Au Naturelle

Before I cut my hair two years ago I used to henna it; naively, I used only red henna and didn't know I could add other things to it to change it from a very orange colour to my natural red-gold, so for a few years, I had really technicolour hair. This was fine as I was wearing vintage clothing and it 'matched.' I could only leave it on my hair for about five or ten minutes, and even that was pretty strong.

But when I cut my hair, donating the 27" to Locks of Love, I gave up on all that. I had found some Marigolde Blonde henna (cassia, chammomile and calendula) and thought to 'fade to blonde' as I have about 30% 'grey' (it's white, actually), but I could never get it to work, even leaving it on for an hour. I was annoyed because it worked when added to the mix of a brunette friend of mine (half and half with red henna) to cover her grey. What was wrong with me? I know that natural red hair doesn't take dye very well, but this is henna! and red henna takes on my hair like a house on fire.

Then I read that cassia, so called neutral henna, needs something to stick to, so add some red. Being really depresed by beige hair, or sandy, if you prefer (which is what my red had faded to, as most natural redheads) I thought I would try again. It worked. I have something very close to my natural colour now, with 'strawberry blonde' streaks where my white is. I am happy that I can use this formula forever with progressivly less red (it's only a tablespoonfull now) and fade to blonde. I also read that the dye in cassia (which is pale gold) releases better if it's let to sit overnight, which may be why my first attempts were unsuccessful.

For those of you who are not redheads, you can mix red henna with indigo and cassia to achieve shades from light brown to black. If you are a cool blonde or brunette, add amla (this fixes the problem of henna reducing natural curl as well.)

Some recipes below:

Pale gold (to lighter colours and white)- 100% cassia
Marigold Blonde- 1/3 henna, 2/3 cassia
Copper- ½ henna, ½ cassia
Red- 100% henna
Light Brown- 2/3 henna. 1/3 indigo
Medium Brown- ½ henna, ½ indigo
Burgundy- 2/3 henna, 1/3 indigo
Mahogany- 1/3 henna, 2/3 indigo
Sherry- ¼ henna, 3/4 indigo
Black- two step henna, indigo process

Update 6 October 2010:
I am now using a mixture of marigold blonde henna (cassia, chammomile and marigold) and rhubarb, mostly the latter, so my hair is much more gold than red. Now people call me a strawberry blonde, and I agree with them.