Rainbow Research Henna Hair Color and Conditioner, Persian Black Deep Ebony, 4 Ounce

I love this henna! I have used it on myself for over a year, and also hennaed my friend's hair. We both have 20-30% gray hair. I didn't want to use chemicals on my hair since I have a lot of sensitivities. It cleaned off easily from my skin, towels, porcelain and tile, unlike permanent dyes. The directions are written really well. I looked through a few reviews before my initial use to get tricks and tips. Since they were helpful to me I thought I'd write my experiences.I have dark ash brown hair, my gray hair is silver. I love using light brown to make my hair look like I have blonde highlights. It does cover my dark brown hair to make it a warmer golden color. It lasts for at least 6 weeks, but I don't feel I need to re-do it until more than 8 weeks. I don't know how it does it, but it fades around your hair line so I don't see or feel I have a line where I dyed my hair. Believe me, I have an eye for that detail and I inspect it regularly. It does tend to be more permanent around the ends of hair. That could be because dying it multiple times gives the ends more exposure. Since it's a light color I just do my entire head for touch ups. It's hard to say what you're exact color will be at the end since it depends on your hair color and the time you leave it on. I feel that starting with a lighter color first works best. You can also go darker. If you are artistic you may want to combine colors. In it's pre-mix state, it is just a powder. Use a weighing scale to repeat your results for color mixing.When using:- put it on wet hair. Otherwise it won't stick as well. It will start to crumble rather than coat your hair. You also won't have enough to fully cover your hair.- use coffee or black tea instead of water, to make it less brassy.- use apple vinegar to make it stick to your gray hair.- Mix the vinegar with a raw egg- AFTER mixing most of the HOT coffer or water with the henna and you have mixed it well, add the raw egg. Otherwise you cook the egg if you dump it in with the water (guess how I know)- Don't add all the water right away. Depending on humidity you may need more or less water. You want it to be smooth like thick pudding, but not so moist it is runny. Dip a gloved finger in it to see the consistency. No liquid should run or drip from it.- When applying, start on the most gray areas first. That way it will have the longest amount of time to sit on your hair.- I use a heating cap I bought on Amazon. I feel the cap makes it shinier and softer. It also seems to make the color stay on my hair longer.When rinsing:- kneel in your tub and put your head under the faucet first to get the excess off. Don't worry if you feel like the tub is not draining fast enough, your tub uses suction when the shower head is on to remove the excess water in the tub.- shampoo your hair several times. You may still feel there is residual on your hair (I'm picky). But it will come out in the next day's shampooing.- I clogged the shower once. Only once. It was already draining slow due to a hair clog. I just got out the plunger and plunged until the water flowed. I haven't had a problem since I make sure there is no hair clog prior to this process. I thought I would mention it in case someone was worried this might happen, or it happened in the middle of rinsing.The first time I used this henna, I took this and all the extra ingredients to my hair stylist so she could apply it, and use all her equipment (the caps, the heating). I let her charge me the same price. I was happy to just not be exposed to the chemicals. Some stylists feel more comfortable than others using henna. There were other stylists there letting her know the consistency was good. Not all henna is chemical free. This one is!

