Predicting Henna Hair Colour

What henna hair colour will I get with henna and indigo ? It’s not just about auburn hair colouring.

To predict henna hair colour you need to understand how henna works, what it does, and what it does with  indigo. The pictures below will help you to understand how henna works on different hair colours. But the only sure fire way to predict what henna hair colour you will get with henna and  indigo is by doing a strand test. This is especially important if you have blonde or ash colour hair. You’ll see some strand test results in our Henna Hair Dye Reviews Gallery which you can access via the menu link at the top of this page. You’ll see that whilst henna is its own right a henna auburn hair dye, it’s not just about natural auburn hair colouring. Henna dye colours hair a different shade of auburn henna red depending on your starting colour. The lighter the hair colour base you’re starting with the more intense henna auburn you’ll go ! Conversely, the darker your starting colour, the more subtle your henna hair dye shade will be. YES, IT’S IN STOCK : Visit our Henna Shop to BUY your henna auburn hair dye.

 

henna hair colour, Renaissance Henna, photo of Asian woman wearing pastel blue long ethnic dress, touching her long brown hair glowing in the sunlight
Henna hair colour for beautiful, healthy hair

Henna & Indigo

Henna and indigo will always make your hair colour darker, not lighter. Your henna hair colour is determined by your starting colour. Henna will slightly deepen darker hair colours and will add mild red low lights to your hair. On lighter hair colours the henna colour will be much more noticeable. You’ll get auburn hair colour on light brown hair and chestnut brown tones with red lowlights on darker brown hair. Blonde hair will turn fiery red. Grey hair will go orange red, and you’ll need to use indigo after the henna to tone it down to brown, through to black. Indigo after henna will always get you to brown within 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Indigo after henna will get you to black within 50 minutes to 1 hour. We recommend our henna hair colour starter kit for your first time application,which comes with everything you need, including a very detailed Instructions Booklet to answer all of your questions and guide you through the first time application process.

If you’re a blonde hair colour and you’re looking for some fiery auburn red hair colour streaks, have a look at Carly’s friend photos in the Blonde Hair Colour Gallery photos where Carly has highlighted blonde hair with red highlight henna streaks.

 

curly haired woman with long henna hair colour holding a plant and blowing
auburn henna hair colour

 

With pure henna you will get translucent auburn henna hair colour colour that binds to your own hair colour. It’s slightly mysterious. And it’s extremely beautiful. It takes 48 hours for the colours to adjust to their final hair colour shade, determined by your body chemistry alone. Henna and indigo are first and foremost a beautiful philosophy because the fact that you’ve embraced them means that you’ve walked away from dangerous chemical hair dyes.

How to Predict Henna Hair Colour

To predict henna and indigo colour, follow the strand test instructions in the Renaissance Henna Hair Colour Kit. Cut a few strands of hair from the nape of your neck or ask your hairdresser to save some hair for testing. Whilst a  strand test will give you a prediction of your henna hair colour it won’t give you the full picture which you will only get with a  full hair application. It may be to do with body temperature, and the fact that henna is a “changing hair colour” which means that the colour oxidises during a period of approximately 48 hours and adjusts differently and uniquely on real hair on real heads fired up by the warmth of beating hearts. You don’t get all that in a strand test. A henna hair application is a unique experience. Something that everyone on the planet should try at least once in their lifetime.

 

woman wearing sunglasses with beautiful long dark henna indigo hair colour
henna indigo hair colour

What hair colour will you get with pure henna?

On darker hair shades like black and brown, you’ll get a subtle deeper hair tone which enhances your own natural hair colour and shimmers in the light. The natural henna hair dye gives colour which is natural to you, so the end result will always be unique to you. On lighter hair colours like blonde and ash hair colour, the results will be more dramatic, but still beautifully natural. Just henna, used alone, will give you deep auburn hair colour on lighter starting colours .

The key notes of pure henna are:  auburn, burnt red,  and rust red hair colour tones. And you can tone down henna red to a brown or black hair colour with indigo. Even if you’ve previously used hair dyes, you’ll still get beautifully blended hair colour which is totally unique to you. You’ll need to explore the  Henna Hair Colour Gallery  to grasp how it all works.  Whether it’s funky hair colour or natural hair colour you’re after, you will get translucent colour that shimmers in the sun and reflects light. You may even come to think of them as the safest hair dye brand nature has to offer.

 

Natural Henna Hair Colour, brown and dark blonde hair colour swatches
Your henna hair colour will vary according to your starting colour and powder ratios
Henna hair colour brown
Henna hair colour on brown hair
henna hair colour copper
Copper henna hair colour on blonde hair
henna hair colour dark brown
henna hair colour on black hair
Pure Henna adds striking or mild auburn undertones depending on your starting colour
Pure Henna slightly deepens your existing hair colour and pushes lighter hair colours to the red auburn spectrum  and darker hair colours to brown with mild auburn undertones. What’s your auburn ?

