New to Henna!!

The basic mixing principles are (1) Use a food-grade acidic such as citrus juice, apple cider vinegar, wine, or tea as part of your mix to help develop the color. Tea is probably the mildest of the acidics to use, with green tea being the most color-neutral tea.

(2) Be careful that the liquid you use is not too hot when you put it in. this will kill the mix. I like to use a slightly warm or room temperature liquid, and when my mix is made up to my satisfaction I put it on the back of my CRT computer monitor for a few hours.

(3) Speaking of which, you will get your best color result if you give it at least that much time for the color to release in the mix.

(4) I do this, but it is highly recommended that you don't put oil in your mix. It supposedly interferes with the coloring and conditioning effects of the henna. I don't know about the effect oil has on the conditioning, but on my blond hair I found that oil did not at all hamper the color, even after as short a time as half an hour. Plus, my hair is dry, so I feel that I benefit from putting it in. But since it is recommended that you don't then you probably shouldn't.

(5) As beneficial as it is, henna is messy! I have a specific shirt that I always put on when I'm doing it. I never wear that shirt in public. You may also want to designate a henna wardrobe, as well as investing in rubber gloves to protect your skin. Henna comes off of faces pretty well if you wash your face as soon as you have covered your henna head, but it takes days to fade from hands and arms, and I do not find that it ever comes off of unprotected fingernails. Hmmm, maybe I should get into the habit of slicking polish on before I henna! I can always remove it later . . . !

The best resource for henna on the internet, in my opinion, is hennaforhair.com. The webmistress researched the information thoroughly for her graduate degree. in addition, she is a long-time henna artist who also uses it in her hair. I highly recommend that you study the information there, visit the forum, and take a look at some of the pictures and the henna mixes used by various people. You'll find more information than you thought you needed to know, and every bit of it is useful. Don't be thrown off by hair types and textures; the thinks you most want to know are pretty much applicable across the board.

hello, looking to do the cassia henna for conditioning, any advise on the mix and how to get rid of smell?
thanks

I, too, am put off by the smell of henna, Jamila in particular is very strong to me. With my last henna session, I used Henna for African Hair (from mehandi.com) and it didn't smell as strong as the Jamila. Besides, I learned from the mehandi site that you can add things to henna to cut the smell; spices such as cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, etc. It worked for me! In addition, I henna overnight so that I don't have to deal with the smell as much! I usually put the henna in my hair at around 7 or 8 pm, then I rinse it out and DC the next morning (usually on a Sat/Sun) when I wake up. That's at least 12 hours right there! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Cassia does not require the time for color release that henna does. This means that if you use it alone, you don't have to wait as long after mixing to use it. The few times in the past that I used it, I mixed the dry cassia and henna together and proceeded the way I would with just henna. The same go-to site I would recommend for learning about henna also has instructions on how to mix cassia, but you'll have to look for them. Check hennaforhair.com.

I want to start doing Henna. Was on the mehandi website and ther are quite a few choices of Henna. How do you know which one to choose?

The Henna for African Hair is a super sifted henna which means it mixes up well for a smooth application and rinses out well, which is very important for curlies. Jamila is super sifted, too, but the smell is too strong for me. They give descriptions as which crop it came from and the color uptake results; some reds are deeper than others.

Im so excited. I just ordered my henna, and Im sure it will arrive in a few days. Not sure when I will do my first treatment, but it'll probably be within the next week or 2...im thinking maybe next weekend, when I'll have time! In the meantime, I would welcome any advice from all you henna experts! It seems to be awesome for everyone, so I figured I would give it a try!

Natural83

krenea wrote:The Henna for African Hair is a super sifted henna which means it mixes up well for a smooth application and rinses out well, which is very important for curlies. Jamila is super sifted, too, but the smell is too strong for me. They give descriptions as which crop it came from and the color uptake results; some reds are deeper than others.

ooo thank you!! i may look into that new henna cuz the smell of that Jamilla makes me cringe! i dont know how u ladies do it overnight...i woke up at 4am to wash it out (couldnt take it any more!)and my husband was on the verge of divorcing me ;cuz of the smell....

Henna is so safe that you can use it over precolored hair, even if it's the next day. It's so safe and natural that theoretically, you could henna everyday if you wanted to!

Ok... Now I know why it didn't work...

I bough some henna color powder stuff in a box... and OMG... It dried my hair out so bad I left my DC in for two day just to get my poor curls to do anything again. I have fine 3C hair and was devastated and swore it off and thought it was EVIL...

LOL... A friend of mine who is a Redken hair specialist also told me Henna is not for everyone and warned me before trying it again... I read all of these awesoem results from conditioning with Henna and I want to try it the right way....

Hennaforhair.com...CHECK.

I just got my 500g of Henna for African Hair in the mail, along with a Lotus/Ylang-ylang Mehandi Shampoo Bar! I'm sooo excited to use the shampoo bar, y'all! I've never used a shampoo bar before, but CurlyNikki does, so I thought I'd try it! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] I love getting my shipments in the mail. It feels like Christmas everytime! Also, my daughter's teacher is now sold on henna. She's in her 50's and has natural hair that's long, but thin from years of wearing braids, so she wears a wig everyday. I told her that I'd start henna-ing her hair for her so that her hair can thicken up, get stronger, and maybe then she can ditch the wig!

Henna, being a plant, only comes in one color...Red. There's a great ebook that tells you everything you could ever want to know about henna: http://www.hennaforhair.com/freebooks/

GREAT THANKS!!!!

I ordered my Henna late Sunday night, and it has already shipped and should be here on Saturday! Yayyyy! Im sooo excited. I have a quick question...I plan to mix with green tea & honey. Is there a particular brand of green tea that I should be using, or is just any green tea good to use? Just curious!

Lioness_Mane wrote:quick question, after my BC in early Oct 09 I colored my hair. I recently learned about henna and I want to try it. Can I use it or do I have to wait for a while?? [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Depending on the color you dyed your hair, you may want to wait on the henna. I've heard that you could possibly turn your hair green or another color that you weren't bargaining for. They have more info about it on www.hennaforhair.com

Cassia may be a better option until your color grows out.

Hi Ladies,

I just put some henna in my hair the Jamila, but I used 4 boxes and had a lot left over. I left the remaining mix in the container in my car for about two hours and just now put it in the freezer. It was not to hot outside. It's actually very windy today. Do you think it is still safe to reuse? Thanks

Hi ladies I have a similiar question. I bought the same henna but haven't used it yet should I place that in the freezer or just leave it unopended in the box?


Thanks!!