Henna Hair Color and Conditioner, Persian Black Deep Ebony, 4 Ounce

I wanted to cover my grays. I've had fun trying colored hairsprays, but they are expensive, polluting, and some irritate my scalp. I did a lot of research before trying this brand, Rainbow Henna, in light brown. I didn't want to dye my hair red or orange. I wanted my hair to still match the mixed ash and blonde fun bun I sometimes wear, which was a difficult match to find for my real hair color. I ordered this Rainbow Henna in light brown. While waiting for it to arrive I continued my research, and came across cassia. Cassia is known as neutral henna, but is unrelated to the henna plant. From what I learned about it, I was about to give or throw away this Rainbow Henna and start over, but I stopped to read the ingredients on the label: Light brown Henna (Lawsonia Inermis), Indigofera, Cassia Obovata! Weds. 15Jan20 Also while waiting, I stumbled onto a YouTube video in which a lady showed how to mix henna with shampoo. Great, I thought, because if I can't shampoo it in, and rinse it out in a normal shower, I probably won't ever do it again. So I did it. I boiled water. While it was cooling, I spooned some of the Rainbow Henna powder into a stoneware soup bowl, using a stainless spoon. I gradually added the hot water to the henna powder, and stirred and stirred. The trouble is, you get the mixture smooth but it goes lumpy again. Working quickly, I added quite a bit of shampoo. You want to make sure you're using a gentle, clean shampoo, free of parabens, phthalates and nasty stuff. I found out you want to use one that normally leaves your hair feeling clean and limp, not a body volumizing shampoo, because you don't want coating ingredients to interfere with the henna. I used Whole Foods 365 Lavender shampoo. I poured in some apple cider vinegar and some castor oil I already had on hand. I have no measurements to convey. It was all about getting a shampoo-in texture. I leaned my head over the kitchen sink and wet my hair. I didn't even take off my t-shirt or have a towel handy. I wanted to just get my hair wet, not drenched, but I did end up using a kitchen towel to blot my hair and keep from dripping. I then did a final stir-up of my ingredients, getting a consistency I could work with, and used my hand to put globs of mixture all over my wet hair. I didn't stroke it down the strands. I was shampooing. I worked it into the front where I have the most gray, and more gently all over the sides and back, just like shampooing in the shower, though I think I was being a bit rougher. I forgot I didn't have a plastic shower cap or any plastic cling wrap, so I slit open the side of a gallon freezer bag and put it on, folding up the sides like a dutch girl hat. I put the leftover mixture in a lidded tupper. I worked at my computer for an hour while the mixture sat on my head under the plastic baggie, then threw away the baggie and eagerly jumped into the shower. Wow! Can it really be that easy? I inspected my henna job more closely the next morning. The grays were golden blonde. Hair texture was shiny and healthy. The color of my non-grayed hair was a bit darker than my normal, but varied from a lightest to a darkest just like natural hair color does. Fri. 17Jan20 Regular shower and shampoo, no henna. No loss of color! Grays all still looking blonde. So far so good. Sun. 19Jan20 Regular shower and shampoo, no henna treatment. No loss of color. Gray roots starting to grow out just a sliver of a fraction of an inch. Tues 21Jan20 I opened my tupper of leftover mixture from the first treatment. It might have been enough. I should have tried it for that reason, but I mixed up more. I used up the leftover and a few globs of the new. Thurs 23Jan20 Regular shower and shampoo, no henna. I went out with a friend in the early evening when there was still plenty of sun. She told me the henna looked great, and that my hair had a reddish cast, otherwise looking pretty close to my real color. Saturday 25Jan20 I tried to use some of the leftover mixture to henna the fun bun I sometimes use. I had to throw away my ruined bun. I forgot about the castor oil in the mixture. What do you do but look at colors online until you see a slightly darker than dark blonde bun with some reddish highlights? I ordered a new bun. First try and it's a perfect match to my henna'd hair. Wednesday February 5 After waiting two whole weeks and one day, to really see how long each henna treatment would last, I did another one, only because my grey roots were showing. I'm sticking with this brand. My hair looks and feels great, and my new fun bun matches it. Final tips: Order a package of 25, 50 or 100 super cheap clear shower caps for when you're sitting that hour with henna on your head. On henna day, wear a black t-shirt or your black robe, in case any blobs escape the shower cap. Blue dish detergent and a tub brush make short work of cleaning the tub after you shower out your henna mixture. All this trouble is only necessary, for me anyway, every two weeks.

