Hi I was hoping some of you who use henna and indigo to achieve a med-dark brown color could post some of your pictures on this thread for me.

Ive been trying to get my mom to try using natural color on her hair instead of chemical because its been very damaging to her hair, and she wants to get her hair into better shape.She will not let the gray grow out ever!

She is considering it but wants to see pictures first.The whole idea is probably very weird to her, and she is scared of what she will end up with.

Also she is about 50% grey and at this time has 1/2 inch - 1 inch regrowth.

Thanks so much.:)

See my signature picture. ;)
Oh and my profile picture (don't want to post that here, but you should be able to see that).

Wow thanks exactly the color I was looking for. Its Lovely!

Have you browsed around the mixes page (http://www.hennaforhair.com/mixes/)at Henna for hair?

Thanks Morticia I did go to henna for hair , I had a difficult time finding pictures of a brown hair color there. My mom was like oh thats too red or thats too dark. I tried to explain that it depends on how much henna to indigo you use and the color of your hair in the first place that determines the outcome, but I think it is a difficult concept for her to grasp using commercial hairdyes all her life.

Juliets silk, may I ask what your natural haircolor is and what is your mix proportions? I think your color closely matches what my mom's natural haircolor was before she started to go gray.

My natural haircolor is supposed to be the color I have now - at least that's the color my roots have :lol: I had bad (sun) bleaching / lightening going on in my hair, which is why I wanted to match the length to the roots. I had great success with it. Pictures are in a private album as well as my mix proportions, which are in my blog. I'll send you a PM :)

This is my one-step henna and indigo over prehenna'd hair. (I henna'd first, then mixed up henna and indigo and put that over the top.) The photo was taken in overcast light.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j47/Kate_Blacksmith/DSCF0466-1.jpg

This is the same mix in sunlight.

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j47/Kate_Blacksmith/DSCF0460.jpg

I used 3 tsp lemon juice and 100g henna for the first mix, made into a yogurt-style paste with cherry hibiscus tea. I let the mix sit for 12 hours before applying.

I used 3 tsp lemon juice, 50g henna and water mixed to a paste, let it sit for 12 hours, then added 50g indigo for the second mix.

Sadly when I did another full-head henna-and-indigo mix, the indigo clung on and it darkened to this:

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j47/Kate_Blacksmith/DSCF0467.jpg

The photo was taken on a similarly overcast day. The orange bits at the crown are pure henna on my naturally dark-mousy brown hair. The length is two full head applications of henna and indigo mixed together as far as I can remember.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and all photos had flash.

Thanks ! Yes you have had good results.

Thanks Loviatar,

I like your color with the first application too and is also in the range that we are going for.The second application is equally as stunning, but I know my mom doesnt want it too dark.

It really helps alot

Another thing to point out, adding coffee instead of water could help you adjust how much darker you'd want it. My mother does so to get it less orange.

Mine is in my sig. I try not to go too dark or too red. Basically, I stick with henna/indigo glosses rather than full-strength applications.

Mine is in my sig. I try not to go too dark or too red. Basically, I stick with henna/indigo glosses rather than full-strength applications.

I have thought of doing a gloss myself, but I want to wait until my virgin hair is grown out much more.

Would a gloss help with gray coverage?Im guessing no, but thought I would ask just to be sure.

I have a fair amount of gray around my face. The glosses do turn my grays a kind of golden color, which isn't quite dark enough to match the rest of my hair. To help even it out, I mix up a batch of henna/indigo, basically 50/50, but a little more indigo. and put that full strength on just where I'm the grayest.

Here's mine:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=423&pictureid=9743

I use Rainbow henna which they say doesn't contain indigo, but henna and other herbs. I think this is true because I've done test bleaching on some sample hairs, and they bleach just like regular.

Also, I am covering grays with this and it works very nicely. Here's my before and after clsoeups on the grays:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=423&pictureid=9737

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=423&pictureid=9738

Yes, people have gotten some beautiful colors with hendigo. On the other hand, the indigo always fades off my hair, so I end up with only the henna building up. There is the risk that the beautiful color you get at first might not stick around.

ETA: The top half of my hair in my sig pic is hendigoed. The indigo mostly faded off, so it's basically just my medium brown hair plus 1-2 coats of henna built up. This provides partial coverage of white hairs.

I was actually thinking of physicschick's hair when I read this post, because she told me she does something that really might be best for your mom: painting the mix only on the greys. Her hair looks 100% natural, not crazy red, not darkened, and the greys are covered.

The best thing about her approach is any variation in the color (I think henndigo tends to be unpredictable) would just end up reading as natural variations. You know how medium brown seems to have so many other colors mixed in. It's okay if you have redder or darker strands as long as all the hair isn't covered.

I think Parijata was doing this with cassia/indigo gloss mixes that didn't have any henna in them at all. She didn't want red highlights.

I'm going to guess that the best mix would be mostly cassia, with a small amount of henna and indigo. The yellow in the cassia, and the tiny bit of red from the henna, neutralizes the blue in the indigo. My first try would be like 75% cassia, 25% henna for the henna part, with indigo added later of course.

Maybe if you do a mix and paint it on her greys, she can have a look and still use her regular dye if she doesn't like it.

mine is posted in a public hair album, you should be able to get to it through my profile. that color was acheived using henna+indigo in 2-step fashion and is quite dark brown (it's not black, although it looks it)

p.s. I'm in the process of growing the indigo out, so the red peeping through is henna alone, for henna+indigo color, just look at the bottom half and ignore the red bits :)

Thanks everyone, I have alot of good ideas to help my mom with now.

