The Henndigo thread

[Elfling]

Since we didn't have one!

I'm doing henndigo this morning for the first time. I love straight henna, but I look better as a brunette.

My mix was (everything purchased from mehandi.com):
-200 grams BAQ Yemen henna
-100 grams indian Indigo
-3 T Amla
-chamomile tea
-salted warm water for the indigo

I seem to get dye release almost immediately, so I didn't set the henna overnight. Got up, brewed some strong chamomile tea, and mixed the henna/amla together. It took about 2.5 cups of tea to get the 200 grams of henna to a mashed-potato consistency. I covered it and went to wash my hair.

Came back, mixed the indigo: it took about a cup and a half of warm, slightly salty water to get it to a more liquid consistency. I wanted it to mix well with the henna so I went past the henna mashed potato stage.

Then I mixed a bunch of herbal, cone-free conditioner into the henna to make a smooth, yogurt-consistency paste. Then added the indigo and stirred like crazy till there were no green and brown streaks, just dark brown.

Applying it gave me fits, but it was definitely made easier by adding the conditioner (which technically makes it a gloss). Straight lemon juice absolutely fried my hair, and I'm hoping this treatment will fix some of the leftover crunchy spots from my henna a few weeks ago. I had bought a tint brush, which really helped for the hairline; I scritched the mix down into my roots as well as I could.

This time around I did roots first, then the rest of my hair- I don't think it worked as well for me as doing sections. It's never *easy* with long hair and doing it on your own anyways- I pretty much slop as much as I can on, try to make sure I don't see any spots, and keep my fingers crossed :lol:

Pictures this evening hopefully!

[Lexie]

Sounds like fun... :D Well...not so much, but aren't you glad once it's over and you're just left waiting?

[Elfling]

Hey, Lexie! :D

Yep. The washing-out was better this time since I used conditioner/chamomile to mix everything up; lemon juice is definitely just too much.

I can't tell until it's dry, but it seems like 2:1 henna:indigo with a bit of amla was a perfect dark brown for me.

My only :( is I was hoping the amount of hair I lost to the straight henna process was because of the lemon juice; it really seems like it's just the weight of the product though. I'd say it's probably double or triple what I would lose on a normal day, so it definitely seems shocking. But then, I remember doing dye at home with normal chemical dye and always losing a lot as well, so it may just be that whole thing.

[ari810]

I mixed the henna and indigo with sage leaf tea which was gentler for me and was more tolerable than the lemon idea. Although, I will try chamomile and see if that is even better. I hope your hair turns out lovely.

[Elfling]

Woot! That came out very well. Still auburn undertones, but far darker than my original henna, and perfect dark brown. It looks so much redder in pics, especially with the flash; it's about two shades darker in person. Very happy with the 2:1 henna:indigo mix on my hair. That's over a couple of years of dark brown chemical dye. We'll see how it fades, right now it's perfect.

With flash:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g204/elfling01/henndigo1.jpg

Without flash, a bit blurry but a bit more true to the color I think:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g204/elfling01/henndigo4.jpg

[zift]

I know it always shines redder with the flash and under the sun too,but that must be the thing for henna. It loves showing off the red under bright lights:D
Your color turned out fantastic,good job:thumbsup:

[tiny_teesha]

I henna my mums, and my hair.
I want my ends to look dark nuetral-ashy brown (like my natural hair as i only henna already died hair which is about APL down) As i have hennad repeatedly over my once red hair dye, is there a way to ashen things up???

Also my mums hair is basically about 50% white. So when i henna her even if i do a 2/3 henna 1/3 indigo or a tad more and 3-4 TB amla, it comes out orange. not so fluro, but still. A lighter orange. NOT FAIR. I want to make a golden brown colour. How can i?

I'm ok with useing loads of henna i found a REALLY cheap supplier. I don't want to use much indigo coz it costs a lot from shipping. I do not mind so much to use lots of amla.

I'm waiting for her hair to oxidise. My ends turned a bit pinkish this time....very weird. Is there a herbal way to ashen them? straight amla? or indigo. I don't really want black.....

THANK YOU in advance

[Elfling]

I guess you could try an amla gloss or treatment- it's supposed to ashen things up. If you want to go really more brunette though, I'm betting you're going to need some indigo.

[Lexie]

I think weight is a definite factor. I didn't notice it much until I used a different gloss yesterday. My usual gloss is henna diluted by cassia, but this time I used gelled water with my chamomile tea. The mixture was so much lighter, and when I rinsed, only one hair fell. My scalp isn't itching today either, so I think I'm going to stick to gelled glosses in the future. :)

But damn, Elfling, your hair is longer than I expected! I can't wait to get mine long again. :( I miss it. I think we've got a similar color now. That's cool. In the sun, mine looks medium to dark auburn now. Indoors, it looks quite a bit darker, but not yet black. I like it. It looked very red last night, but it oxidized already! Wouldn't mind it being dark red, but I like this too.

