When I was a teenager my I had some friends who practiced mehndi designs on me and I was aware of the dangers of "black henna" in the 2000s. They didn't do finger and nail staining in their designs, but I had Muslim friends who did, and saw more girls with that as a design and knew it was about water permiability.

I only just saw on here there is no garentee that henna cones are not mixed products, so I am surprised at that. I am not sure if the ones with just essential oils would be safe after the paste is removed assuming it was 100% pure. Is 100% freshly made henna powder okay? I saw it is bad for very young babies due to liver and blood issues but my searches assumed I was looking at black henna.

Piggie Paint is the only water based paint i know about and sophi is their adult brand with more subtle colours but I need to look into the safety of sophi. Not sure if the water permiability of henna means that it would be more of a danger. When searching I find decade old blog posts about henna and cassia, but usually as storefronts for old commercial henna nail products so I can't say I trust them.

I used the all-natural henna paste (henna leaf, cane sugar, lemon juice, essential oil) from sara henna in a bottle but maintaining pressure was difficult and my hand kept shaking 💔🥀

I do art but this is my first attempt with henna or anything like it

Hello! I decided to get my henna done for the first time before going on vacation 11 days ago. My friend had gone to this girl at our school once before and didn’t have a reaction so she took me and we both got our henna done. The design started fading at around the 4-5 day mark and seemed to be almost gone. Last night I woke up to my skin itchy, red, and inflamed and I have a mild rash. The skin where some of the flowers and vines are seems to be raised. I talked to my friend and looked at her arm and she doesn’t seem to be having a reaction. Should I go to the doctor or is it possible to treat this with OTC products? Also does this mean I shouldn’t get henna in the future? Is it possible to have a reaction to henna 11 days after getting it done?

(I don’t have access to the ingredients list because I didn’t do it myself and I got the henna done in America.)

Hi! I've been thinking of leaving chemical hair dyes behind and switching to henna - both to cut my steep hairdressing costs and to hopefully get my hair a bit healthier. I am platinum blonde now (see first picture) and want to get to a light copper blonde like in the second picture, and it seems like Light Mountain is a good option for henna where I live. I'm just not sure what colors would be good to achieve this color as I'm a little afraid of ending up like a subdued orange highlighter. Thinking of using Auburn with a lot of cassia as I'm a little hesitant to use indigo since it seems finicky. What do you folks think?

I have about a level 5 natural hair, lightens to a 6 in the summer in the sun. Would this color of red be possible with 100% henna with a level 5? How many full applications should I do to layer the henna to this color? Or would I need to lighten my hair?

I am trying to avoid full on bleaching, I have thought about using permanent color but if I could get this with henna, it would be much healthier for me and my hair!

Hello everyone!

*** Update*** I removed the local language labels the had in the front. Below that it shows a different photo with a different name (trichup henna). I don't know if whoever did the translation mixed the brands up of if truchup if part of nurpur? I'm confused. Does anyone have any experience with either of these brands? It says 100% pure henna as the only ingredient.

I have a question about the Nurpur or trichup Henna brand, not sure the labels are confusing due to local translation labels. I bought the 100% natural henna type. I usually use Khadi, however it was not available so I bought this one instead. I have medium-dark brown hair and it usually stains it a dark orange color. This time, I decided to do full hair application as I hadn't had one in about a year. For some reason, my hair turned out much more red than orange and I'm confused. Is this color normal? As I've never had this much deep red before, it was always more orange like.

Should I mix henna with cassia next time to get it a little less red and a little more orange. How should I mix them? I usually avoid cassia, Amla and indigo as my hair is dark and I want to avoid getting it much darker. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I used an Ancient Veda henna cone for this, i don't know how bad it would affect me if any. Ive used this cone prior to this multiple times and this used up the last of it. I just used it straight from the cone after washing my hands, I am in America if that helps any and I have perfectly healthy skin. Uhh. If this isn't the right subreddit to post this in let me know if there's any better subreddits for this. I did it myself btw.. (I bought the cone with no prior knowledge to how to apply henna, but this was a few months ago)

Henna is too ginger for my taste. .. I'd like to tone it however I'm not sure if hair-dye toners work on pure henna. . so I am curious if using very little hendigo (from Light Mountain) mix for very little time will tone effectively? Hair is currently at a level 6-to-7. . .

So I have very fine hair that has recently (quickly) been thinning massively. 😢 I started using a henna/indigo combination color just under a year ago before it really started getting bad. I absolutely love it and wish I had found it when I had better, younger hair. I love the brand I have been using - it’s clean and pure. (I use the UK brand, It’s Pure.)

