Is henna a fad or forever?

[WomanlyCharm]

I love henna but I dont like the red-copper color from it. Does anyone else use color rinses after henna? Is it safe?

I don't know about doing a color rinse, you know henna and certain hair chemicals don't mix.

If you do a half amla/henna mix, the color will end up more of a dark brown...mixing indigo with henna produces a very deep brown/soft black. Doing henna, then indigo after it seperately will give you jet black hair (this is what I do, and I swear, my hair has NEVER been this black in my life! Love it!!!! ).

 

[sareca]

Six year later I'm still at it. I've just re-instituted my every other Friday henna sessions. My hair was its most beautiful color and best health when I did them more frequently. Unfortunately my favorite color comes from Mumtaz which makes my eyes burn. I guess jamila will have to do.

 

[Marino]

Henna helped me not to loose all my hair, I henna one a week at least, I dont think I will ever stop....

 

[JJamiah]

I am going to be a Henna Head for life.
I love it and finally found my mix that sticks LOL

I use it for color purposes and conditioning.

 

[empressri]

My mother in law used henna on her hair and in my sis in laws hair when she was little, and this was back in the 70s. Women have been using henna since forever before that.

 

[hannan]

Henna for life! All the ladies in my family have been henna heads for life and so have the ladies before them.

 

[Aviah]

Sadly, i voted for the second option.

As much as i loooove the effects of Henna on my hair........ i cant imagine doing it forever. Its WAY too messy and time-consuming. I can do it now because the apartment i live in is kinda crappy and so forth. So when random little pieces of Henna splatter around the bathroom, and dry on the walls/floors/you name it..... i try to get it up as best as i can, but i dont always, and i may find a dried, gross looking chunk of Henna days later.

For now, thats fine, because this place is not my Dream Home or anything. But when i eventually do move to a nice place that i take PRIDE in, i dont see myself doing something that is so messy difficult to clean up. Even when i spread towels around and so forth, i still never know where my Henna mixture is going to end up..... it just flies off my hands and stuff. *smh*

I know that reason is silly....... but it is what it is. Maybe once per MONTH at best, but not as frequently as i do it now (weekly).

I'm not a henna head, but when I did do it the second time I did it in the bathtub. Was much easier to clean up.

 

[Minty]

henna head for life.

 

[greenandchic]

Henna head for life.

My hair is fine to medium and porous and henna is the only treatment that keeps my hair from shedding like a dog, plus I love the color. When I want it darker, I just do it with indigo. I mix amla in my henna mix to keep it from loosing my curls. I used to use commercials dyes and that was so much more messy than henna IMO. The only think about henna is that it does take time.

Its hard to imagine life without henna now.

 

[Shadiyah]

henna for life.... and I am not going to say anything about the drying on the walls and so forth

 

[MyAngelEyez~C~U]

Another henna head for life.... I need my henna red hair

Sent from my iPod touch using LHCF

 

[DrC]

I have a whole bag of henna I bought. and have no idea how to use it. I've read about it but never understood the directions since there are a variety of ways to use it.

Any suggestions??

 

[BostonMaria]

For me henna was a fad. I now use a less harsh hair dye to color my grays.
I substituted henna for Amla powder, which I love and will continue doing for a while.

 

[allmundjoi]

Henna head for life. I henna every other week-love the strengthening/conditioning effects.

 

[hannan]

DrC I suggest making the most basic mix for henna, which is just henna and hot water, if this is your first time.

If there are sticks in it, try and sift it out beforehand or it'll be a pain to rinse out. Just eyeball how much henna you need, depending on the thickness and length of your hair and add it to a bowl - anything but metal. Slowly add boiling water until it turns into a paste that looks like thick mud. You don't want it to run while you have it on your hair. Mix, mix, mix (again, with utensils that aren't metal) well until you see no lumps. If you're worried about color, I'd let your mix sit out for a couple of hours but then again, this is a basic mix. There are more ingredients you can add that would help but I wouldn't suggest it until next time.

