henna during the seventies

[Isilme]

I went to a dance performance yesterday evening and got a hair compliment from a women I sat with. We went out during a break to have some fresh air and she complimented me on my haircolour, thanks, it's henna. I said. She said that she regognized the colour because she grew up during the seventies when everyone hennaed their hair. It got me thinking, how did the henna look like then? Was it the orange shade, or the purplish burgundy one gets after many applications? Was it very common, was the henna pure, where did one get it, etc. Please tell me a little bit of hair history those of you who were there during that time!:)

Oh, and the dance was great, it was belly dance with my teacher and some of her long term students. We had an oriental buffet too. I had an amazing evening!:D

[Eireann]

I used to henna my hair in the early 80s. As I recall it was a greenish powder that I mixed with water and it smelled like grass clippings. The color was pretty natural looking, I think. I have dark brown hair, so the red on top of it made it look like a pretty natural auburn color. People were usually surprised to hear it wasn't my natural color. I stopped because it dried out my hair too much, and when I started going grey, the greys would be bright orange!

[Kuchen]

Look for a short story by Angela Carter called The Quilt Maker :)

[Dulci]

:raises hand: I hennaed my hair once in the 70s for Halloween. I used Nestle's Cleopatra brand henna, it came in a tin canister. Like Eireann said, it was a greenish powder that you mixed and applied. I bought mine in an old drugstore, the shoulders of the canister were dusty, so probably not the freshest stuff LOL. My hair turned out Bozo Orange, not a good look for me. Fortunately I was 18 and it didn't matter much.

[CopperHead]

I think that was the same one I used, Dulci. I did a red and then a brown. The brown was horrible and dried in my hair. It looked like I had dog poop in my hair. My mother had to help me brush it out. :(

[FrannyG]

I don't recall a single person IRL with henna back then. Not one. In the mid-80s my sister-in-law started using henna. It was a lovely shade, much like a natural auburn, and it really lit up in the sun. I know for a fact though, that it was not BAQ henna.

[ktani]

I knew this woman with the most incredible long shiny silky hair who hennaed.

Although how much henna she used I do not know.

Her hair was not the colours I see here - it was more of a chestnut reddish colour.

She made her henna with herbal tea - she gave me the recipe - it is buried somewhere in my belongings - I did keep it.

I have no clue though where to look for it offhand.

Her hair was long, and very beautiful.

ETA: Your thread must be fate - I just found her recipe - I looked for it on the off chance it was where I thought it might be.

Ok - here it is - as I wrote it down - all those years ago - while she verbally gave it to me.

A Wash hair first

B Ingredients

4 oz henna
2 tea bags
1 tsp rosemary

C Method

Make a pot of tea.
Add rosmary
Put henna in china bowl
Strain tea and rosemary into henna
Stir with wooden spoon until consistency of hot yoghurt

D Application

Work thoroughly into hair, segment by segment N.B. especially the roots
Leave on the hair 1 1/2 to 3 hours
Rinse extremely thoroughly then shampoo and rinse

[Riot Crrl]

I knew this woman with the most incredible long shiny silky hair who hennaed.

Although how much henna she used I do not know.

Her hair was not the colours I see here - it was more of a chestnut reddish colour.

She made her henna with herbal tea - she gave me the recipe - it is buried somewhere in my belongings - I did keep it.

I have no clue though where to look for it offhand.

Her hair was long, and very beautiful.

Possibly her starting color was dark. Also, there seem to be photography issues with henna. I swear my hair does not look that strange under indoor lighting conditions, but I can only photograph it in the sun or else indoors with flash. With flash especially it looks like a bike reflector.

Edit: ah now the recipe is here. That looks not too different from recipes many of us are using today. I don't know if I have heard of many people using the rosemary in their mix, though.

[ktani]

Riot Crrl

That is why I kept it - I thought that the recipe was so unusual.

I do not henna - I never did - but I collect unusual things - not that unusual, lol.

[Isilme]

it's lovely to read all the stories about hennaing!:) I guess most brand weren't very pure then. I asked my mother but she said that not a single girl in her tiny town coloured their hair, and she was the odd one who did her eyebrows and lashes, lol.
I don't think she has seen many hennaheads IRL.

[Chamomilemaiden]

My grandma told me once that she hennaed her hair once (that was probably sometime in the 70s) , but her hair turned out bright orange so she never tried it again.