ETA: Oh, tiny_teesha, if you want to ashen your color, try just amla. Mix it soupy with hot water, let it cool just enough to put it on, and keep it on for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes I stir and blow on it to cool it faster. I think there were some who said amla didn't affect their color, but since you already have it, it's worth a try. In order not to get the dye from it, I was told to let it sit for more than 30 minutes after being mixed before putting it in my hair. I tried that recently and really didn't notice any color change from it. So I think if you do want the dye, you have to catch it quickly.

[Celebrian]

Hey Elfling, good result! But tell me, what color were you before this henindigo. I ask in order to be able to work out my own recipe. Thanks for sharing...

[Elfling]

I think weight is a definite factor. I didn't notice it much until I used a different gloss yesterday. My usual gloss is henna diluted by cassia, but this time I used gelled water with my chamomile tea. The mixture was so much lighter, and when I rinsed, only one hair fell. My scalp isn't itching today either, so I think I'm going to stick to gelled glosses in the future. :)

But damn, Elfling, your hair is longer than I expected! I can't wait to get mine long again. :( I miss it. I think we've got a similar color now. That's cool. In the sun, mine looks medium to dark auburn now. Indoors, it looks quite a bit darker, but not yet black. I like it. It looked very red last night, but it oxidized already! Wouldn't mind it being dark red, but I like this too.
.

Yeah, I'm trying to strike that balance between red and black- I want *more* black than red, but I don't want red around my hairline, and I don't think completely black would work for me.

Thanks for all your experiments at hennaforhair, btw- SO awesome and informative. :cheese:


Hey Elfling, good result! But tell me, what color were you before this henindigo. I ask in order to be able to work out my own recipe. Thanks for sharing...

This was my hair before any henna at all, about a month ago:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g204/elfling01/DSCN0904.jpg

SO frizzy, rather washed out red/brown.

After the first henna-only:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g204/elfling01/DSCN0923-1.jpg
Again, hard to photograph the color; this doesn't show quite how red it was, especially around my hairline/roots.

[Lexie]

Same for me except I probably want more red than black. Kind of hard to achieve on a tight budget. :(

And thank you. I enjoyed doing those experiments. Glad to see they've helped people. I was actually googling the thread recently and found a completely different forum where people were working with the blond recipes. It gave me a good feeling. Those were inspired by Prairiechild though, so I give her credit there. :) The rest were like, 'Hmm...I wonder if this really makes a difference.' In retrospect, I wish I'd done more. I want to repost those experiments here. They have a tendency to go missing. Maybe someday I'll have the time to continue experimenting.

Love the red hair. If I could have red hair that long, I'd be a happy camper! :D

[Celebrian]

This was my hair before any henna at all, about a month ago:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g204/elfling01/DSCN0904.jpg

SO frizzy, rather washed out red/brown.

After the first henna-only:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g204/elfling01/DSCN0923-1.jpg
Again, hard to photograph the color; this doesn't show quite how red it was, especially around my hairline/roots.

Interesting. 2:1 Henna: Indigo? Can you tell me how long you left it on? At the moment, I twostep, and have longed to able to do a onestep successfully. The problem is covering grey roots adequately - which seem to do better with the more labour-intensive twostep. :(

[Elfling]

That's what I've heard too about gray :( I only have two or three so it wasn't a big concern for me. Yet :p I left the henndigo on for 3.5 hours or so.

[tiny_teesha]

Won't indigo turn it black? How do i make an amla gloss? a tbsp amla with conditioner as a mask???
I don't really want my ends darker, i want them to blend more is all. My mothers wants to stop dyeing her hair but after this wedding she is going to. So I am doing a few hennas on her to strengthen her weakened hair from a really bad dye job (he hair was snapping off at the roots)
She wants a brown. Not necessarily ashy but her white hair doesn't pick up the indigo at all, it soaks up henna like no tommorow though.

[Lexie]

Have you tried adding salt and/or amla to the indigo? I don't think amla alone will do much for her apart from making her hair more ashy, but you can give it a try. I mix it to a soupy consistency with boiling water. Applied a.s.a.p. for about 30 minutes really messes with my henna color. It looks stripped and overwhelmingly beige after but still with some red underneath.

[almudena]

My hair is a very dark auburn and I can't completely cover my greys with only henna. Hennaed whites blend nicely on my length but are a bright orange line on my roots. What I do is to apply henna first, let sit for two hours and then indigo but only on my orange roots, not on the length. I let sit the indigo for 20 minutes before rinsing it out. My roots turn a beautiful auburn which perfectly matches the length.
It still is a two step process but it is the only one I've found which is not too messy-time consuming and totally covers my greys.

[tiny_teesha]

well mum was feeling embarrased witht he fluro spot so as a curiousity thing i made a tbsp indigo with amount of conditioner to make it a paste. Then i applied. Waited 10-20min and then applied conditioner to it and tried to spread it around so the area aroudn would slowly blend into a brown. Well that didn't really work, But it definetaly made her hair a greenish brown (I'm sure it will oxidise nicely, it is just slightly green, can't even tell)
And she was pleased, but then still not trusting with it, i don't understand why it worked.
Anyway, tommorow i will spray her roots with hibiscus so the rest of her hair is darker too.
Now i know it works, that is good. I'm going to make that indigo stretch though!