Whenever I wash my hair it is unbearably dry from about the middle of my head down. I have heard that hennaing your hair can make it dry for a first couple rinses but mine seems to have been that way for a while now. I was wondering if there is anything I can do to make it smooth because it is difficult to brush out without a leave in conditioner. Also, I am thinking of doing another all over henna application and wondering if this would make the issue worse.
Thanks!
What did you use as your acid? Something strong like lemon juice? If so, that may be the cause. My hair HATED lemon juice. It caused my hair to dry out and be a tangled mess for weeks afterwards.
I would suggest a deep moisture treatment... something like coconut oil left in over night, rinsed out in the morning, or honey and conditioner left in for as long as you can stand (at least an hour, its drippy and sticky). This really should help.
Yes I used lemon juice!! What would be a safer acid? Vinegar? What did you use?
I used pomegranite Tea and my hair did really good with it. Not dry at all :)
Vinegar makes henna smell horrible.
I personally use tea - any acidic tea will use. Pomegranate, chamomile, black, green, zinger, hibiscus, or any citrus based like orange or mango. I normally use chamomile, but due to a flub I ended up using mango passionfruit and it worked wonderfully.
You want to make it strong 3 packets for every cup of water. 200 grams needs about 3.5 cups of water. Brew for an hour or till room temp. Tea should be room temp or a little warmer - never hot, never boiling.
You will get dye release in about 1 - 4 hours, depending on the tea's temp and the room's temp you leave it in to dye release.
Hey thanks so much! Hopefully I will have a perfect henna experience this time ;]
I've been liking apple juice in my mix lately. No itchy scalp, no dry hair, but enough acidity to get the job done. Coffee is actually a perfect pH too, but you DO absorb the caffein through your scalp. YIKES!
IMy hair was a bit dry,too from my first henna treatment but it got back to normal within a week with conditioning. I used pure lemon juice & didn't dilute it & I think that may've been the problem. I'm about to touch up my edges & have some henna frozen in the freezer left over from my 100g henna/indigo Ancient Sunrise kit for black hair. How much indigo should I use? How many grams? Do I still have to wrap my whole head in plastic both times? Since I want to avoid dryness should I try using apple juice this time & if so,how much & do I have to dilute it at all?
If you have 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of roots, I'd prepare about 25 or 50 gm of powder respectively. Apple juice undiluted for the henna is fine.
You have to wrap airtight wherever you have applied paste on your head (especially important for indigo - it won't work well at all if it's left uncovered). If that's your whole head, then you wrap your whole head. If you have length hanging down your back that is not going to get paste on it, you can leave that hair out of the plastic wrap/shower cap.
I'm dyeing my hair black. Do I also use the same amount of indigo? Is there anything special I have to do with the frozen henna before using it, or do I just let it thaw naturally on its own & then apply it? I'm gonna try apple juice this time,too.
So far I'm loving what henna's done for my hair. My super soft 4a/b hair at the nape was
breaking & not growing out. Now,thanks to henna making it stronger & my using that sulphur smelling MTG treatment ,it's growing in nicely & can now be put in small flat twists!
Yes, you use the same amount of indigo. If you need 200 grams of henna, you need 200 grams of indigo. Remember you need to apply thei ndigo AFTER you apply and rinse out the henna (no conditioner). An hour will do just fine for indigo. You will get pitch black.
You just need to let the henna thaw. You can let it thaw at room temp (which is fine if its mushed flat), or in a pan of baby bath warm water (recommended if you froze it in a block (which we never recommend doing)). Remember to test for dye release on thawing. If you dont get much color, let it sit an hour.
How do you check for dye release? I saw something in another post about using a white napkin to test it & if you get orange/red color it's OK. Is that right? I might just let it sit for ano houyr anyway just to be sure.
To check for henna dye release, put a little blob on your palm for 5 minutes - if it stains a definite orange color, it's ready. If it's pale orange let it sit a bit longer.
Using a napkin is sometimes a good way to know if you need to test, but not as an actual test. One time I put it over the saran wrap as my henna dye released. I got a faint orange stain and checked it. Had dye release.
