Should I use hair cream or conditioner before applying henna?

[Selene_Thorns]

I want to henna my hair a second time today. In the first, I did as the online guides said and only shampoo'd before. But my hair was horrible to handle; it was very dry, tangled and was hell to separate into groups to reach the scalp.
I thought this time, maybe I should apply the conditioner and a hair cream, as I usually do, to be able to dye it without all the messy tangles (it's so bad that I never, in 7 years, let it dry without a moisturizing cream. it is impossible to handle otherwise).
Do you think this is a good idea, or might the cream interfere with the dye?

[Isilme]

I'm sure it will be fine. Henna is very powerful and you could even make a potent henna gloss if you like that better. A henna gloss is basically henna and conditioner in a ratio of your choice. You can make a conditioning treatment with just a few tablespoons of henna or you can make a henna mud with a bit of conditioner.
I have never used henna on freshly washed hair without conditioner. In fact I used it the first time over oily dirt hair over which I had previously applied a heavy coney conditioner. Not much will stop henna.

[browneyedsusan]

Henna is potent stuff, and it'll be fine with some conditioner.

I wait until my hair is begging for a wash before I touch up the roots, then use a henna gloss right on my filthy hair and it comes out just fine. You could try 1/2 dye-released henna and 1/2 conditioner, leave it on your head a couple of hours or 3? You might need to wisk in a little (1/2 tsp?) xanthan gum to thicken it up. I don't think you'll have any problems with conditioner or hair cream in your hair.

[woolyleprechaun]

I couldn't possibly henna over just shampooed hair- It would be a nightmarish tangle fest. I sometimes apply it to dirty hair, other times after a shampoo and conditioning. To be fair, I've henna'd over really heavily oiled hair, and its still taken just fine.

[oatmealpie]

You could also use whatever oil your hair likes--coconut, avocado, etc.--instead of conditioner.

[Shatam1]

I add tons of oils to my henna mix and still get a super strong color. Avocado oils helps keep my hair really soft after henna and it washes out real easy with just conditioner:)

[durgidog]

I preoil my hair heavily with olive oil before a henna to combat the dryness.

[pixietail]

I usually henna my hair the day after I shampoo it, and then use plenty of conditioner while washing out the henna. Then shampoo and condition/oil again the next day. It seems to keep my scalp from getting too dry or too itchy.

[Anje]

Put me in the group that waits til hair is decidedly in need of a wash before hennaing (I'm going to wash it when I wash out the henna, right?), and then I tend to dump a ton of olive oil and/or conditioner into my henna mix to help keep it from being so drying. I get tons of stain this way, so I don't see much point in trying to henna dry, shampooed, unconditioned hair, even though I've seen that there are a number of people who try to do just that for maximum color saturation.