henna on hair photos : Mixing Henna For Hair

Mixing Henna For Hair Photo Images Biography 2013

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Mixing your own henna is part of the fun!

Always use henna from Mehandi.com. They send every shipment to an independent laboratory for certification of purity and lawsone content. There will never be any unlisted ingredients in henna from Mehandi.com

To be on the safe side I'd suggest that you do your own mix - it's not hard, it's fun, it leaves a lot of room for experimentation and you know for sure what you put on your hair.

What color will I get from henna?

Pure henna will always turn your hair towards red - with the exception of colorless or neutral henna that will only condition without changing your natural color.

The final color you receive depends on a number of things:

1) Your starting color. In general - the darker the starting color, the subtler the result will be. For a very rough guideline you may think in terms of:

- Gray -> fiery red (but only with good quality henna)

- Blonde -> red

- Light brown -> red to light auburn

- Medium brown -> auburn

- Dark brown -> reddish brown, more pronounced in the sun

- Very dark brown to black -> no color change but red highlights in the sun

Henna can also never make your hair lighter - only add pigment to your existing color. There is no chance for you to be fiery red with henna if your starting color is a dark brown.

2) Your mix. Pure henna will always provide red, and only red, pigment. There is no such thing as black, golden or brown henna - but by adding other ingredients to the mix you can push the color towards more red, subtler red, more brown or more golden. If your base is henna though, you'll always have some level of red in there - please don't think you can go pure blonde, or brown with henna - it's simply not possible!

3) The henna powder used. Use Ancient Sunrise henna, indigo and cassia from mehandi.com. If you don't get body art quality henna that has been tested by an independent laboratory, you have no guarantee of what's in the package other than henna.

The freshness of the henna powder will affect the final color you get. The fresher the powder, the better the final results will be. This is most important for gray hair, as stale henna will push the color to a very unattractive orange hue on gray hair. Henna powder can be found at many health food stores, but it's often stale and will not give you a desirable end result. The best henna is usually bought directly from a reputable importer or from one of the many people doing henna tattoos.

What's needed to mix my own henna?

For mixing you'll need a bowl and a spoon/spatula, sometimes a pot if you need to boil the liquid used to mix. These should preferably be made of plastic, wood or glass as metal can react with the henna. Personally I've used stainless steel pots with no strange reactions - so I'd be willing to say these are fine as well - but if you want to be on the very safe side you would want to avoid stainless steel too.

Any liquid you use to mix the henna should be somewhat acidic - lemon/lime/orange/grapefruit/other citrus juices and vinegar are good examples of acidic liquids. Either use these straight or mix them with water or other neutral liquids if you think they're too strong to use on their own. It's important that the liquid is acidic, as the color in the henna leaves will release better if mixed with something acidic than with something neutral.

How much henna do I need to mix?

This depends a lot on how much hair you have and how thick it is. 100 grams of henna powder should be enough for about collarbone length hair of normal thickness. 200 grams enough for about shoulder blade to bra strap length hair of normal thickness.

I tend to use somewhat less than this as my hair is fine - for my hair that is currently about 2 inches from bra strap I use about 150 grams when mixed to a regular henna paste. This is enough to cover it entirely with very little left over. If your hair is very thick you may want to use more than what's stated above. I'd suggest to mix a little more than you think you'll need the first time, it's not fun to discover halfway through that you're out of henna. You can always freeze leftovers to use at a later date.

Basic Henna mix

- Good quality henna powder, as much as you think you'll need for your length and thickness of hair

- Lemon initial mix

- Lemon juice or neutral liquid for adjusting final consistency