I wanted to cover my grays. I've had fun trying colored hairsprays, but they are expensive, polluting, and some irritate my scalp. I did a lot of research before trying this brand, Rainbow Henna, in light brown. I didn't want to dye my hair red or orange. I wanted my hair to still match the mixed ash and blonde fun bun I sometimes wear, which was a difficult match to find for my real hair color. I ordered this Rainbow Henna in light brown. While waiting for it to arrive I continued my research, and came across cassia. Cassia is known as neutral henna, but is unrelated to the henna plant. From what I learned about it, I was about to give or throw away this Rainbow Henna and start over, but I stopped to read the ingredients on the label: Light brown Henna (Lawsonia Inermis), Indigofera, Cassia Obovata!Weds. 15Jan20Also while waiting, I stumbled onto a YouTube video in which a lady showed how to mix henna with shampoo. Great, I thought, because if I can't shampoo it in, and rinse it out in a normal shower, I probably won't ever do it again. So I did it. I boiled water. While it was cooling, I spooned some of the Rainbow Henna powder into a stoneware soup bowl, using a stainless spoon. I gradually added the hot water to the henna powder, and stirred and stirred. The trouble is, you get the mixture smooth but it goes lumpy again. Working quickly, I added quite a bit of shampoo. You want to make sure you're using a gentle, clean shampoo, free of parabens, phthalates and nasty stuff. I found out you want to use one that normally leaves your hair feeling clean and limp, not a body volumizing shampoo, because you don't want coating ingredients to interfere with the henna. I used Whole Foods 365 Lavender shampoo. I poured in some apple cider vinegar and some castor oil I already had on hand. I have no measurements to convey. It was all about getting a shampoo-in texture. I leaned my head over the kitchen sink and wet my hair. I didn't even take off my t-shirt or have a towel handy. I wanted to just get my hair wet, not drenched, but I did end up using a kitchen towel to blot my hair and keep from dripping. I then did a final stir-up of my ingredients, getting a consistency I could work with, and used my hand to put globs of mixture all over my wet hair. I didn't stroke it down the strands. I was shampooing. I worked it into the front where I have the most gray, and more gently all over the sides and back, just like shampooing in the shower, though I think I was being a bit rougher. I forgot I didn't have a plastic shower cap or any plastic cling wrap, so I slit open the side of a gallon freezer bag and put it on, folding up the sides like a dutch girl hat. I put the leftover mixture in a lidded tupper. I worked at my computer for an hour while the mixture sat on my head under the plastic baggie, then threw away the baggie and eagerly jumped into the shower.Wow! Can it really be that easy? I inspected my henna job more closely the next morning. The grays were golden blonde. Hair texture was shiny and healthy. The color of my non-grayed hair was a bit darker than my normal, but varied from a lightest to a darkest just like natural hair color does. Fri. 17Jan20Regular shower and shampoo, no henna. No loss of color! Grays all still looking blonde. So far so good.Sun. 19Jan20Regular shower and shampoo, no henna treatment. No loss of color. Gray roots starting to grow out just a sliver of a fraction of an inch.Tues 21Jan20I opened my tupper of leftover mixture from the first treatment. It might have been enough. I should have tried it for that reason, but I mixed up more. I used up the leftover and a few globs of the new. Thurs 23Jan20Regular shower and shampoo, no henna. I went out with a friend in the early evening when there was still plenty of sun. She told me the henna looked great, and that my hair had a reddish cast, otherwise looking pretty close to my real color.Saturday 25Jan20I tried to use some of the leftover mixture to henna the fun bun I sometimes use. I had to throw away my ruined bun. I forgot about the castor oil in the mixture. What do you do but look at colors online until you see a slightly darker than dark blonde bun with some reddish highlights? I ordered a new bun. First try and it's a perfect match to my henna'd hair.Wednesday February 5After waiting two whole weeks and one day, to really see how long each henna treatment would last, I did another one, only because my grey roots were showing.I'm sticking with this brand. My hair looks and feels great, and my new fun bun matches it.Final tips: Order a package of 25, 50 or 100 super cheap clear shower caps for when you're sitting that hour with henna on your head. On henna day, wear a black t-shirt or your black robe, in case any blobs escape the shower cap. Blue dish detergent and a tub brush make short work of cleaning the tub after you shower out your henna mixture. All this trouble is only necessary, for me anyway, every two weeks.

I feel this is a very difficult product to use. On the first test attempt I followed the directions - hot water, a little acid, one hour processing. There was no difference in the strand. I then began experimenting with various time, temp, and acidic levels trying to get a desirable shade. Most attempts gave me a greenish tone (I used distilled water and my hair was clarified so it was not a reaction with minerals). When I used heat the sample came up almost black. I tried to call customer service for help but they told me my hair was probably not right for this product and I will not be able to achieve the color shown in the pictures for light brown. My natural color is very close to the light brown shown but with grey. They kept mentioning that it will probably be too red for me but I told them it's not coming up red, it's coming up green. I am disappointed since I purchased two jars of brown and one of blonde and I am out $32. I REALLY wanted to like this product.I did a lot of reading about henna and it seems henna (red) needs to sit for hours before it's ready, but indigo (black) needs to be used immediately. This also has cassia (yellow) which I suspect is being absorbed first and causing much of the green. There are products that supposedly have the henna and indigo separate. You mix the henna, wait four hours until the henna is ready, then add the indigo right before applying. Maybe I will try one of those if I can find a light brown shade.