Henna Rinse

[Talythia]

Hi there,

I've been lurking for over a year now, and have spent much time admiring the pictures of henna'd hair here. I'm not willing (or allowed *sigh*) at this point to go the whole hog and henna my hair, but I would like to see what kind of results a henna rinse would have. I believe I saw a thread on it around here before, but haven't been able to find it despite various attempts.

Can some kind person either point me in the right direction, or know of any directions for putting such a thing together and carrying it out?

[Nightshade]

Do you mean a henna gloss?

Fia’s Henna Gloss- For slighter color change and deep conditioning.

2-3 TB henna powder
Enough water to mix a smooth paste
Your favorite conditioner or plain, unsweetened yogurt
Mix the henna powder with water to a smooth paste and let this stand until you see dye release. Mix the henna paste with either your favorite conditioner or plain yogurt. Apply to dry or damp hair, wrap in plastic wrap, and leave on for as long as you wish. Rinse as you'd rinse out a regular conditioner. This one is easy to apply and rinse, as it's basically conditioner or yogurt with just a hint of henna dye in it. It's good as either a color refresher in between regular henna applications or if you only wish to have a very subtle color change. It will give reddish hints on blonde and light brown hair. You may see some reddish highlights on medium brown, but probably not too much. On dark brown/black hair you'll only get the conditioning benefits from the conditioner/henna.


I pulled that from the henna article in my siggy. Worth a read if you haven't already

[AreWild]

Hope I'm not hijacking. I'd be interested in anyone's advice or experiences with this too. I've been going back and forth on whether or not to henna and I think dabbling with a gloss might help me decide.

I'm not sure I really understand the difference between a gloss and a full on regular application. Is it the way it's mixed, leaving out the acid? Not letting it sit long enough for full dye release before applying it? Or not leaving it on your hair as long as a regular henna application?

Nightshade- That's an awesome article! I don't know how I've missed it before. It's like the holy grail of henna information and recipes.

[Nightshade]

ETA: When in any form of doubt, do NOT henna You cannot get it out of your hair if you don't like it, so weight it very, very carefully. A gloss isn't a bad test drive, but just know that even that little bit of henna may not go away!


Heh, I'm glad you found the article helpful.

The main difference between a gloss and a full-head application of "straight" henna is the dilution. A gloss takes a bit of henna and dilutes it in conditioner or yougurt or another herb like cassia to weaken its potency. It gives a more moderate color change that tends to be along the lines of a lighter, more coppery red. Henna glosses have a greater chance (NOT guarantee) of fading.

So, for instance if I wanted to do a henna gloss I'd take 2-3 TB henna and mix it with water (or you can toss it right in the conditioner, but I prefer to mix with water first), and then mix that into as much conditioner or yougurt as it takes to slather up all your hair.

For me to do the same treatment with straight henna, I'd need about 200 grams of it, and water.

The acid thing varies between different people. I tend to see it as as overdrying if too much is used, so I just use chamomile tea made with hot distilled water instead. Other people have used catnip or other herbs in much the same way. You can also do just a splash of lemon juice in some water as well.

Before the old board went down Iris did some tests that showed that too much acid actually reduced the amount of dye released, AND if enough was added (in the form of citric acid) brown dye-released henna actually went BACK to green, and lost its ability to stain at all!

Based on what I've seen the biggest things that make a difference in hennaing are:

• The dilution. More henna = more stain, period. So if you want a light coppery color, start with glosses and work your way up. It's WAY easier to go darker than to lighten too-dark henna up, so I advise to err on the side of lighter when in doubt.
• The Amount of Time- both for dye release and for how long it's left on. Keeping a close eye to see if your henna has released dye is MUCH better than just going "Oh, it'll be done in X hours". Also, leaving it on longer tends to give a deeper stain.
• Temperature- This is a HUGE and under-considered one, IMHO. If you toss a warm hat on over your shower cap, you'll get better results. Henna likes heat a LOT. If you mix your mud up with hot water, you'll get very fast dye release. I mix mine up with steaming chamomile tea, then toss a cookie sheet on the base of my food dehydrator (so it's nice and warm) and set the bowl on top for 4 hours. After that, I'm ready to rock. On really hot days (90F+) I'll just set it in the direct summer sunlight. Red puddles of dye atop the henna start showing up pretty fast!
• Proper Storage & Freezing- Keeping henna powder in the freezer when not being mixed keeps it more potent. Freezing henna mud also will make it stain better (my pet theory on this is that much like how frostbite breaks open cell walls, this same action breaks down the henna plant cells, allowing more lawsone to be released).

