Henna & Amla mix proportions?

[Hedera]

Recently, I've taken the plunge into henna - which, with my amount of silvers, is pretty full on!
I'm loving it though, I'll try to upload some pictures soon (although my camera has a *really* difficult time capturing red and oranges and purples accurately).

I started with pure henna from Holland & Barrett, the Jacob Hooy brand, which was ok but very much to the yellow end of orange.

So, just a few days later, I muddied up my hair again, this time with Khadi's Henna, Amla & Jatropha mix.
Much better! A deeper, darker, more red kind of orange.

(Still very intense - but since one of my inspirations was Myrtle Snow, from AHS Coven, I don't mind that at all )

I have some Rajasthani henna and some Amla on the way, so I'd like to create my own mix, if only for root touch ups, glosses etc.
The amla is supposed to make the henna darker.

I have no idea how much amla to use in proportion to henna though!
I've read about mixes anywhere from 50/50, to a few tablespoons of amla to a whole package of henna.


Does anyone here have any experience with this kind of mix?
What is your preferred ratio?

I will experiment of course, using the hair I've saved from my brush over the last few weeks, but I am running out of undyed hair to experiment on...

[Nightshade]

Generally amla doesn't make the henna darker so much as it mutes its saturation (so henna + amla might look darker, but as amla has no dye, it's mostly taking down how bright henna is in the sun a notch or two. To make it significantly darker, you'd need indigo, too

1 part Amla to 3 parts dying herbs is what I go with. More than that and you're just getting a less saturated color (by virtue of a mix being 50% henna instead of 70%). So think of it the same way people cut cassia into henna to make the color lighter and more coppery. Some of it is the cassia, but just as big a part of that is how dilute the henna is

[paulownia]

I would recommend one part amla and 4 parts of henna
Amla is acidic ( which means it will help with dye release) and can be drying for hair so it's best to not overdo. A mix with too much acidic addictive will result in worse dyeing effect and give muddy shades.

[Hedera]

Thank you Nightshade and pauwlonia!

That gives me a good starting point.

I've got 50 grams of my new henna batch mixed up with water, awaiting dye release; when it's done, I'm going to split it in two and add some amla to one of the halves.
I think I'll test it out on some of my shed, already-hennaed hair as well.

I'm going to try and mix some sort of flaxseed gel gloss as well I think; because I have so much silver already, I'd like to try and do many very light root glosses as much as possible, to minimise outgrow.