Henna for bleached hair - any true life stories? Also - how to get dark brown?

[YinYang]

So I didn't think it was such an issue to use henna over my bleached hair - but I just got done reading hennaforhair, the one lady's henna tutorial, and castle art and noticed warnings about bleached hair.
I've got medium brown (mousy hair) but it is highly bleached right now (very blonde highlights, not platinum though). I'd like to get back to my natural color without using chemicals. I really don't like red in my hair though... and I don't like black (indigo option).
So questions are:
1 - do any of you have any real-life stories of using henna on bleached hair? Tips?
2 - any henna ideas for getting the least amount of red (if even possible) and more brown but not black?

Thanks so much!!!! I'm over the unnatural shade but trying to find the "right" way to get my color back!

[macheetah]

I henna my hair. My natural color is a mousy ashy light brown/blonde, with greys coming in around my hairline.

I used to have bleached highlights (as well as dyded lowlights) in my hair. Without much consideration other than reading the hennaforhair site and trying one hairball test I took the plunge.

In retrospect, I feel I should have first done a henna gloss, or maybe a high cassia% to henna mix and worked into it.

Because...the bleached areas of my hair turned bright, tangerine orange while the rest turned a rich auburn. Even after oxidation - 5 days or so - the orange was shocking and not a flattering color on me.

Putting henna on your hair is like layering translucent orange-red colored tissue paper on top of a neutral color. Whatever you start out with gets a translucent coat of orange-red each time you henna. If it's bleach blonde white, well, what you get can be pretty garish (not to say that some people - like Lucille Ball and Tori Amos, can't carry an orange color off extremely well; you may too.) If your hair is medium brown you get a nice auburn, and if it's black you get fiery cherry highlights in the sun.

That said, now, several months later and a few hennas, plus root jobs and glosses, later, and I'm very happy with my hair. Henna actually blends extremely well and subsequent applications have left my hair mostly auburn with bright copper highlights, beautifully glossy and thicker and healthier than it's ever been. It covers up my grays, creating copper highlights.

If you want dark brown some would say to mix with indigo, but I would research that well on the hennaforhair site. I was using the Yemen henna and found it to be very cool and dark on my hair. I switched to "punjabi prime" and have a brighter, warmer red. I only do my roots now because each successive hennaing makes hair darker.

Another thing about hennaed hair is it will look vastly different in diverse lightings - mine is a dark auburn in flourescent lighting and flaming red-orange in the sun.

Hope that helps! Good luck, whatever you decide.