mzmillion

I think most of us here don't shampoo on a regular basis unless it using the ones without sulfates. They strip your hair bad so thats not something I use alot. I do the poo every 6-8 weeks, depending on how my hair feels.... and only one wash.

As far as shampoos claiming longer color, I'm not sure I believe all of that because that usually is some type of ing to coat your hair and leave build up to make color fade slower I'm guessing but all of that screams bad for hair to me so I don't use it. As far as the color of henna alone, you can always add another level boost by doing another henna treatment. It's good for you and conditions while giving you color so its all good.

__________________
4a/b hair that fro's more than curls!
Co-Wash: Tressemme', HE, Avon
Leave In: SM Shea Butter Conditioner. SMCH Smoothie
Deep Treat: Avon AT Masks, Henna, Amla, Avanti
Stylers: Aloe Vera Butter, Eco Styler on dry hair, SM products
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poemaXX

Quick question:

Does amla work similarly to henna? Does it bind to the protein in the hair, somewhat like a protein treatment?

Thanks, ladies!

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Current Routine BAQ henna 1/month; Leave-in OH Hair Dew; Cleansing Conditioner Giovanni TTTT. – Just three!
Old Stand-bys extra-virgin coconut oil; Protein AO GPB; Moisture AO HR; Style AOMMJ. – Kept for troubleshooting.
Waiting to try extra-wide curlformers. Propylene Glycol Sensitive - Itchy scalp? Facial Irritation? This might be why!

ReynaCR

Try this website...
http://www.hennaforhair.com/faq/amla/

Thank you SOOOO much.. I almost got caught up in that foolery.. wow 6-8 wks? I shampoo once a week, but I wonder if I can go that long... time for an experiment!

YAY I was just typing this message and my henna package just arrived! YAY YAY YAY you have no idea how excited I am! Well the office is calling me the henna guinea pig.... so hopefully this comes out nice.

Oh I have another question for you: When you did your crochet braids video, did you braid vertically straight in the front and have a different braid pattern in the back, or did you cornrow your entire hair straight back? It's been a struggle for me to find a protective style, but it looks like I can do this one easily!! It looks really nice btw!

I will be back with pics!

__________________
Reyna

"Don't look back and ask why, look forward and ask why not!?" - Unk.

mzmillion

You can check out my vid for the henna melt I did and maybe try that next if you are experimenting with different henna mixes, that is the BEST for me and it did great color.... and the best part, I didn't use that much henna so its cost effective.

For the braids, I did about 12 braids straight back and at the ends I braided those across the bottom and used crochets to hold them in place. In that vid, I did about 7 packs of hair so you don't need a lot. If this is your first time, I suggest buying atleast 10 packs though, just for safety... in case you want them more full or not.

__________________
4a/b hair that fro's more than curls!
Co-Wash: Tressemme', HE, Avon
Leave In: SM Shea Butter Conditioner. SMCH Smoothie
Deep Treat: Avon AT Masks, Henna, Amla, Avanti
Stylers: Aloe Vera Butter, Eco Styler on dry hair, SM products
My Fotki - 1/22
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ReynaCR

For those that may find this thread while searching and want to hear a recent post on applying henna, or for anyone who would like to help me fix a simple issue, this is for you.

Also, thank you so much MzMillion! So far, I love your videos and your cool vibes and find them to be of benefit to me.

I did the following:

Went over various recipes and instructions for mixing and plucked the most benificial info for me. Deciding that color was not so important to me as conditioning, I chose to substitute lemon juice/green tea/ anything acidic for just warm water.

Mixed the following into a PLASTIC bowl:

1. 100 g Jamilla Summer 2009 henna
2. 2 squirts honey
3. 1 1/4 cup warm water (*just before boiling*)
4. 2 tablespoons coconut oil
5. 2 teaspoons sweet almond oil
6. 5 drops rosemary essential oil

I mixed for about 5 to 10 minutes until all the lumps were gone, and I watched the henna mix change rom green to brown to dark brown with red swirls in it.
Then, I wet my freshly washed hair (so it would be damp), applied gloves and went at it, applying everywhere until all areas of my hair were completely covered. I thought this was going to be a mess so my friend placed a whole bunch of newspaper and plastic wrap all over the place. About 15 minutes later she comes in to look, and the place was spotless!! We concluded that maybe only the longhaired curlies have the splattering issues.... With nape length 4b hair, I only used about 1/3 of my mix, so that was the second thing that surprised me. I put the rest of the mix to freeze, and sat for 5 hours.