When you're ready, just apply it section by section in the shower so you can just rinse the mess away. Put on your plastic cap and you can leave it in as long as you'd like.

 

[Honey Bee]

Henna head for life. My hair is so fine that whenever I forget, I have major breakage. I use Surya cream in Mahogany. It's not messy at all, it covers my few grays, and best of all, no mixing.

Hmmm.... I've never been to the site before, but looking it up just now, they say it's semi-permanent and washes out. :shrug: Oh well, I'm still pleased with the results.

eta: if you look in my avvy, the color on the tips is from Surya. I think it only came out that strong bc that hair was super damaged, but it was pretty while it lasted. I have since let those sad ends go.

 

[DrC]

DrC I suggest making the most basic mix for henna, which is just henna and hot water, if this is your first time.

If there are sticks in it, try and sift it out beforehand or it'll be a pain to rinse out. Just eyeball how much henna you need, depending on the thickness and length of your hair and add it to a bowl - anything but metal. Slowly add boiling water until it turns into a paste that looks like thick mud. You don't want it to run while you have it on your hair. Mix, mix, mix (again, with utensils that aren't metal) well until you see no lumps. If you're worried about color, I'd let your mix sit out for a couple of hours but then again, this is a basic mix. There are more ingredients you can add that would help but I wouldn't suggest it until next time.

When you're ready, just apply it section by section in the shower so you can just rinse the mess away. Put on your plastic cap and you can leave it in as long as you'd like.

hannan
So what can I add to it if I want my hair to be red?

 

[hannan]

DrC I know you can add apple cider vinegar or lemon juice and then let your henna sit out overnight but I've never tried those before.

 

[nzeee]

hannan
So what can I add to it if I want my hair to be red?

hey lady

there are things people do to tweak the colour but no amt of tweaking the red will give you red hair if your hair is black. unless you have grey, natural brown or otherwise light coloured hair henna won't be able to lift your dark colour. on dark hair, henna deepens your existing colour and gives an awesome glow in VERY bright light after quite a few uses.

that being said tho, there are a lot of mixes out there (i don't bother w/ em cuz my hair is black). see this page for quite a few ideas on customizing the mix to achieve specific colours: http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/index.html

 

[MyAngelEyez~C~U]

hey lady

there are things people do to tweak the colour but no amt of tweaking the red will give you red hair if your hair is black. unless you have grey, natural brown or otherwise light coloured hair henna won't be able to lift your dark colour. on dark hair, henna deepens your existing colour and gives an awesome glow in VERY bright light after quite a few uses.

that being said tho, there are a lot of mixes out there (i don't bother w/ em cuz my hair is black). see this page for quite a few ideas on customizing the mix to achieve specific colours: http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/index.html

Yep, I have an unfair advantage of being a natural blonde, so when I henna all I get is red dye uptake. It deepens with repeated applications.


Sent from my iPod touch using LHCF

 

[SouthernStunner]

If your henna is pure BAQ(body art quality) henna you dont need apple cider vingear or lemon juice to produce the color. IMO that leads to very dry hair. Many have had problems with those, some dont but many do. I had to learn the hard way my first time and had straw like hair. IF you have good henna you just need hot water and let sit overnight. I have been doing henna for about 3 years now and I am henna for life. My strands are actually thicker which is amazing cause I am fine haired. I had a shed hair that I examined cause it looked like it may have been 2 strands cause it was so thick but it was just one and no splits. Gotta love it!

 

[Burbujas]

Subbing, I wanna maybe try henna some time in the future.

