Henna hair stories....anyone?

flippin36

Hi,

Was wondering has anyone ever hennaed their hair?

Is it a good alternative to chemical colouring?

Is it moneysaving?


Lush do henna bars in 3 colours at £6.99. Anyone tried these?

jenniewb

I did this! I used Lush for red hair.

It took a day for it to get my hair coloured as it just seems to take ages to penetrate. In the end I just went out with my hair covered in what looked like mud. The colour wasn't as bright as I'd have liked it, but then I do go for the unnatural hair coloured look. My hair is naturally blonde, I wanted it pillar box red.

It didn't seem to fade much, but as I said, wasn't very bright to begin with. I had left it in for 18 hours before washing.

I did find though, that aside from being very messy, it made any follow up colouring at salons impossible- the chemicals they use in salons just cannot get through the henna and cannot stay on the hair strands, leaving a sort of half- hair colour which took a long while to grow and chop out! Be aware that if you go for henna once, you really need for it to grow out before you can go back to chemical coloring and have it work out. Salons would colour my hair and then be like "have you ever hennered your hair...?" as the new colour just wouldn't take!

alias123

I use to use henna a while ago (not Lush, its more expensive than the powder from the ethnic shops which costs only about a £1 and you mix it with either water or cold black tea). It does leave your hair in beautiful condition, but its more like a semi permanent tint rather than a permanent colour. And hairdressers will discourage use of henna particularly if you want to use chemical colour in between.

Jei70

I have been using henna on my hair for the last 4 years and I *love* it. It helped improve the condition (which was ruined with home colourants) and strengthen the hair enough to let me grow it to waist length. And I love the natural-looking auburn red it gives my naturally mousy blonde/light brown hair!

I started using Lush Caca Rouge on shoulder-length hair, the result was quite bright (certainly bright enough for my taste) but tended to fade, probably because it contains cocoa butter. After about 2-3 full length applications I switched to Body Art Quality henna (from eBay). Since then I mostly just do root applications, maybe every 6-10 weeks or so, and a £20 pack lasts me a whole year.

However, as has been said, henna is a commitment. Once it bonds with your hair it's difficult, if not impossible to remove and you can't bleach it out (the hair just becomes light orange), but you can dye it darker - or just chop the hair off! So just try a couple of test strands first, to check whether you like the colour on your hair, before going full steam ahead...

flippin36

Well I definitely won't be doing anymore chemical colouring. My hair was ruined by all the chemicals I was using, even semi permenant left loads of broken hair in the shower!!! I want to colour but not at the sacrifice of my hair condition.

jenniewb

flippin36 wrote: »

Well I definitely won't be doing anymore chemical colouring. My hair was ruined by all the chemicals I was using, even semi permenant left loads of broken hair in the shower!!! I want to colour but not at the sacrifice of my hair condition.

Am woth you there- chemical dyeing does make hair very dry- have a huge frizz problem with my hair! But think that it got massivly worse after I had it chemically lightened (they make it proper blonde first before dying it a lighter shade of red) hair was just snapping apart in the shower!

Do have to say, there are some hair products that I have tried that can help with breakage- I no longer have that issue. But the important thing to remember is that all hair is dead onces its outside of the hair folicle. You can only stop breakage/get better condition if you repeatidly use whatever products. Once you stop and you wash your hair (and the anti-whatever products out of your hair) your hair will become weak again. Its not just what you use, its how often you use it and if you are constantly using it!

NualaBuala

I'm a big fan of henna and cassia. There is lots of info on mixing up different plants/herbs to get the colour you want, you could try these for starters:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=category&categoryid=4 (Nightshade's article is excellent)
http://www.hennaforhair.com/

The main thing I'd say is - don't henna unless you're sure. It's permanent! But I don't think I'd ever want to go back to synthetic colours again.

flippin36

NualaBuala wrote: »

I'm a big fan of henna and cassia. There is lots of info on mixing up different plants/herbs to get the colour you want, you could try these for starters:

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=21
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=category&categoryid=4 (Nightshade's article is excellent)
http://www.hennaforhair.com/

The main thing I'd say is - don't henna unless you're sure. It's permanent! But I don't think I'd ever want to go back to synthetic colours again.

I love the longhaircommunity. Would recommend this website for anyone wanting to know anything about hair. They seem to particularly enthuse over natural ways of caring for hair but are not evangelical with it. :j

Fuzzy_Duck

My OH bought me the LUSH Caca Noir but after reading reviews I decided not to use it. The general consensus was that it's very messy, takes ages to colour and if you don't like the results (which the majority of people declared as very 'meh') you can't really dye it with anything but more henna. It is definitely a commitment, so unless you'd be happy to grow it out if you weren't pleased with the results I wouldn't bother.

My opinion would be if you want to try henna, don't use LUSH, as it doesn't seem to be the best. I understand it's easy to obtain but probably a good idea to order something recommended online

longhaircommunity has really helped me in the past and they are lovely people, so definitely ask for advice there first.

brixtonian

Henna Rocks!

I've been using it for years now and it's the best way to keep my hair red and healthy

and yes it is money saving! I just bought mine today and paid 80p for 4Oz- i think thats quite good value comparing it to the 6.95 for lush "caca's"!!

always try to get it in organic shops- and buy it loose! is more likely that it will be pure with no chemichals added.

Some people say their hair gets dry after using it, but that happens too when you dye your hair with other products- always good to mix it with a bit of olive oil and it wont be as bad.

good luck with your henna adventure!

joyfull

I've been using henna for years (Lush blocks).

Good tip.
I've never spent hours with the stuff plastered over my head to get it to 'dye'. I put it on the hair as prescribed, cover with a plastic bag & apply HEAT. I do this by using a hot water bottle or microwaved wheat bag & just hold it on the head on the plastic for several minutes all over.

The heat 'cooks' the henna & the colour is transferred. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes. Always works for me.

XXX