Henna...

I decided to dye my hair black with henna today. Hoping to reap all the other added benefits at the same time.

Some of the benefits:
* antibacterial/anti-fungal
* helps prevent dandruff & itching scalp
* adds strength & nourishes hair

The brand I used is called Glory, thanks to the recommendation of a friend (who also happened to be the one who bought it for me). It came very neatly packaged and with instructions. It said to mix with water, not to let the mixture sit for long as it would be less effective and to leave on the hair for not less than 30 minutes.

I know there are a number of henna "recipes" out there, for example, mixing it with black tea instead of water, mixing in oils etc.. I decided to stick to the instructions just so I could gauge how effective it would be.

The powder looked greenish & had a very earthy scent - smelt almost like dried okra to me! You get used to the scent after you've had it in for a while.

A lot of people also tend to struggle with the application of henna which they say gets very messy. I went in with the plan of mixing into a thick paste to avoid all of that, and found the application quick and trouble free. I let it sit until my hair was dry, which was about an hour and a half. Rinsed it out in the shower, applied conditioner for about 10 minutes and voila.

I'm very happy with the results, my hair is jet black and I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to colour their hair at home.

Have any of you used henna to colour your hair and was it successful?  Do you use it as a conditioning treatment to add strength to your hair, and how often do you use it?