Henna hair dye recommendations?

[intergalacticplanetary]

Been wanting to dye my hair but I have a patch of psoriasis and my Googling has told me that henna is the best option and can actually help the scalp.

Anybody have any recommendations for red henna products? I have medium dark brown thick hair.

TIA! 😊

Hello! I started using henna this year after decades of box dyes damaging my hair. My natural colour is a medium brown with some greys.

I use a brand called Henné Color, which you can get on Amazon. You need to leave it to develop for a couple of hours at least but the effect is very nice and natural and my hair condition has improved a lot since using it. It lasts a couple of weeks before it fades.

Their website had a colour chart to get an idea of which of their shades will work and what it might look like. I found Pinterest useful as well for application instructions and photos of results:

https://www.hennecolor.co.uk/

Be careful with your colour choice. I hennaed my hair when I was younger and ended up with orange brick colour hair until it grew out.

@HorribleNecktie thank you. Which shade do you use and do you find the colour chart accurate? I always used to find the colour charts on box dyes to be a waste of time!

@GettingStuffed I had many hair disasters in my youth. Hence this post for recommendations that people have tried and tested!

I use Acajou (mahogany), and it does come out more subtly than the colour chart indicates. That may be due to process as well as the henna itself as I sometimes mix the paste with some cocoa butter and usually only leave it on for 2 hours-ish. I used the (now discontinued) Lush henna bars in the past and got a more dramatic red from
them.

I think if you are after a dramatic difference then it might not give you what you want without pre-lightening. I find that for me it covers the grey and makes it a lot less mousy.

It’s worth trying though, it isn’t expensive and assuming you are not allergic it’s not going to do any harm ( won’t damage your hair).

Good luck!

@HorribleNecktie thanks! Definitely worth a go! 😊

Oh! Just to add- I don’t know if henna takes differently depending on hair textures (I haven’t seen anything that goes into specifics about that so maybe not?) but that might be worth looking into in case it impacts the amounts needed and development time.

If you live in a city, they often sell Henna in packets in Indian type supermarkets. Lush and the like will charge you much more for the same thing.

It's a bit of a faff to mix and apply. Vaseline your hairline and protect your hands and surfaces!

I used pure henna powder mixed with hot water, from the Indian grocer.

It might be worth taking some hair from your hairbrush and trying the henna on that to get an idea of how the colour will take.

I've got shoulder length medium thickness hair and use about 150g per application.

Lush don’t do theirs anymore. They changed the formula to make it easier to crumble the bar it came in (you used to have to grate it with a cheese grater) but this came at the expense of the colour itself. You are right- you can get the same or better results for a lot less money if you get the powder from an Indian supermarket.

Another thing is henna can be a bit smelly- not horrible, just a lot like damp dry leaves.