How To: Use Henna Over Bleached Hair

Bleaching your hair is very popular; you can use bleach to lighten hair a few shades, or to enable other dyes to take more easily on hair.

At It’s Pure, we’re not huge fans of bleaching your hair. Bleach is a strong chemical, which is why it achieves dramatic results; but it can damage hair, causing breakage and severe dryness.

People with bleached hair often ask how they can make the switch to our organic dyes. i.e. Can you use henna over bleached hair or can you dye over bleached hair? The answer is Yes, absolutely!

That said, there are a few things to consider before using henna dye over bleached hair, so make sure you read our tips below:

1. Things To Consider:

The first, most crucial thing, is to wait a period of 6-8 weeks after bleaching, or using any chemical dye, before using Henna over bleached hair. This means your hair will be in better condition for colouring.

If your hair has been damaged by bleach, or feels stringy or fragile, we’d also suggest trying natural ways to repair your bleached hair.

Swapping to a shampoo with horsetail (rich in strengthening silica), and nurturing your hair with nutritious natural and nourishing oil treatments and conditioners, will strengthen it and mean it is in a better condition for organic hair dying.

2. What You Should Do Before Using Henna Over Bleached Hair

It is crucial to strand test before using henna over bleached hair! Bleached hair is very porous and soaks up colour easily, but with natural dyes, it can take the colour in strange ways. For example, the very dark shades might show in the hair as blue/green. Always exercise caution!

We would usually advise to choose a shade lighter than the shade you’re hoping for - bleached hair often takes the colour a lot more strongly, so a strawberry blonde dye might show up more auburn, or even ginger, in bleached hair. Again, you must strand test!

To strand test, leave the colour on the strand for the length of time you would leave it on your hair for. Remember, bleached hair takes colour really well, so the longer you leave it for, the darker the colour will be. If you plan to leave the henna on your hair for 60 minutes, make sure it is on the strand test for the same amount of time!

Use a clarifying treatment before colouring. This will help remove silicones or pollutants from the hair. It might also help to tone the hair, helping with any yellowing or pink tones that can occur after bleaching.

3. Colouring Your Hair:

So you’ve strand tested, and you’re happy to go ahead and colour with henna over bleached hair - that’s great!

I’d suggest steering clear of using lemon juice, or acidic liquids in any mixes. While it’s great for enhancing the vibrancy of the henna, the acidic mix can be drying to hair - especially on hair that is already very dry or damaged!

You may even want to add hydrating ingredients into your mix, such as plain yoghurt or oil. While adding these typically dilutes the colour of henna mixes, because bleached hair takes the colour really well, you should still get a really good shade from using them. Yoghurt is richly conditioning for hair when added to Henna so your hair should feel moisturised after dying.

Henna is nourishing, and strengthening for hair. On very dry hair types, it doesn’t necessarily add moisture; so while bleached hair gains the benefits of conditioning and shine, it won’t hydrate it.

4. Hair Care After Colour

Once you’ve used your henna, you need to make sure to keep your hair in good condition. Henna over bleached hair should last a long time as bleached hair is so porous; but to keep it looking vibrant and rich, you need to follow a natural hair care routine.

Following this won’t only keep your hair colour looking great; it will keep your hair nourished, strengthened and in good condition; exactly what you’re hoping for!

After colouring, use a follow up oil treatment after colouring to help keep your hair feeling moisturised and healthy.

You can use this within a couple of days of colouring, to richly hydrate your hair. The natural oils will also benefit your scalp, and the skin around your hairline, which can be affected by bleaching, so you get the benefit of extra moisture for your skin, too!

You should swap your shampoo to a more natural, hydrating shampoo.

Organic shampoos are extra gentle, and will protect the colour while protecting the hair. Shampoos that contain ingredients like Rosemary essential oil, Horsetail and Coconut Oil are especially moisturising and strengthening for hair.

Avoid shampoos or conditioners filled with silicones! Not only do these just coat the hair underneath and artificially smooth the hair shaft, they will fade your henna colour much more quickly and stop you being able to top up your henna colour frequently.

While hair washing and oiling is reputed to fade Henna, bleached hair will take the Henna really well; using a good hair care routine will only benefit your hair, and make the colour look even better!

If you have any more questions about using henna over bleached hair, ask our experts here >>>