Being raised in a whole-foods home, it only makes sense that my mother also chose all-natural hair and body products. I started breaking into her stash of henna hair color when I was in middle school, so I have more than 15 years experience with it by now.
You may have heard of henna tattoos, popularized by the Indian culture, which are temporary and slowly fade over time. You may not have been aware that you can use henna to color your hair as well, but it has been done since at least 400 AD.
Henna is a tall bush or small tree, and the leaves, once dried, are powdered and can be mixed with hot water or an acidic liquid to dye skin, hair, and nails. The benefit of using henna on hair is that it seals in oils and tightens the cuticle, resulting in a rich, healthy shine. It contains no ammonia, peroxide, or other chemicals that are damaging to hair. Unlike other hair dyes, it fades slowly over time (usually it lasts 4-6 weeks) so there are no tell-tale roots as your hair grows out.
Things you should know about henna:
1) It can only make your hair darker. It bonds with the protein in your hair, adding color to it (unless you use the neutral henna, which only conditions without adding color); you can’t use it to lighten your hair.
2) If you get any color besides “neutral” or “black,” you will get red highlights in your hair. In my case, I buy “light brown” and I get a medium brunette color with pretty red highlights. You can get many tones of red, such as strawberry blonde, auburn, copper, etc, but all of these will only add color to what you already have so don’t expect your black hair to turn strawberry blonde if you choose that color. It may give some warmth to your color, but will not lighten.
3) In my experience, henna will not take your hair too far from the color you start with, so if you buy black and have light brown hair, you will become a darker brunette.
4) It is quite goopy and messy and can stain anything it touches.
5) It can react with chemicals in your hair, such as chlorine, or those used in coloring or perming. In the picture below, taken before a homecoming dance my freshman year of high school, you can see I turned the ends of my hair green when I tried using black henna after an entire summer of swimming daily in a public pool. The photo was taken two months after the application, so you can see that green really hung on! If you want to use henna after your hair has been exposed to chemicals, I highly recommend doing a strand test first.
6) You can add things to the henna mixture to enhance the conditioning and coloring properties, and adjust the amount of water used accordingly. For deeper conditioning, add an egg or two tablespoons of yogurt. To bring out golden highlights in already light hair, replace heated water with half warm water and half warm lemon juice or chamomile tea brewed with three tea bags. To create rich golden or copper highlights add three tablespoons vinegar or fresh lemon juice. To enrich browns or reds, add one teaspoon ginger, allspice, nutmeg or paprika. To enhance brown tones, replaced heated water with day-old, black, very warm coffee (not instant).
7) Henna has a distinct herbal smell, which is quite pleasant compared to some of the harsh chemical dyes, but it can be off-putting to some. It reminds me of a blend of powdered algae, herbal tea, and marijuana. I sort of feel like a hippie when I’m applying it. :)
8) You can not use any metal during henna preparation or application, as it will react to it and make your hair a funky color. Which could be fun, but if you’re hoping for a natural color, steer clear of the metal and use a glass, ceramic, or plastic bowl and stir with a wooden or plastic spoon. I used a small silicone scraper this time. They also recommend you use distilled water, but I just use purified water and this has never been a problem for me.
There are many henna products for hair and I have tried a few brands, but the one my Mom used is Light Mountain Natural, and after trying other brands, it continues to be my preferred henna product to this day. Light Mountain Natural is a pure, natural product made from 100% organic powdered botanicals of three species of herbs: Red (Lawsonia inermis), Neutral (Cassia auriculata), and Black (Indigoferae tinctoria). These powdered botanicals are blended for a rich medly of color. Botanical color may vary from crop to crop and season to season, but their blending process helps compensate for these variations.
The instructions I’m giving are according to my experience with the Light Mountain Natural henna, and may not work with other henna products. I use light brown, which I buy at a local health food store that has nothing to do with the Whole Foods chain. In the box, you will get a bag of henna, instructions, plastic gloves, and a plastic cap.
