KaitAleese

I notice that most people space out their henna applications by at least 2 weeks. I have however been doing them weekly for the last 3 weeks. I didn't notice any color change until recently (I had dark brown semi perm color prior to henna). My hair is naturally a light dusty brown color and is almost orange now. Not sure how that happened on the dark brown but now I am a little worried about my hair after using henna that often.

Korkscrew

Henna alone shouldn't lighten your hair as it is a plant dye; should only coat the strands. So my questions are:

Are you using pure BAQ henna?
Did you notice any gray hairs prior to starting your henna treatments?
What if anything, do you mix your henna with?
What % lawsone content does your henna contain? (The less lawsone, the lighter the red tint.)
What products have you been using when not hennaing? (Any use of honey, lemon, Sun-in, or peroxide/developer concoctions?)
Have you been using thermal heat, have hair that is thermally or chemically damaged, or have you recently had any sort of chemical process?

Also, hennaing once a week is unusually frequent. Why so frequent? Henna continues to coat the hair shaft w/every application, but generally, the color becomes darker (like burgundy red) w/repeated usage, not orangey, unless the lawsone content is very low.

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KaitAleese

No, not BAQ henna just the regular Jamila henna powder and i mix it with tea the day before i plan to do my hair. Left it on for about 3 hours each time. No grey hairs or anything and the packaging and sources online only say it is 100% henna powder. I don't plan to use it again for at the least a month maybe longer, but I was just surprised that it got to this color so quickly because i wasn't expecting it, especially after reading several henna blogs.

Korkscrew

Hmm. Assuming that online source has it right and you're using 100% unadulterated henna, Jamila is a type of henna that often has less lawsone in it - less than something like Red Raj, for example. It would tend to leave a lighter, more orangey stain than some other crop types.

Your mix sounds okay. 3 hr.s isn't all that long. Do you wait for the tea to cool down to room temp before pouring it into your henna? Boiling liquid should never be added to henna. It will hasten the dye release and you'll end up w/a very orangey color. I wouldn't even use very warm liquid.

Sounds like your plan to dial it back to once a month is good. I can't imagine hennaing once a week lol I feel like I'd lose out on huge chunks of my life and the relentless smell would land me in the psych ward.

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kayrae

Every batch is different. It does intensify when you do it on top of a fresh coat. You can always put 75 indigo 25 henna on your next round if you want to tone out that orange. Jamila is very high quality dye release, I am surprised it didn't happen the second time. Don't be worried you, can fix it. Try nupur if you are looking for more conditioning qualities than color. If you want you can do amla in your hair too instead. It would condition and tone out the orange too,

claudine19

I henna about every other week, due to my roots showing grey.

And yes, I do lead a dull life.

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Wurly_Girl

Hi!
Mixing henna powder with acidic liquid will give a oranger stain than mix with plain water.
Try to use only water in you mixes (instead of vinegar, tea, lemon juice) and let us know how will be the stain .
How long have you been hennaing your hair?
Consider that for the first 4/5 applications, hair will have mainly copper tones, then going on with applications the color will became less copper and more mahogany.
After 2 year of henna applications, my virgin dark blonde hair went from a copper blonde color to an auburn brown (in the sunlight)/light mahogany (under cool lights).