Hair Tip of the Day

I recently received an email inquiry from a gorgeous curly trying desperately to cover her resistant gray hairs with Henna. She had already completed three applications, but was still unsuccessful at toning down the orange.

I have a few grays myself, but they’re now auburn due to a year’s worth of henna applications. I never payed much attention to them because they’re underneath the top layer of my hair– so, I have no idea how many treatments it took before they went deep auburn.

Needless to say, I’m not very familiar with the countless Henna mixes that people use to yield darker, richer reds and browns. I use Jamila Henna, and that’s it 😀

After searching hennaforhair.com for a while, I came across several responses that I thought would help her out. They did, so I’m now sharing the best one with you gorgeous gals as well!

Apparently, one way to cover grays, is to employ a two step process:

“The first step is just henna to get the grays covered, and the second step is some mix of henna, indigo and cassia in differing amounts based on which shade you choose. The second step tones the orange down. They say in the small print that you must see a color change in your hair in part 1 before you go on to part 2. So, you strand test to see how long you need to leave step 1 on to achieve a color change on the resistant grays. The two step process does allow great flexibility and wonderful gray coverage. “

Word on the street is that Yemen Henna and Jamila Henna yield the richest reds (darker shades, as opposed to coppery tones). Several applications of one of these two should give you the results you want, assuming you want red highlights. Remember that it takes several days for the color to oxidize! By day 3, that red that you thought was too loud or bold, may be just right. So if you want to stick with just Henna, try Yemen or Jamila before venturing out to the amla/cassia/indigo mixes.

As always with natural hair, it’s all about trial and error. Find something that works for you, and stick to it.

~~Need Some Mixing Guidance?~~