Pure Henna at My Local Indian Grocery. WOOT!

[Kome]

I'm quite happy to have found 100% pure henna from my local indian grocery. I expected to find Jamila or a box or two of something else, but instead I found large 200 gram plastic bags on henna for $2.99. I spoke with the cashier to ask if it was pure and she confirmed. At the time I was also looking for pure indigo, but I couldn't find it. There were boxes of "black henna" and so I thought that might be it, but the cashier told me that she uses pure black indigo for her hair and they didn't have it in right now.

So anyways, I've since used it twice and I LOVE IT. I used red wine with my mix and some lemon juice and paprika and my color came out SOOOO much better than when I bought online from Mehandi. I think it may have been the red wine, but I'm not sure. Either way, I'm happy! I can afford this henna. It would have cost me over $70 to buy that amount online. :rolleyes:

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/kome42/Mah%20Hair/62c5e156.jpg

I just wanted to share in case there are others out there who wish to find it for cheaper. It is possible! Of course, you should ALWAYS do a test strand and test that it is pure henna before you use it. You still run the chance of it not being pure or being "old". However, henna in a bag that hasn't been opened lasts awhile, so even if it's been shipped from another country I doubt it's been sitting on the shelf for 5 years.

Oh yeah, and I bought 3 bags in case they ran out, but now I think I should have bought more??? :D

[caribou55313]

Great find! I've seen those in my local stores too, but haven't tried them. Looks like yours don't have any green dye added for "freshness," so that's good.

[Kome]

Great find! I've seen those in my local stores too, but haven't tried them. Looks like yours don't have any green dye added for "freshness," so that's good.

Mmmmm, reddish green hair. That sounds so PRETTY! :rolleyes:

[curlytm]

Ooh! What a great find! I just bought some henna and cassia for super cheap online. It's an e-tailer that GRU recommended to me. Starwest Botanicals, I think? Anyway, it was about $7.50 for 1lb (454g), so it was still more expensive than yours, and I thought I was making out like a bandit!

Yayyy henna!

[Kome]

Ooh! What a great find! I just bought some henna and cassia for super cheap online. It's an e-tailer that GRU recommended to me. Starwest Botanicals, I think? Anyway, it was about $7.50 for 1lb (454g), so it was still more expensive than yours, and I thought I was making out like a bandit!

Yayyy henna!

That's awesome! It's nice to find it elsewhere and know you're getting good quality stuff without having to give an arm and a leg to buy it. This way I am able to do it every week or two and not really worry about the cost. :)

[squiggyflop]

good for you! i use dulhan deluxe.. which i got from an indian store.. ahh yay for sweet deals!

[slythwolf]

Mmmmm, reddish green hair. That sounds so PRETTY! :rolleyes:

"Reddish green" is brown. :p

[caribou55313]

Just an fyi in case anyone isn't aware of the green-dye-in-henna-powder phenomenon: It doesn't dye your hair green (or brown), it just makes the powder look more appealing to the buyer :)

[quendelyn]

I'm quite happy to have found 100% pure henna from my local indian grocery. I expected to find Jamila or a box or two of something else, but instead I found large 200 gram plastic bags on henna for $2.99. I spoke with the cashier to ask if it was pure and she confirmed. At the time I was also looking for pure indigo, but I couldn't find it. There were boxes of "black henna" and so I thought that might be it, but the cashier told me that she uses pure black indigo for her hair and they didn't have it in right now.

So anyways, I've since used it twice and I LOVE IT. I used red wine with my mix and some lemon juice and paprika and my color came out SOOOO much better than when I bought online from Mehandi. I think it may have been the red wine, but I'm not sure. Either way, I'm happy! I can afford this henna. It would have cost me over $70 to buy that amount online. :rolleyes:

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/kome42/Mah%20Hair/62c5e156.jpg

I just wanted to share in case there are others out there who wish to find it for cheaper. It is possible! Of course, you should ALWAYS do a test strand and test that it is pure henna before you use it. You still run the chance of it not being pure or being "old". However, henna in a bag that hasn't been opened lasts awhile, so even if it's been shipped from another country I doubt it's been sitting on the shelf for 5 years.