The day before, please do an allergy and strand test according to the package directions. I never do, but it is in your best interest, especially if you’ve never used henna before.
To start, empty your henna into a glass or plastic bowl. Add enough water, stirring with a non-metal utensil, that you get a consistency similar to yogurt. I like to go a little thin, using two or more cups of water, because it thickens a bit upon standing, and it’s easier to apply if it’s not too thick.
Let mixture sit for 1-3 hours to cure. I usually just wait an hour. Curing cuts down on the time you will have to leave it on your hair, but you can use it as soon as ten minutes after mixing if you like. The mixture will thicken and get darker on top. Stir to check the consistency and add more hot water if necessary.
They tell you to get your hair wet, and I went ahead and did it this time, but usually I apply the henna to my dry hair and I noticed no difference in the final outcome, except my grays didn’t seem to be covered as well. Whether you get it wet or not, it’s now time to don your “henna shirt,” i.e. any shirt that you don’t mind ruining. I have a shirt designated for henna application and it has been used many times.
Apply a cream or Vaseline around your hairline to protect your skin from getting stained. I used a sunscreen stick. Whatever works. :)
It helps to pretend you have no teeth while you apply it.
“Back in my day, we didn’t have these fanshy schmancy sunshreen shticks, but they sure are handy!”
Apply the henna from roots to tips whichever way you please. With a comb…
Or my preferred barbarian method–slapping it on and rubbing it in with my hands.
I think I make this same face when I apply mascara. Perhaps the synapses in my brain were misfiring and telling my face that doing any beauty regimen requires wide eyes and an open mouth. Apparently I channel the elderly quite a lot during this process as well…
“What’s that, shonny? I can’t hear you, shpeak up!”
As I apply the henna downward, I like to pile my hair up on top of my head to keep it out of the way. You can see what I meant when I said it gets messy. I always put cream or Vaseline on my ears and all the way around my hairline because it never fails to get on my skin.
I just keep applying it until the entire bowl is on my head. My hair is fine and I don’t really need that much, but at least I know every inch is covered. If you have very long or thick hair, you might need two boxes of henna, but as you saw, one bag makes quite a bit. If you’re spreading it further, be sure to massage it into your hair before covering with a cap.
When you’re finished applying the henna, the first thing you should do is clean up. Discard your gloves and clean up all the henna that dropped on your sink and floor. Use damp paper towels or a damp washcloth to wipe away any henna that is on your face, ears, and neck. Next, don your plastic cap.
The one that comes with the kit (right) is square and after fitting it to your head, you have to close the gap at your nape with a hair tie, so I usually use a handy-dandy shower cap instead (left).
It is now time to apply heat, which activates the henna and bonds it to your hair. My Mom used to have a retro hair dryer that came down over her head, which was uber fabulous for this part, but at my house, I apply heat with a handheld blow dryer.
Move the dryer around constantly so you don’t melt the cap, and maybe take this time to practice your lip curls and strengthen your forehead with eyebrow lifts. I also like to use my other hand to press down on the cap while I’m heating my hair, so that the henna disperses even better while the color is setting. The directions say to heat intermittently to maintain constant warmth, but I use the blow dryer for fifteen minutes straight, then, depending on my mood, I will either go online until my hair gets cold, or go straight into the shower. This time I went straight into the shower, which could be why my grays weren’t covered as well as they usually are–not enough time with the henna on. Depending on your hair type (mine is super thin), the process usually takes 45-minutes of off-and-on heat application.
Get thee to the shower and rinse the henna out of your hair with warm water. It is gritty, so it will take some time. Once you get as much of the henna out as you can, fill your hand with a huge pile of conditioner and work it through your hair from roots to tips. Use a wide-tooth comb or your fingers to comb through it so that your hair is saturated with conditioner and tangle-free. This will help get the remaining henna out as you rinse it again. Do not use shampoo. Ideally, you shouldn’t use shampoo on your henna’ed hair for 24 hours, but I usually do my first shampoo after 12 or so.
