Henna bar: Tips and results

Henna bar: tips and results

2/12/2018

You want to change your hair color, but don't want the damage of chemical hair dye? Henna is the natural solution for you!
It colors without changing the hair fiber and doesn't cause any damage. It's like a filter that doesn't clog hair or sclap.

For more information on henna and coloring plants, click here!

I love using it to vary my natural color and especially for the luster it gives to my hair! It is a very effective care in itself.

Here is my experience with solid henna. For a chocolate brown without red highlights.
Review before/after pictures at the end!

Most henna is sold as a powder to mix with water. The one I tested is solid. It's Lush henna.
The henna powder is mixed with cocoa butter, which gives it its rigidity and allows it to hold in bar. From one color to another, the ingredients change to give more tones and highlights. The other ingredients are also derived from plants and natural.
I decided to equalize my color and darken without red highlights. So I bought black henna and brown henna.
Don't be surprised by the wacky name of Lush's henna, it's start with "caca" wich mean poop in french! So, I have the "black poop" and the "brown poop".

ingredients

Since I am very picky in what I buy, I always consult the ingredients list first. I make sure they are really natural and safe for the environment and health. I also make sure the products aren't tested on animals. When I do not see the magic label "not tested on animals", I do not buy! I don't want to contribute to martyrize animals by giving my money to companies that their quote is "profits before life".
Unlike many other products that Lush sells, their henna is 100% natural, healthy and environmentally friendly.

Here is the list of ingredients in detail, for black and brown henna.

Black henna

Indigofera Tinctoria Extract: Blue-purple henna (shrub leaves)
Theobroma Cacao Seed Butter
Lawsonia Inermis Extract: Red-orange henna (shrub leaves)
Condrus Crispus Extract: Seaweed extract for viscosity.
Eugenia Caryophyllus Leaf (clove) Oil
Citral, Eugenol, Geraniol, Citronellol, Limonene, Linalool: Various odoriferous extracts.

Brown henna

Theobroma Cacao Seed Butter
Indigofera Tinctoria Extract: Blue-purple henna (shrub leaves)
Lawsonia Inermis Extract: Red-orange henna (shrub leaves)
Coffea Arabica Extract
Urtica Dioica Extract: Nettle extract, packs and tones the skin and scalp.
Condrus Crispus Extract: Seaweed extract for viscosity.
Eugenia Caryophyllus Leaf (clove) Oil
Citral, Eugenol, Geraniol, Citronellol, Limonene, Linalool: Various odoriferous extracts.

The Lawsonia Inermis (orange-red) is always in henna mixtures, because it's the one that fixes the color and makes it last. This is why Indigofera Tinctoria (purple-blue) appears in mixtures of all brown and black henna. In the chromatic circle, when two complementary colors are mixed, they neutralize each other. The purplish-blue color neutralizes orange-red tints, giving darker colors with less reddish tints. Simply make sure that the amount of Indigofera is greater than the Lawsonia (appears first in the ingredients list).

before

I tried solid henna with a friend. She had ombré hair (her natural color at the root to a dark blonde with red highlights). The bottom of her hair was blonde due to past bleach. After that, she dyed them with brown chimical dye (the same color as her roots). This color has faded a lot since a year, that's why there's red highlights.
She didn't know what to do with her hair and definitely wanted to leave the chemical dyes because of the unfortunately unavoidable damages. Then, I told her about the natural hair dye, henna, that I had already tried and appreciated. But, this time, it was a first for solid henna bar.

In my life, I used many chimical dyes and bleaches and had different colors. Natural with blond highlights, black, black and purple, platinum blond, platinum blond and black, purple, red, orangey red, brown. You will understand that I ended up having very brittle and harsh hair! Which doesn't help me, because I naturally have thin hair. When I bleached them in platinum blonde, they became so brittle that they shortened by about 6 inches / 15cm!

My last chemical dye was 3 years ago and was a warm brown. I don't think I will ever come back to these chemicals. They are bad for the health, for the environment, they are, for the most part, tested on the animals and destroy the hair completely!
After this brown, I died my hair with a mixture of neutral and black Aroma-Zone henna to neutralize the warm highlights and have my natural color back. It worked a while, but since the bottom of my hair is damaged by the past chimical dyes and bleaches, the color tends to fade faster.

Before making the Lush henna, my roots were my natural hair and the bottom was a chestnut with mixed of red and blonde highlights. That's why I wanted to equalize and darken them at the same time.

Make sure to reduce the solid henna in the finest pieces possible to make the mixing easier and avoid lumps. Then, you have to add hot water to melt the cacao butter.

no red highlights tip

If you want a color without red or orange tints and you have a henna with Indigofera, I suggest you to add sea salt to your preparation. Sodium helps to fix indigo better on the hair.

application

To equalize my friends color, we mixed some hot water + 1 square of brown + 1/2 square of black for her roots and 1 teaspoon of sea salt + hot water + 1/2 square of brown + 1 square of black for the bottom of her hair.

For me, I mixed 1 tsp. sea salt + hot water + 2 squares of black + 2 squares of brown all over my hair.

We let it sit for about 3 to 4 hours. The recommended minimum is 2 hours, but you can also keep it overnight to enjoy the care of henna and cocoa butter.

Here are our results after a small cut and the first coloring with henna in bar

results

We loved our experience with the henna bar, especially the result! The bottom of my friends hair is better than what we expected! Her color was practically uniform after only one henna. The following week, we did another to fix the color.
Result at the end!

review - lush henna bar

Strengths:

Not tested on animals. Like almost all henna and truely natural product brands. THANK YOU!
Packaging made out of 100% recycled material. YEAH!
Divinely good smell, thanks to essential oils and cocoa butter! The smell is more pleasant than the henna powder by itself.
Cocoa butter nourishes the hair during the leave in time. Which makes this henna a double care.
Result as desired with the brown and black mixed.
The hair is lustrous, stronger and bulkier. Just like henna powder.

Weaknesses:

We must shampoo after the leave in time because of the oils in this henna and the greasy effect they would leave on the hair. With oil-free powdered henna, it is not necessary to use shampoo, because henna is a plant that naturally cleanses and removes sebum.
Oxidation go faster because of the hot water need to melt the cocoa butter. This can interfere to fix the color properly. Don't delay applying it!
When rinsing, the oils adhere to the walls of the bath, or the sink which makes cleaning harder.
Longer to prepare, because we have to grind or finely chop the part we need to use.