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

[stardust lady]

Just want to resurrect this thread to share my results from my first lightening session. Last week I had the brilliant idea of buying a bunch of Red Raj because I was sure I was going to rock it (spoiler alert: I didn't). I left it on for close to 3 hours. The photo on the left is about as bright as I could get it to look without stepping in direct sunlight. Usually it looked about as dark as the shade you see closer to the top of my head.

www.imgur.com/a/EJ1NoIe

The right is from today, taken in the same room at the same time of day as the left. It looks similar to how it used to look before I did my last 3 henna treatments, with just Fire Genasi on it.

Yesterday I coated my hair in coconut oil for an hour, then alternated the Lemon Sun-In with blow drying and rinsing 3 times. I followed that up with a shampoo and an Olaplex #3 treatment, left on for 2 hours. Then shampoo, condition, leave-in, air dry. My hair is incredibly soft and silky, much more so than it was prior to doing this treatment. I'm fairly confident that the combination of pre-treating with coconut oil and post-treating with Olaplex will prevent most of the damage that could have been caused.

I'm going to wait a week before doing a final round of lightening. Overall pretty impressed with the results from one treatment. Also, I noticed that a ton of orange washed out during this process. My last henna treatment was about a week ago and I had already shampooed a few times since then.

[Nightshade]

That's fantastic! I'm glad you're having good results with this method

[Dark40]

And I LOVE it!

First, some background:

Despite my best attempts to do so for the last few years, I'm still been markedly unhappy with how dark the length of my hair was. Back in the day when I was a henna n00b I had no idea that multiple applications of henna would produce a darker color.

In a way it was probably a good thing, I'm sure those many full-head applications of henna really helped to hold my damaged hair together, but now I'm down to only about 4-6 in of damaged hair on the ends, but the length from about APL down is quite dark.

Eventually I developed a mix that gave me coppery hair (35% henna, 65% cassia) and switched to root-only applications. All well and fine, but that wasn't helping the length.

I tried damn near everything to get the length to lighten up including:

• honey lightening (with the proper dilution and several types of honey)
• Amla (sometimes blended with EVOO sometimes not)
• EVOO
• Yogurt
• ColorFix
• various shampoos
• adding other herbs, such as turmeric to my henna mix (which did stain the length brighter but washed out quickly and stained me and my shower moreso)

Way back in the day on the old Henna Removal thread (archived boards) I remembered that several people were using vol30 peroxide to lighten things up and that peroxide alone worked better than bleach for henna.

And Sun-In's main ingredient is, you guessed it, peroxide.

Now, before I go into what I did and how I did it, a few things to keep in mind:

• This is NOT A HENNA REMOVAL METHOD. You are not going to get back to blond with this.
• This method worked for me, and may work for someone else, to lighten up henna a few shades. Do NOT expect it to make you a copper redhead if your natural hair is dark brown or black. You can't go that far without damage.
• I did an assload of strand testing and went very slowly, doing this over the course of two months. If you decide to try this, speed things up or skip steps at your own peril. I don't want to hear, " Nightshade I nuked my hair trying this, but I didn't strand test and used a whole bottle of Sun-In on dry hair, hit it with a hair dryer and then went tanning on the beach for 10 hours." I'm joking here, but only in part.

So, here's what I did.

Strand testing. After gathering several test locks I set one aside as a control, misted one with Sun-In and set it aside. After a week, nothing had changed (this is without exposure to the sun or hair dryer). I tried it again the next week on a new lock with the hair dryer, following the instructions that said to apply the Sun-In to damp hair, comb through and apply a hair dryer. Now, we're seeing progress. I tried a few more variations before settling on a method. I'd post pics of the strand tests, but the color differences weren't showing up well.

Application to Hair. After strand testing and then waiting two weeks after the last test to see any residual developing I went for it. I-

1. showered and shampooed my hair, but did not condition it (henna lets me get away with this, YMMV. ETA: I do normally use lots of conditioner, I just skipped it this time as I didn't want anything on my hair before using the Sun-In)
2. towel tried my hair and combed it out gently.
3. shook the Sun-In bottle and then misted my hair, focusing only on the darker length, from APL down, going lighter where the transiton from henna to cassia/henna hair took place
4. combed my hair
5. busted out the hair dryer (which hadn't been used on hair for years), set it on medium, and applied it to my hair, not nuking it, but not making the heat ultra-diffuse either. I had my hand behind my hair and it was never too hot on my hand. While doing this I kept my hair somewhat contained rather than letting it blow all over. This 1) kept the heat where I wanted it and 2) kept tangling to a minimum.
6. When my hair was getting dry I ran the APL-down length under cool water in the faucet, an repeated steps 2-5. I did this about 4 times per session.
7. Then I hopped back in the shower, rinsed and conditoned my hair, then added a bit of my leave-in conditioner.
8. Waited. My hair continued to lighten over the next 2-3 days (almost oxidation in reverse). I experienced no redarkening of my henna. I waited 2 weeks before my next Sun-In session.

