade out a bit, with some sun exposure, and light amounts of uncooked honey in my SMT. Here I have about 1" of roots, hard to tell in the lighting- http://s221.photobucket.com/user/pag...place&sp=false
I have a mild sunburn, but you can see how it makes my skin so very red!

I used one box of Color oops. I let it sit on my head wrapped in the cap, with a winter hat on top, for probably 1 1/2 hours. Then I rinsed for 10 mins- shampooing first with a cheap cone free shampoo, lathering and letting it sit for a few minutes, followed by a 10 min rinse, then I used a clarifying shampoo, and rinsed again for 10 mins, and did a final shampoo, with my normal gentle SLS cone free shampoo, rinsed another 5 mins, and put my modified SMT in for about 5 mins, and rinsed that out. When I got out of the shower my hair dried to a strawberry blonde. It left my hair dry, so I did oil it and over night it darkened to not quite copper color.

The next night I did a honey treatment- honey, water, EVOO, and a pinch of cinnamon, let it sit for 2 hours, and jumped in the shower and washed it twice with my normal shampoo. I had orange suds/water but I think that was from the cinnamon. I not sure if it affected the color any more, but it definitely helped with the smell and the dryness. This is was what it looked like after it dried with some hair oil- http://s221.photobucket.com/user/pag...place&sp=false
Much lighter than the start! haven't noticed any more darkening since (2 days ago). Plus my skin is much less blotchy!

Right now sitting with a concoction of mine to see if it works any better. I'll share any success I may have with in later.

[ladyofbugglake]

So, here is my attempt at removing via Color Opps (each pic was taken several days after corresponding treatment to account for reoxidization. Final pic 1 month after final application):



Process
Did 5 treatments of ColorOpps over 2 months. Left each on for 2 hours and rinsed for 40 minutes.

Did it damage my hair?
Hard to say. The good news is that I don't see any major breakage or anything. My hair isn't quite as soft as it used to be and it seems a bit more dry. But nothing drastic. However, the stink--oh the stink-- nearly ended my marriage. AND it stays stinky when wet for a solid month!

Results
Failed. It only lightened my hair a tiny bit and was not worth the $70 I spent on the treatments (not to mention the incredible stink).

About my hair
I have been using henna/indigo for nearly 4 years. Pure, high quality, and high lawsome content in henna. This may be the reason it didn't work for me.

What I plan to do next
I'm still determined to return to my natural color. I LOVE henna, but it is time for a change. I'll try honey treatments, but I don't have high hopes. I plan on doing henna lowlights to blend my hair while it grows out. For me, the only way to get strong henna out is by cutting.

[ladyofbugglake]

So, here is my attempt at removing via Color Opps (each pic was taken several days after corresponding treatment to account for reoxidization. Final pic 1 month after final application):



Process
Did 5 treatments of ColorOpps over 2 months. Left each on for 2 hours and rinsed for 40 minutes.

Did it damage my hair?
Hard to say. The good news is that I don't see any major breakage or anything. My hair isn't quite as soft as it used to be and it seems a bit more dry. But nothing drastic. However, the stink--oh the stink-- nearly ended my marriage. AND it stays stinky when wet for a solid month!

Results
Failed. It only lightened my hair a tiny bit and was not worth the $70 I spent on the treatments (not to mention the incredible stink).

About my hair
I have been using henna/indigo for nearly 4 years. Pure, high quality, and high lawsome content in henna. This may be the reason it didn't work for me.

What I plan to do next
I'm still determined to return to my natural color. I LOVE henna, but it is time for a change. I'll try honey treatments, but I don't have high hopes. I plan on doing henna lowlights to blend my hair while it grows out. For me, the only way to get strong henna out is by cutting.

[rosance]

I decided I will just grow out my henna. I rather have two colors than short hair due to the use of color remover and/or bleach.

[ThatPoshGirl]

So, I have tried yet another Color Oops treatment. I mentioned before, I had previously done three full head henna treatments with henna from Mehandi.com with 2.2% lawsome content. For all three treatments I left it on for 8+ hours.

My first color oops treatment did seem to get a lot of henna out. It went from dark auburn to a dirty copper penny color. Then the next two treatments basically did nothing. For all three of those treatments I was leaving to color oops on for four hours and washing my hair with Keihl's Argan oil shampoo. (Also rinsing for 20 - 30 minutes.)

The most recent treatment, I left it on for two hours. When I got in the shower, I immediately washed my hair twice iwth Neutrogena anti-residue shampoo. It's a really harsh clarifying shampoo. I then rinsed for 10 minutes and washed again with the Neutrogena. I rinsed for another 10 minutes after that.

After this most recent treatment, my hair is MUCH lighter. I think it is what is sometimes called "new penny" copper. It's also a dry, frizzy mess. Hopefully as my natural oils redistribute through my hair it was smooth out some.

I'm actually really encourage by these results. I was ready to give up on this, but I think I will try at least one more treatment.

[ThatPoshGirl]

FYI, I have noticed after a Color Oops treatment that my roots are always lighter and brighter. I think it is because of Color Oops strips out the chlorine and minerals from my nasty water.

[McMasthair]

I've tried Color Oops 3 times now, and every time it lightens my henna like crazy, to a pale orange, but within 3 days it oxidizes right back to the original dark orange colour

I keep getting excited only to be disappointed. I think I will stick with growing my hair out, I am just debating on keeping it shorter until the henna is all gone.

This is before I started with henna:


This is after my last henna application (I believe I did 4 total):


And this is after 3 tries with Color Oops (excuse the messy pony, finger combing it just didn't work nicely and my inch of roots are definitely showing):

[applecinn]

This process never worked for me either - I would say that it did remove any chemical dyes I had under my henna applications, but the henna itself, nope. However, because my hair was not virgin under the henna it wouldn't have looked natural should it have worked anyway.

I really think this may work for some and not at all for others do to the many other factors involved in the individual's henna mixes/applications, rather than anything to do solely with Color Oops. Good luck for those who stick with it

[applecinn]

I plan on doing henna lowlights to blend my hair while it grows out. For me, the only way to get strong henna out is by cutting.

This might work very well for me too, but I have no idea how to manage henna lowlights! Have you figured out how you will do this? Love to hear...

[RavenRose]

Just an update- after a couple deep conditioning treatments my hair did darken, although it still stayed a shade lighter than it was originally. A few oil treatments, and a bit sun /natural fading may have had more to do with it though.

The odor was to bad for me to attempt another round, so have taken some chemical lightening/dye, to get it closer to my natural color.