Style your hair as usual. I usually just comb my hair and let it air dry, but after applying henna, I usually at least blow dry it because I’m eager to see what color it is. Plus, I imagine that the heat helps set the color even more.
Here’s my hair about 6 weeks after the last henna treatment, and the day before this one:
And here it is after this henna treatment:
Another note: there is a specific Light Mountain Natural henna treatment for gray hair, but I haven’t tried it yet, as it is a two-step system and I’m not terribly patient, plus buying it would confirm my suspicion that I’m getting old. The gray hairs are bad enough without having to buy a special gray hair treatment for them, you know what I mean?
Disclaimer: Light Mountain Natural doesn’t know I exist and did not compensate me in any way for this tutorial or for my opinion of their products. I just included it here because it is the best henna product I know of and wanted to share the best with you. Check out their website here.
I gathered my information about henna and the henna hair color process from knowledge passed on to me from my mother, from Wikipedia, and from the Light Mountain Natural instructions. I nabbed the first two pictures off the sites given on the actual pictures themselves.
Veronica's Cornucopia 
My mother celebrated her 40th birthday with bright green hair after dying her hair blond first and then applying henna. Don’t know what she was trying to do! ^^
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LOL, oops! Thanks, Diandra. I have applied henna after chemically treating my hair, but I’ve always waited at least a month for fear of what happened to your mother. Glad to know it wasn’t in vain. :)
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Hi, I bleached my hair about a week ago and hate the color can i color over it with henna, and what color do u think i’ll get if i use red and will it damage my hair. oh and ur hair is beautiful love it.
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I don’t believe you can, and please do not try it without first calling a henna consultant. Here is the contact info for the brand I use, please call them for a consulation. http://www.light-mountain-hair-color.com/contact.php
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yes you can. I bleach my hair myself at home with a highlighting kit, and then henna over it a couple of days later. it gives my hair red highlights and the parts that were not highlighted are more auburn. It is and incredible look. I have been doing this for 5 years. When I first used henna all my hair was bleached. it all turned out a brighter red/orange which i loved so much I kept using the bleach to keep those highlighted colors.
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wow! Not a patient person? are you kidding me? I am so impatient I just let someone else ( aka my hairdresser) worry about covering over my gray hairs! lol At any rate, it looks awesome! Worth the work!
You should splurge and get yourself one of those gel manicures….day 7…and it still looks like it did on the day I got it. Hmmmm…I really should take some pictures! lol
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Wow, I seen your first photo of the tattoos, and thought “what did she do”? Lol, Then I realized that you were talking about henna! Your hair looks wonderful! Great post!
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What a wonderful post!! Thank you so much. Until now, I thought you just applied the henna, let it sit and rinse it out (with shampoo), so thanks for the enlightment! It especially comes in handy, as I am a red-head, but the red is fading aways and I am planning to use henna soon to boost my natural colour a bit.
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Henna is ideal for redheads–it really adds great red color to your hair. I hope you love it as much as I do.
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Thank you :) My mum, who is also a readhead, has been using it for ages with great results. Just filled her in with your tips!
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This is so great. I love your tutorial. I’m definitely getting white hairs all over the place, and I’ve been in terror of being in bondage to an expensive salon the rest of my life. Now I can just figure out this henna thing and do it that way instead! It seems a little intimidating . . . but the results are awesome and I’m sure it’s cheaper than going to a salon.
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It is intimidating, I admit, but sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and the results really are worth the effort. And yes, much cheaper–I paid $7 for the henna I used in this tutorial. Coloring your hair at the salon costs upwards of $60!
