home remedies

Applying henna is a very very tedious process so I found out that there is a simpler version of henna – Henna Gloss. It is easy to prepare, apply and wash off. So, I tried this one out.

Henna is mixed with a conditioner and applied to the hair.

Henna is drying for the hair and can make the hair straight and straw-like for people with dry hair. Henna doesn’t suit everyone and then, applying henna is a really tedious process. One has to make sure that the  color doesn’t get on the hands or neck or ears or forehead and dripping is an issue if henna becomes too thin. And, applying thick henna is not easy as it doesn’t spread easily on the hair and very often, you need help to apply henna. Henna makes the hair straighter so people with curly hair who love their curls hate using henna on their hair.

So, henna is mixed in little quantity with henna to make it easy to apply henna, it helps with color touch ups for people who use henna and the roots begin to show and to avail the conditioning properties of henna without compromising on the hair texture. This also doesn’t affect the curls like henna does.

Often, henna is mixed with a conditioner which doesn’t have any silicone or protein in a ratio of 1:3 or 1:4 to make the texture of the mixture into a creamy paste just like those of the hair colors. The conditioners which have silicone or protein in them do not mix well with henna so try not to use such a conditioner as the results might not be that good.

Since I wasn’t supposed to use a conditioner with protein or silicone, I thought of using the only natural conditioner I had – Biotique Watercress. I am yet to review it but for those interested, its an amazing conditioner. And, I had Biotique Henna Powder too which is again I found out amazing. I shall review that too but I am not using it for coloring purposes so I don’t know how much useful my review would be. But, one thing which I noticed was that when I mixed the powder with amla juice, it smelled exactly like the henna leaves smell when ground into a paste. Coming back to the recipe, I am elaborating it below.

I use amla juice because one should use acidic liquid to activate the henna color and also amla is very good conditioner for hair. You can use water or any liquid of your choice. Make a paste of henna powder and leave it overnight. Next day morning, mix in the conditioner. Ok, since Biotique conditioner is very watery and thin in consistency so my mixture became thin in consistency but it wasn’t dripping but it wasn’t creamy which you would get of you use creamy conditioners. Btw, you can’t use Dove as it has a cone ingredient in it. Anyway, I used Biotique conditioner because of another reason too – I didn’t want to use any heavy conditioner on my scalp. I use conditioners only below my ear level. You might want to consider that point also. Anyways, after all that mixing done, the mixture is prepared and applied on the hair. It is easy to apply and then, leave it on for as long as you desire. If you are going for a deep conditioning treatment which henna gloss is meant to be, keep it on for 3-4 hours as I did. I kept it on for 3 hours I guess. While washing off, use a conditioner to wash off all the gunk from your head. And, make sure your hair is completely clean before stepping out. Do not shampoo.

My hair is shinier and so soft that I really don’t have words for it. But, the results of this was damn good. My hair is more hydrated and silkier too. And, my curls are looking great. And, I do think that there is a little bit of brown which my hair caught on to but I am not very sure of that. Next time, I shall take a before photograph too to see the difference in color and texture. But, I think my hair is looking awesome!!!

I would definitely recommend this treatment for your hair. If you don’t want henna color on your hair, you can use more of conditioner and less of henna in the original ratio of 1:4 or 1:3 as I pointed out earlier in the post.