There are so many different henna powders, how do we choose the one that will work best for us?
There are a few things that are a must when choosing any henna powder:
–Fresh. You must always buy fresh henna powder. If you want a great stain, don’t just grab henna off the shelf (since who knows how long it may have been sitting there) Even from crop to crop you will notice that the freshest henna powder gives the best stain results. After all, doesn’t a chef use the freshest ingredients in the preparation of our meals?
–Body Art Quality. This means that the henna powder is the best quality since they take the leaves from the top of the plant with the most dye content. It also means that it is 100% pure and natural. This term is usually used to describe henna that is also used for body art.
(Please remember that not EVERY henna powder nor herb is body art quality. Ask yourself this: Is this henna powder or herb used as a body art product or really for hair usage? This term is sometimes only used for marketing purposes. Always be well informed.)
–Finely Sifted. None of that dirt, grit, sand, nor sticks help with getting a great staining henna paste. Even if you try to sift it yourself, you lose most of the henna powder you purchased.
–Pure. Must contain no pesticides or chemicals. No PPD nor any other powders or ingredients. Only get 100% pure henna powder.
Now that we have the basics down, now comes the individual henna powders.
Ultimately the highest dyeing henna powder on the market. For both henna for hair clients, and henna artists, by far the best choice of all henna powders for those wanting gorgeous red tones, grey coverage and long lasting henna body art tattoos. This organically certified henna powder is ready to use within 3-4 hours.
Khadija’s personal favorite: Supreme Blend Henna Powder
This henna powder blend was created by Khadija herself bringing the best henna powders together for a creamy, smooth, yet flowy henna paste. She uses this henna powder on all of her clients. We love this powder especially for body art temporary henna tattoos. Can be used on hair as well. Dye release is only 3-4 hours.
Jamila Henna Powder 
Jamila henna powder yields great stains results and comes conveniently packaged in 100 grams foil packages in sealed boxes (when it is stamped with summer crop for body art usage, and is also used for hair). As of more recently dye release is only 8-12 hours for body art tattoos, and 3-4 hours for use on hair, before ready to use. It is a reliable henna powder, but not great if you need henna quick. It has the ultimate best sift of ANY henna powder. It is very popular amonst professional henna artists, and for hair dyeing. It washes out of the hair very easily, and the texture pf the paste is similar to melted chocolate. It yields deep reddish-brown tones for body art and for hair orange-red tones. This henna comes from Pakistan.
Please read our more detailed article on Jamila henna powder.
Organic Rajasthani Indian Henna Powder
In ever increasing popularity, the organic indian henna powder from the Rajasthani Region, is very well balanced. You get dye release in 8-12 hours for body art. So you can start a batch in the morning and have it ready by the evening. The stains results are some of the darkest I have ever seen. Typically reddish tones (burgundy/mahogany) and sometimes near cherry black on skin. For hair it yields a reddish-burgundy tone. For hair usage, this powder we recommend you allow it to sit from 3-4 hours, and then apply onto your hair. It is triple sifted and through nylon cloth. On lighter hair it may come out more orange-copper toned.
Yemeni Henna Powder
Note: Sadly this has been out of stock for quite some time due to political issues within Yemen. Our yemeni henna powder comes from the Sana’a region. It takes 8-12 hours to achieve dye release for body art. For hair, we recommend you allow this henna powder to sit from 3-4 hours before applying it. It is well known for being one of the stringy hennas. This henna powder is now much better sifted (since the 2009 crop), since the company has upgraded its henna processing facilities. Now many more henna artists are using this henna powder. It is absolutely one of the most popular henna powders for hair dyeing, and covers grey very well. It gives the most gorgeous, deep red tones of any other henna powder currently.
