Questions about henna

[LotusFIre]

What is henna made of, and does it damage your hair? Does it come in a lot of colors? Has anyone here had a bad experience with it? How about benefits? I have fine textured hair and am considering it but I'm scared.
PS sorry about starting so many posts, I saw the other henna post but Im trying to get to 25 posts so I can edit them! LOL thats a silly rule. :rolleyes:

[Maddy_T]

What is henna made of, and does it damage your hair? Does it come in a lot of colors? Has anyone here had a bad experience with it? How about benefits? I have fine textured hair and am considering it but I'm scared.
PS sorry about starting so many posts, I saw the other henna post but Im trying to get to 25 posts so I can edit them! LOL thats a silly rule. :rolleyes:
:)! I used to henna my hair in highschool, when I had hair..... haha anyway back then I loved it because it made my hair look a lot healthier and i think it's the best way to go in terms of coloring your hair just because it's so natural! BUUUUUUUT, I ended up hating it so much because I get sick of a color so easily and with henna you just cannot remove it, it hardly fades and you have to grow it out. Plus you can't dye over it with normal dyes because of the chemical reactions bla bla bla! So I'd never do it again!. Btw 97% of the hena colors come out with an orangey/red tinge! I'm not sure if that's what you want but if it is go for iiiiit!

[HoneyJubilee]

All I really know about henna I've learned the last few days from the Recipes, Henna, and Herbal Haircare section of LHC. It comes from a plant. It seems to make a lot of people's hair softer and thicker. Henna only comes in red, but it can be mixed with other things to give you black or brown. "Blonde henna" has very little to no henna in it and is made of other plants and herbs. And I hear it's messy to apply.

I've been curious about trying henna too, but I don't really want bright red hair (I'm golden blonde naturally). I think I am going to try cassia/senna instead since it's supposed to have similar conditioning benefits but shouldn't change my color (or at least not much). There are a couple of really good huge threads and articles about cassia/senna if you want to read more about it.

[jojo]

What is henna made of, and does it damage your hair? Does it come in a lot of colors? Has anyone here had a bad experience with it? How about benefits? I have fine textured hair and am considering it but I'm scared.
PS sorry about starting so many posts, I saw the other henna post but Im trying to get to 25 posts so I can edit them! LOL thats a silly rule. :rolleyes:

Henna is a naturally occurring plant which true henna only comes in a red/orange shade, though the shade you get is unique to the person depending on their shade, however it builds up and gets darker with each application. To apply henna you need to mix it with warm water, some people add lemon juice or different types of tea and then let it sit for the henna colour to release.

I have thick hair but fine strands which henna has thickened somewhat, henna is a bit like a protein treatment or restorer maybe a better name for it as it helps fill in damage, putting a translucent resin like coating round the individual strands, which then reflects the red more so in bright lights and the sun. It helps strengthens hair and can help prevent damage. It also can take up to a week (in my case 2 days for some) to oxidise. Oxidisation is where the colour develops and darkens, the first few days it may be a bright neon orange, especially if you start off with a light base colour i.e. white, light blonde, grey so a strand test is important because once you have hennaered its a life sentance with no chance of parole IT IS PERMANENT!

I personally love henna and its possibly the best thing I have ever done for my hair, it has added fantastic shine, thickness and health to my hair. I use the lush brand which has indigo in it which gives a more brown shade, though the indigo does fade to a more rich chestnut (see avatar). If you are seriously thinking of doing this, think hard do you want to always have red hair? if you are an impulsive person who likes change think twice, i cannot stress enough of how permanent henna is, it can only be cut out. Many have tried and got some results in trying to lighten it, but this can only be done when no indigo has been used else you get green, brittle hair.

Why dont you try a henna gloss, these are weaker and in my experience fade quite a bit. you just add a few teaspoons of henna in a bowl with some warm water, no need to wait for it to develop, add some conditioner and put in your hair for an hour, you get similar albeit weaker results of a full henna. Full henna's can take upto 6 hours sat on your head, are a pain to wash out but worth it IMHO.

The choice is yours at the end of the day but make sure you are 110% sure, as there is no turning back once you have done it! good luck with whatever you choose xxxx

[CrisDee]

Yup, the Recipes... section is definitely the place to start learning about henna! Also www.hennaforhair.com - I actually started there, and the girls on that forum (a lot of whom are also on this forum) referred me over here. If you want to see what henna does to light brown hair (with way more gray than I'd like to admit!), just take a peek at my photo albums :)

[Irnann]

I have been using henna for about 15 years but i stoped it now and went back to the permanent dark brown color from l'oreal which i was using before.
Long time i thought henna would be better for my hair, but finally i realised, my hair is doing better with chemical color.

Maybee i had to many layers from hennaing over and over again, and the conditioner and oils could not penetrate the hairshaft anymore. My hair became more coarse and dry and i had to trim the ends after each hennaing.

[little_cherry]

There are two types of henna (Lawsonia inermis); Body Art Quality (BAQ-pure), and compound henna (contains metallic salts and is not pure-metalic salts damage the hair). This post is about BAQ henna which is the safest dye out of the two.

Henna comes from the Henna shrub. It is non a plant based dye that is non damaging. However, it is very permanent. It comes in variations of the one colour (orange). It is a transparent dye, so your natural highlights will how through. The first time one hennas, it can look very orange. Usually people keep hennaing to get darker shades such as cherry and mahogany. The colour of your hair is a huge factor to how the colour turns out. Someone wth blonde hair may get screaming bozo orange on their first hennaing, but with multiple henna applications, this can deepen to a lovely cherry red. My hair is medium-dark ash brown. After several henna applications, I have a lovely cherry wine shade when the sun hits it. Indoors, my hair looks dark mahogany.

