Henna. It worked really well, but ...

[Callycat]

IMy head smells like mouldy cut grass.

[Callycat]

Gah, typo. On my phpne :)

[mirpuppet]

wash & wash again. With nice smelling shampoo says fellow cut grass smelling hair henna user

[thenightsky]

Fabreeze your head?

[missmakesstuff]

Won't help much now, but I add essential oils - lavender and other things, when making it up. However I do struggle to use it as I find the smell comes back every time my hair is wet for a few days. Good luck!

[RayofSun]

Add the perfume oils you can get from places like the body shop. Lovely smelling hair. Voila

[Callycat]

Smelly oils, huh? Hadn't thought of that. How many drops do you add to get rid of that potato peelings smell?

I think Febreeze will be the back-up plan.

[Startail]

Where do you get your Henna? And I like the smell.

[butterfliesinmytummy]

Next time mix powdered ginger to your henna mix, it takes away the henna smell really well.

[Callycat]

Ginger sounds pretty nice; will try that.

I used Henne Color Powder in dark brown; I got in from one of those health food type shops. It was really easy to make and use, but doesn't half smell ... well, vegetablely.

[JennySense]

lol it always reminded me of cow manure ....

[WowOoo]

I love the smell. Earthy!
Is your hair very shiny now?

[Fluffycloudland77]

What's the benefit of henna over conventional hair dye?

[WowOoo]

Henna is totally natural Fluffy77. No nasties and it makes your hair shine.
But, it can be dodgy if you have any grey. Mine was shiny brown with orangey highlights until it faded a week later. (quite a lot of grey)

[AgathaF]

It goes after 3 or 4 washes. Worth it to not have put a load of nasty gunk on your head.

[butterfliesinmytummy]

Henna can be amazing or really dodgy. It's a plant so there are a gazillion different qualities that give different results. Body quality henna is the best you can buy - lots of information here

I have been dyeing my 90% grey hair with a henna / indigo mix which gives a chocolately colour - it's gorgeous - but it accumulates so you have to colour just the roots after a while otherwise the ends take on loads of colour and get very dark. Henna mixes with real results are here

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I used to do BodyShop Extra Red Henna and put beetroot vinegar in to give it extra ooomph (IIRC the change of pH made it take more)

Still used to smell like I'd slept in an ashtray though .

But I LOOKED flippin' luffly.

[Callycat]

Ooh, thanks butterflies. I had heard that henna makes tour hair darker after repeated applications - I don't want to get too dark, so was wondering if a lighter brown would be better in the long term.

Fluffy, I just use henna because peroxide dyes had dried my ends out a lot. I'm not bothered about chemicals (henna extract contains plenty of chemicals too, I guess). I wanted to cover my ever-expanding grey without drying it out too much.

[Callycat]

Wowoo actually, it's gone a bit greasy-feeling rather than shiny; I'm hoping that will settle down a bit!