When I went to wash it out, I conditioner washed 2 times and that was it. The water was clear.
Deep conditioned for an hour and a half with ORS Olive Oil Reconstructing Pak mixed with 10 drops sweet almond oil. Rinsed that out too.

I noticed that my hair did more of a corkscrew clumping (which is shocking, should you ever happen to see a picture of my 'bush head' LMAO) and I got a great brownish color. The thing that confuses me, is how I got such a GREAT dye release after only 15 minutes of mixing, but my hair still feels so dry...

Do you all know of a better deep conditioner for 4b hair? I could care less what the cost is, because I feel like I have tried just about everything around me... except the pricey deep conditioners like miss jessies and carol's daughter, and uncle funky's daughter... but that's only because I have been disappointed by some of their other products with mineral oil, and all kinds of other unknown ingredients.

Also, do you think that I applied the wrong oils to my mix? Please offer any and all sentiments on the sweet almond oil, coconut oil, etc..

Thank you so much for listening, and thank you so much in advance if you plan to respond. I will be patiently waiting !

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Reyna

"Don't look back and ask why, look forward and ask why not!?" - Unk.

ReynaCR

This is a deleted post because it was duplicated.

See above post!

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Reyna

"Don't look back and ask why, look forward and ask why not!?" - Unk.

mzmillion

it sounds like you had a halfway good first time for your hair... dryness happens with henna.... you need to really make sure you condition good to get ALL the stuff out....

mixing oils is what made it possible for me to do the henna, b/c I've learned that I can't do full on herbs in my hair.

As far as Deep Treatments and conditioners, try the banana/mayo one using banana baby food, baking soda conditioner.... rosemary/sage is great in hair.

For in store ones, I don't really know. I use Garnier, Avon, Doo Grow, but they are all just ok. I have the Carols Daughter Hair Smoothie that I don't like, 8oz that it about 90% full, if you want to swap, I also have some other stuff too from her. PM me if you want to try it.

__________________
4a/b hair that fro's more than curls!
Co-Wash: Tressemme', HE, Avon
Leave In: SM Shea Butter Conditioner. SMCH Smoothie
Deep Treat: Avon AT Masks, Henna, Amla, Avanti
Stylers: Aloe Vera Butter, Eco Styler on dry hair, SM products
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Booker Ts Mama

I've finally decided to jump on the henna bandwagon. I will be using it in my hair on Friday. We'll see how this goes...

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ReynaCR

Yay Yay Yay! We will be waiting for you on the 'other side' LOL!

Firstly, I have to say that there is no way my child would let me use his jars lol..

But seriously though -- it looks like the water from the faucet made my hair have a rough, dry texture. I tried washing my hair with a gallon bottled water, and I felt the difference. I'm gonna pass up on the CD right now, and go ahead and try the banana & mayo.

Oh and you know what else? The henna has made my hair more puffy and stretched! I measured my hair two weeks ago and it was 1.5 inches. Then I measured it today and now it's 3 inches! Crazy cool, huh?!

Gotta go, keep in touch!

__________________
Reyna

"Don't look back and ask why, look forward and ask why not!?" - Unk.

twirlygranny

I jumped off the bandwagon after my 2nd henna. I mixed it with amla (which l like) to retain curl. First one was fine but after the 2nd one my curls seemed a bit looser (don't want that). My hair is back to normal after a few months of oily dt's but I won't try it again. Hope it works for you!

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Ninjarette

My next henna will be a two-step process, with indigo applied on top of freshly hennaed hair.

Gotta get rid of the "orange", and I wanna see if I get "black".

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ReynaCR

Okay, cool! I really hope everything turns out just the way you want it. I've been trying to convince someone that you CAN naturally color your grays.

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Reyna

"Don't look back and ask why, look forward and ask why not!?" - Unk.

Booker Ts Mama

I'm in the process of washing the henna out of my hair and I can already tell a big difference in my hair. Here's what I did:

1. I mixed my henna with cinnamon apple herbal tea, honey and castor oil. My mix had the consistency of brownie batter. (I added honey and castor oil after it had sat mixed overnight.

2. Applied henna with gloved hands and let it sit overnight with 2 plastic caps and my satin scarf.

3. I ran a tub full of warm water and dunked my hair. Right away, I can see really defined coils. My hair has never looked like this before!!! I'm so excited!! I already had color on the ends of my hair from my last chemical color back in October. Now, my hair is a really nice shade of red. It's the color I wanted my hair to be but couldn't achieve it with chemical box color.

I'm still in the process of rinsing my hair out, but the results so far are wonderful. Henna, where have you been all my life!!!