Understanding the Henna Hair Colour Gallery Photos

Take a look at the Hair Colour Gallery photos  where you’ll see the results of henna and indigo strand tests. See if you can identify the closest match to your natural hair colour. You’ll also see before and after henna hair colour photos on all hair colours including grey hair. You’ll see that henna and indigo on grey hair on a black hair colour achieves 100% coverage.

 

plant dye hair strand test results: burgundy, auburn and brown natural hair colour
Plant dye hair strand tests

To achieve darker hair colour shades you will leave the indigo in your hair for different lengths of time. You may want to do 2 or 3 strand tests at a time, leaving the indigo in for 15-20 mins, 35-45 mins, and an hour+. You can leave it in longer – the longer it’s in for, the darker it goes. Detailed instructions and lots of helpful information is in the Booklet which accompanies  the  Natural Hair Colour Starter Kit.

How Often Should I Colour My Hair ? / How long does henna / indigo last ?

How long does it take for your new roots to grow through? How quickly does your henna hair colour seem to fade? That’s the only way to gauge the timing of repeat applications. When you use henna and indigo hair colour you’ll see that they work like permanent hair colour. If you have grey hair or a light hair colour shade then you’ll notice the difference in colour as your roots start to show new hair growth. How fast your roots show may vary from 2 weeks to 6 or even 8 weeks; it depends how fast your hair grows. We recommend  a full head application each time your roots start to show. The more you apply henna and indigo hair colour, the more the colour builds up and the longer it lasts. If you’re grey and you have very short hair you may need to henna / indigo more frequently if your hair grows fast. On longer hair,and layered hair, you’ll probably find you can get away with longer gaps as the previously coloured long hair and layers will  frame your face, falling over your roots and completely hiding them.

Henna hair colour is a permanent hair colour, but it does fade over time. How quickly it fades varies, again, from individual to individual. Repeat your henna hair colour application whenever you notice colour fade. You can henna indigo as often as you wish, or as often as you need to.

 

model with strappy green dress and long black hair with indigo natural hair colour
indigo black natural hair colour

How much henna for hair / indigo do I need to use and how long do I leave it in for ?

It depends how long and how thick or fine your hair is. We recommend these quantities for normal hair, and we recommend that you reduce these quantities by about 10 to 20gms if your hair is really fine hair, and double the quantities if you have really thick hair. If you’re in a country that doesn’t use grammes, adjust according to the weight of the henna packet , eg 50gms = a quarter pack of the 200gms bag of henna, 100gms = half a pack & so on  :

  • short / chin length hair – 50 gms henna / 30 or 40 gms indigo
  • shoulder length hair – 100 gms henna / 70 or 80 gms indigo
  • mid back length hair – 200gms henna / 140 or 150 gms indigo
  • hip length hair – 300 gms henna / 210 or 220 gms indigo

We advise to leave henna in your hair a minimum of 2 hours if you’re covering grey hair; the process can be speeded up to half the time by use of a hair drier, set to a moderate heat setting, if you’re in a real hurry. On other hair colours you can apply henna for anywhere between 20 minutes to 3 hours for mild to strong henna hair colour. We do not recommend leaving henna in your hair for longer than 3 hours.

How long you leave the indigo in your hair for depends on how deep a colour you want. Indigo will colour within 10 minutes and you can extend the application time to 2 hours, or even longer if you want. Ten to fifteen minutes indigo application time will be sufficient to change your rich reddish henna tones to a muted auburn brown hair colour. Half an hour indigo application time will give you a really deep brown black hair colour. One hour indigo application time will give you black hair. Two hours indigo application time will give you an intense deep raven black hair colour. You get the idea anyway. To start with, if you’re aiming for brown hair colour, leave the indigo in for ten to fifteen minutes. Then you can determine if you need to leave it in for a longer or shorter period the next time round. You’ll find it useful to study the hair colour gallery photos and note how long each person applied henna / indigo in their hair to get the hair colours shown in the hair colour pictures.

 

Henna hair colour is natural, photo of woman with shoulder length straight dark brown hair standing against a leafy background, holding a small white flower in her hand
Henna hair colour is natural

Indigo Blue Black Hair Colour

There is a range of opinions on how best to mix indigo to achieve blue black hair colour. We recommend mixing indigo with cool to luke warm water using alkaline mineral water or UK tap water. Add a teaspoon of finely sieved sea salt and two teaspoons of cider vinegar. Leave the hair totally exposed to air, or air as much as possible by lifting the plastic hair wrap from time to time to allow air to circulate underneath. Some people mix indigo with half plain cider vinegar and half boiling hot water. Some even heat the vinegar up with the water and apply indigo for as long as five hours. If you want to try this, make sure you’re in a well ventilated area.

 

plant-based hair dye is organic, picture of back of woman with long straight dark hair wearing a sleeveless white dress
plant-based hair dye is naturally organic

Additives in Henna –  do not use essential oils in your henna for hair !

We do not recommend essential oils in a henna or indigo mix for hair.  Beware additives in henna and indigo mixes because they will enter the bloodstream though the scalp and can cause side effects. That includes caffeine in coffee. We recommend you ditch the additives and go for pure henna and pure indigo to get the best colour take without additives.

 

Want to buy Henna & Indigo ?

 

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