Mixing indigo and henna

AllyT · 03-16-2011, 05:29 PM

Any tips? I'm a little worried - I've hennaed, but I want a darker brunette result. My mom laughed when I told her I was putting indigo on my hair, asking me if was going for blue.

If the henna I use has metallic salts, there shouldn't be a problem mixing it with indigo, right? That's only if I have chemical dyes in my hair? I don't know if it's "pure" or not, but it's a cheaper one I want to use up before switching to a higher quality one.

What concentrations did you use? Did you still get red tones in your hair?

jenny curl · 03-22-2011, 02:12 PM

I'm experimenting with henndigo for the first time this weekend. If you have hennaed before then it shouldn't be much different. Taking the extra step to mix the indigo with water and then add it to the henna is really it. What color is your hair right now? Mine is medium brown with a little bit of red undertones from previous henna.

What do you mean by using henna with metallic salts? Where are you purchasing your henna? I think its always important to use good BAQ henna, regardless of the few extra dollars that you would spend. If I were you, I wouldn't use it unless it's BAQ and fresh.

I plan on using a mix of 50/50 henna and indigo, because no matter how dark it turns out, I would be fine with it. I also read somewhere that indigo fades, unlike henna. So I wouldn't be too worried....

AllyT · 03-22-2011, 04:35 PM

Hi, Jenny. I was wondering how your hair turned out as I knew you bought indigo, too. I have Rainbow henna as I read about a poster having good results with it here. It's not BAQ henna, and as I did more reading, I regretted not reading up first. Though, I didn't have trouble w/Rainbow causing intereactions on my previously dyed hair. So I don't think it contains anything bad. It is not finely sifted and it doesn't give gray coverage as much as some of the other brands I read about here. I'm going to get mehandi.com henna once this is all gone, but I still have a jar and a half left (I have short hair and I typically do mine as a rinse so I don't get tons of red).

This time, I used henna full-force, only mixing it with water and a touch of lemon. I used about a 1/8 tsp. of indigo to 3 tbsp. henna, as I don't want black hair, just slightly darker results. It turned out well. The 1st day, I didn't notice a difference other than my grays were brown. But, henna darkens over a 3 day period, I forgot. I definitely have more of a dark brown, less red head. I started out a medium reddish brown. I didn't want darker hair exactly, just more gray coverage and less red, and like you, would be ok with black. I didn't know indigo faded - if I'd have known that, I would've been more liberal with it!

jenny curl · 03-23-2011, 06:54 AM

I'm glad that it worked out for you. I was only going to use a touch of indigo with my mix, but RCW said that with my medium brown hair, I would need more indigo for it to even show. I wanted to henndigo this afternoon but I'm still waiting on my henna to arrive ((taps foot))....getting impatient!

I plan to do it this weekend, maybe Saturday. I'm really hoping that it comes out dark with the 50/50. I was contemplating doing the henna first and then the indigo (hennaforhair.com says that you will get very black hair by doing it this way) but honestly I barely have enough patience for the henna! LOL. I will take pictures and post them this weekend after my experiment!