See part ONE for general information about henna.

Now that I’ve given you a little background on henna, I am excited to talk to you about my experience and why I am now addicted to henna!  I have been wanting to try using henna on my hair ever since my last visit to the salon, so when David from Mehndi Skin Art offered to send me a sample, I mustered up the courage and jumped into the world of henna! I talked to David on the phone twice over the last week and each conversation lasted for about half an hour. He was so full of information and really helped me to feel confident in starting this process.

When I asked David about his website, he said that he originally started selling henna for tattooing and eventually it evolved into more and he started selling it for hair as well. He takes pride in the fact that his business is always evolving; when customers come to him with product suggestions, he researches the product and considers adding them to his site. David likes to sell products that are hard to find, both for him and his customers.

Mehndi Skin Art offers a variety of henna products. When I asked David about this, he said that usually the cheaper (in price) the henna, the less dye content it has. The less dye content, the less color you’ll get from the henna. To see the different henna powders offered on Mehndi Skin Art, click HERE.

The most important thing to remember when coloring your hair with henna is that henna looks different on everyone and you really need to experiment to see what’s right for you. If you’re really worried about your hair, make sure to do at least one strand test and don’t forget to wait at least 48 hours to see what the final result will be. Many say that right after the dye process their hair looks bright and orange. It takes anywhere from 3-7 days for the henna to oxidize and show it’s final color on your hair.  You will see in my pictures that my hair started out a lighter orange and got darker.

A few quick tips before getting started:
1. Always start off with freshly shampooed hair.  Natural oils from your scalp may inhibit the dye from reaching the roots.
2. Henna is permanent. Please perform a strand test.
3. You cannot lighten hair with henna.
To read David’s instructions and tips for dying with henna, click HERE.

Let’s get on to my experience, shall we? Through my research, I found out that there are pretty much a million possible mixes and combinations when it comes to the actual process of dying your hair. Some items that people have been known to add to their henna mixture: coffee, tea, paprika, turmeric powder, wine, and the list goes on and on. I really wanted my first henna experience be completely plain henna, so I chose not to add much. I did read that the henna mix can be tough to wash out of your hair and that adding full fat yogurt can aid in this process, so I chose to add some full-fat organic yogurt.

David sent me (and boy did it arrive fast) the regular Jamila Henna, the 2009 Jamila Henna, Amla Powder, Cassia and Indigo. So far I’ve only used the regular Jamila Henna mixed with the Amla Powder, but I look forward to trying the rest! Henna needs to be mixed with distilled or filtered water and something acidic like lemon juice. Amla Powder, which comes from the Indian Gooseberry (Emblic Myrobalan) fruit can be used in place of lemon juice, which is what I chose to do.

Mixing the henna! 
David said that when using the amla powder instead of lemon juice to do 3 parts henna to 1 part amla powder. So, I used the entire box of Jamila henna mixed with 1/3 of the box of amla powder. I poured in a little bit of distilled water and mixed with a tint brush (I bought mine at Sally Beauty Supply) until it was a goopy consistency; slightly thicker than yogurt. I also added about 20 drops of Tea Tree Oil to cancel out some of the henna smell. Henna has a very interesting smell, it’s not bad, but it’s odd. It actually started to grow on me.

Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and that’s it! For the dye to release from the henna powder, you have to wait a minimum of 5 hours but most people let theirs sit overnight.  You will know when there is dye release because the top of the mix will be slightly brown in color. If you mix the dye up with a spoon, you will see that it is lighter underneath the top layer.  I mixed mine up in the morning and then let it sit for 9 hours. Per David’s recommendations, I set mine on the back of the fridge…apparently the warmth helps to promote dye release.

First things first…Do a strand test!!! I can’t stress this enough. This will really help you determine what color the henna will dye your hair. The easiest way to do this is to harvest some hair from your brush. I hadn’t cleaned my brush in a couple of weeks, so for me, this worked out perfectly. If you don’t have enough on your brush, then try cutting a tiny bit of hair from a hidden spot on your head. At about hour 6, I decided to do the strand test. I took a small amount out of the bowl and put it into a plastic cup with my hair. I let the dye sit on my hair for about 3 hours and then washed it out. Here are the results:

Success!! If you’re nervous about the color, let your swatch of hair sit out for 48 hours and then look at it again. Just be sure to freeze the rest of your henna mix or it will go bad. As I mentioned earlier, I really wanted to add some yogurt to my mix in order to make it easier to wash the paste out of my hair when the process was over. So I added about 1/3 of a 32 ounce tub of full-fat organic yogurt.  This made my mixture to be about the same consistency of yogurt! Now it was time to apply the henna to my hair…I had pre-sectioned my hair into about 8 sections with hair clips. This really makes application much easier. I used the tint brush to fully saturate each piece. Make sure to wear old clothes as you WILL get henna on them and it will stain. Get some old towels out too

