Henna as makeup?

I like henna for hair coloring. It gives a nice reddish tinge to black or brown hair. Best henna to use is paste made from fresh leaves and these are so difficult to find in the UK.

mariepop said:

That is what I do too, I use it with indigo. To have a brown color some will add coffee, I like the smell of coffee but not all the time

WOW permanent on you! Where do you get your BAQ henna? and what is BAQ?

I mentioned that I use the Moroccan henna, 'cause you leave it on the hair from 2 to 3 hour, the other ones on the website are up to six hour and some need to be mixed with water for 8 hour before you can put it on your hair which it is not the case with Moroccan henna (1/2 hour)

May I ask at what frequency you color you hair?

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First of all, I apologise in advance for going .

Sorry for the delay in replying mariepop. BAQ = Body Art Quality and is finer sift to help with Body Art precision. It's nice for hair because of the finer sift i.e. easier to put in/wash out.

I get mine in UK from Hennaboy. In US, you can get good stuff from Hennaforhair (henna forum and online shop).

I do my roots every 3-4 weeks by first mixing enough henna with some cold water: covering it with clingfilm/saranwrap, and leaving it at room temp. either overnight, or in a much warmer room for 4-8 hours, whatever...

I wash my hair and let the excess water absorb into the towel on my head before working the henna thoroughly into my roots, and dragging any excess down the lengths. Wrap in cling/saranwrap. I now only leave it about 1-2 hours before rinsing with warm water and wrapping in (old) towel again, whilst I go to ******* to mix my indigo with some warm water (not too warm, just pleasantly warm!).

Back to bathroom and work mixture into roots - this time I try to avoid dragging any indigo down the lengths, because I like them to be a bit lighter and have reddish lights from the henna itself! Leave about 1 hour. Rinse well with warm water: shampoo 1-2 times; condition, and rinse again. Wrap in towel...

Collapse into chair with hot sweet tea.

Note that the hair continiues to darken over a few days - and my roots often look a bit too light at first, plus the indigo can give a slight greenish cast for 24 hours or so. Then it all settles down to being a warmish dark brown.

3-4 weeks later - I do it all over again.

It's more time consuming than conventional dyes - but it does the job and gives me good color and shine. Also strength. I feel I'm doing my hair good not harm. I admit, I could do the whole thing in my sleep now - I've become so adept at the whole palaver

I also do my eyebrows at the same time, with both the henna and then the indigo. This gives me dark, warm brown eyebrows (they're already darkish - but sort of faded!).

I'll just add that the indigo can fade a bit when first applied to new root growth. I catch the whole area again next time I go round, so that 2nd/3rd application is defintely permanent on me.

Also, if I've not left the indigo on long enough/it gets a bit stripped by the next couple of shampoos -I just do another indigo application. It works for me...

Hope this helps.

Mari, henna and indigo work better on grey if you use the two-step method, I find. Mixing together and applying at source seems to fade on my grey quicker. Likewise, I get better results on the brows doing two-step...