Henna can really improve the condition of your hair. Many people turn to henna (or cassia-it's related to henna, but it doesn't dye the hair permanently--it's a pale golden shade that is undetectable on darker hair.)

Some people have had bad experiences with henna..mostly the only bad experiences is usually that the person dislikes the colour on them because it went too dark, or they didn't experiment with strand tests....perhaps they just grew to not like the colour. Many henna heads here will tell anyone wanting to use henna:

"You marry henna, not date it."

This is very true. Henna is permanent and the only way to get it out is by bleaching (damaging). The best piece of advice when wanting to dye is "do strand tests until you have what you're after". The things to take into consideration when strand testing henna is:
1) What's in the mix
2) Type of henna
3) Time henna is left on hair test strand.

Types of henna.
Henna is grown in different regions in the world. Some of the popular hennas are Moroccan, Yemeni, Jamila (Pakistan), Rajasthani (indian).

This is my interpretation of the colours that are produced by these hennas during a few experiments.
Moroccan: Produces the darkest stain (dark orange) and has the least amount of glow in the sun.
Rajasthani and Yemeni: Produces a cherry wine stain...the colour is more of a red orange at first.
Jamila: Produces a beautiful Irish setter red on the first henna and deepens to a wine colour after several uses.

Want something a little....darker?
Mixing Indigo with henna.
Indigo is another plant based dye that produces a bluish grey dye. It is often mixed with henna to produces dark reds and browns, or applied separately over freshly hennaed hair to produce black tones.

If you don't want o make a full commitment to henna, henna glosses are fantastic. Henna glosses are usually a couple of tablespoons of henna in enough conditioner to cover your hair. This gives you a subtler stain that builds up very slowly.

Edit...no one posted when I started to type this.. sorry.

[jojo]

I wish we had a like button to press, id have pressed little cherrys button well explained

[Dolly]

I personally love henna and its possibly the best thing I have ever done for my hair, it has added fantastic shine, thickness and health to my hair.




This. Absolutely.

I have been dying my hair numerous shades of intense red for the last 7 yrs or so, so the color and permanence is not an issue for me. The henna color took some getting used to because I was used to having really bright, intense colors......henna is different though. It can look entirely different in different lighting conditions. My pics in my album and avatar look pretty intense because the lighting is bright. In dimmer "normal" light, it is more like my natural darkish brown with a slight red tint. Outdoors, eye-popping, screaming red (which I love). However, it was either compromise on the color I thought I wanted or save my hair. I chose to save my hair. Henna did that for me.

I use the henna blends from Henna Hut, because I didn't feel like experimenting with my own mixes, and I wanted a true red rather than orangey-red. They have lots of various reds and browns, and they also have great service. Their stuff is not 100% straight henna, but they are very upfront about the ingredients, and there are no metallic salts or bad stuff.

[Roscata]

Henna is made of a plant and if you get the right kind of henna that is all that is in it. (This (http://www.mehandi.com/shop/hairhenna.html) is where I buy mine and it's great.)

Pure Henna comes in one color: red. If it comes in other colors it is mixed with other stuff some of which could be metallic salts which will fry your hair.

I use Henna and I love it. It makes my hair shinny and it doesn't get a lot of split ends anymore. Some people say Henna makes their hair thicker others say it can be used to condition hair.

I suggest you download this ebook and read it: Henna Ebook (http://www.mehandi.com/shop/hennahairbook/index.html)

These are links from articles on this site which I recommend reading:

Misconceptions, Mistakes and Tips on Henna for Hair (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=165)
Moisturising Henna Gloss (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=154)
Expressions with Henna- Coloring Hair Naturally (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=7)
Hair Coloring with Herbs, Plants & Other Natural Ingredients (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=2)

[PartyPickle]

I started using henna and indigo this past summer. I loved the smell of the henna and how it made my hair feel. Orange shades do not work on me and though I've loved darker reds from boxes before, its not something I want long long term. The indigo made my hair very dry. That and it was too much work for me is why I stopped. I then discovered that I really wish I'd read more about it, oh I don't know maybe here, :rolleyes: before I did it. I didn't realize just how very very very permanent it is. Now I have a long time of growing out ahead of me.

[jojo]

I started using henna and indigo this past summer. I loved the smell of the henna and how it made my hair feel. Orange shades do not work on me and though I've loved darker reds from boxes before, its not something I want long long term. The indigo made my hair very dry. That and it was too much work for me is why I stopped. I then discovered that I really wish I'd read more about it, oh I don't know maybe here, :rolleyes: before I did it. I didn't realize just how very very very permanent it is. Now I have a long time of growing out ahead of me.

I started off wanting a browny, chestnut red but got a more browny one which I liked. Then I used a hair oil which I didnt realise until id used it had mineral oil in, I actually wrote a thread as I was worried id ruined my hair in some way. Anyway I left it overnight and then clarified the next day and it actually faded some of the brown and gave me a more chestnut/mahogany colour. I am betting although it wouldnt pull all the colour out it would help fade henna a little, especially if you added a little honey. My hair also felt great after the incident might be worth a try.

this is the oil I used a lot cheaper in Indian shops http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Vatika-Olive-Enriched-Hair-Oil.html