But just recently I mixed up a small batch to color my nails with and froze it cause I had mixed it late at night and didnt want to sit up late again. Next day while it was thawing (in a ziplock bag, mushed flat), I had a napkin around it. Roughly an hour after it had thawed, I tested for dye release. Had great dye release, but no stain on the napkin. Could be that the bag was too thick, or something else, dont know.
The only sure fire way to test for dye release is to put some on your palm. The palm takes the dye the best and gives you a solid, reliable test.
I have some questions onthe subject of acidity and dye release, I hope it's okay to jump in on this thread. Now I mixed my henna with strong Rasberry Zinger and a splash of cran/apple juice and got dye release in just over an hour. Does that mean I didn't get good dye release? I remember reading that you want a longer dye release time or you might not get as good of a color or that it might not be as permanent. It has been 3 days since I used henna and my color started out very bright and is now darkening to a lovely shade. I also got excellent grey coverage so it seems to me that there was plenty of dye releasing but I'm really hoping my color wont fade!! Can any of you wonderful ladies help me out?
Your color should be fine, dont worry.
If its not broke don't fix it! Now if your hair had come out coppery, with poor gray coverage, then didn't darken -then I'd be worried and suggest something more acidic.
The slower dye is released, the longer it stays viable. In other words, henna paste that dye released within a few hours won't stay active as long as one that took a day to do do so. No big deal if you had plenty of dye uptake. If you didn't you'd want to take steps to make certain that the dye remained active the whole time it was on your head.
Henna is fairly permanent unless you use boiling water. Hair dyed with an acidic henna mix will darken almost indefinitely. What you've done is somewhere between!
Okay! Thanks again! You guys rock!
My hair became very dry after using Henna too. I went out and bought Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle shampoo and conditioner. Its very moisturizing to my hair and now I can comb thru my hair again.
Something else to remember, folks, is that not every one's hair agrees with plant dyes. Instead of it becoming soft, strong and what not, it can become dry and brittle. Most reports of this come from cassia, but I imagine the same can easily happen with henna. And it may not happen the first time, it may happen a few times down the road.
I hope it's ok that i am adding to this thread. I have also had the same problem of getting very dry hair. I have been using henna for alsmost two years now, and everytime my hair comes out dry. I have to use a lot of conditioner to make my hair brushable. Usually, I use chamomile tea with henna and add some honey to it. I have even tried adding castor oil to my henna mix, however, my hair still comes out dry. I love the way henna dyes my hair and I also like that it is all natural and want to keep using it. Does anyone have any ideas, if there is something i may do to henna that will restore moisture to my hair. I will appreciate any advice.
P.S. I buy all my henna from this site.
If you are not covering gray and your hair takes dye easily, you could try adding olive oil, perhaps 1 Tbsp per 100 gm henna. This is not "best practice" for getting good gray coverage, or for achieving the best dye uptake, but some people do it because they feel their hair benefits by it. Better practice for good dye uptake would be to do the henna, rinse it out, and then do a deep conditioning treatment of your choice, cover and leave in for hours if desired.
You can add a tablespoon of honey to your henna for more moisture without impairing dye uptake.
Some people who don't have a problem with uptake on gray hair use yogurt in their henna paste, or prefer to do henna glosses (henna paste mixed with conditioner, for example).
Castor oil is considered more drying than many other oils. Try olive oil instead and see if you see a difference.
Also try using a dab of shea butter applied to damp hair after washing for added softness and slip.
I too have the same issue. I hennaed last Saturday with 100 gr.cassia/50 gr. Purity henna/50 gr. buxus and the color results are very good, with lots of compliments on my new hair color. However, I also notice how my hair has no shine and is very dry, having a hard time brushing it for the middle on down. I am out of the country traveling this week but, as soon as I get home, I will try your suggestions with deep conditioning and honey and hope that fixes the problem. I am crossing my fingers that it is not that my hair does not like henna because I don't want to go back to chemicals!
My hair was having the same issue after my very first henna treatment, but I finally resolved it by doing a super clarifying wash. After I did that, and a good moisture tretament, the problem was gone. I have not had that issue with subsequent applications. I think it was just too much of the henna resin hanging on.
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