Black Hair Dye Gallery : How henna and indigo work on natural black hair colour and on black gray hair.
Red Lowlights with Natural Henna on Black Hair
Look through the hair colour galleries to give yourself an idea of how pure henna works on black hair and dark hair colours. You’ll only get shocking red orange tones or orange highlights on grey and white hair – which you can then tone down to brown or black with indigo. If you’re starting with dark black hair, or any dark hair colour, the henna will add deep red hair colour tones and make your hair look like it has natural red lowlights. Any grey hairs will turn red orange and look like reddish highlights. The difference between lowlights and highlights? Highlights brighten your hair, whilst lowlights tend to deepen your hair and are more subtle.
Anisa started with black hair colour and applied Renaissance Henna Mix for pure henna colour with conditioning herbs. She got mild reddish lowlights which look more brown than red in these photos. She described them as soft burgundy red low lights in the natural outdoors daylight. Her hair colour appeared more soft black brown when indoors.
Anisa’s hair after henna | Anisa’s hair after henna | |
Shades of black : black hair with red or burgundy highlights ? blue black hair colour?
For black hair, use henna first followed by indigo after you’ve washed out the henna, i.e. in 2 stages. Detailed mixing and application instructions come with the Renaissance Henna Hair Colour Kit.
Want brown hair colour? Or brown with red or burgundy lowlights?
For brown hair, use henna first followed by indigo after you’ve washed out the henna, i.e. in 2 stages. Detailed mixing and application instructions come with the Renaissance Henna Hair Colour Kit.
The Renaissance Henna Hair Kit gives you a myriad of colours. We don’t guarantee your end result hair colour, but we can be certain you’ll love it, and that you’ll be hooked on henna and indigo plant hair dyes. We’re confident that you won’t look back.
Henna Hair Colour Strand Tests
Hair colour strand tests don’t always give you an accurate prediction of your end result hair colour. And they don’t always take up colour like a full head of hair. Many strand tests give disappointing results which are nowhere near the results from a full hair colour application. Body temperature may make the difference. Your strand test hair also may not give a true indication of final hair shade because the strand test hair may have uneven colour saturation, especially if you’ve previously used hair dyes. Also remember that hennaed hair can look different in different light conditions so it’ll look different indoors compared to how it looks outdoors.
A Reminder about Previous use of Chemical Hair Dyes and Henna
If you’ve previously used chemical hair dyes, although you can go straight ahead and use henna / indigo, we recommend you wait as long as possible. We recommend a waiting time of at least 2 weeks, especially if you’ve just permed your hair. The longer the better. This is to allow time for your hair to detox from chemical hair dye build up. The wait will also ensure you get the best hair colour uptake from henna/indigo. It’s the compound “metallic salt mix” hennas which hairdressers generally moan about and say you can’t use before or after hair dyes. Our henna and indigo powders are not mixed with metallic salts. They are 100% pure henna and 100% pure indigo plant hair dyes. These are PPD free hair dyes, additive free, ammonia free, and chemical free. They are not the same stuff your hairdresser is talking about. Our henna and indigo are safe to use both before and after chemical hair dye, but we advise that you wait as long as you can before using hair dyes either side of henna.
Henna on Grey Hair
Kara
“I had never henna’d my hair previous to this because of the grey streaks. Wasn’t sure what would happen to it. But then decided to try doing a mix of henna and indigo powder. Probably next time, I’ll do the henna application first. Wait a day or so, then do the indigo. Just because I know more now about working with the all natural powders. But for this round, I actually had the henna and indigo mixed together in the same paste. Left it on, wrapped in plastic wrap, covered in foil, covered in a towel for several hours. I LOVE IT! Really enjoy not having the grey showing, and the rich colors of the brown now, too. Don’t think I’ll ever go without it now 🙂 miracles, k-”
BEFORE HENNA INDIGO |
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Colouring Grey Hair with Henna and Indigo
Gary – My Wife’s White Hair to Stunning Black !
“I bought some Henna and indigo off you a few weeks back and we have tried out 2 applications of it and so far so good.
