Here are some simple recipes for mixing your natural hair products. Please visit www.forums.longhaircommunity.com and www.longhaircareforum.com as you will find a wealth of information, along with techniques and various recipes. You can even ask questions on their forum! Please remember when using any new hair product it is always recommended that you do hair strand tests first!
Important: Please keep in mind that everyone has their own unique hair texture. Herbal treatments can be drying for some, and it is recommended that you add hair oil to your recipe, or deep condition your hair afterwards. We recommend that everyone keep an open mind when using henna and natural herbs on their hair, and use the recipe that works best for you!
Henna, also known as lawsonia inermis
Mixing henna for healthy hair and beautiful red tones:
-Mix henna with warm water, or warm lemon juice, and allow the paste to sit from 2-12 hours (as this depends on the dye release of your henna powder chosen). Add enough liquid to make a paste the consistency of pancake batter.
-After dye release has been achieved, then apply the henna paste to your (damp or dry) hair by sections starting from the back and moving forward. Make sure you wear gloves when applying henna, as it will stain your hands.
-Wrap your hair and allow to sit from 1 to 6 hours. The longer you leave the henna in, the more dye will penetrate your hair.
-Rinse or wash the paste out.
-Your hair’s color will settle over the next 2 days.
Optional
- For redder tones you may add hibiscus or paprika.
- For browner tones you may add coffee, black tea, or even amla powder (this will tone down the red dye and give you great volume all at the same time).
- You may also try out a henna gloss. You can do this by adding some henna powder to your conditioner and let it sit in your hair for 30 minutes as a deep conditioning treatment and be able to achieve a less amount of dyeing.
- Feel free to add orange blossom water, rose water or essential oils to leave your hair smelling great!
How to store your powder: freezer.
How to store your henna paste: freezer.
Indigo, also known as indigofera tinctoria
Mixing indigo for jet-black hair:
-Follow the instructions on how to henna your hair first, then you will indigo your hair as soon as you have rinsed/washed the henna out of your hair.
-Mix indigo with warm water and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes. Add enough water to make the paste the consistency of pancake batter. Optional, add some salt (1 tsp per 100 grams of powder) to help darken the indigo or add CMC to thicken up your paste.
-Apply the indigo paste to your hair be sections starting from the back and moving forward. Make sure you wear gloves when applying indigo, as it will stain your hands.
-Wrap your hair and allow to sit for 1-2 hours.
-Rinse or wash the paste out. Some prefer to use only conditioner when washing the paste out.
-Your hair’s color will settle over the next 2 days.
-This method is called a two-step process.
How to store your powder: fridge, or cool dark place.
How to store your paste: throw leftovers away as indigo paste does not freeze or keep well.
Mixing indigo for brown hair:
-Prepare the henna paste as directed.
-Once henna is ready, mix your indigo as directed (with warm water and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes). Mix these two together. The more indigo you add the darker the brown.
-Apply the paste to your hair by sections starting from the back and moving forward. Make sure you wear gloves, as it will stain your hands.
-Wrap your hair and allow to sit for 1 to 6 hours.
-Rinse or wash your paste out
-This process is called a one-step process.
-Your hair’s color will settle over the next 2 days.
Optional: You can also add CMC (Carboxyl Methyl Cellulose) to your indigo paste as it tends to be drippy. This will thicken your paste up, and is used to thicken up store-bought salad dressing and in the making of silk paper. You only need 1 gram per 100 grams of indigo.
How to store your powder: henna in your freezer and indigo in your fridge or cool dark place
How to store your paste: throw leftovers away as the paste does not freeze or keep well.
Thank you Khadija. I’ll remember that.
Khadija,
I am almost completely gray and I was wondering if there is a way to achieve a warm dark brown using the henna and indigo. I tried the henna and indigo before and it was waaay to red for me. I loved the feel and texture it gave my hair but it just wasn’t a color I wanted. Can you help?
Hello Linda. Which specific henna and indigo have you used from us? It sounds like you just might need to use a bit more indigo to push more of those warmer brown tones.
Hi,
Question abut henna.i started using henna to control my severe hair fall every two weeks from the last 2/3 years.At that time I just had maybe couple of gray strands.But now I have almost 35 to 40 % wh hair and with using henna ,all the wh strands looks red.Could you suggest me which henna is best for controlling hair fall and also color my hair either brown or black.my natural hair color is black.thanks in advance.
Hi VV! I’d really recommend our Sukesh Ayurveda and then for color you’d like (brown to black tones) you can use our Moroccan henna, and Indigo for hair for best results.
Hi
I have seen some videos on youtube about adding Milk to the henna powder to help calming the scalp, and apparently it works for some. I have received a bag of 100% organic henna (no colour added) from Radico, and I was wondering if it safe to add milk instead of water and some paprika as I would like to have a tint of red (but not too strong – as I have never ever dyed my hair and want to make sure people would still recognize me ). What are your suggestions?
Thank you so much!, Juliana
You can use it but it may not color much unfortunately.
hi….really i need your help…i want my grey hair turn black with natural methods..i dont want to dye my hair..please help me
Did you want to dye your hair with henna and indigo being your natural alternative? It’s still considered a dye but a natural hair dye
Hello. For a blue black that takes a few extra steps and applications to deepen to that color tone. You would first color your hair using a one step with henna and indigo. Preferably a brown to dark brown recipe. Then follow up with a second step of only indigo. After a few applications and if your hair is porous you’ll achieve this tone. There is a client that we have that does love that color tone. She goes by lavendar. I can’t find her information but maybe try to use google. There is so much information but these recommendations should work really well.
I use milk often to mix, it works well and seems to release dye much quicker. It also makes it easier to apply,more smooth.
Amla works well too makes the paste more slimy but will darken henna further.
Coconut milk may reduce the henna staining as it forms an oil barrier. I find plain milk works well to mix instead of water and less smelly than yoghurt. It makes the henna glide on more smoothly.
Roshni, the above post explains it. You first have to deposit a red henna layer as a base. You then wait a few more days and add the brown/ black henna which are mixes of indigo and red henna in varying proportions. The resulting layering will give you a deep brown/ black with subtle red hues where the white hairs have taken the colour more agressively leaving the more greyer hairs dark.
Red Raj would probably be your best choice and leave it in your hair at least 3-4 hours. Let us know how it turns out.
Hi Mel. You can achieve this but it takes a bit of work and several applications. Indigo can’t be used alone but you’ll be doing a 50/50 henna and indigo coloring treatment and then followed up with indigo alone after. A few applications should start to build that blue-black tone. It takes time and it does depend if your hair is taking the color really well (like absorbing).
Hello!
I’m a little confused. So you color your hair but the greys don’t color well but you always get black hair. That would sound to me like it’s covering your grey and getting too dark?
Your hair is naturally dark brown but you keep getting black results correct? Was your hair previously colored black? If your hair is in fact black right now you can’t lighten your hair with henna and indigo to dark brown as it isn’t a chemical color treatment. It only works with your natural or current hair color.
I’m not really sure if fenugreek will moisturize the same way our aloe vera powder does sorry. We really recommend our aloe vera powder as we don’t carry fenugreek and nor have experimented with it. Sorry.
What color do your greys become then from the coloring you’ve been doing?
Hello! For sure use organic Rajasthani indian henna as that’s closer to the auburn and then add indigo yes for sure because your hair is so light to start with. The henna and indigo will bee mixed separately and then combined. I can’t say for sure if Lush will work as I can only speak on how the results work with our brand. We don’t use other brands since we carry our own line. You can do a strand test to be sure at first too before committing to all of your hair.