I used light brown henna and as you can see it is actually red, but I like it. It does not do too good on my gray roots, as you can see it turns my gray roots a funky yellow color. I use magic root touch up only on my roots and that does the trick, I use dark blonde magic root touch up by loreal. I have been using this henna for 6 months now, and I absolutely recommend it. It has made such a difference to my hair. My hair is so soft and healthy I almost can't believe it. This henna powder is an awesome hair conditioner! I use one jar, I start by mixing about 1/3 of the powder with one egg, to help the mixture stick to my hair and also it is good for hair, with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, to help cover gray, and enough strong coffee to form a mixture to a yogurt like condition. Then I use hair clips and section my hair off and apply this to my roots. I cover my head with a plastic cap and wait an hour. Then I mix the rest of the powder with an egg, 2 tablespoons of vinegar and just enough coffee to make it the texture of yogurt and apply it to the rest of my hair, cover my head and wait 2 hours. It actually feels like you have mud in your hair. I recommend rinsing it out in the kitchen sink because it goes everywhere in the shower and makes a mess. If you are tired of damaging your hair with chemicals, and you don't mind red hair you should definitely try this!

I am very pleased with this product. I haven't used any henna hair color of any type since the 80's...back when I used to color my hair just for fun. Ha! I'm now fifty-one, and I have about 30% gray hair to color. My hair is light brown, naturally. I used to use a product called Hennalucent that was really wonderful, but it has been discontinued. I had to STOP using other kinds of hair color, i.e. salon color, box hair color because they were making my scalp itch and break out. Not good. Not to mention I feel like those hair colors were damaging my hair over time. So I did some research before ordering this product, both on the Amazon website and on the Rainbow Research website and a few other places just to see as many product reviews as possible. I mixed about half of the container of this light brown henna with boiling hot coffee, two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and two tablespoons of olive oil per manufacturer instructions. I used the coffee to help tone down the red...it is henna, after all. The vinegar is for helping the henna hold onto gray hair a little better. The olive oil is for conditioning. This mixture is hard to get stirred up and get the lumps out, I must admit. It is rather coarse...not as fine as henna I used in the past. I know a lot of reviewers also complain about the smell. Well it has a smell like grass or hay. And it is the vibrant green of grass clippings when you mix it up, which might be a little disconcerting for first-time users. In any case, I put this stuff all over my hair, which was about two and a half or three inches below shoulder length, at the time. I then put a shower cap on over it and left it on for an hour. It was no longer green, when I took my shower cap off to rinse, I'm happy to stay. More of a brown color. So I rinsed it and rinsed it and washed with some shampoo then a good, thick conditioner. You really need to shampoo and especially condition to get all of this stuff out of your hair. It's kind of dry and gritty when you're trying to rinse. The final result was excellent! A natural looking light brown..NOT red. And my grays were a bit lighter so they blended and looked like highlights. Tips for users - I read some other complaints about the product online - complaints about the smell - it goes away after a wash or two. A few said it turned their hair orange...or green. Well, when they say to start with clean, dry hair. ( I think you could also start with clean DAMP hair) that means you shouldn't have any other styling product in it that could react with the henna. I also didn't use ANY hair color of ANY kind for four months before I used this. .I'm not saying it's necessary, but I feel not having any salon or boxed color on my hair helped my result. The only thing I would have done differently is to leave it on a little longer, I think. I wash my hair a LOT. Probably too much, but I just don't feel clean if I don't, and I tend to wash hair color out of my hair a lot sooner than other people might. But this has held so far and it's been about three weeks. I think you could leave it on safely for an extra thirty minutes to an hour longer. I did have to rinse my tub and shower out afterwards. The stuff gets all over when rinsing it out. But my final word is that it is WORTH IT to me and they sent me two jars. Enough product to color my hair about three times! Good investment.

It doesn't cover gray hair. Easy to apply, I left the henna for 4 hours and it didn't color any of my gray hair.