Attached are 4 photos of a before and after nature, except that I forgot to take a ‘before I started’ photograph unfortunately – I was halfway through trying to stick the stuff to my wife’s head before I remembered about it, sorry.
Some background info: My wife is Thai, and she has that very jet black hair which is so characteristic of asians. She started going grey early and has been dying her hair using chemical products but we were worried about the possible side-effects – more so when I started finding out more about chemical dyes. So we decided to try a natural alternative, see what happened and if it didn’t work then just let her hair go its natural colour.
We waited six weeks after the last chemical dye, then twice used a Henna/indigo mix bought in a health shop but the results were disappointing = so even if I had taken a ‘before starting’ photo it would have been much the same as the ones taken after the 1st application. I looked at a few internet sites selling natural dyes but decided on trying yours out first since the information you give is pretty comprehensive.
The problem with my wife’s hair is that it is not just grey, but a startling white, there is virtually no natural colour left in probably more than 50% of it. So I knew we would have to apply it more than once before we’d start to get good results.
Application 1 was rather messy – I’m no hairdresser, so she had to endure me trying to plaster her head with this stuff but we got through it. The photos I took are a bit overexposed but you can see the chestnut colour that we were left with, the overexposure exaggerates it a bit, it wasn’t really as obvious as that. Even though the colour was not great there was no white showing, the lighter hairs were not all that noticeable as the top had gone dark (probably got the application right on the top). Her hair felt lovely and had a really beautiful shine to it. The henna was left on for 3 hours and the indigo for 2.
Application 2 (four weeks later) was less messy – I’m getting better at it. The results were much better this time and I was really impressed, more because I think I managed to actually get at the hairs better and coat most of them properly – that must be the trick? Given that the hairs would be startling white otherwise I think the results are pretty good. The next one should be even better and with any luck will go completely black. This time we left the indigo on for 3 hours. The photos were taken the day after.
It’s a bit of a palaver putting the stuff on, but really it’s a small price to pay considering the only alternative is to put some pretty nasty chemicals on your head. Even if it never goes completely black we rather like the deep chestnut colour that it gives so even if that was the best colour we can get we’d be happy, but I suspect that it’s my poor technique that means we’re not getting a really dark colour rather than any shortcoming in the dyes. Do you have any suggestions?
You’re welcome to use the photos on your website if you want but I’m not sure they illustrate the results well enough for that.
I’ll be ordering some more off you sometime soon.
Best regards
Gary”.
Application 1
Application 2
Maryam’s Grey Hair
Maryam says: “I have tons of grey and I used Renaissance Henna’s henna and indigo combination and I was so pleased with the quality of the henna and indigo, not to mention the results, that I agreed to let my hair go grey to show everyone just how it works. Even when it’s grey you can see hints of burgundy left from my previous henna indigo applications. As you see in the pictures below, the henna alone – at first – makes my grey hair look orange, but actually if it’s left alone it deepens after half a day or a day to a more even reddish tone which is quite nice. However, I prefer an overall darker hair colour as I have dark hair anyway. Once I put the indigo on, the orange red tones deepen to between darkest brown to black, but with red undertones which I really like. For me, it’s such a relief to have discovered this product because without it I didn’t enjoy the henna (mehndi) on its own in my hair due to the amount of grey. But now it’s great ! ”
Maryam’s henna application
“Here’s the henna paste going on, and finally wrapped round with plastic wrap to hold it all in place and keep warm – now I know henna likes warmth !”
“Here is the black grey hair after henna application.”
hair brushed forward over the face
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Maryam’s indigo application:
“And here is the indigo going on, and then how it looks after the indigo application. Note the indigo was not covered at all whilst the colour developed.”
Here’s how Maryam’s hair looks after the indigo application.
hair brushed forward over the face | ||
“Unfortunately most of the above photos are taken in bright sunlight and the hair is reflecting light which misleadingly gives the impression of some grey hair remaining; the bright sunlight photos have not brought out the true intensity of the dark colour from the henna and indigo. ”
Maryam’s hair some 5 – 6 months later
“These photos were taken 5 to 6 months later. I wanted to show how the colour has built up and deepened since those last photos were taken. I regularly use henna which I normally leave in for a couple of hours or longer, immediately followed by indigo which I usually leave in about 30 mins to 1 hour. I use the colour roughly once in 6 weeks, sometimes once in 4 to 5 weeks. I’m really pleased with it ! By the way, my hair has been cut which is why my hair now looks a bit different ! Best wishes, and thanks for supplying an awesome quality of henna and indigo which continues to work wonders on my hair ! Maryam.”
