My sister has used henna and it looked really good on her at first, but now that she has more grey, it looks a little artificial. I looked into henna and even went so far as to buy Lush's Caca Brun (she just uses the straight red henna powder). However, after looking at some results on the internet, I felt like a lot of people's hair had a slight purpleish tinge, which I definitely don't want (is this because it contains indigo and they just didn't leave it on long enough?)! I like my natural hair colour, but I also am getting enough grey that I can't pull it out anymore. The other problem with henna is that the results are unpredictable. Even if it turns out fabulously once, it doesn't seem to be consistent. Plus if you don't like it, you can't dye over it. The other concern I have with henna is its straightening effect. I have wavy/curly hair and I find it is a lot easier to deal with the curlier it is. (If I remember right Redbone, you have super curly hair, so my guess is that it just would make it more manageable, no?) I like being able to just scrunch it and go. If it was straighter, it would just be a slight bit bendy (enough to look messy), without being straight or curly. I never knew there was such a thing as clear henna!
I have considered semi permanent, but it seems all but impossible to find it on drug store shelves and mostly hair salons do not sell boxed dyes. Would somewhere like Sally's Beauty Supply have it? We don't have one in my town, but there is one I could check out a couple of hours away when I go into town next. I like the idea of it as it is gentle with less chemicals, and it doesn't require the same kind of commitment should you decide to grow it out. kyuuei, you have the most gorgeous kind of red hair colour. Why are you colouring it???
Good to know about the Revlon Coloursilk. There are such a lot of different choices, and it's kind of hard to know where to start. I haven't dyed my hair in the past either. I tend to have sensitive skin. I know that you're supposed to do a strand test every time and yet I can't imagine taking the time to do that! Maybe it's non-negotiable though...Lexicon, did you feel like the results look pretty natural? Your hair sure looks nice in your pictures!
I don't really want anything that is going to darken my hair a whole ton, as I kind of tend towards Morticia Adamsness anyway! I like the colour that the coffee and paprika gave and would be willing to do something like that weekly if I thought that it would be effective. I don't know. Maybe I'll try it again with ACV and if that doesn't work, start in on some of the options that you guys have suggested.
Mine came out really natural looking with Revlon compared to other dyes I've tried; I used
brown-black(#20), which is the darkest before straight black, as that's fairly close to my natural hair color. I'm somewhere between very dark brown, and brown-black. I'm scaling back to the
dark brown shade(#30), just to distance myself from any potential typecasting [with regard to acting stuff] - pale chicks with the black/near-black hair always seem to get mashed into the Morticia Adams/alternative roles.
Anyway, the transition's been going fine. The dark brown shade is very rich/natural looking, without there being any confusion on the tone, in different lighting (with the darker shade, my hair only appeared 'brown' to most people in bright sunlight).
I have extremely sensitive skin, & never broke out into any rashes/had irritation. I've never done the strand tests. I pretty much go over my whole head with a box of the stuff about every 4-6 weeks, and that keeps the gray away. Never had issues with the color distributing unevenly or highlighting red tones too much [which creates what people call a 'brassy' effect, I believe].
I've had a lot of experience with hair color in the past (I was electric blue with black tips at one point, long ago)- but I'm still an amateur. I do feel like I've had some experiences with harsher products, though- and so I base my comparison for how gentle the Revlon dye is on that contrast.
Thing to remember with dye is that you can always go darker, but it's a pain to go lighter. So for you, I'd probably recommend the #30 dye to see how it suits you, or whatever brown tone seems closest to your natural one but lightest on the spectrum they offer. Their site may have a color guide test, that may be useful. I forget. A few brands do that, & they're fairly accurate. But yeah, when in doubt, go lighter, cuz if it's too light, you can always go back over it in a couple weeks with a shade deeper. Some people re-color right away, but I tend to feel like that's a lot of stress on the hair, scalp, etc.. even with a gentle formula. Also, drugstores tend to have little hair strand swatches on the shelves below each shade, and for this brand, I've found them very accurate.
Kyuuei mentions a useful thing- putting a bit of vaseline around your hairline [& I do it on my ears] will save you from staining your skin.
Sometimes I substitute the vaseline for just applying a green clay mud mask to my face, it blocks the dye just the same. I rinse it off in the shower with the dye.. and in the interim, I terrify anyone in my proximity.