Im not sure still If I should help her do her hair, she has such unrealistic ideas about what color her hair should be, and I dont want to disappoint her if it doesnt turn out the exact way she has pictured.

Example:She wants her hair to be like her natural color before gray which is a medium brown with red tint and golden highlights, but she hates red hair, and doesnt want red in her hair.How is it possible to have her natural color then?

At the same time she doesnt think her hair is medium brown, she thinks it is a dark blond, therefore she doesnt want it to be too dark and anything over light brown in her opinion is too dark, but her hair is darker than that already.

Every picture I showed her , it was either too dark or too red, even when to me it looked just like her natural color.The only color she did like was several shades lighter than the color she has now minus the gray.

I kept explaining that she cannot go lighter with natural hair color, and even if we used the same mix someone else used her hair would not turn out exactly like that, because it does not change the haircolor like dye, but instead deposits color and works with what you already have.

I told her there was lots of things we could do to combat the orange like coffee and amla etc., but theres nothing I could do to keep her hair from going darker.

I dont know, she is such a pain in the butt sometimes, it seems like she doesnt like anything, everything is always too this or too that. I dont get it, she always asks me for my opinions and help but then she always is so negative about the help I offer.She does this with clothing, make-up, haircare all the time. Its like gosh just stop asking me for help If you think I dont know what I am talking about.

Sorry I just get so irritated with her sometimes.I wish she would just either be happy with her own style and way she does things, or be more openminded when she asks me for help.

Alaskanheart, it sounds like she wants to do two things: lighten her dark hairs and also cover the grays. One way to do this is - do some honey lightening treatments to lighten the dark hairs. Then cover the grays possibly with something like a henna gloss, which will keep it lighter.

Oh BTW - you can see my honey lightening mix in the Honey Thread, my photos are on Page 23 of the thread, I think...

I was actually thinking of physicschick's hair when I read this post, because she told me she does something that really might be best for your mom: painting the mix only on the greys. Her hair looks 100% natural, not crazy red, not darkened, and the greys are covered.

The best thing about her approach is any variation in the color (I think henndigo tends to be unpredictable) would just end up reading as natural variations. You know how medium brown seems to have so many other colors mixed in. It's okay if you have redder or darker strands as long as all the hair isn't covered.


Thanks for the kind description of my hair. :) The reason this works for me is because I have so many years worth of hair. I didn't henna the really old hair from when I had less gray (i.e., the lower half). Now I just do roots. I don't have the precision to henna just the regions of my head that are going gray, although come to think of it, I could probably ask DH to skip the nape area because I don't have gray there.

You do an amazing job, physicschick. I never would have known you altered your color at all. Your hair is stunning. I think henna is best when used in such a way as to make the color look 100% natural.

I'm not sure how to advise you, Alaskanheart. One difficulty with the natural approach, is it's bound to take your mother more than one try to get her color the way she likes it. If she's too impatient with that process, it isn't going to be successful.

The OP's mother sounds a bit like me...I still believe that my hair would be dark blond on its own, but really it's almost medium brown.

Anyway, I don't know if this will help at all, but here's the color I've gotten on top of my medium brown + grey hair, with repeated applications of a mostly cassia, little bit of henna and indigo mix:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/2442829399_1c54788a2f_m.jpg

thanks mellie I will offer the suggestion to her. She is so darn confusing sometimes.She wants to go ahead and order some henna and Indigo and do a test piece.I looked closely at her roots today, and it looks like 75-80 % gray and its allover not only on the sides like alot of people get , I imagine it would be very difficult to do anything natural but a full head treatment. If she doesnt like the henndigo , I will talk to her about trying glosses gradulally first, but Im guessing her gray is way too advanced to sufficiently cover the gray.

She did find the new no amonia colorspa, but I think she will be disappointed with the gray coverage , because the box says it covers well on hair that is 40% gray at the max.

I will keep everyone posted and take pictures if we do try the henndigo.

Yes, you're right I think if she has 80% gray then you'll want to do a full head treatment. And you may be right that glosses may not be sufficient to cover the grays. But, it's worth a try!

One thing that I really like about henna is that it smooths out my wiry grays and makes my hair so shiny and healthy.

Thanks mellie, I think my mom will definately like the smoothing , her wires make her hair look so unshiny, and thinning.Maybe after we do a whole head, then we can continue with glosses once an awhile on the length and just keep up with her roots using the full concoction?She still wants to try it.She used the colorspa, and unfortuantely I was right, she had to use two boxes, and the next day we could still see the gray roots.

Too bad about the colorspa. I think she will like the henna, it is very strong and will cover those annoying wiry grays really well! :-)

Oh - BTW, if she thought my color was too dark for her, there is a Medium Brown version of Rainbow Henna. If you use Rainbow, be sure to mix it with coffee, that covers the grays better in my experience. You could do just mostly roots and little smoothed over the length to get a nice blend.

Thanks I think I will look at Rainbow, I love your color, wouldnt mind having it on me, if I was willing to commit.

Coffee is a definate in the plan, she wants to neutralize as much orange as possible.

Thanks for the nice compliment! I wish I could get your color! :-)

And yes, with Rainbow, the coffee helps get nice natural brown tones instead of orange/red.