Oh yeah, and I bought 3 bags in case they ran out, but now I think I should have bought more??? :D

Hi, I found some Jamila in the yellow box at my local Indian store. I made enough for a test using it with lemon juice. I also made a test batch of the 2009 summer jamila. Let sit overnight. Tested both and the 2009 left a rust brown stain. The yellow boxed old Jamila left a red, red, stain. So what you find in the Indian store is just as good if not better. I've just gotten tired of all the marketing hype, and have decided to add my years of experience with the "queen of plants" to this blog. (Over 30). I've used all kinds of henna over the years. As long as it's 100% pure henna you can't go wrong.

[marisa]

That is quite the find! Very nice.
We have a lot of Indian groceries around here, but I have never been so lucky.

[Kome]

Hi, I found some Jamila in the yellow box at my local Indian store. I made enough for a test using it with lemon juice. I also made a test batch of the 2009 summer jamila. Let sit overnight. Tested both and the 2009 left a rust brown stain. The yellow boxed old Jamila left a red, red, stain. So what you find in the Indian store is just as good if not better. I've just gotten tired of all the marketing hype, and have decided to add my years of experience with the "queen of plants" to this blog. (Over 30). I've used all kinds of henna over the years. As long as it's 100% pure henna you can't go wrong.

Yeah, it's definately marketing. I learned a lot from reading online and from that particular website, but I also realize a lot of it is to get you to buy their product. It's a plant and it's the same so long as it's pure. I'm just happy to have found what I was looking for! :)

[Kome]

"Reddish green" is brown. :p

Oh shush. You know what I meant. :p

[Quezie]

Ohh, nice! I wish I knew of an Indian grocery store around here.
Shouldn't be too difficult really, I live in a very culturally diverse city, and even more so in the part of the city I live in . . . no luck yet though. :hmm:

[JenniferNoel]

Mmmmm, reddish green hair. That sounds so PRETTY! :rolleyes:

I've had that on my head before, it was an accident.
It's my favorite color... but not on my hair. Nooooot my hair.

Congrats on finding the henna though, that's awesome. There are no local henna dealers where I live. :p

[earthymamawitch]

Hi, I found some Jamila in the yellow box at my local Indian store. I made enough for a test using it with lemon juice. I also made a test batch of the 2009 summer jamila. Let sit overnight. Tested both and the 2009 left a rust brown stain. The yellow boxed old Jamila left a red, red, stain. So what you find in the Indian store is just as good if not better. I've just gotten tired of all the marketing hype, and have decided to add my years of experience with the "queen of plants" to this blog. (Over 30). I've used all kinds of henna over the years. As long as it's 100% pure henna you can't go wrong.

The yellow boxed Jamila is the henna for hair right?

Jenn

[earthymamawitch]

Ooh! What a great find! I just bought some henna and cassia for super cheap online. It's an e-tailer that GRU recommended to me. Starwest Botanicals, I think? Anyway, it was about $7.50 for 1lb (454g), so it was still more expensive than yours, and I thought I was making out like a bandit!

Yayyy henna!


Someone recommended this henna to me as well. I was wondering what the sift and staining power of this was like compared to BAQ henna? I have dreads so don't want it to be super gritty :(

Jenn

[serious]

Just an fyi in case anyone isn't aware of the green-dye-in-henna-powder phenomenon: It doesn't dye your hair green (or brown), it just makes the powder look more appealing to the buyer :)

I got this kind of henna from Turkey once, it didn't look more appealing, it just looked fake :)

[GRU]

Someone recommended this henna to me as well. I was wondering what the sift and staining power of this was like compared to BAQ henna? I have dreads so don't want it to be super gritty :(

Jenn

I've never used anything but the Starwest stuff (http://www.starwest-botanicals.com/product/red-henna-powder.html), so I can't compare the sift to anything else.

