HENNA. THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO CHEMICAL COLOUR

 

A permanent, natural hair colour that has been around for thousands of years. This can be a messy time consuming business! You’ll need to allow a few hours to apply and allow it to work its magic.

 

Pure henna has great conditioning properties and gives wonderful natural looking permanent hair colour. It has a unique tea-like grassy smell that some not all people love. Most say they don’t mind the process as it will be doing their hair good and even get to love the ritual! The smell goes away after a day or two or you can add essential oils to the mix :)

 

You should always purchase henna in its purest form ‘Body Quality’ with no added chemicals or metallic salts. Henna can happily be used by most people although a patch test is recommended as allergies can always appear. This should be carried out 48-72 hours before use.

Not suitable for anyone who has glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) enzyme deficiency

 

How to slightly turn the colour of the henna:
You can slightly alter the final colour outcome of the henna by adding different ingredients to the mix. Remember that the basic hue will always be some form of red, but you can push this colour slightly more towards brown, golden or even redder. You can also get black by mixing henna and indigo.

 

To get more golden results: use more Cassia Obovata than henna.

To get red hair: use henna on its own.

To get brown hair: mix the henna and indigo, varying the ratio for the shade you want.

To get black hair: use henna first, then indigo.
 

There is no such thing as ‘blonde henna’ Cassia is used with henna (often called ‘non-colouring’ or 'neutral' henna although it’s a different plant entirely). When used on its own it can give subtle golden tones on white hair or natural fair heads of hair. Cassia is generally used as a conditioning treatment that thickens hair.  

 

The end colour result depends on your hair type and what colour your hair currently is. Chemical colour already in the hair will also affect the result. Usually the lighter your hair, the more intense the henna colour.

 

There are many recipes and mixes that others have used so take some time to pick up some great ideas here:

 

Henna for Hair  great for info!

 

Rennaissance Henna  great for colour mixes!