[Mitzy]

My grandmother (not the one with hair long enough to sit on that I talk about all the time, but the other one!) AND her twin sister used to henna each other's hair. They started way back when they were in their teens (so what? in the 1920's, I guess) and I know my granny was still doing it in the 80's because it drove my mother (who had both of my grannies live with her as they got too old to take care of themselves) crazy and she hated the smell.
She used that Egyptian brand that came in a yellow tin with a picture of Cleopatra on the side. Her hair was originally sort of a ginger brown (according to my grandpa) and when she finally stopped it was snow white, I mean blindingly white! Gorgeous! Anyway, she used some mix of brown and red and her hair was a nice color but she did complain about it making her hair dry, so she used to put castor oil on it for a couple of days after. I think she henna'd about once a month. Her hair was very, very strong, too.
She tried to get me to use henna in the 70's but like I said, my mother hated the smell, so I didn't. My cousin and I did used to mix some with lemon juice and put it on our fingernails and toenails to try to dye them red, but we didn't have much patience, so it didn't work most of the time. We used to try to dye our fingernails with blackberry juice, too, but mostly we just ate the berries. LOL

[khyricat]

I know mom and I both did it in the early 80's and 90's... I stopped when I moved to the midwest.. back then we had dark hair and hers was greying, she stopped sooner than I did because it was getting too orange for her.. I remember using lemon juice and water with it... but not the brand name, it came in paper packets that we mixed up in a bowl. now I know that the lemon juice probably hurt my hair and limited the dye uptake... that and I don't ever remember leaving it on more than an hour or 2...

[jel]

Another literary source that mentions henna (though doesn't give a detailed recipe, IIRC) is Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud. It's set in the early 70s (or it could have been the 60s actually).

[Liluri]

My Mother hennaed her hair most of my childhood she had a red and a brown tub and mixed them both were green powder and smelled like the henna I use now. I am supposing that the brown one had indigo in it. They were bought from a health store and there used to be a few brands.

[Kuchen]

Another literary source that mentions henna (though doesn't give a detailed recipe, IIRC) is Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud. It's set in the early 70s (or it could have been the 60s actually).

Off topic, but there's also a play called Henna Night (http://www.stageplays.com/browse-no-frames.cgi?view=item&session=273332323&item=07805sf)by Amy Rosenthal, although it's not set in the 1970s :)

[Dulci]

I found a picture of the Cleopatra henna tin:

http://i28.tinypic.com/2ij2979.jpg

I think this was pure henna, but it was not ground finely like BAQ, it had twigs and stems in it. I lived in the southern US in the 70s, there were lots of free spirit, back to the earth hippie type women who hennaed their hair, and there were also older ladies who hennaed their white hair to brilliant orange. They also usually wore slashes of bright red lipstick and too much jewelry LOL.

[Isilme]

wow, dulci! You found a pic!
Well, twigs and leaves doesn't sound like BAQ :lol:
I would have loved to see the brilliant orange:)

[quendelyn]

I used Nestle Egyptian henna in the late 60’- and 70’s to brighten up my strawberry blonde hair. It was very finely ground. I still have a tin of it.

[EggLover]

I used to henna my hair in the early 80s. As I recall it was a greenish powder that I mixed with water and it smelled like grass clippings. The color was pretty natural looking, I think. I have dark brown hair, so the red on top of it made it look like a pretty natural auburn color. People were usually surprised to hear it wasn't my natural color. I stopped because it dried out my hair too much, and when I started going grey, the greys would be bright orange!

This is where I'm at...my dilemma. I was a natural bright auburn as a youth, but now at almost 50 my hair has browned mostly, BUT with some whites (5-10%)! So when I henna gloss, these whites turn BRIGHT ORANGE, but the rest doesn't. IF the whites were more evenly distributed it would be nice looking (like highlights), but they are mostly at the temples and top. A clump of orange against auburn doesn't look good natural imo.

So I'm considering Redken Shades EQ. I'm currently growing out my short hair, so I have to decide. If it weren't for the whites I'd henna gloss the roots every 6 weeks for a nice natural look. UGH.

[shelomit]

It's surprising to me to learn that some drugstores carried henna in this era! My grandmother would buy imported henna during her once-yearly trip to Dallas where there was a larger Egyptian expat community.