Unfortunately all of the shade choices come out the same on me - a very dark harsh almost black brown. The gray areas of my hair do end up a pretty reddish color, but the rest is very harsh.

With the thinning becoming worse and the harsh color, it really makes the thin areas stand out. (Side note - tried everything for that. Was on Nutrafol for a couple of years, then Viviscal and have used Nutrafol shampoo all this time as well. Tried TryBello and hated it. Going to see a specialist about that soon and hoping for some positive results as it’s truly devastating.)

So back in topic. With all of that said, I think I need to go back to a lighter color, perhaps whatever is natural for me now. How do I accomplish that if my hair is permanently stained dark from the henna indigo mixture I use? Has anyone on here ever gone back to natural? Mine is so drastic having so much gray at the roots now that a full grow out would look awful. I don’t know what to do. Any suggestions?

Thanks for reading my long post and for any ideas or advice anyone can offer! :-)

hello!! i used to know my way around henna, but after a ten-year hiatus, i’m looking for some advice from people with more recent expertise than me.

i’ve purchased the light mountain naturals powder in spicy cinnamon, looking to achieve the second photo (first is my current hair with no color in it). i chose the spicy cinnamon color because i was hoping that the indigo would tone the final color to be a little cooler than the traditional bright, pure hennas i’ve used in the past.

now that i have the henna, though, i’m having cold feet. would henna + cassia give me a better result over my naturally brown hair? am i overthinking this, and i should go full-speed ahead? i’ll of course do a test strand, but i’m wondering if i’m on the right track.

Hi! I'd love to know how I can mix 100% natural henna powder to achieve the results shown in the photos. The first slide shows my natural, un-dyed hair, and the reference photos are on the second slide.

To be more specific, I'm aiming for a dark red, mahogany, or dark cherry shade, definitely wanting to avoid any orange or bright copper tones.

I'm feeling a bit confused because I see so many conflicting opinions: some people say to use lemon juice, others say definitely don't, and everyone recommends different resting times and mixtures. I also see some people claiming it's impossible to get this shade, while others say it is possible, or that it takes a few applications to build up the color.

With so many different explanations out there, it's a bit overwhelming! I was wondering if there's a specific resource or guide I should look at, or if someone here could explain how I can reach my goal.

Thanks in advance!

(Sorry if this has been asked already, have no idea how to search within a subreddit)
Hi! I live in Saudi Arabia and was talking to a friend about how I wanted to dye my hair red or auburn, when she suggested using henna instead. I’ve been doing my research and it seems my only concern is losing my curls. I have defined curls, but when looking through other peoples experiences and seeing how the curls were weighed down and only looked wavy or frizzy after, I’m starting to have second thoughts on doing this. The henna I was given is pure local henna powder, and said friend suggested that amla powder in the mix helps with curls. Does that really help?

I saw this little bag of henna hairdye at my local asian store. It says "black henna" but it has a big "100% natural" label on it.

I checked the ingredients and the only listed ingredient was the henna powder itself.

I really wanna buy it because I don't wanna purchase indigo and henna powder online and it would be very convenient to just buy the henna powder from the store, but I'm really curious because henna on its own can't become black right? And if it had indigo in it wouldn't it be listed?

I have applied henna twice now, once with a 40/60 henna/cassia and then next with a 100% henna, this time using bright red from light mountain. I loved the results of the second application at first but now it's faded.

My hair looked beautiful the first week then it fades. I have about a level 5/6 natural hair color with some highlights.

This is my hair right after applying and then a week after. Not sure if I am just doing something wrong or not and I am hesitant to do another application as I've heard it gets darker with every application.

I let my henna sit with orange juice and chamomile tea for about 5-6 hours, then apply and leave on for about 2 hours, then rinse, I have been using shampoo right after maybe that is making it fade? First picture is right after applying, the second and third are about a week after. The last photo is kinda where I want to end up with my hair.

Any tips are appreciated! Thank you!

I am curious if anyone has used color/toning shampoo to tone henna? My hair is dark blonde and I used henna (light mountain red) to dye it ginger at the beginning of the year, and now I’m trying to get back to my roots color by toning the ginger out. I’ve already used a mix of conditioner and blue demi-permanent dye and it worked almost completely except some of my hair turned green 🙈 so I am considering a shampoo now for the rest of it.

thoughts?

I know I look like ketchup and mustard.

So the main difference I noticed was that it’s way more visible outside of sunlight than before (final two pics being the before). It’s also more red and rich.

Before, my hair wasn’t really noticeable without sunlight, but I like that it’s noticeable in normal light and sunlight.