A very popular henna powder for both body art and hair, this henna is found in the Western Sahara. It has the quickest dye release. It is best to let this henna sit at least 2-6 hours for body art. For hair usage, only allow to sit for a maximum of 1 to 2 hours and then apply it. The dye can demise quickly if left out too long. It’s not a good henna to freeze as a henna paste. It is also a stringy henna. It has great color, usually very bright and becomes quite dark suddenly (on skin). We usually recommend this henna powder for achieving brown to black tones along with indigo, when used in hair dyeing because the least amount of red tones will show through on your hair. We recommend it because it has a fast dye release, and alone on hair it gives orange to red tones.
We do hope that this guide has been helpful to you, please let us know if you have any concerns or further questions by contacting us directly at info@hennasooq.com. Please shop with us online at : Henna Sooq
Thank you for your post Adriana. Please read this article
https://hennablogspot.com/how-to-use-henna-and-indigo-to-naturally-dye-your-hair-reddish-to-brown-to-black-tones/
I’d recommend you use 60% indigo and 40% henna in your recipe. I hope this helps!
my hair is black with about 20 percent grey i want to cover the grey and use henna and indigo please tell me how to mix to cover this grey i hate it.
Thank you Gail for your message!
Read this blog post as it has the instructions on how to use henna and indigo to cover grey: https://hennablogspot.com/how-to-use-henna-and-indigo-to-naturally-dye-your-hair-reddish-to-brown-to-black-tones/
I have a question about different hair textures. What would you recommend for natural hair (Afro-American) without perms or chemically treated. I’ve been natural for 5 years now. My hair is hard to color. Most times it only takes the root of my hair. I know that all hennas are not created equal. I’ve been using Bigen for a number of years now. My husband and I use it to cover the gray and I’m happy with it, but I wish to have another color besides dark brown.
Thanks for your post Rhonda.
What other tones would you like? If you use henna then that would cover your grey but give you reddish tones too, especially yemeni henna powder. Why not get a few samples from our site and do hair strand tests and see if the results come out as you might like? Let us know!
Hi Khadija-
I tried doing a 2 step process with Moroccan Henna and Indigo to dye my Mother’s hair Blue-Black, but it didn’t come out well. Her hair is already naturally black but it still came out Bright Red in the front and on her scalp. I left the Henna on four 6 hours and 3 hours for the Indigo. The only thing it did was cover up hey Grey Hairs and help stop her shedding.
I haven’t tried this on my hair yet, because I wanted to test it on someone else first who already had Black hair. I was under the impression that Moroccan Henna didn’t give off Red Tones, but her hair was screaming Red. We waited 1 week and the Red never faded. I have since gone over her hair with a Black Semi-permanent to get back the Blue-Back color she initially wanted.
Now my hair is a Medium to Light brown naturally, so I’m Hesitant to try this 2 step Henna Process, for fear that my hair will come out even redder than my Mother’s. I have only used Cassia from you, and was completely satisfied with the results. But, I’m not sure on using Henna and Indigo. Do you know what went wrong??
I am glad the cassia worked well for you, but really sorry to hear about the moroccan henna with indigo. Any henna is reddish toned or orangeish toned on hair, but when blending moroccan with indigo it does create nice brown to black tones easily without red.
Something must have gone wrong with the indigo.
Can you go over how you mixed the indigo?
We’ll speak soon!
I mixed the Indigo with water and a teaspoon of salt as recommended.
I need a bit more details on how you did it. How much time for dye release and did you do this recipe as a two step to achieve black tones? Was the grey/red areas saturated with indigo?
It’s supposed to be a pinch of salt for the indigo not usually a tsp. It may have been too much unless you used at least 100 or more grams of indigo.
Let’s see what happened 🙂
Salam, I am looking for Henna powder for body art. I’m not sure which powder to get. I love when Henna stain color is a deep red and really dark, but I am not a big fan of the so dark it’s almost black look, but I also don’t like the orangey looks very much.
Which powder would you recommend?
Assalaamu Alaikum Ali, thanks for your post.
I’d really recommend you try either Jamila henna powder or Rajasthani Indian henna.
Also Moroccan henna is very nice as well, as we recently did a few more samples with it for body art, and it has a very fast dye release.
