Henna Thread, take two

[shelomit]

That's a great tip and I'm lucky that I got it before I put it on my head and had to rinse out all the small particles afterwards Thank you!

Sure thing. Good luck!

[Raiwen]

Help! Is this a normal dye release or something weird? It started appearing about 3 hours after mixing it and it smells nice and earthy, nothing chemical or something similar, but it did pool a lot...



P.S. I just figured out that it might be the condensation dripping from the foil it was covered with.

[Nightshade]

Help! Is this a normal dye release or something weird? It started appearing about 3 hours after mixing it and it smells nice and earthy, nothing chemical or something similar, but it did pool a lot...



P.S. I just figured out that it might be the condensation dripping from the foil it was covered with.

Totally normal, especially if you have liquid pooling on the top. here's one of mine:

[Lily_white]

I used some old deposit only dyes and I realised how much I miss red hair. So I ordered some henna and cassia which hopefully will get here today or tomorrow. Now I just need to find som time to mix and apply it without the kids getting involved 😁

[Raiwen]

Thank you Nightshade! It's done and frozen, waiting for me to have full free day.

What do you guys think how long should I leave it on? I have pretty dark brown hair, but not the darkest, semi permanent red dyes were visible on it long ago. I froze it, so from my understanding it should be pretty strong, but I don't want it to get darker, just to pick up as much red as possible. I did a strand test, mixed henna with warm water, let it sit for an hour, and then 3 hours after putting the strand it and it turned out pigmented and darker auburn red. The batch I'm gonna use is mixed with chamomile tea, and frozen like I said. I was thinking to leave it on for 3-4 hours, will that be too much if I don't want it to darken so much the red will not be visible? I want to get it right the first time

Lily_white please share the results! I'm excited to see

[Flowerness]

I have so many questions! I hadn't ever dyed my hair with permanent dye until recently. I tried to find as close to my natural hair as possible, so I went with Garnier Nutrisse in Acorn. Sort of a medium brown. The smell didn't wash out for days and it gave me a headache. I also found it to be difficult not to get patchy results. When I went to touch up my roots? Same thing, only not as bad. The other day it hit me that I wanted to use all natural color, so why not Henna! Naturally, the first thing I looked at was out of stock online (Lush Brun and Marron). I also thought about mixing Rainbow henna in the medium brown shade with something with more red, like Auburn or Mahogany. I figured that I should ask questions here, first. I want to be able to cover my greys, and have a hint of red, but not flaming bright red. I hope it looks natural, and that the regrowth and roots isn't horrible until you do it again. I understand that it is good to buy the plain ingredients, and mix yourself? Where is a good place to begin? How do you use Henna to get sort of red hair, but natural looking and not flaming red hair? Mix with cassia or...? What do you use, to get different shades of red?

[Jane99]

My sister uses the Rainbow brand of henna and mixes it with coffee as her liquid to get a dark brown. Her hair looks great. It doesn’t flash orange in the sun which makes me think there’s indigo in it, which means she can never use conventional dye because indigo reacts.

Really there are a ton of options for mixing henna if you want to mix it yourself, but to get a particular shade is tricky because results vary because henna is more like a shade on top of your natural color than a dye replacing your natural color. So there are guidelines out there to get more auburn shades but results vary.

Before deciding you want to henna, definitely consider that it is permanent, doesn’t come out, and if you use indigo you can’t dye over it if you don’t like it. Strand test to make sure you do like it and also remember that your hair will look very different in different lights.

That being said, I also hennaed after dying my hair for the first time ever, and the smell was horrible with box dye it was like you could feel the brain cells dying with each inhale. Then the color faded so fast. I have always admired red hair and was looking into deposit shades of orange so it worked for me. I cut with cassia so it gives a coppery cast to my ashy blonde hair. Orange in the sun and different shades of coppery in other lights. It looks natural enough but I think you can tell it’s not. But I’m happy with it anyways.

I would do some googling about achieving a more auburn with henna and read up a lot on it. There is a lot of good information out there and you want to know what you’re getting into, for sure! People will mix with cassia, amla, indigo to get various shades of red/auburn.

Good luck! And I’d love to hear what you decide

[shelomit]

Henna, for what it is worth, also has a very pronounced smell--just not a chemical smell. Sort of like "LEAF" times a thousand. It remains noticeable for me for one further wash after rinsing out the henna.

Personally I actually like the smell, but some people hate it.

[Jane99]

Henna, for what it is worth, also has a very pronounced smell--just not a chemical smell. Sort of like "LEAF" times a thousand. It remains noticeable for me for one further wash after rinsing out the henna.

Personally I actually like the smell, but some people hate it.

The leafy smell of henna is so different than the chemical ether like terrible smell of breathing in chemical box dye! It smells like poison. In my opinion! I add clove powder to my henna and love the smell. The leafy smell of henna itself isn’t the best or worst for me but that clove smells so good. Like incense or christmas.

[twaitro88]

I have grown to like the smell of henna.... way better than the smell of box dye, at least!!!

and let's not even talk about the smell of a perm! *gasp*