distressed tresses

[Wrathgara]

Hi again,
I did a henna treatment on my hair. The color is fabulous however my hair is unmanageable . It is dry and feels worse than when i bleached it blonde. my previous mix was: amla, jamila henna, 3 tbls of lemong juice (aprox) and distilled water.
I am wondering if someone can point to information or tell me what it is i did wrong..

I did not get the soft results everyone else seems to be getting...

Thanks in advance for your time and comments.

[Anje]

I've gotten dry results from henna before, particularly when using lemon juice. I'd suggest you let it soak in conditioner for a little while. It won't pull much color out (henna is fantastic at staying in hair no matter what), and that'll help the dryness.

[Veer666]

Don't use lemon juice. It is very drying to your hair!

However henna mix does need a kind of acidic component. Use natural vinegar (natuurazijn) instead. It is will give you much softer hair. You could also try to add a cheap red wine.

Next to that, I don;t see an oil component in your mix. Try adding some olive oil or conditioner to it! that will certainly help a lot!

[Kaelee]

How long ago did you henna? That happened to me the first time I hennaed, but it was fine in a couple of days. A lot of times the culprit is henna dust still left in your hair. If you just did it, try washing it with shampoo, or at least, conditioner, a couple of times, and see if that helps.

As someone else suggested, it may be the lemon juice. Lemon juice doesn't always damage your hair (I always mix mine with straight lemon juice and I've been hennaing for going on 3 years now), but it's possible your hair just doesn't like lemon juice. Bear in mind though, that different mixes will give different color results, so you might want to strand test first. But try a milder acidic mix and you might get better results.

[Allychan]

My 2cents worth. It's been a while since I Henna'd my hair. When I used to do it (this is going back 10yrs ago), I used to add a tin of canned beetroot to the mix. I think the beetroot was packed in a vinegar mix and the beetroot's colour enhanced the hair colour outcome. And no dryness

[fairystar32]

Have you tried shampooing it?
It gets very dry if their is henna left in your hair.
I would also switch to chamomile tea instead of lemon, it always dried mine out.
Then give it a good long moisture soak :)

[ddiana1979]

I always add 1-2 Tbsp. of olive oil to my mixture (in addition to 1+ cup water & 2 Tbsp of lemon juice or ACV). It keeps the hair soft & conditioned & makes the henna mud much easier to rinse out. Before I started using the olive oil, my hair was dry & the henna was nearly impossible to get out (I'd find little pieces of it DAYS later, even after rinsing extremely well).

[Wrathgara]

@fairy: I have tried to shampoo it , i use biolage hydrating shampoo once and conditioned my hair everyday since i did it. I was wondering if perhaps lemon zinger tea would work as it has lemon, and orange peels instead of just chamomile ?

@ddiiana & veer: I will def. add olive oil next time, i wonder if a little bit of aloe vera gel and honey from snowymoon's concoction would help with moisture ?
I used super cheap conditioner after the 12 hour release to remoisturize the mixter, i thought this would replace the need for oil ..

I'm thinking that the combo of using amla AND lemon juice may have been the culprit as they are both super acidic... ?

I Henna'd on Monday, have only been conditioning until today and everytime i get brown water . I have gone through almost a whole bottle of conditioner rinsing it out as i think i read somewhere that it may be the culprit but still today after sleeping in a deep conditioner mask and washing my hair out there were still light brown water streaming down the drain ...

My hair was somoewhat healthy before the process. I don't blow dry, rarely use and iron , wash only every 3 days or so for oiling etc...

I LOVE the color, don't mind the mess, I just need to figure out why its drying my normal hair more so that the dye i'v been using for the past 4 years. . . :(

I have my second batch of henna so that i can freeze and have ready for roots or a refresher w/o having to wait 12 hours .

So far I think i will use
1 box of jamila
3 tabls of oilve oil
1 tbls of tumeric and paprika
1 part amla
water

to rehydrate:
conditioner and water

any thoughts?

Thanks once again ladies for all of your imput and ideas!!!

I read a thread that had a trouble shooting (in case you have dry hair) not to long ago but the section was missing from the post :(

[Dolly]

Henna often dries hair out. I found that it dried mine out the first time, but on subsequent apps I have not had that problem.

As for the brown water, you will get that for a little while. The leftover resin from henna sometimes takes a while to all come out. I do a clarifying wash a few days after I henna, and that usually takes care of it.

[Veer666]

@ddiiana & veer: I will def. add olive oil next time, i wonder if a little bit of aloe vera gel and honey from snowymoon's concoction would help with moisture ?
I used super cheap conditioner after the 12 hour release to remoisturize the mixter, i thought this would replace the need for oil ..



You could also try to make you henna mix with warm (not hot) water and include oil or conditioner at that point. Then you can use it immediately. So you don;t have to let it sit and remoisturize again.

[GRU]

Have you done a mermaid soak? That's the best way I've found to make sure I get all the residue out.

After hennaing, I do a mermaid soak, drain the tub, do another mermaid soak, drain the tub, CO-wash and detangle (with wide-toothed comb while still coated in conditioner) followed by another mermaid soak, drain the tub, then CO-wash (with another comb-through) with a regular shower rinse.

Seems excessive, but the mermaid rinses are very gentle on your hair, as is the conditioner-drenched detangling. After doing this, I no longer get any color in my rinse water.

[Marjolein]

Henna leaves a resin coating behind on your hair. After a few washes this coating should be gone, and you should be able to see and feel all the benefits of henna :)

Adding a cone-free (you don't want to block the henna from penetrating the hair by creating a coating) conditioner to your hennamix helps a lot. People aren't unanimous about adding oils though. Many people find that oils block the henna uptake.

[burns_erin]

I put a few tbs of honey in my mix. I also mix and freeze then thaw before use because then it is smoother and easier to apply and rinse leading to less mechanical damage.

I also tend to do my hennaing in the weekend so that if it needs to I can heavily oil or do a moisturizing treatment afterwards for the rest of the weekend.

[GRU]

I also tend to do my hennaing in the weekend so that if it needs to I can heavily oil or do a moisturizing treatment afterwards for the rest of the weekend.

This reminded me, I *always* follow up every cassia/henna treatment with some sort of a moisture treatment, generally a bastardized version of an SMT (I kind of throw in whatever sounds good... oils, aloe, banana, coconut cream, conditioners, glycerin, molasses, honey, etc.). I think that might be why I tend to not have the "residue" problem afterward -- after soaking in juicy goodness for an hour or two, it's all slippery and just rinses right down the drain. ;)