I hope this helps!
PS You’ll have to make sure to strain it as well when it’s a paste so it becomes very smooth. We’ll make a video on that soon!
That’s what I did, I added 1 teaspoon of salt because I used 100grams of Indigo. I did a 2 step process to achieve Black Tones. I allowed the proper amount of time for Dye Release for both… 1 hour for the Moroccan Henna and 10-15 minutes for the Indigo after mixing it with warm water.
Oh no! really? She may have needed a second application. Was there ANY black coverage anywhere on her hair? Or just along the edges?
The dye release color should have looked like this for indigo:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b351/Waboosia/Indigo2.jpg
Does this help at all? Did it look like that?
There was Black Coverage and it did cover all the Gray as well. It’s just that the front Halo portion & edges of her hair remained Bright Red and wherever you parted her scalp was Bright Red as well and Yes, the picture you provided was how the Indigo looked after Dye release.
Morning Laq!
IN general the edges of greys can be tough spots, they may have needed another full indigo application. That’s what I would have recommended, and the salt then shouldn’t have been the issue, just sometimes for the first time it needs to get used to being on the hair and sticking well.
Just erally saturate those egdes and put indigo into the henna too to make sure the henna is dark to begin with and use that to do root touch ups. I hope this helps!
Ok…I see
I think I scared my Mother away from trying again. She’s old school and doesn’t like a lot of fuss when it comes to hair, so she’s going to stick to her regular semi-permanents.
But this experience is NOT going to scare me away from trying with my own hair. With that being said, I think I will try it out for myself this Spring/Summer since my natural hair is in Braids atthe moment.
I just have a few more questions before I male the Hanna/Indigo Plunge:
1. If I mix 100g of Moroccan Henna with 100g of Organic Indigo, and then after leaving this mixture in my hair for 6 hours, do a 2 step by applying a separate application of Indigo by itself, will this ensure that I get a Deeper Black Result without ANY Red Tones at all?
2. What would happen, if I did a 2 step, where I used Cassia 1st and then Indigo after? What would the result be? (Just a reminder- My hair is Naturally Medium Brown)
Hi,
I purchased some yemeni henna powder in Aug 09 and I never put it in the freezer (it’s unopened). Is that okay? Will henna lose some of its potency or dye quality if its not placed in the freezer for several months? Thanks.
Thanks for your post Micky. If you’re henna was kept in a damp location in the sun/light then it could loose potency, but I’d recommend you do a paste test to see if the color is good. Here’s how to test it for dye release:
https://hennablogspot.com/testing-your-henna-paste-for-dye-release/
If you kept it in a cool, dark place it should still be good 🙂
Hi Khadija!
I just have a few more questions before I take the Henna/Indigo Plunge:
1. If I mix 100g of Moroccan Henna with 100g of Organic Indigo, and then after leaving this mixture in my hair for 6 hours, do a 2 step by applying a separate application of Indigo by itself, will this ensure that I get a Deeper Black Result without ANY Red Tones at all?
2. What would happen, if I did a 2 step, where I used Cassia 1st and then Indigo after? What would the result be? (Just a reminder- My hair is Naturally Medium Brown)
Laq, yes for number 1, yes this would really give a deep black tone, asbolutely, and there should be no red coming through (here’s to hoping no awful tough greys though). Have you ever been to http://www.longhaircareforum.com
Well cassia isnt as long lasting as henna is so there isn’t a lot of people doing the recipe that way as it might come out more purplei-ish toned since there is no red base in there, like the henna gives. So I’d really rather you use the henna along with the indigo for best, black results. Just in case. I hope this helps!
Hello.
I’m about to return to using henna but before when I used henna I was starting off with dark brown, this time I am starting off with bright-dark red hair (semi-permanent Manic Panic type dye but in an orange/red color). I want to use to henna to repair damage but also to keep a more permanent color. Which henna would you prefer for a *Natural* intense redhead color like this http://blogs.glam.com/glamblush/files/2008/12/coco-rocha-red-hair.jpg or http://th01.deviantart.net/fs19/300W/i/2007/244/9/9/Red_Hair_by_krene.jpg
I’m looking for a bright warm red vs a bright cool red.