I did one session every two weeks or so, I think only three sessions total. I used a total of 1 bottle of Sun-In (the pink bottle, not the blue one).

And the results? Drumroll please....

Color Difference Before (ends to roots):


Color Difference in the sun:



Color difference with flash:


Bun Before:


Bun After:



Before:



After:


After it settled down more:




[/B] So there you have it. I may do another application or two, but I'm still waiting to evaluate how things develop over the next two weeks.

Damage? None, really. After the end of each session my hair was dry and tangly at the ends (duh!), but after a shower and some conditioner seems perfectly fine. The only stuff that tangles is the last 4-6 inches, which was already damaged and prone to tangling to start.

Why didn't I detail the process as I was going through it?

1. Because I wanted to go through it without the pressure of people wanting to see results
2. I didn't want to have to listen to 1,001 Sun-In horror stories.

Some important things to keep in mind:

• As you can tell by my Amazon Goddess Bronze Tan, I don't spend a lot of time in the sun. I don't tan, I don't go to tanning beds.
• I Took. My. Time. I can't emphasize this enough.

So- Questions or comments welcome! I'm so happy!

Woah! What a big difference! No damage! Your hair color looks great, I love it! No, this process isn't damaging at all!

[Dark40]

Just want to resurrect this thread to share my results from my first lightening session. Last week I had the brilliant idea of buying a bunch of Red Raj because I was sure I was going to rock it (spoiler alert: I didn't). I left it on for close to 3 hours. The photo on the left is about as bright as I could get it to look without stepping in direct sunlight. Usually it looked about as dark as the shade you see closer to the top of my head.

www.imgur.com/a/EJ1NoIe

The right is from today, taken in the same room at the same time of day as the left. It looks similar to how it used to look before I did my last 3 henna treatments, with just Fire Genasi on it.

Yesterday I coated my hair in coconut oil for an hour, then alternated the Lemon Sun-In with blow drying and rinsing 3 times. I followed that up with a shampoo and an Olaplex #3 treatment, left on for 2 hours. Then shampoo, condition, leave-in, air dry. My hair is incredibly soft and silky, much more so than it was prior to doing this treatment. I'm fairly confident that the combination of pre-treating with coconut oil and post-treating with Olaplex will prevent most of the damage that could have been caused.

I'm going to wait a week before doing a final round of lightening. Overall pretty impressed with the results from one treatment. Also, I noticed that a ton of orange washed out during this process. My last henna treatment was about a week ago and I had already shampooed a few times since then.

Wow! That shade is so pretty on you! If I could get my hair color like that right now I would be happier!

[stardust lady]

That's fantastic! I'm glad you're having good results with this method

Thanks! So glad you documented this.

Wow! That shade is so pretty on you! If I could get my hair color like that right now I would be happier!

Thank you! I'm much happier with it. It went from obviously unnatural to almost natural looking overnight. Looking forward to seeing how it looks after a second round!

[captainjanuary]

Just want to resurrect this thread to share my results from my first lightening session. Last week I had the brilliant idea of buying a bunch of Red Raj because I was sure I was going to rock it (spoiler alert: I didn't). I left it on for close to 3 hours. The photo on the left is about as bright as I could get it to look without stepping in direct sunlight. Usually it looked about as dark as the shade you see closer to the top of my head.

www.imgur.com/a/EJ1NoIe

The right is from today, taken in the same room at the same time of day as the left. It looks similar to how it used to look before I did my last 3 henna treatments, with just Fire Genasi on it.

Yesterday I coated my hair in coconut oil for an hour, then alternated the Lemon Sun-In with blow drying and rinsing 3 times. I followed that up with a shampoo and an Olaplex #3 treatment, left on for 2 hours. Then shampoo, condition, leave-in, air dry. My hair is incredibly soft and silky, much more so than it was prior to doing this treatment. I'm fairly confident that the combination of pre-treating with coconut oil and post-treating with Olaplex will prevent most of the damage that could have been caused.