 

After you’re done, wrap your hair with saran wrap.  Being the eco-friendly freak that I am, I hate saran wrap, but we happened to still have some leftover from our pre-eco days. Even though saran wrap is terrible for the environment, you really do need the saran wrap to hold in the moisture. But, now that I’m writing this, I’m wondering if you could use a damp towel instead? Hmmm…something to think about for next time. This is when I asked The Crunchy Husband for a little help. I had lots of little specks of henna on my ears and neck, so I had him get a wet washcloth and wipe it off of my skin so that it wouldn’t turn orange!

Now it’s time to sit back, relax, and let the henna do it’s thing.  You need to leave henna on your hair for 2-4 hours. I’ve even read of some people leaving it in over-night. I chose to leave it in for 3 hours. To wash it out, I hopped in the shower and rubbed my hair like crazy under the water. I was surprised at how easily it came out (I credit the yogurt). It took a while and quite a lot of water to get it all out, but my hair immediately felt amazing. I couldn’t believe it. I shampooed and conditioned like normal (some sites say not to, but I did), and then hoped out of the shower. WOW! My hair felt phenomenal. It hasn’t felt this healthy in YEARS. Seriously, henna is like magic on your hair! My hair was so damaged from all of the chemical dyes, but the henna strengthened it, conditioned it, and added shine! I LOVE it.

In summary: I LOVE it. I will never use chemicals on my hair again! I can’t believe a plant can produce such gorgeous results. Can you?

Mehndi Skin Art doesn’t just offer henna! What’s so great about their website is that they have a variety of natural products such as essential oils, neem oil products, skin care products, soaps, health foods, herbal toothpaste, and more! From what I can tell, their products are great for the body without being harmful to the environment. I love that David takes the time to research everything he offers on his site and that he actually listens to his customers when they have suggestions.  If you have any questions at all, please feel free to e-mail me thecrunchywife(at)gmail(dot)com or contact David.

I’ll definitely be shopping at Mehndi Skin Art in the future for henna, and I can’t wait to try the other products they have to offer! Want to try dying your hair with henna or try some of the other products offered at Mehndi Skin Art? Here’s how…

Pick up some of these wonderful products by visiting mehndiskinart.com. There are so many great products on this website, so go have a look.

David has kindly offered one of my readers a $25.00 credit to www.mehndiskinart.com! What a great score! One lucky reader will have $25.00 to spend on whatever they want from Mehndi Skin Art. This giveaway will run until 10:00pm PST on Friday, February 26th.

To enter this giveaway:

Mandatory Entry: I don’t care if you do this first, third, or last but it MUST BE DONE for all Extra Entries to count!  Head on over to Mehndi Skin Art,look around, and tell me one of the items you would buy should you win this giveaway.

Don’t forget to leave an e-mail address on at least one of your entries so I know where to contact you if you win.

Extra Entries: Want more chances to win?  Complete these things!  Remember to leave a different commentfor each additional entry since each comment will count for one entry in the giveaway. If I make a note that a certain entry isworth more than one entry, please leave two comments (for instance: “I followyou #1″ and “I follow you #2″).

- Follow my blog publicly through Google Friend Connect or subscribe using a reader (2 Entries)
- Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway. You can use this tweet: Enter to win $25 to mehndiskinart.com from @TheCrunchyWife #giveaway #green #henna #hair #dye #eco (Ends 2/26) http://tr.im/henna2 One entry per tweet.  Leave the link to your tweet in your comment (1 Entry – can do one tweet per hour)
- Grab my button for your blog – see left sidebar (3 Entries)
- Grab my event button for The Crunchy Spring Event – see left sidebar (3 Entries)
- Enter another ACTIVE Giveaway (1 Entry per giveaway)
- Leave a comment with your favorite joke (1 Entry)
- Leave a NEW comment on a non-giveaway post (Worth 1 Entry per comment, NEW comments only!)

Wow!!! That’s at least 12 entry possibilities! This giveaway will end at 10PM PST on Friday February 26th, 2010.  A winner will be drawn using Random.org and I will send them an e-mail which they will have 48hours to respond to or a new winner will be selected.  Open to USresidents ages 18+. Good Luck!

Make sure you leave your e-mail address in at least one of your comments. 

All opinions expressed are my own. Mehndi Skin Art provided me with henna powder and amla powder for thepurpose of this review, but the free product did not in any wayinfluence my review and opinion. I was not paid to write this review.To read more about our giveaway policy, click here.