Here was a recent question by a customer. We have tried to answer it as best as we could.
Hi, I'm interested in the henna products for hair and
learning how to properly use them. I have been using the LUSH hennas for less
than a year, but they are really hard to work with.
Using henna to dye your hair is not as daunting of a task as
you may believe. It is broken down into
four simple steps. 1—get the right ingredients; 2—mix the
ingredients according to the instructions; 3—apply the paste then rinse as
directed; 4—repeat as required or
desired.
STEP 1: Get the right
ingredients
First, you have to know what ingredients you need in order
to dye your hair. Simple henna powder
mixed with lemon juice will give any hair red in it. (So if you are a blonde and going for a ginger
red, henna is the way for you.) Cassia
is the way to go if you are a natural blonde wanting to cover your grays. Mixing indigo in with henna will help tone
down the red henna tones and bring out the brown-auburn tones. You can even get jet black hair if you
correctly use henna and indigo. Refer to
our Guide to Healthy Hair to figure out what ingredients you need for your
hair.
STEP 2: mix the
ingredients according to the instructions
Let’s keep this simple.
Henna gets mixed at least 12 hours in advance with lemon juice (or warm
water/tea). Indigo, cassia and amla gets
mixed right before application with warm water.
All the powders get mixed to a thick consistency so that the application
is rich and easy.
 |
| indigo mixed with warm water |
 |
| henna mixed with lemon juice at least 12 hours before application. |
Keeping natural hair dye in your hair for as long as
possible will give you a rich, deep dye.
We recommend 4-6 hours, with overnight is the best. Conditioning treatments should stay in your
hair for at least 30 minutes. Use lots
of water to rinse out the natural hair dye, and then shampoo.
STEP 4: repeat as
required or desired
First time natural hair dye users should do the application
twice, just to make sure your whole head is covered. Experienced users can do natural hair dye
applications once a month or as required (either the whole head or just root
touch ups). Depending on how fast your
roots grow, root touch ups can be done every two weeks, or as required. Conditioning treatments can be done every
month.
Using henna, indigo, cassia and amla powder is very easy for
natural hair dye. Unlike the Lush henna
bars which you have to grate before mixing, Henna Art’s natural hair dye
powders are simple to mix with warm water or lemon juice. It requires less time to mix, and does not
make a huge mess. Remember, you can also
store your henna paste in the freezer for up to six months if you have any left
over (just henna paste).
This is all the information you really need to dye your
hair.
Below you will find the powder
equivalents to Lush henna bars. We have
tried to break it down for you so you know how many parts of each natural hair
dye powder you will need. We also
include the use of Amla powder, which helps tone down red tones from the
henna. Once you have figured out what
you need, you can read our opinion about Lush henna bars below.
MAKE THE SWITCH!
Here are the ingredient and powder equivalents for the Lush henna bars.
Caca Rouge Mama—use henna powder only mixed with lemon
juice. Add a couple drops of some
rosemary and clove essential oil if you want some of the spicy fragrance. {All
parts henna}
Caca Marron Mama—use henna powder and indigo powder. Mix the henna powder 12-24 hours before application with lemon juice and the indigo powder with warm water right before application. Mix the two pastes together and give it a stir. Then apply! The lush bars also add coffee to the mixture—which you can do as well. Increase the quantity of henna if you want more red. Increase the quantity of indigo if you want more brown. Unfortunately, you cannot adjust quantities with the pre-made henna bars. {1 part henna and 1 part indigo}
Caca Brun Mama—use indigo powder and henna powder. This bar is more for people who want a browner tone instead of red. Increase the quantity of indigo powder to give you more brown than red. {1 part henna ; 2 parts indigo; 1 part amla}
Caca Noir Mama—use indigo powder and a little bit of henna powder. This is for individuals who want dark tones {1 part henna and 4 parts indigo}
Our opinion on henna bars...
In our opinion, there are two things that raise red flags
for us with Lush henna—first, that they are pre-mixed and second that they have
a large amount of cocoa butter.
Henna and natural hair dye (including indigo and cassia),
should be mixed fresh in order to give you a dark stain. When the henna is pre-mixed, chances are that
the dye quality will be low because the mixture has gone stale. Remember, the best way to store henna paste
(and only henna paste) is to freeze it.
When stored on shelves for months on end, the dye quality goes. Don’t get us wrong here—there is nothing
wrong with pre-mixed henna, just as long as it is stored properly. Since Lush makes their henna months in
advance, you may be getting a more stale batch of the henna hair dye bars.
When mixing henna with a warm or acidic
liquid, the lawsone (dye) molecule gets released. With the pre-mixed bar, you are getting henna
that has probably gone through a dye release process, which is not the best
when you are trying to dye your hair.
Secondly, lush henna hair dyes are pretty nice to look
at. They are inspired by Russian tea
blocks and we will admit, they are gorgeous on the shelf. However, to give the henna hair dyes the
look that Lush has so beautifully created, it requires the henna to be mixed
with something that will hold shape. And
while lush has used a natural ingredient, they are using copious amounts of
cocoa butter to help the henna blocks hold their shape. Cocoa butter is nice for the hair, as it is a
natural moisturizer, but at the same time is very hard to wash out, leaving a
greasy residue. A recent reviewer of the
lush henna said:
"The blocks are very convenient and the results are convenient, which makes Lush's Caca a good choice for henna first-timers. However, the cocoa butter in this product makes it very difficult to rinse out fully and leaves a greasy residue, so you have to shampoo during the rinse-out -- which is counterproductive, since it reduces the vibrancy of the colour (you should not shampoo for two or three days afterwards, to give the colour a chance to fully develop).”
Another reason we are not a huge fan of the lush henna hair
dyes is that they are mixed with essential oils. Essential oils are the best way to get a
natural fragrance, but in our opinion, you should leave the essential oil
content to a minimum to none when using henna for hair dye. Since you are leaving the henna paste on your head for several hours, a high essential oil content may cause you a headache! Since fragrance sensitivity is
different for every person, we dislike pre-mixed henna hair dyes with essential
oils already added. We will admit that
the henna paste does smell nice, but this effect can be achieved by simply
adding a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil, instead of having to
deal with a pre-made henna hair dye bar.
Do yourself a favour… before heading over to buy a somewhat
pricey henna,($25+ for 325 grams total, including the cocoa butter), read the
reviews on Lush and consider buying just henna powder and natural dye herbs to dye your hair. You still have to do the mixing of the powder
yourself, but it is a heck of a lot easier to mix a powder with liquid than to grate, melt and mix henna bars.
DISCLAIMER: This post, and all posts are the opinions of the
writers. They are not intended to cause defamation to any individuals,
groups, corporations, businesses or companies.