I'm going to wait a week before doing a final round of lightening. Overall pretty impressed with the results from one treatment. Also, I noticed that a ton of orange washed out during this process. My last henna treatment was about a week ago and I had already shampooed a few times since then.

This turned out really good! How did you apply the sun-in so evenly? I felt like I was going to get spots from the spray, but I ended up just doing my ends so I was able to saturate it. Seems like it would be more difficult to do a whole head with an even application.

[Nightshade]

This turned out really good! How did you apply the sun-in so evenly? I felt like I was going to get spots from the spray, but I ended up just doing my ends so I was able to saturate it. Seems like it would be more difficult to do a whole head with an even application.

I started with damp hair (so the moisture in it would encourage the Sun-In to spread) and then combed it through my hair to get it even when I did the vast majority of my hair

[stardust lady]

This turned out really good! How did you apply the sun-in so evenly? I felt like I was going to get spots from the spray, but I ended up just doing my ends so I was able to saturate it. Seems like it would be more difficult to do a whole head with an even application.

Thanks! I sprayed the first application directly onto the oiled hair (next time I'll probably rinse it first so it's not totally saturated in oil), section by section. Since I needed to lighten it from root to tip, I sectioned my hair into thirds, horizontally. I first sprayed the undermost layers, combed through, then middlemost layers, and then the crown. I sprayed root to tip for each section, and then at the end I sprayed all over sort of randomly, and combed through a lot. Then blow dried using my hands (I didn't want to risk damage by blow drying with a comb or brush). Since I repeated the process 3 times, I think that helped make the results look really even. It also probably helped that my hair is mid-neck length...

I'll definitely need to do another round of all of this, if not two. Just have to wait one more week. I'll be curious to see if more orange washes out next time. That would indicate that something is going on with the henna itself, and not just the base color underneath being lifted.

Also, did you notice how horrible the spray bottle for Sun-In is? My finger was dying, haha.

[captainjanuary]

I started with damp hair (so the moisture in it would encourage the Sun-In to spread) and then combed it through my hair to get it even when I did the vast majority of my hair

Thank you! I used damp hair but my fine hair dries so fast and I was worried I'd get it on my roots that would turn white or orange. I considered a gel-type Sun-In product, but they actually have warnings not to use with henna on the bottle (it is probably outdated but didn't want to risk it).

Thanks! I sprayed the first application directly onto the oiled hair (next time I'll probably rinse it first so it's not totally saturated in oil), section by section. Since I needed to lighten it from root to tip, I sectioned my hair into thirds, horizontally. I first sprayed the undermost layers, combed through, then middlemost layers, and then the crown. I sprayed root to tip for each section, and then at the end I sprayed all over sort of randomly, and combed through a lot. Then blow dried using my hands (I didn't want to risk damage by blow drying with a comb or brush). Since I repeated the process 3 times, I think that helped make the results look really even. It also probably helped that my hair is mid-neck length...

I'll definitely need to do another round of all of this, if not two. Just have to wait one more week. I'll be curious to see if more orange washes out next time. That would indicate that something is going on with the henna itself, and not just the base color underneath being lifted.

Also, did you notice how horrible the spray bottle for Sun-In is? My finger was dying, haha.

I find it interesting that it worked on such oiled hair. That probably helped you manipulate it so much without damage.

The spray bottle wasn't nearly as bad for me as the Sun-In itself on my hands: from using them to work it through the length to then fingering through while using the dryer, UGH. I am prone to eczema and this process fried my skin. I got little clear welts, like burn blisters, all over my hands and fingers. I had to wash thoroughly and put on gloves. It was miserable.

[stardust lady]

I find it interesting that it worked on such oiled hair. That probably helped you manipulate it so much without damage.

The spray bottle wasn't nearly as bad for me as the Sun-In itself on my hands: from using them to work it through the length to then fingering through while using the dryer, UGH. I am prone to eczema and this process fried my skin. I got little clear welts, like burn blisters, all over my hands and fingers. I had to wash thoroughly and put on gloves. It was miserable.

Oh my god. I used gloves, so I can't imagine. I accidentally got a drop on my fingertip before starting and the skin turned a weird white color and hurt (probably similar to what you're describing).

And I think it would have worked a LOT better without the oil but I just didn't want to risk it. It's been over a week and it still feels incredibly soft and looks shiny. I did my first SMT the other day, and it's still silk. So the coconut oil and Olaplex seemed to totally protect it. This whole process is going to take longer, but I don't mind if I can avoid damage. Waiting for hair to grow is far more time consuming. And I never want to go back to having frizzy, damaged, itchy hair.