Hello :-) and a few questions about Henna

**woolyleprechaun** · March 14th, 2013, 10:14 AM

I put a fair amount of lemon juice in my mix, but not all (that would sting to high heaven) and make the rest up with chamomile tea. It just seems to give a brighter colour, for me. More yellow-y. And it seems to soften the lemon juice sting, too. Its very much a personal thing, I think.

**Nightshade** · March 14th, 2013, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by Anje

I'm not certain why people tend to like chamomile tea, honestly. Some websites seem determined to tell you that henna should be mixed with lemon juice in order to get color, and that's plainly not true. Even with my hard water with stunning alkalinity (that's a water-specific term for buffering capacity), henna gives great color when mixed with warm water. And the one time I did mix henna with lemon juice, my hair and scalp were horribly dry; I had a rash on my ears from the dryness. Never again am I doing that!

I love chamomile tea because it makes my scalp happier than straight water, and it's another natural hair conditioner. It doesn't do anything color wise.

And I second never using lemon juice. My hair and scalp and ears were so dry, and experiments since then have shown that the high acidity of lemon juice actually reduces the staining power of henna, not increasing it like is often claimed.

**woolyleprechaun** · March 14th, 2013, 10:18 AM

Oh, and just a thought..... If you do lighten prior to henna (I wouldn't reccomend it as you have used lush blocks with indigo in, it seems) you would have to bear it in mind when doing your roots. I henna'd over old highlights and got a flaming orange-red, but then my roots (obviously) took on a darker colour. Fast forward a couple of years and you have bright cinnamon ends and a foot of auburn hair

I just henna the ends to match the rest every now and again, so it basically makes pre lightening pointless unless you are going to be lightening the roots prior to every touch-up..if that makes sense.

**Bagginslover** · March 16th, 2013, 03:47 AM

Originally Posted by Nightshade

I love chamomile tea because it makes my scalp happier than straight water, and it's another natural hair conditioner. It doesn't do anything color wise.

And I second never using lemon juice. My hair and scalp and ears were so dry, and experiments since then have shown that the high acidity of lemon juice actually reduces the staining power of henna, not increasing it like is often claimed.

This is the same for me, I found anything else to be a bit drying on my already dry (but oily!) scalp. I've never tried it with lemon, but just knowing its drying puts me off trying it at all.

I actually bleach sections of my hair before henna-ing over them, my hair is quite dark, and I like the more coppery shades, so this gives me copper highlights. It is a pain to keep up though, I don't redo the bleach every henna either (or at least I won't, I've only hennaed once since bleaching so far). I plan to do the bleached roots just once a year to minimise damage (I pre-oil when bleaching too to cut damage), and so far I'm loving the effect of the highlights.

**girlinabox** · March 19th, 2013, 02:34 AM

Hi everyone, thanks for all of your really helpful replies. I am such a wimp, I've been hesitating over doing this Henna powder as I'm scared I'll never be able to have brown hair again, but, then I figured that my brown hair was pretty warm anyways, so even if in the future I *do* change my mind and want to go back I will just persist with Lush Brun, even if it means I have to do it more regularly. It's no big deal. So...I've decided, no lemon juice and copiuous amounts of camomile tea. I'm also mixing with Cassia to get a more copper tone to it. Cassia on order so as soon as it arrives I'm going to do it!