 

[DrC]

nzeee
SouthernStunner

Hellloooo

Thanks. Thats what I was wondering since I want my red to look like yours MyAngelEyez~C~U. #Sopretty :lovedrool: but I'm not a natural blonde
So how many times a month are you supposed to Henna??
What are other additional benefits from Henna besides nice color?
I'm a bit skeptical on doing Henna. I can picture the disastrous moment now. The mix is in a metal bowl ( right after hannan told me NOT to mix it in a metal bowl), clumps are still in it, Henna all over my shirt, on the bathroom floor, on my boyfriend, on the wall,

I think I maybe henna challenged :rofl

hey lady

there are things people do to tweak the colour but no amt of tweaking the red will give you red hair if your hair is black. unless you have grey, natural brown or otherwise light coloured hair henna won't be able to lift your dark colour. on dark hair, henna deepens your existing colour and gives an awesome glow in VERY bright light after quite a few uses.

that being said tho, there are a lot of mixes out there (i don't bother w/ em cuz my hair is black). see this page for quite a few ideas on customizing the mix to achieve specific colours: http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/index.html

If your henna is pure BAQ(body art quality) henna you dont need apple cider vingear or lemon juice to produce the color. IMO that leads to very dry hair. Many have had problems with those, some dont but many do. I had to learn the hard way my first time and had straw like hair. IF you have good henna you just need hot water and let sit overnight. I have been doing henna for about 3 years now and I am henna for life. My strands are actually sthicker which is amazing cause I am fine haired. I had a shed hair that I examined cause it looked like it may have been 2 strands cause it was so think but it was just one and no splits. Gotta love it!

 

[AJellyCake]

I am transitioning now and have been hearing about henna in different posts. It seems like this thread has some great information for beginners like me. I especially appreciated sareca's post from back in the DAY!:

The short answer is it's a ground up plant used to condition and dye hair.

Here's a quick start guide from Catherine.
http://www.hennapage.com/henna/what/freebooks/mix.pdf

Here's her complete henna guide.
http://www.hennaforhair.com/freebooks/hennaforhair.pdf

Here's some stuff from here.
http://journals.fotki.com/Serica/

Guess you're henna for life for real!

So now I have a million questions:
Are you all knowledgeable about the strengthening properties of henna? And about its potential effects on the curl pattern (I heard that it can "loosen" pattern but it can also make it curlier. I'm not putting all of this effort into transitioning just to lose all of my curls though!)? Also, is it possible to use henna for color but avoid some sections (I would like to keep some of my God-given highlights if possible! ).

Thanks in advance!!

 

[preciouslove0x]

Henna head for life!! I used to do henna once a week then I transitioned to once a month and now I'm at once every six months. I don't know about anybody else, but henna's conditioning/dying properties aren't temporary for me. I absolutely love it! Using henna and indigo has given me the blackest, strongest, most beautiful hair I could ever imagine.

 

[hair4romheaven]

I used Mehandi henna while transitioning and loved it. I never tried Indigo and need to find out where to purchase indigo and if mehandi and the indigo brand I purchase will be compatible? (I hope that makes sense) LOL I want to make sure using different brands will not be a problem.

 

[Anaya-Amani]

I'm keeping henna in my regi! My hair is stronger, thicker & I luv the color!


"...Forgetting what is behind and looking forward to what is ahead,..."
Philippians 3:13

 

[SouthernStunner]

I used Mehandi henna while transitioning and loved it. I never tried Indigo and need to find out where to purchase indigo and if mehandi and the indigo brand I purchase will be compatible? (I hope that makes sense) LOL I want to make sure using different brands will not be a problem.

I get mine from there and she sells indigo too.

Maybe this will help someone but heres what I do:

Henna
Black Coffee (insead of water)
Paprika (intesifies color)
Overnight in a glass bowel stirred with a plastic spoon

My neighbor applies to my entire head and I leave it on for 4 hours then co wash When I wash it out my grey (about 60% of my head) is a flamming red so then I indigo

Indigo
sea salt
warm water
mixed in a plastic bowl with a plastic spoon
sits for 15 min

Apply to roots only only for about 2 hours

cowash and finally dc overnight.

Yes this is an all day thing for me.

This produces a dark brow color that is very rich but outside I have a deep burgundy color that I love.

Hope this helps!