The staining power is excellent, IMO. In October I did one single full henna application, which was WAY too red for what I wanted. (I'm a strawberry blonde naturally, and just wanted to cover up my horrendous grays). Fortunately, since it was my first time, it did fade a tad, and since November I've been doing roots-only with about 20% henna and 75% cassia and 5% fenugreek.

If you look at this picture (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=5683&pictureid=77562) from yesterday, you can see what 20% henna from Starwest stains like with a flash. And this picture (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=5683&pictureid=77280) from Sunday shows it without a flash.

So while I can't comment on the grittiness comparison, I can say from experience that it is RED stuff.

One thing I've often wondered.... has anyone tried running henna powder through a blender? or maybe a grinder of some sort? I know my mom used to talk about making powdered sugar from regular sugar by using the blender... and I wonder if that would make for a finer powder, more like talcum powder?

[marisa]

I've wondered about that myself GRU.
Intead of sifting, couldn't you just use a coffee grinder or Magic Bullet.

[auburn]

What can I say...


Epic FETCH !!! :bounce:

[tickleberry]

I know this thread is pretty old but the forum won't let me send you a private message so hopefully you see this!

I live in Florida as well and have been calling around to local Indian stores asking about henna but it's rare that they sell it and when they do it's the fake stuff that's been premixed with who knows what. Do you mind sharing the location of the store where you got this henna?

Thanks in advance!

[RavennaNight]

That's a great find! It's awesome to stumble upon deals like that.

[MonikaHa]

I know this thread is pretty old but the forum won't let me send you a private message so hopefully you see this!

I live in Florida as well and have been calling around to local Indian stores asking about henna but it's rare that they sell it and when they do it's the fake stuff that's been premixed with who knows what. Do you mind sharing the location of the store where you got this henna?

Thanks in advance!


I was going to ask the same thing!

[littlenvy]

That's great! Good find!

I love my local Indian grocery store! The deals are unbelivable. I get my neem oil, castor oil and coconut oil from them. I also by their powdered pure Amla and its only $2 NO JOKE!!!

[GlassWidow]

I will openly admit that I didn't read this entire thread, so if I'm asking a question that's already been asked, feel free to direct me to the answer. :)

I bought several boxes of Jamila for Hair at my local Indian grocery (the yellow box with the cello bag, not the silvery green one with the date stamped foil bag). I've got one box left, and recently stopped in to stock up again. It seems they're not selling it anymore, but they had lots of boxes of other stuff that I hadn't heard of/couldn't read. What other brands are commonly carried by Indian groceries in the US, and what's comparable to Jamila for Hair in terms of results?

TIA! :)

[sibiryachka]

I found Jamila at my local Indian/Fijian grocery a couple of weeks ago too; I was so excited! I'm not convinced it the *very* freshest; seems like the stain is maybe a little weak. But still, useable and locally available without having to pay shipping, or wait for it to arrive, and at $2.99/100g box (2 root jobs), I can afford to touch up as often as necessary!
They also had big 500-gram bags of "mystery henna" - lots of writing on the bag, but very little of that is in English, so I couldn't tell its country of origin/age or confirm that it's pure, and for some reason I was shy to ask the lady working there about it. Next time I might get some for strand testing, see what happens; I think it was $4.99 for the 500-gram bag, so not too expensive to experiment with.
Does exposure to light matter? It just occurred to me that that might be an issue; it's in a clear plastic bag, no box.

[sami]

One thing I've often wondered.... has anyone tried running henna powder through a blender? or maybe a grinder of some sort? I know my mom used to talk about making powdered sugar from regular sugar by using the blender... and I wonder if that would make for a finer powder, more like talcum powder?

I believe I saw a video on youtube where after mixing up the henna and once it was ready to use, it was strained through a cut off stocking. I'll try and find the video and post a link.

ETA: well I can't find that vid. I tried googling - the hennapage (Catherine's) has this suggestion - using a nylon stocking - to get a smooth henna paste.