Indigo/Henna Combo Hair Test

I probably have about four different colors in my hair if you count gray, which in my case is white and hard to cover. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I have read hennaforhair.com how-to book over and over again for the last six months, looked at pic after pic of gorgeous henna'd hair and finally taken Step One - Buy the henna.

I really wanted to buy the expensive henna and indigo - but Jamila henna cost $7.50 per 100 gms and Reshma, the henna I could afford, cost $1.50 per 100 gms. I bought three bottles of Reshma at $2.99 each for a total of 600 gms for $8.97. Jamila would have cost $45.

The indigo online was even more expensive than the online henna. At mehandi.com 100 gms of indigo costs $16.50!!! WOW! At the Indian market I got three boxes of "Black Henna" (which is pure indigo) for $3.39 each which averaged to $1.70 per 100 gms. What a difference. Plus I didn't have to wait days or pay shipping and postage which is higher than taxes sometimes.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I decided to do a hair test. I have way too much hair to practice on so I've been saving as much shedded hair as possible. I decided to use henna on half of the hair and indigo on the other half.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] This is my shedded hair before henna or indigo.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] This is the result of 100% henna. Reddish brown with gold and bright red highlights .

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] This the result of 99.9% indigo test. I like the color - it achieves the brown I'm looking for. One problem is that there was not much gray in the the indigo test hair so I don't have an idea of how the indigo is going to look on my white.

What I don't like about this mix - pretty much ALL indigo [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] which means that my hair isn't getting much henna, thus not receiving the benefits of a full-fledge 100% henna.

Oh decisions, decisions! I'll be glad when I have this figured out and find the right combination.

Update: I've decided to use 100% henna on all my hair since this is the first time applying henna to hair. Two or three days later I will follow with an indigo/henna application to tone down redness and to give hair another treatment.

Keep us posted on how this 2nd application works out for you.

I've thought about henna, but I like my black hair for now. I've had highlights for several years so keeping my hair it's natural color will be a pleasant change. I would like to cover the gray hair in the front however LOL!

Well I took Step Two - Put the henna on your hair. I used 100% henna and plan to apply indigo/henna mix later on this week. I mixed the henna with lemon juice and only let the the henna stay in for 3.5 hours and there is a small section of white that is still white. I had one little problem and that is I ran out of henna mix with a whole fourth section of my hair to do. I simply mixed some more, placed the plastic bowl in a pan of hot water and waited 30 mins and proceeded. I can't tell any difference.
I knew it was going to be a mess rinsing it out so I geared up:[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] And I'm so glad I did. I used this storage bin to dunk my hair in:
After about five of these, I applied my favorite conditioner: [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] . The conditioner really helped remove the henna. Then I applied the deep conditioner and sat in the sauna for 30 mins (15 min at a time).

It's true henna will relax your curl but I didn't have much curl anyway - more like frizzy waves. The white in my hair turned orange like I expected and the only difference I could tell was that when I was doing my twist and curl my hair felt smoother as I was twisting it. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Now I have to sit under the dryer for four hours - drying completely is the key to successful hair for me. I'll post pics of the results and try to take some pics outside in the sunlight.

I will be doing my indigo application probably on Wednesday.

First, my hair didn't dry completely in the back, a common occurence since that is thickest part. Also, I can feel that I didn't completely rinse all the henna out. Secondly, my color, except for my white, didn't change much. Thirdly, I'm ready to do applied the indigo, I want dark hair.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This pic was taken outside - kind of burgandy and still have lots of different colors

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Hi, Estiscurls in my experience with using henna's and to cover my grey hair, I applied the henna first to my hair for about 3 hours, then rinsed and immediately applied the indigo to my roots and grey areas and left that in for another 1 hour or so. I got fantastic results and great coverage. But like you it was many trials and errors before I was able to cover those pesky greys of mine [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.], HTH.

WOW! Your hair turned out great so far. I cannot wait to see the indigo result!

Thanks for the ino Maricopa. Thank you for the compliment DreamMerchant.

More in Wedsday!