Share your henna experience...

[HennaHelen]

Have you used henna before?

If you haven't - what's stopping you? The mess, the time?

If you have - what was the best thing about the experience and what was the worst?


For me, I hadn't used henna for years as I was sure where to buy it from. However since I started using it again, I won't go back. I've had loads of compliments on my henna-dyed hair, the colour and the condition. My fav part is that it's so soothing on my scalp. The smell isn't my favourite so I put a few drops of lavender in my mix which makes it fab.

[HennaHelen]

Yesterday I dyed both mine and my mum's hair with henna. Forgot to take a pic of mum's but taken a few of mine.
Love it - as usual!

To get this lovely colour, I used henna and cassia. About 50g of each. I mixed up the henna with water and lemon juice into a paste and left for about 4 hours. Then I mixed up the cassia and left for about 15 minutes. Mixed the two together, applied to my hair and left for about 3 and 1/2 hours. Rinsed out and the result is stunning. My hair feels softer and thicker too. The cassia seems to have softened the henna slightly.

[Jyoti]

Wow! Looks lovely and shiny, Helen. Is this the first time you have not aded any indigo?

Jan has ash-blonde hair but likes to use pure henna all over. Last time, she got her hairdresser to do (kind of)highlights by putting stripes of henna/indigo which looked stunning. See what you think?

[HennaHelen]

Jan's looks lovely. Darker than just henna but not too dark. Very similar to my mum's - will try and get a piccie of her this weekend.

Yes, this is the first time I haven't added indigo. I'd used it all on my mum's hair. :-) But I'm really pleased with the results.
The shade seems to deepen with each henna treatment. I'm really loving the red tones.

That photo was the next day and I hadn't even shampooed my hair yet so we'll see how it settles down over the next few days.

[Jyoti]

You could try adding some Amla to the henna next time and see the subtle colour difference it makes to the red.

[Jyoti]

Add sesame oil- I used a combination of 2 parts of indigo, 1part of henna, 5 drops of clove oil and half a teaspoon of sesame oil to colour my hair on saturday and am very pleased with the results. I like my hair colour to be as close as possible to dark brown so use more indigo than henna but indigo doesn't cling to the hair as easily. I decided to try adding sesame oil because I had read that it can darken hair and then was delighted with the added bonus that it was also smoother to apply.
It is so much fun experimenting with different combinations and then reporting the findings. You never know, one day there could be a booklet collating all this data!!

[HennaHelen]

Agreed, I love the experimenting part too.
Did you manage to take a photo. I'll bet it's lovely and glossy with the sesame oil. Where did you get it from?

[Jyoti]

I forgot to take a photo again, sorry! Will try and get my son to take one today- he has a day off school due to the snow. It is really soft (my hair as well as the snow!), even more than it normally is with henna and the colour is darker and deeper, if that makes sense. I used the sesame oil I use for chinese cooking- it is from a chinese supermarket, I think.

[Jyoti]

I have a slight disaster to report- I decided to pamper my hair by lavishing cassia on it last week. I sat in the bath for an hour letting the muddy cassia soak into my tresses. When I washed it off, I was delighted with the soft shine. When it dried though, I noticed alarmingly that my grey roots had turned blonde! So it actually does work as a dye for 'blonde hair turned grey'. If anyone looked closely, it would have looked like I was originally a blonde who had dyed her hair black but the blonde roots were showing (I must admit it was funny).
Would a brave 'blonde turned grey' person like to try cassia to see what it does? Please get in touch for a sample.

[HennaHelen]

Wow, that's amazing! So, prolonged exposure to cassia does have a colouring effect. Did it strip off the henna/indigo do you think? That's so fascinating.

Are you now going to re-henna to cover?

Sorry, I did have a little giggle at the thought of blonde roots.

[Jyoti]

I think that the cassia only coloured the new grey roots that were beginning to grow as I hadn't done henna indigo for a few weeks. The rest of the hair just looked shiny and well conditioned. I had to colour my hair again.