Anyone using Henna for hair color?

.. henna looks like a good natural hair coloring .. anyone using it? I am beginning to get some
grey hairs and considering what options ..

henna is widely used in the Indian sub-continent, but it only gives red tones - if your hair is any other color it may not match. Black colored henna I think is laced with chemicals....

And you need to keep Henna for a loooooooooooooong time on your head for it to give you any color - and I mean hours...ladies back home put it on during the day and keep working around for hours before washing their hair...

The flowering plant Indigofera (indigo), which has a greenish color, is mixed with henna to create black, brown and mahogany hair color. You do have to keep it on longer for sure, but if you are trying to avoid PPD, its the way to go.

greg, thanks! I will check that out .. sounds like what I am looking for (indigo and henna).

Hennahut.com is one source.

In contrast to my avatar of Vin Diesel, I have very long, dark brown hair and a bushy black beard (I'm the guy they always spend extra time with at the airport). Although I don't dye my head hair, I do cover some chin hairs. I started out using JFM... but it is expensive, has lots of bad stuff like PPD, and works so fast that I imagine someone that actually needed to cover a very long beard completely would get it too dark real fast. Luckily so far only a patch or 2 needs addessing for me.

When it comes to perm dyes with PPD, always get a much lighter color. PPD penetrates the hair shaft, while things like henna coat/cover it.

As dark as my beard is, I only go with a dark blond color (6N) if using a perm dye with PPD. This gives the hair multiple tones and doesn't result in that solid jet black look. I stopped using JFM and switched to Herbatint (and occasionally Naturatint) which you can order from Vitacost. I still use the old mixing trays from JFM, and their little brushes. Then I measure stuff out with the little plastic measuring caps like comes with NyQuil or Pepto. As Herbatint comes in little bottles with caps, they last a long time when used like this. Of course while these don't have ammonia, h2o2, etc... they still contain PPD. Not near as much as what use to come in hair dyes. And without the aforementioned bad stuff, what PPD that is in them is less likely to get in your skin... but some does. So mask you ears, cheeks, lips etc with lotion, Vaseline, etc. and wear gloves. Drink plenty of water before and after, and I up my bladder support stuff like cranberry, blueberry, and bearberry a day before during and after. Hair dye is approved only for hair not for skin... but its impossible not to touch skin so you should minimize exposure as much as possible.

I have also used Wolfshead Beardye (not enough for the money) and Colora Henna cream (thin liquid and not easy to work with as is for beard. Both of these have henna in them but neither is 100% "natural" as they use either use alcohol, black dye, or such.

I believe beard dying is hard on your system because of it being around your nose and mouth, and because it requires more frequent touch ups than head hair typically due to visibility of roots and how quickly a beard grows. So I do a cover with Herbatint 6N (12 minutes 'on' time), and then once a week I use my special mix of stuff from hennahut and others. These henna products, due to the coating of the hair shaft, do add to fullness. But they are much harder to get right and take longer to apply. My special mix stays on 45 minutes (which is still much less than the time most people leave products like those from 'light mountain natural' and such).

If it weren't for the worries of PPD, Herbatint would be my only product of choice. The Henna and Indigo products can work, but they take more effort and I wonder about what else is in them such as heavy metals. I asked for a COA but never got one.

Henna will only make hair darker... you can't lighten with it. The coating effect will make it seem to have more volume.

See the formulas, ingredients, and other Q&A on these links:

http://holisticbeauty.net/Logona_Henna_Color_Tips.htm
http://hennahut.com/faqs
http://www.rubber-ducky.com/natural-hair-dye-cream-natural.html
http://www.beardye.com/faq
http://www.herbatint.co.uk/herbatint/using/herbatint-faq.php
(that last one is not henna related but as I mentioned herbatint I through it in)

It is from the info from these websites, and trail and error, that I came up with my beard dying ingredients and procedure that works for me.

One think I forgot to mention is shampoo. If you are using the henna products you will not be shampooing it out after application.

But if you go the JFM or other PPD containing products like Herbatint (which I prefer over any other when talking PPD containing) route... certain shampoos can put off toxic-smelling fumes. This is even more apparent when we are talking about the beard as it is of course 'right under your nose' so to speak. When I use these products I only shampoo my beard with my wife's Herbal Essences 'Color me happy'. No choking fumes. Of course absence of a noticeable smell doesn't exactly mean it isn't harmful to you. I plug my nose and ears during the shampoo and rise phase.

I hear that black walnuts can be used a coloring agent for darkening hair as well.

i use brown henna for my beard.
after applying it for 2 days it usually dyes the greys enough to look uniform....
then i just reappy it twice a week.....
also its good for your head hair too...and it dyes the scalp skin.
so if u are thinning it tends to make it not as noticable....because the scalp is a darker colour.

cpio wrote:I hear that black walnuts can be used a coloring agent for darkening hair as well.

Yeah there is that and coffee grounds in some. :-)

Henna hair colour is a best and it never affect your hair and this a looks a very nice and available in many colour and you mix a curd,egg,aloe-Vera in a henna this a best for a hair and it never affect your hair.