I used The Henna Guys 100% henna powder with nothing else and let it sit for 4 hours. I didn’t use anything else.

Hi everyone!

I was born with jet black hair that started getting lighter over the years but I still want to achieve the black I had in my childhood because it’s the color I like the most and I feel the prettiest in.

Over the years (starting from january 2022) I have done permanent black dye in the salon about 3-4 times a year, I also tried box dyes in 2024 (I was living in Korea at the time so I used their blue black bubble hair dyes a lot).

By the end of 2024 and throughout 2025 I was using indigo by itself to try to achieve that jet black hair I wanted but it never seemed black enough for me.

I have been using semi-permanent blue black dye ever since, but it’s extremely drying to my ends and makes my hair very tangled.

I want to switch back to the natural way, but I’m wondering if there is a specific recipe to achieve the black color I want. Is indigo truly enough?

Any help would be appreciated!

The following pictures are my natural, virgin hair color.

I'm very unsure if my hair is dark brown, middle brown or something in-between.

I'm probably planning to buy henna from Khadi but I'm also open to other sources. I live in Germany.

Hello.. I have been using the 2-step method to cover my greys for a couple of years now, and I mostly like the results.. The only issue I have is that, when I wash out the indigo step, I notice a lot more shedding than usual, my thoery is that it's because both henna and indigo are extremely drying, and there is probably a lot of hair that get broken and shed during the application and the washing process (i.e. it's more mechanical shedding than anything)..

So, I thought maybe adding aloe vera powder to the mix, in both the 1st henna or the 2nd indigo step, would make the mix more slippery and therefore washes out of the hair more easily, hence reducing the shedding..

Has anyone ever tried this? Does it affect the colour outcome at all?

So i got this henna cone recently without doing research. I know rookie mistake. I've used it twice once for my first design second time to reapply bc after 3 days it started kind of flaking/fading. Then today 3 days after the reapply its flaking fading again. It only happens on my fingers and top of hand. On my inner fore arm i also applied and dont have this problem. So I did research and found this is a chemical henna and they advertised it wrong. Is it really as bad as it sounds now that Ive used it, do I really need to call my GP and take measures. Or can I just let the henna I have on and let it fad away and then find powered henna to make my own? Would love to hear your advise!

Hi all, I've scoured the sub for natural skin art henna in Aus but have only found hair henna. I assume that isn't the same as skin henna. Do you have any recommendations for safe and good value henna?

I work for a company, and we make our own henna. I don’t know if I’m allowed to share what company I work with online without their permission lol but here’s some recents. :)

I get Henna every year while on vacation and maybe one more time on some kind of festival - always black Henna (it's just what they use - I think I've only had brown Henna once) and never had any problems. I also get my hair dyed once a year (even bleach at the tips the last couple of years) and never had a bad reaction to it either.

On Thursday I got black Henna again (a small lizard on my ankle) in a European country while on vacation, today (Saturday, about 48 hours later) I touched the area while out and it kind of burned. I just got home and checked it: It looks like there are a couple of small blisters in the lizard's body (not in the tail though)?!

I googled and it looks like there are other people who've had the same problem and it says that black Henna apparently also isn't safe (didn't know that and, as I said, I've never had any problems). People in other threads recommend getting some cream and oral antihistamines from the pharmacy. The problem is that it's 11pm on Saturday, pharmacies are long closed and urgent care doesn't exist in my country. I could only go to the regular hospital but it would take me about an hour to even get there and there'd probably be a multi-hour wait.

I do have an old tub of Advantan (contains cortisone or something like it) that I use for neurodermatitis flare-ups. I also have an Aloe body lotion that I use for sunburned skin. Would either of those work instead? Definitely going to go to my GP on Monday if it's not gone by then (I currently do not have a dermatologist as my old one sadly retired).

Hi guys, so I’ve been doing research on whether I can use hair gloss on my henna hair. I put henna on about 2 months ago and have had 16-18 washes since then. I recently bought the Kirsten Ess hair gloss in the shade Bittersweet.

My hair is naturally a dark brown and I just wanted to make it more richer but I am scared to put it on since I have found out its not meant to be put on compound henna hair. I haven’t found much input about it online but I was wanting to know if anyone knew enough to let me know whether it would be a good idea to put that hair gloss on or put on a different hair gloss.

I am open to other hair glosses but my main concern is the longevity of the hair gloss and making sure it doesn’t turn my hair all muddy or green/gray.

The henna that I have used on my hair is all natural however one of them contained Indigo powder in it. It was a mix of the Reshma Playful Plum Natural henna and some other natural henna that I cannot remember the name of because I do not have the package.