Help I am clueless about hair - really want balayage but have henna!

[user1471601171]

I really want to get a balyage done to my hair but it is hennaed. The hairdresser said it would need to be tinted brown and then the blonde balyage done over this so the end result would be brown with caramel streaks.

But... whenever i've had my hair dyed brown in the past it always fades within a matter of weeks and goes brassy! I'm worried it will do the same and look ridiculous with the balayage. Someone said I could use a toner on it but i'm not sure if you can use a toner on brown hair, i thought it was just for highlights?

I'm really not sure what to do for the best.. I despise my hair colour as it is but I don't want to make it worse! The hairdresser is confident the henna will lift out as she did a strand test and it lifted well.

What colour is your natural hair ?

Could you dye it brown for the next couple of months to ensure the brown stays, then go for bayalage after that? Stripping your hair to dye it brown then bleach for blonde might be too much in one go, unless your hair is super tough. Better brown hair than broken hair!!

My natural hair is dark mousy brown. I have a few inches of regrowth as i've been trying to grow the henna out.

The hairdresser didnt seem to think it would be a problem doing it all in one go. My hair is in pretty good condition. I could go for the brown first i guess but i'm almost certain it will fade as this has always happened in the past whether i've dyed it at home or in the salon it doesn't seem to make a difference.

What I'm saying is if you dye it brown and bayalage in one go, if the brown fades as you say you'll end up with brassy lengths and blonde ends- orange and yellow, in effect. You can't then easily re-dye the brown lengths without touching the Bayalage.

Whereas if you spend a few months dyeing it brown more then once, the brown is likely to stay so when you bayalage it will stay brown and blonde. The brown is less likely to fade after several brown dyes, weeks/months apart, than one go.

Of course it can be done in one but is your hairdresser promising the brown won't fade as you think it will? That's the point, not can it be done in one go.

I see Dalahorse, that makes sense. The hairdresser seemed surprised when i said the brown always fades and said it was probably down to other salon's cheaper dyes but i've had it dyed at a few different salons and it has faded with all of them.

My friend recomended Aveda salons and said they use better quality dyes but how true that is i don't know...

If your hairdresser uses the real henna and not a prototype (real real henna is practically the hardest thing to get hold of now and costs a bomb I believe)it will have left a coating on your hair.
I have stripped henna before due to the waxy surface it can leave built up on hair.
The build up then stops other colours penetrating the hair as well hence why they fade so quickly.
Ask your hairdresser for a stretch test on your hair and that will tell her if it's got a coating in it or it needs a good dose of protein (most coloured hair does)
Lack of Pretein in hair also stops the colour grabbing as well.

Ofudginghell i hennaed it myself using henna from the hennaboy website. The hairdresser didn't know anything about henna to be fair and didn't know it was still around. I last used it around a year ago and i've stripped it somewhat with colour b4 and it's toned it down a lot but still looks red in the sun.

I don't think this is going to work for me as I know the brown is just going to fade... I feel like i'm really limited in what I can do with it. The reason I started the henna in the first place was because I got sick of the brown fading all the time... I really want to go lighter but I don't see how I can do it short of waiting for all the henna to grow out.

I have dark brown hair which I had put a number of henna treatments on. I last did it before Xmas and I went to get an all over colour a few weeks ago. Anyway, the colour didn't take very well because of the henna.

I'd recommend asking your hairdresser to do a patch first.

Sorry yours didn't take well chanie. I could ask her to do a patch test for the brown. She only did the bleach which she said came out really well. I tried dying over the henna myself at home a while ago and it didn't really work, i found I needed to go really dark brown to cover it which I don't want. That's why I ended up using the colour b4 to remove it.

I guess my other option would be to go all over blonde but i don't think that's really done now is it?! Plus the upkeep would be high.