How do you use Henna?

I would like to try Henna, but I am a little behind time on using it. Can anyone give me a short break down on how to use it?

I use it every 2 weeks. It is a great conditioner and also covers my grey rather well. It turns my hair an auburn where there is grey. So, it looks like I have highlights. I mix mine with a plain greek yogurt and let it sit overnight. The yogurt gives it a creamy texture like a perm so it makes for easier application. I am sure you will get more replies but this is what it does for me.

I did my first henna a week ago after lots of online research and talking with a lady at the Indian salon where I get my eyebrows treaded. I found CurlyNikki's pictorial to be extremely useful as well as www.hennaforhair. I also found a vid on youtube that I really enjoyed. If you are interested here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szgyv0535zs&feature=fvsr

For my recipe, I kind of used a blend of CurlyNikki's recipe and the recipe from the vid on youtube. I did find lots of different information about recipes, specifically the importance or relavence of adding oils and other ingredients to the henna mix and ultimately, I had to make my own judgement call as to what I wanted to do. Catherine, at hennaforhair.com says it is not necessary to add anything to your henna except lemon juice, tea, or something acidic to aid in the dye release of the henna; however, I found several recipes that had EVOO, peanut oil, castor oil, egg, and other conditioning ingredients. I decided since I was doing the henna treatment primarily for the the conditioning properties and not so much for coloring that I would go ahead and add some of the ingredients that would help condition and hopefully strengthen my hair.

So this is my recipe:
400 grams of henna
( I did not know how much I would need and this was quite a lot, but my hair is extremely thick. I had about 1/4 left over)
6 teas bags brewed with 3 cups water
(I used some cinnamon tea that I purchased awhile back and did not like and figured the cinnamon would make a good fragrance)
1/4 cup of EVOO
1/4 Apple cider vinegar
(This is why I added fragrance...yuk it smells!)
1 egg
1 cup extra water
(it was too thick, so I added more water next time I will make more tea)
4 or 5 drops Tea Tree EO
(more fragrance)

I let it sit overnight (which turned into two days because I got lazy taking out some braids from a previous style...), but after leaving to set overnight, I did refrigerate it until I was ready to use it. I left it on for over twelve hours

SN: I wanted to try the henna that CurlyNikki used in her pictorial, it is also sold at hennaforhair (Jamilla) but I didn't want to wait for shipping, so I found some at my local Indian Market. I did use 100% henna (I hear it is very important that you make sure what you are using is 100% and Body Art Quality is the best) All in all, I am pleased with the results, my hair seems to be softer and is supper shiny! This is only my first go at it but I plan on doing a full treatment every month. And with my leftovers, I plan on doing a henna gloss next week by mixing my henna (which I froze) and a bottle of conditioner. I have read some posts about this and I want to try it as well!

Hope this can help you! Good luck!
Blessings

Thanks chicas, Is Henna protein based?

I have read that henna is not a protein but somehow acts like a protein and binds to the keratin in the hair, making your hair stronger. I read this in many articles online. Other than my single experience and the articles and info I have read online, I cannot tell you much more than that. Here are a couple of links you may read, if you haven't already:

CurlyNikki's, I'm a Henna Head
http://www.curlynikki.com/2008/10/im-henna-head.html

Catherine Cartwright-Jones of Henna for Hair Free Online Ebook
http://www.hennaforhair.com/freebooks/

Both of these contain a lot of info and helped me out tremedously.

Again, hope this helps.
Blessings