Thanks!
Peace through the Divine,
As a hair stylist for 30 years, after retirement I decided it was my turn to have my pampering and chose to use to have the works about every 3 weeks at a salon. Even though this cost me AND sometimes did not yield results, at least I was able to cover the grey that was becoming WHITE. The peroxide and the color they used, covered the grey, but damaged my hair and made it a little frizzy. I was going for a color that was hard to get…a redwood color or maybe black cherry when my cousin started putting henna on my hair; she said the non-peroxide ‘natural’ hair dyes were not going to give me the results I wanted.
I finally got the black cherry color I’d always wanted. HHenna also makes my hair shiny and brings out the natual wave without the frizz. Now, after five months my hair is down past my shoulders and in great condition. This is the first time in many years that I have been able to grow it, style it, and achieve the lenghth I like.
I am using half indigo and different hennas from the Sooq. We have tried 4 other sources and Sooq henna is fresh- it has wonderful properties of a gel and a pudding texture, gives instant color reaction on the hand before curing. There is somsthing also very calming about the henna. The amla is also calming and cooling for a facial I make with a little water honey, yogurt, and orange powder.
I will continue ordering from Sooq as it is by far closest to what I expect of dear henna.
Sue thank you for such moving comments. I feel exactly the same way about henna too! Keep well
Hi,
Two months ago I colored my dark/med brown curly shoulder length hair to a dark golden blonde. My roots are growing out and I don’t want to use chemical dye anymore. If I try 40% henna and 60% indigo with alma on my entire hair, will it match my med dark brown roots to my dark blonde chemically dyed hair? Which Henna is best for curly hair and for the color I want? My roots are med/dark brown with a few blonde highlights.
Thanks
Thanks for your message!
That is a very good recipe for you, and for curly hair yes amla in your recipe is a must if you want to keep your curls, as henna can loosen curls for some.
Amla also promotes hair growth, and toness down the red of henna further.
If your blond tones are not colored thoroughly the first time, you may need to do a second application, as light dyed hairs can be a little tough to bring the color back around to the natural hair tone. It just takes a second application for some. But this would be a great start!
Thanks for replying. I’ll buy enough henna/indigo/Alma for two applications in case it doesn’t take the fist time to my colored hair. Which henna do you recommend for curly/colored hair? I read about the Moroccan henna being best for going brunette but I also read that it’s stringy. Does that mean it would be difficult to apply to my curly delicate hair?
Actually yemeni is very stringy this year and moroccan hasn’t been as stringy. The least stringy henna powders for 2009 crops that are mainly in stock at this time as 2010 haven’t come out yet, would be jamila and moroccan henna powder. I’d choose between those two.
Applying onto damp hair makes it go on easier.
Those would also be easier to wash out. The easier it is to wash out, the easier then for curly hair, in my opinion.
Sorry if this question is repeated. Do you recommend the Jamila, Indian or Yemeni henna for more deeper red tones (close to like black cherry) on dark hair? I’m trying to avoid the hennas that give off the more orange/coppery tones. I would love to place an order since I’ve heard such great things about your henna. =)
Thanks for your post!
I really recommend yemeni henna powder for the deepest red tones. I love it for that reason. I have tried all of the henna powders we have over the years, and yemeni is stuck on my hair regimen. That would be my suggestion! We do have a discount for forum members as well? Which forum are you on? It’s for 10% off
Thanks for your quick response. Reading the description I thought Yemeni was the winner, thanks for confirming. 🙂
I’m with Natural Sunshine, http://naturalsunshine.ning.com/
I’m a member of a group called “Henna Hunnies”. Your site is listed for recommended online purchase. 😉
Welcome!!