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I laughed so hard when i saw ” it helps to pretend you have no teeth while applying it”… LOL I am going to try the henna, my grays need to be washed away…
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What an awesome post, Veronica! My mother in law has used henna on her hair for years and she swears by it, but I’ve never tried it. Your hair color is so pretty, I would really love to try this out!
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Veronica, you do have a lot of patience!
I write a blog on stock market moves (Indian – though it can be applied universally – since it delves on simple unrelated subjects and somehow get linked into the stock market…) I had written one on henna – http://riteriterite.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/the-crush-of-the-henna-leaves/
Do let me know how you like it.
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Wow….I would have to say you are a lot more patient than I am :) I just go to my hair dresser and pick a color from a book.
Here is a funny story that for some reason I feel the need to share. When I was in HS my best friend wanted to dye her hair blond in the front (remember when that was popular? Two strands of bleach blond hair right in the front). She was Spanish so she had really black hair so we decided it would be best to leave the bleach on her hair for a really long time. We also thought we should try applying it like the professionals. So we “painted” her hair with bleach and wrapped it up in foil. Let it sit for like an hour and then washed it out. It was white. She looked totally ridiculous. So we run to the 24 hour K-Mart and buy some brown hair dye. We immediately dyed her hair brown to cover the blond and though all was well. One week later the area that had been dyed blond started turning green! She had to walk around with green hair for months until it finally grew out…hahaha.
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She should have left it white like Rogue from X-Men! I did that too, but I was doing it b/c I wanted to look like her. I couldn’t get my hair white, but I did get it pretty blonde. I can def relate to having green hair. I was so mad that my Mom wouldn’t let me buy regular hair dye to fix it. She was totally opposed to regular hair dye. I now agree that henna is so much better for your hair.
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Only you could turn dying your hair into a funny tutorial…lol!! I’m going to order some today. I can’t wait to try it and it does sound much more healthy than regular hair dye. Thanks for all the tips :) And the laughs! :)
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This is so great! I have been henna-ing my hair since I was 16, and I keep meaning to write a post on it. I will, but I will probably link to your post as well because this is a fantastically detailed organized presentation of the whole messy process. I love henna- and love your post.
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Dear Veronica, What a wonderful tutorial you have written, thank you! Wish I had seen it before I started putting henna on my hair six months ago! I had a natural white streak in the front of my reddish brown hair (picture Bonnie Raitt). Unfortunately, I decided I was tired of the white streak and that I wanted to try henna. Well, first let me say that I had been using Natural Instincts semi-permanent hair color (which is a whole other story, as it is really permanent!) on the darker part of my hair for years but wanted to get away from the chemicals and lose the white streak, so I read up on the hennas on the market and tried Surya liquid henna, but it did not even TOUCH the white, i.e., grey part of my hair! So, I tried Light Mountain two step color for grey hair and IT WORKED! Colored perfectly over my dyed and white hair! I follow the package instructions to the letter and let both batches sit 3 hours before putting on my head. The first one only has to stay on 15 minutes, the second 45 minutes. (This product does not work on my white hair without the first step – which turns it neon yellow-orange!). I am continuing to use their Medium Brown and love the rich, dark reddish brown most of my hair is, but I can’t stand the bright yellow-oranget the front (white) part eventually turns after a few washings. Maybe if my white hairs were more evenly disbursed, I would have some wonderful orange-red highlights, but having a shock of orange red hair in front, I find annoying. I am wondering if you or anyone reading this knows if I can bleach the front out to let it come in white again? I hate waiting for it to grow out, as it looks so strange while doing so. I am afraid to bleach over henna, but this product is supposed to be natural, so am wondering if I can. I still plan to use the product on the rest of my hair, as it is a beautiful, shiny color. Thanks! Carol
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Once I dyed my hair black with permanent dye, and it was NOT a good look for me. Although I have dark hair, the tone of the black was cool and I have a warm tone to my skin so it clashed terribly. One lady gave me the advice to add baking soda to my shampoo when I washed it and it really did help wash some of the color out, so I believe it would do wonders on henna-colored hair. Henna can react badly with chemicals (for instance, I once dyed my hair green after swimming all summer in chlorinated pools and then trying to henna my hair), so I would be wary of bleaching it. Light Mountain Natural has a customer service department that is there to answer questions like these. Their number is 262-889-8561, hours are M-F 9-5. Good luck!