Indigo on Black Hair, Gray Hair, and Blonde Hair
Indigo on black hair or any dark colour hair will make it darker and push to jet black hair colour with black blue undertones.
Indigo plant hair dye on grey hair will turn it a smokey blue or turquoise blue hair colour.
Indigo plant hair dye on blonde hair will turn it turquoise blue.
Pure indigo on its own on any light hair colour including grey hair, gray hair, blonde hair colour, or ash hair colour will turn the hair blue or blue green. If you’re interested in a shade of blue, go ahead and strand test. Grey hair, which tends to be coarse, may feel dull and dry after indigo and it will lack the glossy effect that comes when it’s used with henna.
On dark hair colour indigo on its own will darken the hair even more and push towards black hair colour.
For brown and black hair colour starting on grey hair, make sure the hair is orange from your henna before using indigo. And if the grey hair looks bluish after using indigo ( rare, but it could happen if henna didn’t cover it properly), then just repeat the henna application followed by indigo again.
Always do a strand test and even if you like the idea of using indigo on its own, do experiment by using it after henna hair colour as well. We find find black hair with indigo is best achieved when used after henna first and gives spectacular hair colour.
Finally, if you’ve used hair dyes and especially if you’re ever bleached or permed your hair, do not use indigo for at least 6 to 8 weeks since the last dye, perm, or bleach application. Indigo over bleached, dyed, and permed hair can turn it green. In the unlikely event of green hair, apply tomato sauce or ketchup in the hair, cover the hair with plastic wrap, leave in for up to an hour and shampoo out. Repeat applications may be necessary but the tomato sauce should get rid of any green. You can also apply henna again to correct the colour.
Maja
“My natural hair color is light brown. I previously dyed with a black demipermanent dye (Loreal’s I think) that lasted for about a month. Then it was suppose to rinse out but it just got a little lighter, probably because it was meant for darker hair, like dark brown. I colored my hair for about a year. Before I switched to henna and indigo I didn’t dye it for about two or three months because I heard that you can damage your hair if you previously used chemical dyes (but I did a test on my mom’s hair, who’s been perming and coloring her hair since I can remember, and her hair were fine).
I use Sabrina’s Renaissance Henna method 1 – applying first henna and then indigo in two separate stages. I use about 110 grams of henna and 90 grams of indigo and I’ve only tried it twice till now. The first time I used henna and indigo I also put about 20 drops of tea tree essential oil (I’d read on the internet that people use them in their mixes) and the second time I also added the same amount of cocoa essential oil because cocoa really smells nice. I leave henna on for about two and a half hours. When mixing indigo I don’t use an egg white and the first time I put 1 teaspoon of sugar and 2 teaspoons of salt for a blue shade in my indigo mix. The second time I used about half the salt I used before and I have to say they’re quite less blue now (I can take photos of my hair now). Next time I’ll use 3 teaspoons. I leave indigo on for about two hours. And after I rinse it out I use coconut oil and leave it through the night and wash it in the morning. I thought I could only use water the next day, but the oil really doesn’t get out without some shampoo.
I love the color of my hair and how the way they shine changes depending on how strong the light is. If the light is weak my hair get a red tone, if it’s a little stronger they have a purple tone, and if it’s strong a blue one. I also noticed my hair aren’t falling out as much as they used to.”
Maja “Before Picture” no. 1 | Maja “Before Picture” no. 2 | Maja’s henna application | ||
Maja ’s hair straight after henna | Maja’s indigo paste application | Maja’s (Renaissance Henna indigo) indigo hair result | ||
Maja’s (Renaissance Henna indigo) indigo hair result | Maja’s Renaissance Henna indigo result | Maja’s (Renaissance Henna indigo) indigo hair colour result | ||