Henna for hair: shades for dark hair

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Lawsonia (Lawsonia inermis L) is a popular plant in countries with a long history such as India and Iran. Some African countries have not given up using it either. It is from its leaves that a powder known as henna for hair is made. Shades of sunny red and reddish gamma can be obtained using some tricks, but the beneficial properties of this procedure have been known for a long time.

In hair dyeing, the lower leaves of Lawsonia are used to obtain variations of a beautiful color. For the now gaining popularity mehndi (body coloring), the upper ones are taken, with the most intense ability to give a bright reddish-red spectrum.

Features of use

Henna for hair gives different shades when mixed with other natural ingredients. But not all women who use natural dye to treat hair and give it a beautiful look are aware of this. The lines of various henna-based colors presented by cosmetic lines do not always correspond to the beautiful color on the box, hence the common misconception about the limited possibilities of natural paint and the widespread opinion about its instability.

But with the help of this tool, you can achieve different options (in much the same way, the artist achieves the desired tone, mixing the 7 basic colors of the rainbow).

The result of the reaction may depend on the condition of the hair, the duration of the dyeing procedure and the initial color. All this must be taken into account when working with dark or blond hair.

If the shade constantly turns out to be dissimilar to the sample on the bright box of the henna line from the manufacturer, you can try another one, or, using a natural powder mixed with other ingredients, prepare it yourself.

It should be remembered that even the most natural and versatile remedy has certain disadvantages:

• frequent use of henna makes the hair heavier and deprives it of volume (it must be handled carefully by owners of thin hair trying to create the appearance of a lush mop);
• excessive use dries and leads to the destruction of the hair structure, therefore there is a certain frequency that must be observed;
• henna does not paint over gray hair, because in gray hair the color pigment with which it interacts is partially or completely absent;
• blonde hair can radically change its color, but for dark hair, the use of pure henna gives only a shade, and its intensity and tone depend not only on additional natural ingredients, but also on the original color.

This is easy to verify by looking at various photos before and after the cosmetic procedure. The instructions indicate that henna does not help if the gray hair in the hair is more than 30%, but even with a smaller amount, if the coloring was done incorrectly, the gray hair will treacherously shine through with a lighter or insufficiently dyed array.

Application secrets

The centuries-old use of Lawsonia leaf paint has led to experimentation with color schemes and effective recipes. But in each case, especially if the paint is applied to dark hair, you can remember the initial data of the experiment, and after taking a photo, study the result before and after the procedure.

If you get the desired one, you can simply repeat the color with the recommended frequency, and gradually achieve a stable color.

But for dark hair, only an intense shade is real, and not a radically altered color:

• the tone of red cherry is obtained from a mixture of henna powder and heated beetroot juice (it will have a purple hue);
• intense cherry gives the addition of natural red wine, also warmed up to + 60⁰;
• mahogany is obtained by adding cocoa (it is mixed with henna and poured with water before applying to clean hair;
• black and chestnut are obtained by mixing henna and basma in a 1: 3 ratio (here the result depends on the original color, and a beautiful chestnut will also come from the added ground coffee);
• a shade of cinnamon is the result of using a nut shell (if you take its leaves, you get chocolate);
• if your hair is not very dark, you can get a muted copper shade by mixing cinnamon, turmeric and ginger with Iranian henna powder and black tea, and letting them brew.

Unlike chemical reagents that are part of factory dyes, henna does not weaken the hair, but heals it. It colors the structure without penetrating into the base pigment and destroying it, as chemical paints do. Lavsonia only envelops, creating additional tones and semitones of a reddish-orange scale.

By mixing it with other components, you can achieve a variety of shades, but the result obtained always depends on the basic tone of the hair.

This is due to the fact that in other circumstances it is considered the main advantage of a natural dye that such a dye does not destroy the hair structure and does not kill keratin, but interacts with it. If a chemical paint was used before, the shade can turn out to be anything, and it is impossible to predict the result.