Will be back with the final results

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DvaAuNaturel

I did my 2nd henna treatment last night. This time I did the two step process and used indigo on my freshly henna'd hair. My hair is black now...with great grey coverage, that I am very pleased about.

My only concern is that my hair is VERY dry. I did a deep condition after the henna and indigo using AOHR+honey+jojoba+EVOO. I rinsed that out this am and then used some leave in and gel. My hair was looking a little dry after a few hours out running errands so I sprayed my hair w/plain H2O and the water was running down my face blue/green. I must not have gotten all the indigo out so I co-washed again and then used some Oyin Honey Hemp as a leave in, some EVOO, and it stillv looked dry so I added some Qhemet AOHC. My hair still looks dry. I don't know what happened or what to do.

Any advice is appreciated.

__________________

4a, medium texture,low-normal porosity
Fav Products: Oyin Frank Juice; still on quest for others

"As for me & my hair, we are a work in progress"

Ninjarette

I'm doing a second henna tonite, and I'm going to do my indigo tomorrow. I probably don't have enough indigo to do my whole head, so I'm going to get to the roots, and then work my way down till it's gone. Next time, I'll have more indigo. I just HAVE to get rid of these orange roots.

**Update**

Okay...done with applying the henna. It's 12:03 in the morning. I did things a little different, this time:


The Mix

• 1 Pkg Nupur Henna w/9 Herbs
  (I probably need to use 1 1/2 pkgs)
• 1 Tblsp Hair Shebang's Tikka Ayurvedic Oil Blend
  (Sesame, Sweet Almond, Avocado Oils infused with Shikakai, Amla, Brahmi, Methi, Foti Root, Lemon, Neem and Tulsi)
• 1 Tblsp Agave Nectar
• Approx 2 cups Tea

Because I'm sleeping in it again, I decided to follow the suggestion to go with a thicker batter. It's too late to go back thru the thread to thank the wonderful woman who suggested it (I'm exhausted), but if you read this...I do thank you!

I let the mix set, for about and hour and a half, to get some dye release. The dye will continue to release, while on my head for 8 hours.

No drip, and less mess. Great!

I also applied the mixture to almost dry, shampooed and detangled hair. Much less stress on the strands, with the weight of the henna.

Oh...and I decided to use a sulphate shampoo, just to get rid of some product buildup. I used Queen Helene's Smoothing Shampoo. I don't know if the henna already in my hair had anything to do with it, but this shampoo cleaned my hair, without stripping, and it didn't dry "hard". I did one shampoo.

Tomorrow, I'll rinse with water, and apply a mixture of indigo, warm water and a bit of salt to the roots, primarily...I don't think 100 gms of indigo is enough for my hair, not if the batter is thick. So, I'll get as much of the ends as I can, but it's more important for me to get RID of the orange. Next time, I'll have more indigo on hand.

We'll see how it turns out....

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coilynapp

to the bolded purple that was me glad it worked better for you this time

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Ninjarette

Yes! Thank You!

The Results...
Here's the henna, just rinsed, after 7 hours. The second henna produced a deeper red/orange than the first application. Progress! After rinsing out the henna, I immediately applied the indigo (I let it set for about 10 minutes, while I detangled).



With the Indigo...
I left it on for 2 hours



Rinsed out the indigo, and co-washed with Queen Helene's Smoothing Conditioner...LOVE that stuff!

I got what I wanted....no more orange hair. I didn't have enough indigo to do all the way down to my ends, but it looks REALLY good...the highlights (from the henna) are wonderful! I didn't want "ink black" hair. I'll have the final color results after it all oxidizes. But, I'm happy.

I went to one of my "standbys" for conditioning, Creme of Nature's Moisture Extreme Conditioner. My hair is saran-wrapped up. I'll leave this on till tomorrow, then I'll rinse and braid for a braidout.

Success!

Thanks again to Ekua, of AyurNatural Beauty for the great Nupur and Indigo! I'm so happy!

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lisa6

NEA, I use henna and indigo also, but it's been quite a while since my last application. I've never added salt, and I can't recall what the benefit of the salt is. Please help refresh my memory.

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4a fine, thin, high porosity
Poo: SM Y&B, BT TT
C: HE Reconditioning, Suave Almond and Shea
DC: CJ CR, CJ RM
LI: JC DT
Curl Cream: RN BWCC, CJ CCCC
Gel: CJ AFG
Refresher: SM Thickening Mist, SM Y&A Milk, CJ CIAB
Moisturizer: CJ SL, SM CES

Ninjarette

It darkens the indigo and helps it "stick" to the henna.

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ReynaCR

Wow.. pretty!!

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Reyna

"Don't look back and ask why, look forward and ask why not!?" - Unk.