I Lightened my Too-Dark Henna with Sun-In (Yes, really.) VERY pic heavy!!

**lanyzoldcipoben** · July 20th, 2013, 09:15 AM

I do not understand, on oily hair used hydrogen peroxide? Or you oiled, and wash, than hydrogen?

**Nightshade** · July 25th, 2013, 09:59 AM

Hopefully one of the girls that used hydrogen peroxide will pop in, but generally, you should oil your hair and then use peroxide

**Medievalmaniac** · August 4th, 2013, 09:39 PM

Hi, Nightshade! I have another question for you. Once you did the original lightening that started this thread a few years back, how many further lightening sessions have you done? Does your hair still end up too dark with the build up from roots-only application after a while?

**Medievalmaniac** · August 5th, 2013, 04:53 AM

Oh, and one more question -- do you straight-henna your roots with the 35/65 blend, or do you use glosses?

**Nightshade** · August 5th, 2013, 07:51 AM

Originally Posted by Medievalmaniac

Hi, Nightshade! I have another question for you. Once you did the original lightening that started this thread a few years back, how many further lightening sessions have you done? Does your hair still end up too dark with the build up from roots-only application after a while?

Originally Posted by Medievalmaniac

Oh, and one more question -- do you straight-henna your roots with the 35/65 blend, or do you use glosses?

I haven't done any more on the length, but I still do one treatment on the new stuff once a year or so just because some buildup is inevitable

And I'm still doing straight henna 35/65 because I find glosses don't seem to give me the color I want

**Medievalmaniac** · September 1st, 2013, 07:53 AM

Hi, all!

So, I was very dissatisfied with my hair after three hennas. I was hennaing over virgin dark-brown hair, and I found that it went far too dark and not nearly red enough. Here's what I ended up with in July:

It's not that it wasn't pretty; it's that it was nowhere near my former coppery color.

So, after a few weeks of seriously reflecting on my hair goals, and on what I was willing to do to accomplish them, I started re-reading this thread. I read Every. Single. Post. And then I did some extra research about the long-term effects of using Sun-in/ lightening products on your hair. My research satisfied my concern that I was going to wreck my hair; I decided since it is still relatively short and because it has undergone no damage from heat or styling products since I grew it out, I would be okay with using this lightening technique to try to life some of the dark henna from my tresses. At that point (8/4), I bought the henna and underwent Nightshade's 5-step process. Here were the results of that first attempt:

As you can see, it definitely lifted some of the dark, but it went pretty golden-brown-red in return, rather than coppery perse. Still, it was encouraging to see that there was actually red coming through. I waited two weeks, and did the lightening process a second time, with these results:

This was significantly better. I could see the coppery tints coming into play again even in shade (it was NOT a sunny day) and in the car side-mirror I caught glimpses of the lovely coppery fire color in direct sunlight. It was still a bit too reddish-brown for me, though, so I waited another two weeks and these are the results from yesterday's session:

This is very, VERY close to what I am after; it may actually be what I want, and I'm just too invested to see it (and the weather isn't cooperating for a really good look in the sun)? However, while the flash imparts great shine in the photographs, I am a little concerned that in real time the henna brightness has faded too much, and since it has been nearly two months since my last henna session, I will definitely need to re-henna soon, even if it is roots-only. The henna blend I'm using is 35 henna 65 cassia -- I think it will brighten things up, but then again, given my past two months of trying to lighten dark henna, I'm not 100% sure that's going to be the case. So, here's my dilemma:

1. Leave it here, to avoid any extra and unnecessary damage (I'm concerned I may have reached the limits of what the Sun-in can do by way of lightening, in which case any further sessions would simply be piling extra heat and peroxide damage onto my hair.) Henna roots only either this afternoon or next week.
2. Leave it here, wait two weeks, and try one more lightening session, then switch to henna at roots only
3. Do a henna gloss this afternoon to try to bring back some of the brightness and re-evaluate in two weeks.
4. Henna roots-only and see how it turns out, then re-evaluate from there.

Based on my results so far, what do you think would be the wisest course of action?

**Medievalmaniac** · September 1st, 2013, 10:23 AM

DH says just go ahead and do a whole-head application with the new henna/cassia blend and see what happens. He said he thinks based on past experiments with henna over lightened hair that it will brighten the newly-lightened length and go the color I want it to be. So I've mixed it up with chamomile tea heated to steaming, and it's now sitting on the stovetop for dye release. I'll got for a run at about 3:30 or so, then come home, wash my hair with clarifying shampoo, and apply for two hours. Pictures to follow *fingers crossed it doesn't just go right back to too-dark*

**Medievalmaniac** · September 2nd, 2013, 07:16 AM

Cautiously optimistic... here are the results this morning (35 henna/ 65 cassia, terped with chamomile tea and left on for two hours, following three Sun-in treatments spaced two weeks apart to go from dark reddish brown to copper):

Indoor, flash:

Outdoor, no flash, overcast day:

Outdoor, no flash, partial/indirect sun:

Outdoor, flash, cloudy:

Outdoor, no flash, overcast/ gray clouds:

Outdoor, flash, gray overcast no sun:

I don't have any direct sunlight, sadly, but even without it, I can see the brightness has returned. The overall color may be *slightly* darker than I wanted, but I think this is as close as I can reasonably expect to get right now. As long as it doesn't oxidize too darkly from this point -- and I don't expect it to go much darker, since it's such a heavily cassia blend -- I am going to call this a success!

As a reminder: here is where I started with the whole process. This photo was taken in much the same light as the outdoor photos above; I can definitely see the brighter shade in the newest pics! :