Things that I find don't impact a mix nearly as much as they're trumped up to (I'm not saying they DON'T just saying not as much as the above three)

• Crop- Everyone, even me, has their favorite region/crop to use. While there are some variations across who likes what, they're all the same plant, and all give about the same color. I feel that how the powder is treated in transport affects the end color much more than anything else.
• Other Herbs- This CAN make a difference, but there's very few things that can match the potency of henna. I'd say by the time you're getting an amount of something other than henna in quantities great enough to do anything, half that is just the effect of the henna being diluted.
• Other henna Voodoo- Everyone has their own tweaks. Tea rather than water, or coffee, or adding this that and the other thing, or applying it at the apex of the full moon, or what have you. Do whatever works, but I don't think a lot of the little details change the end result a whole lot.

Erhm...

Sorry for the hijack

I wonder if I should add all that to the henna article

[Talythia]

Thank-you very much, yes, the gloss was what I was trying to find!

I currently use Lush reincarnate solid shampoo, which contains henna (amongst other things) and they claim it has a slight tinting effect on hair. Buuuut, while it's nice stuff and there may be a slight change, I'd like to go a step up from that and see how it looks.

I haven't coloured my hair all all you see, bar shampoos that are supposed to 'enhance' colour. Baby steps, is what I thought, and the gloss sounded like a good one.

[kdaniels8811]

Nightshade - yes, you should add that valuable information to your henna articles. It is very useful, I found it when I first hennaed and am still doing so. Thanks!

Talythia - as Nighshade said, henna is very permanent so be certain you want red highlighs in your hair. I love henna and the conditioning/color it gives me. Glosses are easy and effective. Good luck and let us know how it turns out for you.

[Nightshade]

All added to the article

[flutterbudget]

How often would you say you could repeat glosses on medium brown hair without getting into the burgundy colors? Or does the color not deepen the same way it does with full strength henna? Would you only gloss the roots to blend it, or would a full gloss every month or two not affect the color noticably? I'm thinking of trying it and I think I would like it as long as I could keep it in the copper/rust range, but I don't like the burgundy/mahogany/wine colors on me.

[florenonite]

How often would you say you could repeat glosses on medium brown hair without getting into the burgundy colors? Or does the color not deepen the same way it does with full strength henna? Would you only gloss the roots to blend it, or would a full gloss every month or two not affect the color noticably? I'm thinking of trying it and I think I would like it as long as I could keep it in the copper/rust range, but I don't like the burgundy/mahogany/wine colors on me.

It depends on your hair, really, as well as the potency of the gloss. I've done two potent henna glosses, about a fortnight apart, and seven months later they've almost wholly faded. I believe Gothic Lolita does monthly glosses which always fade. On others, a single mild gloss is permanent. If you notice fading each month, you can probably do a monthly full gloss, unless you find your colour is darkening because it's not adequately faded. If you don't notice any fading, just do the roots. If it fades very slowly, you could do roots-only once a month and every couple of months do a full-head application.

[Gothic Lolita]

Hi Florenonite cool that you remembered me and my hair!!!

Yes, my henna glosses fade extremly, although I'm rinsing with ACV directly after shampooing it out. Without the ACV I think they'd fade even worse. Luckily my natural color isn't far away from the hennaed one so I don't need to re-gloss very often. I now wait 8-12 weeks before a new one, not only 4.

Hm, I'm wondering if the colour would be more permanent if I let the gloss sit longer on my head? I'm only having it on for 1h.....