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I have been looking into henna-ing my hair, and I really appreciated your tutorial! I was wondering, though, will the henna fade completely from your hair, or do you have to grow your hair out to get rid of the color? I thought that it would be fun to henna my hair once and see how it looks, but I don’t want to have to deal with growing it out and having a line of different color. Does henna do that? In some places I have read that it will fade naturally, but in others it says that it won’t. I don’t want to get into a place where I “have to” henna my hair all the time, or have my hair be two distinct different colors. Something else I was told is that henna contains “metallic compounds” and will dry out my hair. Are these metallic compounds something that is added into it, or is this part of the whole herb?
Sorry that that sounds very ramble-y. Thank you, though, for your time!
~Allison
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It depends on the type of henna you purchase. Some “henna” is actually indigo or has indigo in it and that is permanent. I really trust the brand I use (Light Mountain Natural, as pictured above) and it DOES fade over time, very naturally and gradually so that when your natural hair color starts to come in, there is not a distinct line. I really recommend you try the brand I use as I can not vouch for other brands. My henna does not contain anything but henna–no metallic compounds which are definitely something added. Real henna is extremely conditioning and does not dry out your hair-it does the opposite. Beware the subpar henna! Hope this helps! And beware, you WILL make a mess so prepare for it. It’s a pain in the but, but always worth it.
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Thank you so much! So does real henna (not the indigo) come in different colors, or are all the colors the indigo?
Thank you again!
~Allison
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Indigo dyes your hair black. Real henna comes in different colors, but all give some red as that’s what color comes from the henna plant. Different crops will have different shades and depths. Here’s the Light Mountain Natural website and you can see the different colors they offer: http://www.light-mountain-hair-color.com/chart-natural.php
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Thanks for the informative and entertaining article-you really captured the hennaing experience! :-) I really, really miss White Mountain products, I used to use them when I lived in the US, and can’t get them here in Germany. I even tried to contact the company directly about buying henna and having it shipped here, but unfortunately they never answered my emails.
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This is a great how to! Thanks for all the tips. I’ve recently tried henna-ing my hair for the first time but I noticed that it started drying on my hair before I was finished and could wrap it up. As a result, I didn’t notice much of a color change. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
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Sounds like your mixture wasn’t wet enough. Next time add enough water that the mixture is the consistency of yogurt.
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I have my mix curing at the moment and was debating over whether or not to shampoo first, as a few tutorials today seem to say you don’t have to. Though you do mention it covers the grey better washed, so thank you for that. But much bigger thanks for the sunscreen stick idea! Brilliant.
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I want to dye my hair with henna, but i also want to go to the pool over the summer. How does chlorine affect your hair after its been dyed?
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Sorry I have no personal experience with this but Light Mountain Natural has a customer service department that is there to answer questions like these. Their number is 262-889-8561, hours are M-F 9-5.
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what will happen if you do shampoo right away???
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You will lose some of your color. I’m not sure how much, because I’ve never dared to break this rule! lol It doesn’t seem worth it to go through all that work just to lose it because of shampooing too soon.
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Informative and funny. Thank you.
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Thank you so much for this! I recently switched henna brands to light mountain and it was way more instructions than I was used to! (I used lush henna prior) this helped me out SO much. Thank you!
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thanks for ur tips Veronica, m a first time user n don’t hv the patience to let the henna dry for 2-3 hrs. ur tips encouraged me to try it out. Thanks!!
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You’re adorable! I love watching real, truthful people. Thank you for your editorial.
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This is a great blogg
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