How long can I let henna 'sit'?

[cherryblossom]

Hi all,

Basically I've done a really silly thing and mixed up a huge batch of henna with nearly boiling water and let it sit.

Problem is, I'm not going to be able to use it until 19 hours later, do you think it will effectively be 'dead' by then, or should it be ok? It's only got the very very hot water and its been covered with two layers of cling film, just sitting at around room temperature - 23 degrees celcius give or take.

I'd really appreciate any help

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UPDATE


Thanks again for the advice, and as promised, a picture of the result (it's in my album)

Soo pleased, just the colour I wanted, you can see it's really quite red even with indoor lighting and a crappy phone camera, this is it still drying!

[Scarlet_Heart]

What kind of henna is it? I use yemeni, and it has a quicker dye release (2 hours for hair) so you shouldn't wait that long. But I know other hennas have a much slower dye releases (anywhere from 6 -12) so you might be ok depending.

[Anje]

Probably depends on the henna, but I imagine using within 24 hours is generally OK.

Otherwise, any chance you can pop it into the freezer after it's released for a few hours?

[caribou55313]

When you use boiling water you get instant dye release and rapid demise. It may have a little color left by the time you use it but nothing like it would have had if you'd used something cool and acidic.

Boiling water also makes henna fade dramatically in a couple of weeks.

[Roscata]

Can you get to it at all? Can someone else get to it? Because if the answer to either of those is yes then you can just put the mixture in the freezer until you want to use it. I hope it works out for you.

[cherryblossom]

thank you guys so much for the responses - I used it this morning, left it on for 4 hours, it had incredible dye release!!! Will post pictures as soon as my friend sends me them (my camera's broken :S)

But yes, it might have had something to do with my leaving it outside the entire night, not exactly freezing, but very chilled in the morning, and I added the tiniest dash of lemon with warm water. It feels soo soft at the moment, really loving it, definately very dark red