Would I be able to offer those members a special discount? Or does someone else have to approve it and add it? I would offer an exclusive discount apart from the usual ones.
Henna Hunnies, that is so cute!!
I can post the info in the group to make it available to them. That would be awesome! Thanks so much. 🙂
Okay that would be great since it’s exclusive, could you email me directly at hennasooq@gmail.com?
Is it possible to mix the Jamila and Moroccan henna together and then follow it with indigo to get a coverage for grey hair that you want to turn brown?
The only issue there could be with Jamila and Moroccan mixed together is the higher chance that the moroccan henna will demise, as it has the shortest life and quickest dye release of all henna powders, and Jamila has the longest. So it might happen that the moroccan will just demise as you wait. Unless you mix the jamila first and then wait for dye release, and THEN mix and add the moroccan henna. This could work well.
But usually you can choose 1 henna powder and use indigo along with it to get brown tones. It’s 50/50 of each for brown tones.
I have ordered from your site previously and think I tried the yemeni and indigo. The yemeni was reaaaaally red and the indigo did cover it up but not as much as I would have liked. I made the mistake of using the ENTIRE bag of henna, and only have some indigo left. SO, I’m happy to purchase another kit or 2 and maybe alternate between the Jamila and the Moroccan. I have a lot of grey roots to cover.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.
Anytime you’re welcome. Yemeni is very vibrant 🙂
hello. i am interested in trying the rajasthani. My hair is naturally drk brn and I do have some color on th ends that are kind of brn/red. What color reluts should that give me. Also when is the paprika added and how much should be used? I heard it kicks up the color. (do u have any info on the ayur rajasthani.. my sister has some but I told her not to use it)
I don’t know of any rajasthani name brands from other companies, sorry. If you want a lot of red to come out, I’d recommend you try yemeni henna powder. Rajasthani henna is pretty good as well and can eventually push up to burgundy tones.
Hi,
I have dark black hair. I have a very kinky texture hair (if youre familiar with hair types, I’m 4b) and I would like to get a translucent yet noticeable red tint on my hair. Is that possible and if so which henna should I use. I just got some jamila henna for the first time and I plan on using it in the next few days but I am still in search of some powerful henna. I know it won’t lighten my hair but I would like it to bring out my natural red undertones that are already in my hair
Thanks for your post Courtney. If you have natural red undertones that is really great. Jamila is a good choice and washes out really well, so give that a shot. But Yemeni is a richer more vibrant red, so if you want to ever try a more powerful henna powder then yemeni is your choice for a rich red.
Helleo,
i need your help please to choose the right products. My hair is almost 50% grey hair and i use color every 2 or 3 weeks. So now i want use your products to give it a try. my original hair is black.So I’m waiting for your response please as soon as possibe.
Naima from Montreal
Hello Naima Thank you for your post. You didn’t say what color you’d want to dye your hair? Would you like it to be black or reddish brown to more brown. Please let us know. Thank you!
Thank you. I will try the Yemeni next
Welcome Courtney!
Hi again!
Ok so I don’t want to miss out on the sale so I hope you can answer this in time. I am interested in the Yemeni but in the description it says its “stringy”. I’m not really sure if that refers to the sift having bits of twigs in it or if its hard to mix, but I have very kinky hair and I don’t want to put in something that’s gonna be too hard to wash out. I tried the Jamila the other day and it was so easy to rinse out, but I really would like to try to see if I could get a more noticeable color tint from the Yemeni. Will stringy henna go on to the hair smooth? Is it harder to mix? Whats the deal with Yemeni henna being stringy?
Hi Courtney!
Jamila baq, summer crop 2009, is very easy to wash out. Stringy means that the texture of yemeni henna powder is liek mozarella. Jamila is more creamy. The stringiness is fine, as I use it, but washing out is descent but a touch fibery. I hope this helps!
Hi,
if I dye my hair black with indigo and henna, the indigo fades over time right? After a few weeks can I apply the indigo again without the henna, since the henna is already there, or will it turn my hair a blue shade?